Day 7: Manuel Antonio & Team Jacob's Wolfpack

Suerte was on our side today and we got a sun searing day for our return to Manuel Antonio. This national park is home to three types of monkeys, some sloths, loads of insects (like we need to see more of them), endangered birds, and tons of iguanas. We planned on exploring the trails ourselves but got sold on a tour guide after he challenged us to look across the street and find the iguana in the tree. All we saw were leaves and bark. After he brought out his portable telescope and we saw it two inches in front of us, we were convinced we needed him. He didn’t look exactly like Jacob from Twilight, but definitely belonged on his team with his long dark hair, caramel skin and bright smile. Plus, he knew as much about the forest and wildlife as if he lived in it. So we shook his hand, introduced ourselves and our wolf pack...it grew by one.

Joshua spoke excellent English that he learned by watching TV at a young age. I was impressed since he had the slang down, picked up on sarcasm and was easily understood. His response, “Mel Gibson and those guys are good teachers.” I should’ve told him to pick another actor. Mel’s been called a lot of things lately and I don’t think a good teacher is one of them.

Since this wasn’t a private tour, our wolfpack eventually grew to six when a couple from Israel and a surfer from San Diego joined us. We kept each other entertained. When Joshua asked me to throw a rock at a tree that was about three feet wide, I missed by about three feet. When he showed us a red bearded iguana perched on a tree, the guy from Israel responded, “it’s disgusting but I like it.” And that guy was actually busy most of the time guarding his wife from the wildlife. She was deathly afraid of snakes and if Josh happened to mention that a creature could cut, bite, scratch or sting, she would freeze. After we were done watching the worker ants (see video, they’re pretty cool), she pleaded with her hubby until he gave her a piggyback ride to step over them. And when a leaf would fall and happen to brush her, she’d react the same way we do when the fan cord taunts us. Regardless of where we were from we all agreed, Josh’s tour was awesome and he comes highly recommended. If we went with our initial plan to hike solo, we would’ve missed about 90% of what we saw with the help of his eyes. No sloth, no rainbow grasshopper, no tent bat, no forest crabs. And most of these things were less than 10 feet away from us.