Parque National Manual Antonio, Monkeys

There were loads of different types of monkeys in the national park, bigs ones way up in the trees and smaller whited faced ones in the lower canopy.

As we were walking through a trail up from the beach we heard a pack of them in the trees and we waited. To our surprise they came right past us, I dont know who was more scared!

The older ones had sharp dirty teeth, but the younger ones were pretty cute. We stayed back and let them pass through, quite an experience!

Parque National Manual Antonio, sloths

This park is full of life, here is a beautiful example off the Costa Rican two-toed (Choloepus hoffmanni) sloth.

They were just hanging out in the trees about 30ft above our heads. The green tinge to their coat is from an alguie which sticks to them in the humid rainy seasons, I can feel for them as I am currently going through three t-shirts a day - it's so hot and humid here!

Check out the video, don't you think the face look errily human, like a small boys head on an extra large, wet, teddy bear...

Costa Rica - Parque National Manual Antonio

Continuing our travels down the coast exploring national parks, we're in a port town called Quepos. Just 9km down the coast is Parque National Manual Antonio, a coastal national park which was saved from developers in 1972 (although Maudie helped move some trees today...).

There are loads of animals in this park, and it's split on the peninsular is not unlike Railay beach in Thailand, a 50 meter shard of beach on each side connecting a bulb of land in the sea to the mainland.

But what the developers missed was the worlds gain, this beautiful area has epic trails from the beaches through the cliffs, along palmforests and tropical rainforest. And the animals were absolutely fantastic. Here are the landscape images, animal videos will follow...

Costa Rica - Parque National Carara

The Carara national parque is about 1km from the Crocodile bridge, it straddles the dry forests of the northwest and the rainforest's of the Pacific lowlands. And it's HOT!

We went there in search of Scarlet Macaws, having read all about them in the book 'Last of the Macaws', a true Belizian story about one woman's plight to save the last 200 birds in Belize (before the Canadian electricity company Fortis built a dam and wiped out their habitat).

The place is literally buzzing with life and sounds, we set off at 7am and managed to see the macaws deep in their daytime nesting spot high in the trees (at night they fly to the mangroves on the coast to take refuge in a safer area). The monkeys were huge, about 3.5ft tall and they moved in packs, the video really doesn't do their tree jumping beauty justice! You can hear the screeching background noise of the bugs and birds, amazing.

There was so much growing - everywhere fruit trees were spilling out treats for the residents and the size of the older trees were outstanding, some 250ft tall and everything seemed to exist perfectly together. We spent 5 hours exploring the trails with our heads permanently cranked towards the jungle canopy, fabulous fun.

Crocodile Bridge at Carara National Park, Costa Rica

Check out the size of these American Crocodiles! These guys live just south of Parque National Carara in the Rio Tarcoles, we spotted these guys underneath the aptly nick-named Crocodile Bridge.

As its the dry season it was easier to see them and we counted about 20... I was quite scared of falling off the bridge! They were up to about 3 meters long and so prehistoric, you could watch them for hours swimming up and down the river using their tails to direct them in the currents.

We ended up staying right next to them at Los Cocodrilos hostel...

Arriving in Costa Rica, San Jose

Now we're in Costa Rica, we're really excited to be here as we've wanted to visit for so long. We've spent a couple of days in San Jose staying in a cool little hostel in a great neighbourhood only a few mins from the city center. San Jose is a really modern city - we've enjoyed being here and checking out the local restuarants, finding a decent book store and catching up with friends and family with the wonders of the net! The simple things...

Tomorrow we're travelling towards the Pacific coast to Carara National Park where we're hoping to see macaws and monkeys...exciting stuff!

Surfing Maderas - Nicaragua

Maderas is known as the best beach break in Nicaragua, and one of the best in Central America and is packed full of local & gringo pro's come high tide. But I made sure not to get in their way and got lots of useful info from the good guys and a cool chick called Helena. I got a board for just 5 bucks a day from the surf shack and loved being able to just wonder down to the ocean each day, such a treat.

