Manuel Antonio

For our second weekend trip, we decided to visit Manuel Antonio, the smallest national forest in all of Costa Rica which boasts some of the best beaches, stunning ocean and ample opportunities to see wildlife. The forest itself is actually just a little ways outside of a town called Quepos on the pacific side of the county.

And so, right after work (and a quick stop at McDonalds) on Friday, Jillian, Jackie and I boarded the bus bound for the little beach town.  The ride was not too bad and we ended up arriving in the area around 5:30 in spite of us having left a little late. As is par for the course with us, we had not hostel reservation and chose to wander around the city a bit to see what pricing was like. After one rather sketch place and another that was almost too laid back to check us in, we eventually returned to the place recommended by our volunteer organization, The Manuel Antonio Backpacker’s Hostel.

Our Hostel

Community Open Air Kitchen

This was the view from the sink. I feel that if I had this view at home, I would have no problem doing the dishes. 

Typical bit of Costa Rican art. We have seen these wheel-barrels everywhere.

By this time, we were completely drenched in sweat from the heat and humidity and only had eyes for the pool at the base of a small hill behind our hostel. But Jillian, being the most rational person in our group, suggested we drop our stuff in our room, visit the grocery store and grab some dinner before all of the things around our hostel closed for the evening. I couldn’t disagree with this logic, even though I really wanted to. But as we were preparing to leave, I was fiddling with the wall fan in an attempt to make our room a little less like a sauna when the power went out. We quickly discovered that the power had gone out on our entire street, plunging the whole area into darkness which was only broken by passing cars and a few flashlights.

Undeterred in our search for food, we trepidatiously made our way down to the supermarket thanks to Jackie’s and my flashlights. After only a few minutes of waiting outside the store, the power came back on, and the three of us began to search the place for the items necessary to prepare PB & J’s. Then it was back to the hostel to change into swimsuits and then off to dinner at a small soda featuring the brilliant, talented, and local: Chef Jose. The place could not have been bigger that your standard bedroom and we know for certain that our food was fresh because the man who took our order actually went to the supermarket and bought the ingredients after we placed our orders. In the end though, it was all worth it. I had a supremely delicious burger that despite its size, took me only 5 minutes to consume. I even got to sample some of Jillian’s burrito and Jackie’s rice with garlic shrimp, both of which were divine.

From there, it was straight to the kidney-bean-shaped pool which we had all to ourselves. And rather than dry off in the traditional way, we opted to sway lazily from the three hammocks that were set up a little ways away from the pool. By this time though, we were totally exhausted and slept soundly until the next morning.

After our free pancake breakfast, we rode the bus down to the main public beach of Manuel Antonio. We decided to spend most of our first day in the reserve so we headed down a little side street which eventually led to the entrance. The side street was actually lined with several semi permanent shops peddling every kind of souvenir you could ever want. We got a little hung up checking out things like cocoanut earrings and swordfish bond daggers, but we eventually made it to the park. Now I have been to some really cool places in my life and seen come really cool animals. But none of it compared to walking through this rainforest and hearing monkeys crashing through the trees, seeing toucans fly in the canopy and feeling the morning sunshine on my face. 

Map of the National Forest

White-Faced Capuchin Monkey

I know it's hard to see, but on the left side of the 'V' there is a Three-Toed Sloth making his way up the tree while one of the White-Faced Capuchin's stares him down. 

Rare Central American Squirrel Monkey enjoying a tasty breakfast. 

After our little nature walk, we ended up at our first beach which was just as pretty as a picture. Rather than jump right in the water though, we decided to take a little hike along the Sendera Punta Cathedral trail. Now, I am not sure if I am just a little slower that most people, but I thought that because the word “cathedral” was in the title of the trail that we might actually see a cathedral. And while we did see some other really cool things, we still did not see a cathedral. I voiced this concern to Jillian and Jackie when we were about 3/4ths of the way done with the hike and both of them looked at me as though I was crazy. Then Jackie, without missing a beat, cocks her head to one side and says, “You didn’t really think there was a cathedral at the top of this thing, did you?”

Left side of the South East beach

Right side of the South East beach

Cool rock formation that looked like sand because of the constant erosion by the waves

This crocodile was pointed out to us by a Tico family who was heading in the opposite direction. It was lucky they did because it was down in a valley a little ways off from the trail. See that white thing in its mouth, it had just caught a rather large bird and was in the process of swallowing it when I snapped this picture. 

View of the waves crashing beneath the lookout point on the Cathedral Trail. 

View from the Cathedral lookout point, sans the cathedral. 

Sheer cliffs leading to the ocean on the southern part of the peninsula. 

Jillian and I standing in front of a massive tree that had fallen down due to a termite infestation. 

Natural stairway made by crisscrossing roots. 

This forest did not have a whole lot of interesting plants, but I thought these were pretty cool. 

Aside from the natural staircases, the other method of moving along steep places in this park was to use these waffle blocks. 

Anyway, the hike was really very wonderful, even if it did mean that we were drenched in sweat within minutes of taking our first step. The trail ended on a nice, quite beach separated from the main beach by a few large rock formations, making our area nice and secluded. We played in the water here for quite a while before returning to shore to eat our delicious lunch.

Sweaty and sticky versions of Jackie and Jillian.

