Manuel Antonio National Park

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

One of the appeals of heading down the coast was to go to Manuel Antonio National Park. Travelers we met in SJDS raved about it so it went right on the to-do list! Getting to the park is fairly easy. There’s a shuttle that runs all the way from Quepos to the end of the road where the beach is. The second last stop is the road that leads to the entrance to the park. Most reviews we read on TripAdvisor highly recommended getting a guide to see all the different animals & plants that live in the park.. Unfortunately, they start at $20/person (with the entrance fee already being $16/person (!!)), so Mac & I decided to forgo the guide and try to open our eyes to the nature around us.

There are loads of different trails & paths throughout the park, so to make the most out of the steep entrance fee, we hiked almost all of them! The first was to a waterfall. The beautiful path ran through the jungle and monkeys and birds could be heard for miles. One thing we failed to realize during this trek to the cascada was that it is currently Costa Rica’s dry season. Dry = no rain = no waterfall. We arrived at the lookout platform to see only a little trickle of water. Humph. At least the surrounding scenery was pretty!

After the waterfall debacle, we headed to the peninsula of the park. The trail that loops around has several lookout points along the way so that hikers can see the nearby islands and other beaches.

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Playa Gemelas

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Playa Escondito

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Playa Manuel Antonio

Wildlife

I can’t mention the park without mentioning the abundant wildlife. On good days, one might be able to see various types of monkeys, some sloths, exotic reptiles, colourful birds & the like. An advantage to hiring a guide is that they bring scopes that can magnify animals hidden high in the treetops. Even without a guide, Mac & I managed to see quite a few species on our own! A deer walked right on the main path in front of us; we saw a sloth high in the treetops; raccoons (a mama & two babies) timidly skirted away from us; capuchin monkeys were seen twice having fun in the trees (we even saw a mama monkey nursing her baby!); and we had quite the delightful beach-side lunch with hermit crabs for dining companions!

Summary

All in all, spending the day at the park was a really fun adventure. The hikes can be as easy or strenuous as you want and there are plenty of things to do/look at, so you’ll never get bored. The park is extremely well maintained with paved pathways complete with accompanying railings & supports.

Though only 600 people (or 800 in the high season) are allowed admission per day, it does get a little crowded. The main beach – Playa Manuel Antonio – is the easiest to get to, and therefore the most populated. If you take the trail just 2 minutes from Playa Manuel Antonio, you end up at a much more deserted beach, Playa Espadilla Sur. Mac and I cooled off in the ocean after our hikes and read in the shade of a huge almond tree here.

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Playa Espadilla Sur

Like I mentioned before, guides can be useful for seeing species that you maybe can’t see with the naked eye, but Mac and I liked going at our own pace and as you can see from the pictures above, we were able to see quite a lot ourselves.

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