The beach had such a cool vibe, it was perfect for getting some beginners practice in... here's some great pics Pete took on our last day when he came down to meet me for a sundowner at the surf shack!

Maderas beach - Nicaragua

Maderas was just the perfect beach - three beautiful white sandy bays, a world class surf break and just full of lovely chilled out people. We loved it so much, we ended up staying for almost a week at Matilda's place right on the beach.

We enjoyed swinging in the hammocks, eating delicious local food from the shacks on the beach, sleeping a lot and making camp fires. The first night there we had an awesome night with Phillipa, the Ben's and a whole load of other guys who joined the party chilling out on the beach with crates of beer, tunes and a cosy camp fire.

As Pete was still recovering, I spent my days in the sea surfing... or trying too! Bliss!

San Juan del Sur - Nicaragua

San Juan del Sur is Nicaragua's surf... and party capital! And party we did. Here's some pics of Saturday night in San Juan.

We made it down to the beach on Sunday morning, where Ben braved the waves at Maderas beach break for the final surf of the hols... Pete was in bed nursing his fractured ribs!

Phillipa and I also ended up being invited into a local Sunday afternoon cock fight, though thankfully the matches had ended by the time we rocked up. Crazy!

Horse riding, Ometepe - Nicaragua

I should have known it was going to end in tears...

Maudie, Ben and Philipa had thorough-bred (in my eyes) horses with glistening coats and pricked ears...

Mine staggered out of the stables, a few hands too short and fear in his eyes.

But what the hell... we're on holiday. Off down the beach we went. It was beautiful, everyone was enjoying the trot and canter. So was I... until we went through a swarm of flies so thick you could feel them like soup as you waved your hand through the air.

Off my steed went, down the beach at a rapid pace... only to do the splits... throwing me into the air and onto the beach. As our guide chased him 100m down the beach, I rose to the laughter of the others and an incredible winding in my side.

The only cure...RUM. We laughed the night away and I woke in the morning.... sore.

It was Ben's 'best part of the trip' and I am glad Maudie and Phillipa had a great time too.

Isla Ometepe - Lago de Nicaragua

After a fun ferry ride chillin' out for a few hours in our deckchairs, we arrived at Isla Ometepe! Lago de Nicaragua is the biggest lake in Central America and has hundred of small islands, the biggest being Ometepe. Made up of two volcanoes, joined by an isthmus, the islands culture and wildlife are pretty unique. Its a pretty rustic and rural place, the dirt tracks linking up the islands communities made for a pretty wild truck ride!

We caught a truck to Santa Domingo, the 'beach' area in the center of the island. We had a beautiful time there just relaxing, walking and horse riding; waking up at sunrise to see the island come to life was special. Monkeys swung from the trees, herds of cows bathed in the lake and beautiful birds were everywhere!

Pics are: Our view from the breakfast table; a howler monkey; cattle at dawn; taking a stroll along the beach and Captin' Pete on board the ferry!

Granada - Nicaragua

Next we headed south down the coast towards Granada, Nicaragua's oldest town which sits right on the waters edge of Lago de Nicaragua. More polished that Leon, we loved the architecture, the 'taxi' horse & carriages and the buzzy nightlife!

We arrived into Granada late evening and after almost finding ourselves on the street, we found a 'sweaty' hostel close to the center. Still, Granada's main street had a great atmosphere & we had a fab evening due to some tasty typico, a couple of bottles of local rum and some great company of course. We met Ben and Ben, two legendary Thompson air pilots, who were travelling the same route as us - great guys we spent a good week or so with in the end!

The next morning after an eventful night of little sleep and swimming pool antics, Ben & Phillipa hit the local spa and Pete and I did a walking tour of the city before hopping on the lunchtime ferry to Isla Omnitepe! All go...

Pics: Me looking windswept by the lake; Ben, Phillipa & Pete striking a pose; Ben with a cute boy who made him an awesome grasshopper out of grass; partying on the main strip & the cathedral in Parque Central.