Manuel Antonio

The Planning:

I knew Quepos and Manuel Antonio were places I wanted to visit when I came to Costa Rica. It's one of Costa Rica's most popular national parks with a forested nature reserve right on the beach. It wasn't included in any if my field studies or as part of USAC excursions, but I still really wanted to go. After analyzing my schedule, I realized I only had time to go during the month of September, especially the weekend after my birthday. This place seemed like the perfect way to celebrate, on the beach and looking for animals.

I didn't want to go alone so I brought it up in our USAC group chat. Almost everyone said they were interested in going. As the planner, I initially struggled to find a place for 20 people. Then people started deciding they wanted to stay in other hostels/hotels for different cost reasons. This worked out because it brought my group size down to nine people. I explored AirBnBs for a while and then decided to just two different rooms from a villa recommended by Lonely Planet. This solved the problem of the hotel.

Another big issue in planning the trip was transportation. The public transport is pretty decent here; you can take a bus almost anywhere. However, what is normally a 3 hour drive by car is a 2 hour bus to San Jose then a 4-6 hour bus to the park. I was willing to do this, but obviously this wasn't ideal, especially with so many people going. I went to the USAC office to ask for advice or see if there were other options we could do, and Dalhalma recommended hiring one of the buses that USAC uses. After calling around, we book a bus for 25 people at about $20/person for both ways. The bus was great and the driver was super friendly and nice, however fitting 25 people is kind of a stretch. Oh well, it was a really great bonding experience.

A very full "bus"

The Hotel:

My group of 9 stayed at the Villa Jacquelina. Originally the plan was to stay in an AirBnB but this was a cheaper option. I found this hotel from the Lonely Planet Costa Rica book and it is highly recommended online. I'm really glad I went with this option, everyone loved it. Since it is the off season, we were the only ones staying in the whole villa. Total, there were seven rooms. Online I had rented out two five person bedrooms, including the Birds Nest. The rooms we ended up getting were a two person room, a three person room, and the Birds Nest. This ended up being the coolest room I had ever seen. It was open air with hanging beds and lofted beds. It also had an outdoor bathroom, small kitchenette, two dining tables, and some couches. It was surrounded by both trees touching the sides of the villa and an incredible view of the rainforest. The villa was also a short 15 minute walk to downtown Quepos, where we were able to buy groceries and souviners.  It was also close to the bus station, where we spent 60 cents to ride to the national park of Manuel Antonio.

When we weren't at the park or downtown, we had a lot of fun hanging out (almost quite literally) here. We played card games, cooked food together, blasted music from the boombox they provided, and swam in the pool when it wasn't raining. I loved this place and everything it had to offer. There was a small issue with the payment, but it was more due to a language barrier than anything else.

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View from our villa

The Park:
We arrived at the park really early, after leaving our hotel at 6:30 and heading to catch the local bus to the park. After a very short and cheap bus ride, we arrived about a block from the park entrance. While we were waiting in line at the bank to buy our tickets (there is only one official place to buy the tickets, and it is the beach in front of the park entrance), we ran into a young guy who wanted to be our tour guide. At first our group was hesitant. We didn't want to be caught in any tour scams, something we were warned about online. However, this guy Dylan had an official tour guide badge and a huge telescope. Also, he offered to guide our group for just 5,000 colonies ($10 USD) a person. So after deliberation, we trusted him. And I don't regret it at all. Dylan was awesome. He is a biology student from the University of Costa Rica, so he was about our age and very knowledgeable. His English was great and he was really easy to get along with. Right away before we even got into the park, he helped us spot a howler monkey sitting in a tree.

Right away, we got the majority of our lunch confiscated at the gate. This was kinda sad, but we couldn't do anything about it. After entering the park, Dylan showed us all the trails on a map. He took us on the biggest loop that ended at the Manuel Antonio beach where we could explore other smaller trails and hang out at the beach for a while.

It was very early when we went, so many animals were about and there wasn't that many people. From our tour guide, we spotted five sloths, six different kinds of lizards, howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys, mangrove crabs, different birds, many frogs and insects, and some bats. Honestly, without the guide we wouldn't have seen anything. All the animals were well camoflauges and Dylan knew exactly where to look for them.

After the tour ended, my group decided to hike a few more trails before relaxing on the beach. The main trail we hiked was the overlook trails on the "whale tail" part of the park. This trail was kinda tough after half a day of hiking in the heat and humidity with all our stuff on empty stomachs, but the view was worth it. There were three separate overlooks where you could look out at the islands and try to spot whales. We didn't see any whales, but it was still nice to stop for a while and take a break.

After that trail, we needed to stop for lunch and take a break on the beach. Since most of our lunch got confiscated, we bought snacks at the little shop by the changing rooms. After eating, we changed and hung out on the beach for a couple of hours. There are a couple different beaches, each just a few feet from each other on diffent sides of the isthmus. Manuel Antonio beach is really popular and often crowded in the afternoons, but the other beach is known to have riptides and trees on the shore that are toxic and can blind you if you touch them. We decided to go to Manuel Antonio beachIt was really fun and the water was nice and warm. I had a great time, but my friend got stung by a jellyfish.

After a couple hours at the beach, we decided we still wanted to hike the waterfall trail and since the park was closing soon, we went. This trail was right by the park entrance, which worked out perfectly. On the hike, we spotted more monkeys, some agouti, and many frogs. The actual waterfall was alright, but not really worth the amount of stairs it took to get there. Especially because Costa Rica has so many beautiful waterfalls that you can swim in.

Overall, this park was really cool. We were there from open to close and I probably still could have spent more time in it. 

Our group (featuring guide Dylan of the left) in front of the Manuel Antonio sign

Future Advice:
- Arrive as early as you can. We got to the park at 7:30 and it was still quiet, but I could tell that it was starting to get busy.

- The bank in front of the park is the only official place to buy park tickets

- Only fruit and sandwiches are allowed in the park

- You cannot bring chips into the park. Don't try to bring chips into the park. They will definitely find them. Cookies and chocolate too.

- There is a little cafe and gift shop in the park by the beach. They do not have a lot of food, only basic pastries and ice cream. And, if your lunch of chips and cookies got confiscated at the gate, their expensive ice cream and croissants do not make up a full meal either. Especially after 9 miles of hiking.

- Packing sandwiches is a good idea, but it is not a good idea to store all 9 sandwiches in a plastic grocery bag and carry it around in 80°F+ humid weather all day. The cheese was melted and I'm assuming the ham wasn't much better.

- GET A TOUR GUIDE. Even if you think you won't need one, you will. We for sure would not have seen half the cool stuff we did if we didn't have our tour guide with his nice binoculars. Plus Dylan was a good time, full of stories and adventures.

- The gift shops in Quepos are much cheaper than the ones right outside the park entrance.

- Explore all the trails of course, but the waterfall trail is kinda disappointing. Especially because you can't swim in it. There are quite a few stairs to climb.

A monkey! Gotta watch out for these guys

More Pictures:

The walk to one of the viewpoints. Many stairs!

Selfie on the beach 

Picture taken right before I fell over and got sand all over me

Got wrecked by a wave

Looking cute on the beach

Me with some cool vines

Crocodiles under the bridge

Group photo in front of the waterfall

Group photo on the beach

The poisonous rainbow cricket

The Rufus hummingbird

Froggy

Different froggy

Jesus Christ lizard

Mangrove crab

Green Tree Froggy

Baby basilisk lizard

Big spider

Howler Monkey

View from top of watchtower. You can see the "tail fin" of the park