Playa Mantas Archives - Retired in Costa Rica

January 15, 2025January 14, 2025

Rio Tarcoles & Punta Leona Day Trip Gallery

Our January 7 day trip with 6 Canadian friends from British Columbia to Rio Tarcoles & Punta Leona Beach was a fun trip with lots of nature photo ops! And I now have the “Trip Gallery” finished! Click that link or the image of the first page below or this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-January-7-Rio-Tarcoles-Punta-Leona In many ways, these trip galleries are my “base galleries” from which I glean photos for subject galleries like Birds! While photos made in my home garden go directly into the subject galleries if they even make a gallery. 🙂 But I love these trip galleries because I always make more photos on a trip!

CLICK this image of the first page to go to this gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

My needle biopsy went well yesterday and now I just wait for their report that I will receive in my February 12 appointment. And my sister Bonnie learned that her “colon cancer” was primarily an ovarian cancer that spread to her colon, and now they are about to begin chemotherapy after one more procedure. Our mother and brother both died of cancer and now it looks like the rest of us may go the same way. Only Dad never had cancer. The doctors said he died when his heart just stopped, not a heart attack. And Bonnie and I will both look for the positive while we fight our different types of cancers. Thanks for your prayers!

January 9, 2025January 13, 2025

Monkeys at Playa Mantas

I’m still working on my hundreds of photos of birds photographed on Rio Tarcoles Monday, so I will start with one of the last things we saw, a Troop of White-faced Capuchin Monkeys among the trees along Mantas Beach (Playa Mantas), which I first visited while staying at Hotel Punta Leona in March of 2019. The beach photo below was made then. 🙂 The hotel and resort development owns most of the land but the government says beaches cannot be private, so Walter took us to a little trail at the end of one street in the village of Punta Leona to get here, mainly for the monkeys and sloths. I did not get a sloth photo this time, but some of my Canadian friends did. To see more of these monkey photos, go to what will become a sub-gallery of this Trip Gallery: Playa Mantas Monkeys 2025 or if you want more, see my capuchins from all over CR in gallery: White-faced Capuchin Monkeys.

White-faced Capuchin Monkey, Playa Mantas, Punta Leona, Costa Rica

March 9, 2019March 14, 2019

BEACHES – Punta Leona

Playa Mantas (1st slideshow) is the beach closest to my room with two pools (adult & kids), separate bar and restaurant, discoteque, party room, game room, lots of organized recreation and extras like yoga on the beach. It is a light brown sand beach with palm trees along the edge and an easy walk for most of the hotel rooms.

PLAYA MANTAS

Playa Blanca (2nd slideshow) is a strenuous 3+ km walk over a steep hill, though a shuttle bus comes and goes about every 30 minutes until 5 PM for those who need white sand. It likewise has a restaurant and bar plus a huge area of concrete picnic tables if you want to bring your own food and drinks (while Mantas has only restaurant & bar for food). I was not aware of any organized recreation activities at Playa Blanca and no swimming pool. This “just a beach” closes at 5:00 PM.

PLAYA BLANCA

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I made the hard walk over the mountain to Playa Blanca but after a burger lunch I took the shuttle bus back! 🙂 No particular preference for me except that Mantas is closer and has more services/activities, though both have lifeguards. Both have the same shore birds for me. 🙂 And I guess you know that the word “playa” is Spanish for “beach.” I don’t swim in the ocean or surfboard, but I love walking on beaches and photographing them and their birds, especially at sunset or sunrise.