We
spent the night at Villa Nicolas on the cliffs of Manuel
Antonio. The drive getting here was "stressing" and we
were happy to find a nice room. We had a great dinner and
enjoyed our first-ever taste of fried yucca root. Very
tasty. After a nice night, we elected to see the "Rain
Maker" reserve north of Manuel Antonio.
The photos below are what we saw.
This was
the view from our balcony when I got up. Not too shabby for a random
hotel selection.
There
were a set of small islands just to the south of Manuel Antonio,
but they were partially hidden by the trees.
The
balcony patio was really nice and provided comfortable seating
in addition to a nice view.
Kathleen
spotted this frog on the fan controller. The photo is
rotated 90 degrees, so the frog is sleeping vertical. This
is a Similisca Sordida according to matching its color scheme,
but I do not know its common name nor do I know if it is toxic.
The
drivers here are suicidal and were weaving in and out of
traffic. This huge bus passed us with little room to
spare.
The road
to the Rain Maker reserve was quite rough dirt. But we did
arrive and happily along the way the air conditioning in the car
started working again. The reserve sits against a steep
ridge in the mountains. Any areas without trees have been
intentionally cleared.
The
"tour" is a jungle hike over a set of suspension bridges.
One of the guide books stated that the bridges were constructed
to stringent American standards. Not. But, despite
their scary implementation, the trail did take us to some
beautiful places.
While
these bridges were less robust than the Hanging Bridges of
Arenal, they supported our weight. Each of the landings
had a deck of some kind; the posts of one are visible in the
photo above.
Wooden
planks were laid on top of a step ladder frame to provide the
bridge.
This
shot gives a better view of the construction
methodology.
This tree had huge
fin-like roots. The dark lines are termite tubes that
lead to the ground.
The trail was quite steep
and we hiked a substantial vertical rise before we were above
the jungle and had a view to the water.
This was the longest
bridge and it swayed and wobbled as you crossed. The
signs stated "three persons max." but I felt that one was a
better number due to the motion caused by walking.
The center of the highest
bridge gave us a nice view of the canyon below.
We descended the face of a
steep cliff which brought us to a nice waterfall and pool at
the bottom of the canyon. Some of the hikers were going
in the water, but we elected to pass. One young German
girl went into the water with some rather large open sores on
her leg that were from scratching an insect bite and I cannot
think the exposure will have a happy outcome. Tropical
fresh water can breed some odd opportunitistic bacteria, so hopefully
she does not contract something ugly.
The area along the creek
bottom was the only place that was not overgrown by
vegetation.
From one of the pools
Kathleen spotted this nice flower pod on the far side of the
canyon wall. The whole pod was about 18" long.
The return trail brought
us past another nice waterfall.
The river bottom was one
cascade followed by another.
The bridges crossing the
creek are visible in the photo above.
The rocky bottom of the
creek bed was polished by the action of the water.
One more significant bridge to get out of the deep canyon.
The last bridge allowed us to see another little waterfall on a side creek.
When we saw this sign all
we could think of was "Pollos Hermanos" from the Breaking Bad
series.
Across from the
chicken place was the local soccer field and the church.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2014, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.