We were the first group to leave the ship today, which meant we had to be on the tender at 6:30am. The tender took us to the town of Quépos, where we caught a bus to Manuel Antonio National Park and were met by our guide for the day, Luis.

We didn’t have to wait long to see wildlife – this three-toed sloth was waiting for us just inside the entrance.

The park was busy, even at 8am; fortunately, there were viewing platforms off the main path so we could look at wildlife without being trampled.

They have white-faced monkeys here, just like Curú — this one looked surprised to see us.

Luis didn’t carry his spotting scope in vain – we never would have seen this dragonfly without it.

We probably could have used the scope to see these baby bats better.

But this iguana was hard to miss.

Of course we took a selfie to prove we were here!

Hermit crabs enjoy having a nice beach.

There were nice flowers to look at even after we left the park on our way back to the bus, like this hibiscus.

Quépos itself is tourist-oriented, with shopping and services along the waterfront. They are also ecology-sensitive, turning thousands of plastic bottles into a sailfish sculpture.

We returned to the ship and sailed away, en route to Panama.

We got off to an early start today for a tour of Curú Wildlife Refuge; we were in the last group, so we didn’t have to leave the ship until the comparatively civilized hour of 7:45am. We were greeted with flowers upon arrival, like this one, bravely fighting off the depredations of the leafcutter ants.

Frank, our guide throughout Costa Rica, was there to meet us, too.

He helped us understand and appreciate what we were seeing and see what we would have missed, like this termite mound in the sky.

Or this “tree chicken” (black spiky iguana).

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Why did the crab-eating raccoon cross the road?

I don’t know – Frank didn’t tell us.

There were birds all over the place, but you had to look carefully to find them.

And sometimes, we needed to use Frank’s spotting scope to see the bird, like this Broadwinged Hawk.

But this white-faced monkey was easy to spot with the naked eye.

Our last view of Curú was from the Zodiac.

Naturally, we had to wear life vests any time we took the Zodiacs!

The Zodiac docked at the stern of the ship; we had arrived just in time for lunch, as if it had been planned that way!

They gave out snorkeling equipment right after lunch (we’d brought our own masks and snorkels, but we’re not picky enough to want to haul fins around!) and took us to Tortuga Island for some beach time. We were advised that the water wasn’t clear, so we didn’t snorkel, but we enjoyed wandering around the beach and checking out the shop.

The Captain’s Gala Dinner capped off the evening. They took advantage of the weather and did the introductions outside, letting us enjoy the scenery and the breeze instead of being cooped up in the dining room or auditorium as has been the case on most of the cruises we’ve taken.