While we were eating lunch, we were interrupted by two things, the tide and a meter long iguana who was bent on getting its jaws on some of our food. 

I decided the best course of action was to give the little guy something for is brazen behavior. But instead of taking the potato chip I was offering him (which I ended up setting down on the sand) He went right after my outstretched fingers. It was kind of terrifying. 

With our bellies full and all of our fingers still attached, we decided to head out to another beach called “Hidden Beach” which involved a slightly shorter trek, but a trek none the less. 

Beautiful tree we saw on the way to Hidden Beach

Right side of Hidden Beach. See those rocks being splashed by the waves, that was just the beginning of what Jillian and I decided to climb over. 

Left side of hidden beach. 

This beach was even less populated than the one where we chose to have lunch. But Jillian and I did not let that stop us from finding something exciting and moderately dangerous to do to. This time it took the form of swimming through a small tidal bay that looked like a pot of boiling pasta water, scaling sharp, pointed rocks covered in creepy, crawly crabs (in my case barefoot), and sitting in the wave zone and getting pummeled by the pounding surf. A few scrapes and bruise and one relatively close call later, we made it back to Jackie on the main beach.

One quick note on the crabs: I was not able to get pictures as we decided not to take our cameras along on this little adventure, but these things were seriously unnerving. They moved over the rocks like monkeys in trees, using their claws to hold on to the tiny points on the rocks and swinging their bodies around them as they reached for the next point. This on top of the fact that there were literally hundreds of them scuttling over the rocks, giving the impression that the rocks themselves were moving before our eyes.

But back to the main story, when we met up with Jackie, she told us about how a raccoon looking creature had stolen our potato chips right out of our food bag. Apparently she didn’t even notice anything was going on until several people had crowded around our bags with their cameras out. Luckily she was able to snag a photo of the little thief and we later learned that it was a Coati (thank you Lonely Planet), which is actually in the same family as the raccoons of North America.

The Coati. 

If you look in the upper third of the picture, you can just see our yellow chip bag and the Coati's little white face through the trees. 

After this, we tried to take another hike to see the only waterfall in the park, but the trail was closed so we instead chose to head to the public beach as the park closes rather early. We chilled on the trunk of a fallen down tree while we discussed where we wanted to eat for dinner and eventually decided to take a walk along the beach while the sun was setting.

The public beach in the late evening. 

Muted sunset over the far end of the public beach. 

Once it grew to dark to see clearly on the beach, we wound our way through the deserted beach front until we found the Vella Hotel and Bar where we had some exceptional fish and steak. Jillian opted for the herb sea bass while I went for the lemon butter swordfish and Jackie the green pepper tenderloin. I’m pretty sure the other two tables in the restaurant judged us for our garb and our demeanor, but we were enjoying our food too much to care. 

We ended up taking a cab home from the restaurant because of the rain. Of course the second we flagged down the cab the bus came, but there you are. By this point in the evening though, Jillian and I were craving a sweet treat so we went to the supermarket and got a point of Dos Pinos ice cream which had vanilla, lime and strawberry in it. It was the perfect way to end an absolutely wonderful day.

The next morning, Jackie and I woke to found Jillian in the kitchen with a full stack of pancakes ready for our breakfast. After this, Jillian and I caught the bus into Quepos to attend the local branch meeting there. Our directions were rather vague but we amazingly made it to the little house that had been converted into a chapel. With only 25 members, the meeting was intimate and nearly the entire congregation stood to bear their testimony. While we really didn’t understand much of what was being said, it was so great to be at a church meeting again, even if our attempts at singing the Spanish songs were a little less than wonderful.

Jillian and I outside the Quepos, Costa Rica Branch. They even had a sign!

View of the hill that separates Quepos from the Manuel Antonio beach.

Getting back to the Hostel proved to be a bit more of a challenge as the bus did not run along the same road it dropped us off on, but as is par for the course in Costa Rica, a spirit guide came along and walked us right to the bus stop.  When we got back, we grabbed our stuff and Jackie and headed down to the public beach. 

We decided to live a little decadently on our last day here, and rented some beach chairs and an umbrella so we could have a nice base camp. We spent a good chuck of the morning swimming and attempting to body surf in the huge waves. I loved being tossed around by the ocean and feeling the force of the undertow. We even got to see a few people go parasailing while we were out in the water. After lunch, I took a brief walk along the shore and loved watching the peacocks, urchins and walruses interact with and attempt to ignore one another. But all too soon, it was time to pack up so we could shower and eat before catching our bus.

These weren't our chairs, but they still looked really cool with the ocean in the background. 

 Right side of the public beach from our base camp

Left side of the beach from our base camp. 

The trio manifested in different types of water bottles/ Jackie and Jillian, who were less than thrilled that I was taking a picture of them. 

With all of us smelling infinitely better, we decided to patronize the little restaurant that was a part of our hostel in hopes that this would expedite the dining out process. We were sadly mistaken, however, and only had 10 minutes to spare once we were done having our subpar sandwiches. But this had no impact on our good moods or on the smiles on our faces after such an amazingly wonderful weekend in this little slice of paradise called Manuel Antonio. 

Picture of Jillian's drink from lunch. I feel like this should be an actual ad for Coca-Cola.