Here are a few pics from recent trip:

These white-faced (capuchin) monkeys showed up on our balcony minutes after we checked in.

In the end we are very grateful we were able to see them up so close, but honestly at the time we were, if not a bit frightened, at least startled. There were 5 or 6 and they were EVERYWHERE. Hanging on the hammock, jumping on the dining table and the chairs, swinging from the balcony rail and the rafters... One of them would bang on the bi-fold doors to the balcony. Were they not latched I believe he/she would've waltzed right in for afternoon tea.

They left after 5 or 10 mins. Perhaps ascertaining that we would not feed them (which we've read, despite being bad for them, some people do).

3 toed sloth - doing what they do - hang out.

3 howler monkeys in a tree - 2 adults and a young one. We never got too close to them but you can hear them from miles away.
Usually at 5AM, of course.

a howler monkey resting on a branch

A Jesus Christ lizard, This one just resting on land vs. walking on water

A northern yellow something snake - the mangrove boat tour guide didn't seem to get the memo that the lady screaming bloody murder when he brought the snake on the boat = she was not pleased.

a 2-toed sloth (my pic quality not that good)

Sloths - OMG I love them! Makes me want to book right now.

love to see more pics and some details too !!!

Where in Costa Rica were you?

Did you see a Tucan?

the first few photos are a riot!!! let us in !!! newbies in the house!!!

Piney - sloths were hard to spot at 1st but got better at it.
As slow as they are, when watching them near the ground (where predators can be) they moved relatively fast.
Was watching one for 5-10 minutes climb a vine and from tree to tree while waiting on my photo-taking sloth-lover to return from the room.
Upon return, I rambled on about said sloth, looked up and couldn't find the sloth anymore. Was asked "how can you lose sight of a sloth?" Still can't answer that very well.

Could see the green moldy stuff, as well as bugs (through binocs) crawling through their hair. Made one feel... icky? itchy?? not-sure-what... but it works for them.

loops/ohliz,
This is from Quepos/M.A. park area. The OSA was initial destination idea and was in serious consideration, but having never been to C.R. before
decided that Quepos seemed easier/more convenient - not sure that makes sense, but that is how it went.
Hope to go to OSA some day (definitely want to return to C.R.) - from what I've read, would see even more flora/fauna.
Have read about the Caribbean side and the JA settlers (including patois influence) - very interested to hear how that sounds (and if they could understand me) - but will have to wait for another day.

Did see a Toucan - and will post a pic, though mine is lousy. However the zipline people's CD included better shots so I'll post both later and one can compare (poison frogs on the hike up as well).

Details... different type of vacation. Almost no beach sitting and even when sitting, rarely read a mag or book. Where normally might have donned earphones just to hear music (or drown out the annoying higgler), too interested to hear all the bird/animal/whatever sounds.
Even when reading - constantly looking up - is that a monkey? is that a sloth - look a hummingbird!! Often enough it was a lump of tree, undulating dead leaf, or falling leaf, but on the rare occasion that something alive was moving, it was worth it to miss a few lines of text.

Details... Hmmm. before the trip there were many questions about monkeys, but had never pondered this: If one, wanting to get as close as possible to a squirrel monkey for a better picture, stands below said monkey, should one be concerned that monkey might poo on your arm?
Question answered!!

Daniel - yes111 newbies-in-the-house was probably their call. But once the bi-fold door was opened they showed little interest in entering, but out on the balcony greater interest was in what human hands held (camera; no food - boring!!!)

Even the ever-so-cute, submissive?? lay-on-our-bellies and bat-eyes-at-you pose went unrewarded. so we were deemed unworthy and off they went.

The balcony doors were open when we entered and were closed immediately (didn't bother to whine about the hours of traveling and drenched from humidity and heat part, until now - woe is me). I say that was a monkey butt imprint on the bed cover, but can't prove it. However the TV was set to Animal Planet!! OK - amonthropozing or whatever - guilty as charged.

A blue-crowned motmot. Tons of pics of them and none of them very good - they blend in very well. But did get to see them waggle their tail back and forth (as seen on TV), with the two extended tail feathers.
Local guy pronounced it Moot-Moot (as opposed to something like "pot""pot", which I thought it was). After a few days realized I was hearing that moot-moot sound almost all the time - they were all around me.

More of a 3-toe sloth. The indented spot on the back looks odd and at the time thought maybe it had been injured (curves way in, has no hair/fur in that area and just looks... infected or something). Turns out this is natural (wikipedia told me so, must be true).

My pic of a Toucan (a Chestnut Mandibiled Toucan, I believe):

The zipline provided image of toucan (same type i believe) - just a tad better quality:

another zipline provided pic - one of the several types of poison arrow frog - they told me not to touch. Didn't have to tell me twice.
Didn't take this picture but we saw two of them on the hike up to zip line platform.

view from balcony out to the sea. loved the view and in that forest canopy below could constantly hear birds, insects and who knows what.
Would hear some commotion moving down through the brush but almost never could see anything (did see an agouti through binocs once
- sort of like a large guinea pig with longer legs. nice to see but not the jaguar my mind had imagined).

view from their pool out to the sea. There were all kinds of birds flying over the canopy out toward sea (and over the sea i suppose). Many hawks, buzzards, etc.
but also saw hummingbirds, "common Potoos", fly-catchers, etc. Often they'd fly way up to those 2 large trees in this picture.
Also a squirrel monkey came to those trees one day and would play the oddest game (my only explanation). He/she would jump through some branches and then "belly-flop" down on a branch,
with all four limbs hanging down, rest for maybe 4 or 5 seconds at most and then run off to do it all over again. Once he/she landed on a particularly steep branch and started sliding backwards. Hilarious.
No idea what the real purpose (if there was one) for the behavior but it was very entertaining.

better weather view from pool to sea:

Squirrel Monkey in the big tree. May or may not have been the "arm-poop" monkey.