Activity Summary
Sunday 4th June - Day 276
Manuel Antonio National Park
Chill on Manuel Antonio beach
Monday 5th June - Day 277
Walk around Quepos
Marina Pez Vela
Parque Nahomi
Drinks & snack at El Avion
Summary
Quepos
There is very little of interest in Quepos. The marina was alright and the coast walk was much nicer than going through the town but it was a cheaper place to stay to get access to the National park.
Manuel Antonio
Very easy to complete in a day and would recommend getting an earlier entry ticket to make use of the whole of the National park.
The abundant wildlife we saw here however was pretty great. Sloths were out in force and the beach was a pretty nice way to relax after hunting for said wildlife.
Accommodation
Quepos - Airbnb
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £22
It was really nice to have a whole apartment to ourselves, kitchen and all. Luke even had a proper l desk he could perch on to do anything other than his audit work he no longer does on holiday.
The bedroom was airconned which was pretty vital as the apartment got super hot during the day. The kitchen just didn’t seem to lose this heat and when we cooked it just added to the intensity. Pretty ropey oven as well requiring a naked flame to get it going but Nicola really wanted chicken and chips.
Great location for Manuel Antonio national park, the only difficulty really being the tight turn in to park the car in the gated area. But nothing a 1000 point turn and Nicola’s ever helpful guidance didn’t resolve.
Diary
Manuel Antonio is quite a small National park but one of the most popular. As it was a Sunday there actually wasn’t a whole lot of tickets available and had been forewarned by a blog that it was worthwhile getting earlier than our standard last minute affair. Our entrance was for 9am and this would allow us to explore the NP f until 4pm when it closed - a bit of a weird system when a 2pm ticket allows no time at all.
Parking once again was a bit of a shit show. Luke was well read up on Manuel Antonio so knew to straight up ignore the tons of people hustling people into various private car parks on the way to the NP entrance, at one point Luke actually telling one guy to get out of the way. There’s an ‘official’ car park right by the entrance which is cheaper (cost us C4,000) and also on the doorstep of the NP. It’s very likely the car park has nothing to do with the National park but it was definitely the best option.
On our way in we had to ignore some very hard sells from those offering guided tours. Our advice, save yourself the money and don’t go for them. As it was a weekend there were tons of people on various guided tours on an incredibly short loop around the NP. Our trick was to just stop where everyone was cooing at, look in that direction and there we had all the same animals for less than half the price (minus the things that required the telescope).
Manuel Antonio isn’t particularly big and walking around all the paths that we could do only added up to about 13km. The short offshoots from the main loop were much quieter having left all the tourists and their guides to their slow trudge around but these didn’t offer particularly amazing views. It was also pretty warm (33 degrees and humid AF) so it was all pretty tiring.
Our first little offshoot was to see a seasonal waterfall. It really hadn’t been raining much despite being comfortably a month into the season to be drowned in and it really showed with this piddly dribble.
The next part of our walk was on the main trail and saw plenty of the famed Manuel Antonio animal residents:
Grasshopper
Capuchin monkeys - these were pretty easy to spot as they made an all mighty rustle overhead. We got to see a couple of them feeding on some fruit and later on saw one going for a big old leap from tree to tree. Entertaining stuff - gave him a 4/10 for style.
Snakes
Sloth number 1 - Luke finally got his sloth fix in after the disappointment of missing out in the night tour. This guy was chilling, eating and slowly moving around a big tree that overhung the main path so plenty of people got to witness the guy. Again, follow the crowds and there is no need to pay extra for it.
Many lizards
Very vibrant crabs - these would be rustling incredibly loudly in the forest floor detritus that gave hope of something a bit more jazzy. They were however super colourful and some quite sizeable.
Black iguana
We had a walk off the path to a higher viewpoint overlooking the beach and coastline. We really didn’t spend a whole lot of time here as it was super warm and by the time a couple was done taking selfies for 5 minutes and it was our turn we were absolutely frazzled.
A nearby beach called Playa Las Gemelas gave us a chance for a sit down and some food. Not an overly inviting one for a swim however.
Sloth number 2 was a little harder to spot. A group had indicated one was chilling in the tree but we couldn’t really get a decent view when we passed the first time. On our return journey we had them to ourselves, perfectly perched in tree branches that almost looked like a proper armchair.
When we arrived at Manuel Antonio beach we decided to spend some time chilling. It was quite busy and they even had toilets, changing facilities and showers for the beach. Nicola was feeling pretty tired and full on passed out so when the tide started to come in quite viciously Luke had to move all our stuff back to safety. He did however leave Nicola asleep in a risky area and played a little game of seeing whether the sea would reclaim her. Sadly it only got close, but no all encompassing shock.
After a few hours we ended up leaving as the tide ended up swallowing most of the beach. We did see some howler monkeys on our way out.
The plan was to complete the last part of the park's trails but these all ended up being closed and inaccessible. Would’ve been nice to have this forewarning but this was nowhere to be seen until getting to the closure.
The last track back to the entrance went through a mangrove forest where we also saw a toucan. Nice little touch to end what was quite a good wildlife return for our amateur walk around.
Once back at the Airbnb we did very little with our afternoon / evening.
We had an extra day in the Manuel Antonio area and really didn’t need to revisit the National park and certainly couldn’t be bothered to drive down to Espadilla Beach where the aggressive car parker’s lingered.
We spent the late morning / early afternoon walking into Quepos. There wasn’t much to see in the town bar the coastal walk that led to the Marina Pez Vela. Pretty fancy closed off area clearly to keep the local riff raff out with a few shops and restaurants.
Down the road was a small park called Parque Nahomi so we had a short walk around here, baffled at the few people that had decided to go for a dip in the aggressive swell, rocks and scummy water.
With little else to do Luke decided he wanted to go to a restaurant / bar called El Avion as it looked like a nice place to have a sit down with a coffee and potentially a little nib. Thankfully parking was easy and it was well worth the trip as we saw sloth number 3 eating and traversing the tree right in front of our table.
It would have been a little more relaxing if we hadn't had a loud mouthed Texan woman sitting next to us and repeating the same thing over and over again to whoever would listen in a particularly loud grating Texan accent. Hilariously her husband said absolutely nothing the whole time - opposites do attract.
The iced drinks and ice cream with views over the coast with the sloth turned out to be a nice plan, despite still being overpriced.
We drove to Maxi Pali for a proper supermarket shop to ensure Luke was stocked up for all his requirements of his big boy Chirripo hike the next day and did little else for the rest of the day. Nicola did however have a severe hankering for chicken and chips so with the luxury of an oven and freezer, prepared a proper dirty late lunchtime meal.
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