Costa Rica - The wonders of Manuel Antonio

Wallis Raekelboom
Dec 12, 2016
2 min read

Day two of our Costa Rica roadtrip: the Manuel Antonio National Park, located on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. We lodged at the Vista Serena Hostel in Quepos, the town located next to the entrance of the park (probably the only place around to sleep and eat). Our hostel had a magnificent view (see picture on the left), and although we only stayed there for a night, we made sure to enjoy that view by having lazy time in the hammocks and eating breakfast outside.

Once arrived at the park, we got sucked into a tour without even noticing it. Quick note to anyone driving to the entrance: if you get stopped by tourguides and you don't want to do a tour, tell them that you are just going to enjoy a day at the Manuel Antonio beach. When the guides stopped our car to ask us whether we were going to the beach or walk around for a tour of the park, we told him we were going to do both (I guess we were too tired to figure out that this was a tourist trap). The person directly told us where to park, and requested 36$ for the entrance of the park and the tour (keep in mind, the entrance of the park is always 16$). We ended up enjoying the tour a lot. The guide showed us a variety of wildlife that we definitely would not have seen without him (trust me, animals are hard to spot). The tour is definitely worth it but we were not so keen on one since we already had a wildlife tour in Corcovado the day before.

The most exciting thing from the tour was definitely the amount of sloths that were around. Those that know me know how much I love sloths (when i'm retired I want to open up a sloth rescue), so imagine walking around with sloths hanging all around you. Monkeys and coatis were also abundant. Both were obviously used to humans as they would walk and run around you and even come on the beach to steal your food!

Our day at the Manuel Antonio park was the only day we got without rain, so obviously, once the tour was over we rushed to the beach. We were instantly mesmerized by the beauty; the landscape was dazzling and the temperature of the water was perfect. After a long day of hiking and wildlife watching, nothing in the world felt better. We had to keep an eye on our stuff because the coatis and raccoons were luring around to steal our food. Once the day was over, we exited the park and walked along the beach to watch the sunset before heading off to our next destination.