January 9, 2007. Trip to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, Coata Rica. Alex, Pavel, Vadim and I rent a car and Pavel drives us from San Jose to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. We take Route 3, which is extremely windy, and rather precipitous, especially where it crosses the gorge of the Rio Tarcoles near the town of Atenas. Some nice ignimbrites are exposed in the walls of the gorge and in a quarry nearby the road. The trip is taking rather too long, maybe 3 hours so far, just to reach the lowlands of the Pacific coast.

Stop 1. [9:47.887N 84:36.307W 18 NAD27-Cental Datum] We stop at the famous 'crocodile bridge', where Route 34 crosses Rio Tarcoles, just north of the town of Tarcoles. Sure enough, crocs are sunning themselves on the sandy banks of the river; others are lazily floating in its shallow waters. They are waiting for handouts from the tourists, I suppose, but we do no oblige them. The crocodiles are enormous, the largest perhaps five or six meters long. Teeth are visible, protruding from their long snouts. I glad that we are viewing them from above, for the roadway is a safe thirty feet of so above the river level. Some croc tracks are visible in the cracked mud of a little oxbow that separated from the main part of the river by a wide stretch of grass. The scene is very prehistoric.

The view eastward, towards the Talamanca Mountains, is very nice, for the day is sunny with puffy clouds.

Stop 2. [9:22.837N 84:8.782W 5m NAD27-Cental Datum] It takes us another two hours to reach Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. The road is slow, and we have to wait our turn to cross two one-lane bridges. They were originally railway bridges, but have been converted for vehicular traffic by the addition of very rickety steel roadbeds. The last seven kilometers, between the town of Quepos and the Park, are very tedious, indeed. We get stuck behind a very slow moving water delivery truck. But finally we reach the Park, pay our two dollar parking fee and our seven dollar per person admission and go in. The long trip has been worth it, for the beaches are spectacular, especially in today's sunny weather. The park has several of them, each a crescent-shaped arc of white sand, perhaps 500 meters long, bounded by rocky headlands. A sailboat is anchored in one of the coves. Tropical trees grow right up to the top of the beach.

Alex, Pavel and Vadim decide to spend their time swimming and sunbathing. I opt for a hike. I first take a trail through the forest atop one of the headlands. It passes many tall tropical trees, some with flared and buttressed trunks, others with needled trunks. The trail occasionally approaches the cliff edge of the headland, and at these points commands a great view of the blue waters of the Pacific, which is dotted with many small rocky islands. I can hear monkeys hooting in the top of the trees, but I cannot spot them. I pass an enormous wasp's nest that is perhaps two feet across.

The trail leads to the next crescent-shaped beach. I spend a few minutes examining the rocks outcropping at the edge of the headland. I think it is a conglomerate that has been cut by a basaltic dike, but I am sot so sure of my interpretation, for I am not accustomed to such heavily weathered material. I spot a crab with a spotted shell and orange highlights. Many snails are clinging to cracks in the rocks.

I walk along this beach, past a few dozen bathers, and then cross a boulder field near the next headland. These blocks seem to be mostly a conglomerate of very angular fragments, some of jasper, and others of volcanic rocks. On the way back, I pass two snorkelers, who point out to me a large lizard - a ctenosaur, I think - that was hiding near the roots of a tree. It was about three feet long, tail included. I then crossed back to the first beach, and joined Alex, Pavel and Vadim, who were just finishing up their swimming, for the Park closing time of 4PM was approaching. Alex had built a sand castle. They reported that the water was very warm - in the nineties, Fahrenheit.

My hike took about two hours. We drove up through the town of Caldera on the way back, and took the Pan American Highway back to San Jose. It might be slower than Route 3, for it has lots of traffic, but it is not anywhere near as hair-raising.