Manuel Antonio and the Naughty Raccoon - Hannah

Last weekend we went to Manuel Antonio, one of the most famous National Parks in Costa Rica, and often ranked as one of the most beautiful parks worldwide.

We stayed overnight in a hotel so we could more fully enjoy our trip. Unfortunately our trip was cut a little short, for reasons I'll explain later. 

We arrived on Friday and spent most of the day at the beach. It rained part of the time, but we didn't mind much because it didn't make it much colder. Plus no one got sunburned, and that's always a bonus.

Michael was able to take a surfing lesson from a local Costa Rican. He got some tips and was able to have quite a few nice runs. Dylan also took a short lesson and was able to stand up as well. And Jonah did some awesome boogie boarding.

And here's Julia just chillin'. 

We stayed at a great hotel, right near the entrance of the National Park, called La Posada. After the beach the kids played in the hotel pool for a bit and then we went to our room. 

There were two things Michael and I were especially excited about. One was the soft bed. Our bed at home is seriously lacking in padding, and we can feel the springs as we lay there at night. The second was a hot shower with great water pressure. We can get hot water here, but the water pressure is very low and we miss a nice powerful shower.

Anyway, after taking super long showers, we watched Tarzan together and would have had a great night's sleep had Jonah not woken up around 4:00 a.m. 

In the morning we enjoyed a great breakfast: eggs, sausage, hash browns, pineapple, papaya, bananas, cold cereal, drinkable yogurt, and mango juice. The best part about breakfast, though, was these friends who came to visit. There were a bunch of them swinging through the trees near our table and it was so cool.

After we had breakfast, we started our walk through the National Park. It was a much wider trail than La Cangreja, but also very pretty. We saw a few sloths in the trees. In Spanish they're called "lazy bears." We did see one move, though, scratching himself for at least five minutes.

We saw some big iguanas, enjoyed the scenery, and stopped at one of the beaches for a swim.

After the swim we met this bad boy. He may look cute, but either him or one of his friends nearby was responsible for our shortened trip.

We were walking down the trail, each eating a bag of caramel peanuts. Jonah was working on his, but the raccoons were eyeing it a little too closely. He never fed any of them, but they were getting pretty close. Michael took Jonah's snack from him to keep them away, but then one of them lunged at Jonah and bit his peanuty-tasting hand. It was a very small cut, but it did break the skin. And, of course, our first concern was the risk of rabies.   

We ended up spending the afternoon finding medical care for Jonah. We took him to the local hospital where the doctor ordered a round of antibiotics and made sure we had his Tetanus shot up to date, but said a rabies shot was not necessary. Today we spent quite a while trying to figure out if that was our best move, or if we should, in fact, get the shots. 

It turns out that the rabies shot, for post-exposure, is a series of five to seven shots. And most of the local hospitals don't carry them because it does not tend to be a problem here. There have been only two cases of human rabies in Costa Rica during the last 30 years. But we didn't want to be the third, and we still wondered whether that statistic was because of a low incidence or low reporting. We did some research, and talked with someone at the U.S. Embassy Health Department in Costa Rica, and our neighbor was kind enough to talk to someone for us at the Ministry of Health in Costa Rica. Both said that given the circumstances of the bite, the rabies shot was unnecessary unless we were dealing with a bat exposure.

At the same time, in our research, raccoons came up frequently as top carriers of rabies. And my mom did some calling around in the U.S., to the Department of Health and the CDC, to get their opinions. Basically, everyone in the U.S. recommended getting the shot. I wondered, though, if the recommendation came because it was the best thing to do or because people in the U.S. are so afraid of lawsuits. 

So we were at a bit of a loss.

I'm not a big fan of unnecessary medications, and the long-term, unknown effects of vaccines concern me. However, the risk of death from rabies also concerns me.

Anyway, Michael and I went back and forth for a while, but eventually decided to go ahead with the shots. There is a good hospital about forty-five minutes away, called CIMA. It had been recommended to us by an American friend and they had the vaccine available. So tonight we took him down for his first of six shots. He was very brave, and didn't even cry, but we'll all be glad when he has completed the series. 

All in all, I would definitely go back to Manuel Antonio. But I'd keep the snacks out of sight, and be more cautious around the animals.