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This past weekend, we ventured out on our own for our first excursion to Manuel Antonio.  After a bumpy bus ride, we arrived at our hostel.  It wasn’t too bad for only $13 a night!

We went on a guided tour of the National Park. Our tour guide, Nicolas, had an impressive ability to find anything and everything that was hidden in the tree of the forest.  We saw sloths, toucans, turtles, all kinds of lizards and iguanas.  We all wanted to see some monkeys too, but Nicolas wasn’t sure that we would be successful.  We had nearly given up and begun our walk back out of the park, when there were monkeys all around, jumping from one tree top to another!

We spent the remainder of our time in Manuel Antonio enjoying the warm ocean water, swimming, and hanging out at the beach. Melissa and I also stopped at some roadside vendors and made a few purchases.  As usual, all the ticos were so friendly and easy to talk to, even with our language barriers.  All in all, a successful and worthwhile weekend!