WED. 11-21 TRAVEL DAY TO MANUEL ANTONIO
Drove 4 hrs. South past many colorful places.
Costa Rica looks pretty prehistoric in places.
So much so that it was not a big stretch of the imagination to see this guy off the side of the road.
Of course he left some of his offspring behind to keep life interesting.
We made a lunch stop in Caldera near where we should have boarded the Legacy just to see her at anchor.
It is so sad to see her like this. She's covered with black soot, and shows no sign of the life aboard we once enjoyed and loved.
Ironically we ALL raised a toast to our wonderful times on the Windjammer Fleet.
Unconsciously, not one of us took a drink and just set them back on the table.
We could see no crew, and there were no lights.
It's hard to believe the difference from when we sailed her here just 6 months ago.
In my opinion the Aruba-Herradura REPO cruise was the last GREAT Windjammer adventure as we knew it.
The restaurant said they had seen some crew there a few times for dinner.
On the first night we stayed here.
They had a pool on the upstairs deck where the howler monkeys would loudly DEMAND handouts in the mornings.
All the regular Costa Rican guests there with us.
This sign was a lot funnier when you could see that it was positively CRAWLING with large carpenter ants.
We found this lovely specimen crawling around at Reception next to the internet PC. This place is definitely NOT a "Barefoot" adventure.
THURS. 11-22 Manuel Antonio
The following day we ALL went white water Rafting, including Luis. Iguana Tours took us by bus to their Quepos office where Sally was MUGGED the following week.
They wouldn't even call the police since we successfully fought off the robbers. Although she was thrown to the ground, skinned her knees, bruised her hip, and hands, assault apparently doesn't count. "Señor, they didn't GET ANYTHING so there was no crime!" To make matters worse when we cancelled the following days tour they refused to refund our money.
But enough about US.....
Beyond that, They were very disorganized and had us board a bus built for rough roads. It was so high off the ground and had no boarding ladder so we had to help lift people up to the door. After they crowded us into the standing room only bus, they said they made a mistake. Our group had to change onto a different one.
On the way Luis, ever the talker, spent too much time facing backwards in the bus and ended up a bit green before we even got to the drop off point.
Our raft was crewed by me, Penny, MELVIN our guide, Lynda, Gina, and Joe. The women just couldn't accept Melvin's name, and so re-christened him Antonio Banderas. Obviously WE had the ALPHA-RAFT, and never got into trouble.
The other 2 rafts had people fall out, including Luis. They also got stuck on the rocks a couple times. We, on the other hand were all high 5’s with our paddles after each set of rapids.
Several times we got sideways or even backwards going through the rapids. I questioned Melvin about why it appeared that we didn’t need to make those approaches. “ I do it to get you wet” he laughed. At the end we had some of the best fruit and cookies ever. Perhaps we were hungry.
That night we moved to a different place. It was 100 yds down the road closer to the park. The suites were MUCH larger and more like a one bedroom apartment than a motel room. Too bad it is being replaced with a huge condo project in 2008.
The pool was smaller, but much closer to our door. Behind Lynda is where the continental breakfast was served each morning.
There were several restaraunts within walking distance. The group went ahead, and bypassed a few as they were too crowded. They ended up here for dinner and I joined them for the last half of happy hour. I would have shown the table full of food and double drinks, but we were too busy maximizing our "experience" to take pictures. 
As you can see, by now "Tico Teddy" was part of the family and did most things with us. We were indeed lucky to have found him. He was a lot of fun and made the trip go as smoothly as possible. I know it had to be tough for him to do everything on the fly like this, but he was up to the task.
He did spend a LOT of his time "connected" though!
FRI. 11-23 Manuel Antonio National Park
They went on tour, I slept in and walked around in the afternoon just in time to watch the 2nd shift going to "work" at the beach. The park is a gorgeous forest teeming with wildlife if you know where to look.
Hiring a guide is well worth the $20. They have spotter scopes, but more importantly know where to look for the indigenous creatures there.
Danny, our guide the 2nd week was not only skilled in finding things, but also photographing them through the scope. This Sloth with her baby were 50'up in the canopy of the trees.
Sloths only come down from the treetops once a week to defecate and bury it. They do this to confuse the scent with that of the panther's scat who are searching for them. The dark stripe on his back identifies him as a male.
We were fortunate enough to find this one on the ground. It wanted to cross the road, which is not only dangerous, but the hot gravel can blister their paws. The guides, including this young guide in training picked up the branch to help him move across to the next grove of trees.
You can almost see him saying Thanks for the "LIFT" guys.
The beaches here were indeed the most beautiful I saw in Costa Rica. The water was warm, and the weather was perfect. Too bad the water wasn't very clear though, so although the swimming was great, the snorkeling wasn't. Oh and the cute little monkeys and raccoons? They would steal you blind if you left anything unattended on your towels. They were VERY bold, and were difficult to shoo away until you were right on top of them. The raccoons had to be pushed away with a stick!
On the way back to San Jose, we stopped in at El Avion for lunch.
It was originally built from a C123 aircraft that “some private contractors” Not Oliver North! Really….. I swear! America had nothing to do with the Contra’s weapons. Anyway, It had been shot down over Nicaragua and landed in Costa Rica.
They disassembled it and moved it to a beautiful spot high in the hills overlooking Manuel Antonio Park. It made a nice bar with great food.
Gina especially liked the fresh starfruit. It was NEARLY as sweet as in Florida.
This is the first of two one way bridges north of Quepos "LOOSELY" made made of old Railroad rails. In the unlikely event that the bridge is clear, you can go. The problem is that it's the only way in and out of the area. So frequently there are over a hundred vehicles on EACH side waiting to creep across it. The opposite traffic just has to wait, building up another hundred cars on its side. As you can see, We just made the tail end. If the SUV ahead had cleared the bridge, we would have been 1st in line, 1/2 hour later.
The way back had its interesting moments too. Before we even left Manuel Antonio, someone had hit a watermain. Due to the great weather we enjoyed while in Manuel Antonio, I guess they did it so we wouldn't feel like we were missing the rain.
After a long ride full of unmarked "shortcuts", We returned to Antonio de Belen for a Last dinner at the El Rodeo with everyone. 
Oh SURE! Now were all drinkin' AGUA!
YEAH RIGHT!
