Manuel Antonio

Day 41 (August 8, 2018) – Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

As with all our trips in Costa Rica, this one also started out with a very long bus ride. We began in Liberia, stopped in Punta Arenas to change buses, then went to Quepos where we got on a third bus for a short ride to the town of Manuel Antonio. After walking down the wrong street, knocking on the wrong door, getting distracted by a troop of monkeys, then making a partially-successful phone call in Spanish, we finally found our Airbnb.

Travis found us a great private room in a house, run by a family of Italians who had transplanted themselves to Costa Rica over 20 years ago. While they had a few separate apartments on the property that they rented through Airbnb, we were staying in a bedroom right inside their own home, which made it both less expensive and more personal. The very friendly and accomodating woman who we were essentially living with spoke Italian and Spanish. No English. However, this turned into a great way for us to keep practicing our Spanish. I’m not sure we always understood one another, but we got by.

Travis, ready with the camera, from our balcony in Manuel Antonio.

The best part about the house was that they had a balcony overlooking the tropical forest. We sat there at a small table most afternoons (to avoid the afternoon rain showers) and watched entire families of monkeys swing across the trees through their back yard. The main attraction of the area, Manuel Antonio National Park, is supposed to be home to an incredible number of monkeys, but we saw way more of them in this family’s back yard than we ever saw at the park. There were also a lot of toucans and parrots. We felt like we were somewhere exotic and tropical even before we made it to the Manuel Antonio park entrance. 

Monkeys and toucans in our back yard. 

Manuel Antonio, like Tamarindo, is a happening beach town, but it’s not particularly pedestrian friendly because the main part of town is located up on a hillside away from the beach. On one of the days we hiked down to the beach, Playa Espadilla, and back again. It's not an easy walk as the hill is steep and sidewalks are only occasionally available, but there is a bus that we took most other days. Playa Espadilla is a nice beach to relax at. The waves got a bit rough, but the surfers taking advantage of them made for good entertainment.

A day at Playa Espadilla. 

We also spent a day at Manuel Antonio National Park. I was glad that we got an early start because as soon as we left the congested park entrance it was like we had the park to ourselves for the first couple hours. The trails in the park take you through tropical jungles, alive and noisy with animals, birds, and insects, and then emerge onto large stretches of pristine white sand beach with turquoise water. This is the scenery of post cards. It reminded us very much of when we were in Colombia last year at Tayrona National Park, also having similar scenery. I found it immensely relaxing to sit on the beach, watch the iguanas walk by, and go for a swim whenever you started to get too hot. This was by far our best beach day yet.

 

Playa Espadilla Sur in Manuel Antonio National Park.

Looking down on a small, isolated section of Manuel Antonio Beach. 

One of the iguanas that strolled past us on the beach. I had no idea they could jump or climb trees. Travis had to temporarily relocated himself for fear that an iguana would fall out of a tree and onto his head.

However, Manuel Antonio National Park is no secret. By 11 AM there were crowds of tourists filling in every spot on the namesake beach. We also got into a serious pedestrian traffic jam when 2-3 tour groups converged on a trail head where a baby sloth could be seen lumbering along a high up tree branch. Fortunately, there is more than one beach at the park so we spent our day at Playa Espadilla Sur. While only slightly less picture perfect than Playa Manuel Antonio, it provided us with a great view, some shade, and plenty of room to stretch out and claim a small piece of the pristine beach as our own.