Early in the morning, we were back on the van headed to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.  It was a long drive that included gorgeous views from the mountain, naps, and the finishing of books for many of us.

Along the way, we stopped for a tour along the river to see the crocodiles.  Yes, the crocodiles.  I had never really thought about crocodiles in the rivers of Costa Rica, but apparently, they are quite common and dangerous to encounter.  I certainly wouldn’t want to mess with them.

Overall, the tour wasn’t really that exciting and given the chance to do it again, I wouldn’t.  Sure, we saw crocs, birds, and lizards, but it really wasn’t anything spectacular and we all left feeling like our $35 spent was a bit of a waste.  It didn’t help that the lunch they served us after we came back from our tour made quite a few of us sick.  For days.  That is no way to wrap up a vacation.

After several hours, we finally made it to our last destination: the Parador Resort and Spa in Manuel Antonio.  Our accommodations were nothing short of amazing.

We headed down to the rest of the resort and were greeted by monkeys we hadn’t see before: capuchins.

The monkeys were adorable, but they had had enough of the human interaction and were showing signs of aggression.  The hotel workers quickly told us that it would be best if we moved along and quit paying them any attention.  Apparently, smiles with teeth are translated as an aggressive maneuver and these monkeys reacted rather strongly to it.  Included standing on branches above our heads and shaking them so leaves would fall on us.  We decided that enough was enough and went to look for some sloths.

Boy were we in luck!

Bliss joined Karen and I for a tour of the property.  It was nearing dusk and the chance of finding a sloth was getting slimmer and slimmer.  Still, we pressed on because those perezosos (Spanish for lazy bears) were too cute to miss.  And we ended up getting some pretty cool sights out of our hike.

We ended up seeing not only one, but four sloths on our search.  One of the workers saw us and helped point them out, even indicating that one of them was pregnant as evidenced by her swollen belly.  He could have been pulling our legs, but we ate it up nonetheless.

After Karen, Bliss, and I enjoyed some tapas and drinks at the bar, we headed back to look for the sloths after nightfall.  We did see some, but it was too dark to photograph.

The first day in Manuel Antonio was clouded with stomach issues and not being able to keep anything eaten inside for long, but we still made the best of it.

The same couldn’t be said for the next day.