This past week I had the pleasure of having Emily, a past PC Paraguay volunteer, come visit me. She came up to my site for a bit and then we headed down to National Park Manuel Antonio. The park is about 3.5 hrs South of San Jose by bus. It is an absolutely gorgeous jungle/beach paradise that you see in the movies. The rainforest makes it's way all the way up to the white sand beaches. The park itself isn't that big and you can see it all in one day. There was a ton of wildlife. We saw sloths, monkeys, snakes, lizards, crabs, pelicans, raccoons, and all kinds of interesting bugs. This is a picture heavy post, so I will leave you all to enjoy the photos.
The jungle in front is punta catedral. It used to be an island but a land bridge was formed so you can walk around and get some great views of the park.
Towards late afternoon the waves started to get HUGE. In fact, the park guides said they had never seen waves that big, nor seen them come so far up shore. It was kind of scary.
This was that palm that is pictured earlier..the waves came so high and were so strong that it took out this palm. sad.
Outside of the park are many other beaches, and the waves were also quite big.
It was a really nice vacation, and obviously great to see a good friend. I came back to site feeling rejuvenated and with some new ideas for potential projects. More on that in the next post.
