Seeing friends and spotting monkeys in Quepos

By Nicole

What’s better than watching sloths and monkeys crawl around in the trees? Getting to spend an evening with friends from Seattle! The timing was perfect ... We sailed into Quepos just two days before Stacy, Brett and their adorable girls arrived, and we were lucky enough to enjoy cocktails and an amazing dinner at their villa only a few kilometers from the harbor. Fantastic!  And so much fun.

Stacy and I stayed hydrated with gin & tonics. Thanks for an awesome night, guys!  Dinner was such a treat!

The big draw in the little town of Quepos, besides our friends, is Manuel Antonio National Park. This is the most popular park in Costa Rica for good reason—it is packed to the gills with monkeys, sloths, birds and gorgeous sandy beaches. Hoping to avoid the masses that descend on the park each day and to catch the critters when they were most active, we made sure to get there right before it opened at 7 a.m. By the time we left five hours later, the place looked and sounded like Disneyland. We even passed a dude playing a recorder on the trail. Really? We couldn’t get out of there fast enough! But in the morning, the place was incredible.

A white-faced capuchin monkey keeps an eye on Aaron

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a monkey.

Deserted beach at 8 a.m., Waikiki at noon

 
The rare and illusive “Aaron”

Three-toed sloth going about his sloth business. So cute.

Tropical paradise

Marbled sand

 Snoozing howler monkey (look how his tail is holding on, too)

 Pretty sure it’s a male …

Wish you were here!

Steamy jungle

Tree-guana

Beach in panorama

Hatching baby coconut

Capturing the moment (or trying to, anyway)

 
Yes, we’re sweaty. It’s the freakin’ jungle!

Quepos has a casual charm and natural beauty (not to mention a bakery that Aaron loved and the best gelato I’ve had in ages) that under different circumstances would’ve kept us around for a long time. But with our visas just days away from expiring, we had to high-tail it down to Golfito near the Panamanian border. Which is where I sit now, writing this long-overdue post. More on Golfito, our day at the border crossing and what’s next for us soon!