We walked along the beach past the multitude of roadside store holders stopping only long enough for snacks at the local bakery and then crossing the at this stage ankle dip river towards the entrance to the park. Whilst the signage is absolutely everywhere about not feeding the wildlife many tourists blatantly disregard this. We saw a man hand feeding the monkeys at the entrance fresh coconut.
Into the Park and we decided to first of all do the walk up the headland, called Punta Cathedrale. The path was steep but well maintained at the beginning. It soon turned hot and humid the further we got into the jungle and the path disintegrated into mud and crawling under fallen trees. 
The views however over the coast were amazing. 
We finally made it to the top of the walk and started the downhill ascent. We ran into another couple in jeans and white shoes and shirt, when we saw her fall on her backside straight into the mud. Of course we were trying not to laugh out loud. On the walk through the headland we saw iguanas and weird fungus. 
We finally made it to the beach and parked up near the rocks which looked like a good swimming and snorkeling spot. Straight away a family of raccoons came out sniffing around everybody’s bags for food. It looked like a mother and two babies. Strange that we had not seen a raccoon in the US or Canada but here in Costa Rica they were prevalent. 
Dan headed out for a snorkel and I parked up on the beach for a while. 
I later went for a swim and the water was just like a warm bath. We lazed around for a few hours finally thought we should make our way out of the park which closed at 4.00pm. We wandered up a path and saw monkeys everywhere. These white faced monkeys weren’t scared of people and were chasing food. They came within metres of us and some were particularly unattractive! But we got some great photo’s watching them run up and down the trees. 
We also saw more raccoons, quite often on the beach poking their nose into people’s belongings. We saw some more on the path walking back (we think it was still the same family) but it allowed Dan to spot a lizard in the tree, which he had been wanting to see since the beginning of the trip. 
A quick snorkel and swim on the beach on the other side of the island and we left. The small ankle deep crossing we entered on the way in was now around thigh height. There was the option of catching a boat but we crossed it and our reward was a fresh coconut at the other side.
We had agreed to head to El Avion for sunset drinks followed by dinner at 5.00pm. We had the option of catching the local bus back up the road but opted to walk the 30 minute all uphill walk. 
By the time we got to El Avion, we had earned a drink! 
The view was amazing and so were the cocktails. El Avion has an interesting history which you can read about here, but basically it is a plane, an American Fairchild C-123 that was downed in Nicaragua that was operated by a private group led by a retired United States Army major general. This was part of one of the biggest scandals in the mid 1980's, the Iran-Contra affair. Now it forms part of restaurant and the aircraft itself is a funky bar. 
The sunset was beautiful and we watched for quite some time as the colours lit up the sky.
It was only once the colour had left the sky that we moved off inside for dinner. After dinner, we headed into the plane for drinks including a seat from the cockpit now mounted on the bar. 
It was a fun evening and when we left it had started to rain again. Hopefully it will stop before our jet skiing tomorrow!
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