This was our third visit to Costa Rica, it has quickly become one of our favorite places to vacation. The first nine days were split between a mountainside villa above Hatillo (near Dominical) and Manuel Antonio. We traveled with friends to these two destinations and stayed in two very nice villas. Toucans and Aracaries were good at Hatillo, while monkeys always steal the show in Manuel Antonio. Our villa in Manuel Antonio was visited several times a day by all three monkeys species. The view was unbelievable, and good friends made it a very enjoyable time.

After saying good bye to our friends (Joe and Sandy), we headed off to new lands out on the Osa Peninsula. The open air home we stayed in was fantastic and the open air design led to more than one spine tingling surprise inside the villa. I opened my suitcase one afternoon to find a brown four-eyed opossum resting in my clothes! Bats were frequent visitors and would lose their way to the outside world. A Tamandua anteater cruised through the yard early in the week and I followed him for a while to get some shots. Scarlet MaCaws were in our trees daily and we were able to get some really close shots of them.

We finished up the trip in Tarcoles and mainly took it easy and walked on the beach. We visited the crocodiles of the Tarcoles river one last time. Another great trip to Costa Rica, next trip we'll have to include the Caribbean side as well as the Northwestern corner of Costa Rica.

Pura Vida!