Manuel Antonio National Park

We have heard fabulous things about this national park, so we decided to drive the hour and a half and spend a couple of days checking it out. Really good choice.

This place has beautiful beaches, warmish water, and backs up right into a jungle. (Plus, it has cheap happy hours!) It is really the best of both kinds of Costa Rican travel, all in one. We were staying right by the main public beach, which is gorgeous, and we were quite content to chill out there. To get a sense of the beauty we're talking about, check out these pictures.








Just at the end of this public beach is the entrance into Manuel Antonio National Park, and we definitely wanted to see what made this one of the top tourist spots in the country. Upon entering the park, you walk along the jungle path for maybe 10-15 minutes toward the main beach that most people are drawn to. It isn't long before you encounter wildlife along the path, however. For us, we first saw a sloth hanging way up in the tree (a first ever for Lisa) before we found a family of racoons wandering on the path ahead of us. We walked with them for a while, taking tons of pictures, until we ran into a huge crowd of monkeys. Then came the iguanas (see below). Not to mention the bajillions of hermit crabs everywhere. And all of these families of animals were hanging out in the same place at the same time. It was so fun to get so close to the animals without them getting scared and running off.



We eventually kept walking until we found the beach, where we decided to sit down at a picnic table and eat our lunch. We were just breaking into our PB&J's when this little guy came crawling onto our table hoping to snag a little lunch for himself. But the park people ask you not to feed them, so we refrained. It didn't keep him from trying, though. These monkeys are actually really bold and quite good at stealing people's unattended bags in the hopes of finding a few morsels to eat. Reade saw one monkey grab a bag and take off into the trees as its' owner started yelling, and he would have gotten away with if he hadn't dropped the bag by accident to the ground.

A few more monkey pictures (yes, we loved the monkeys)...





Although we only stayed for a couple of days, we had a great time and took full advantage of our time there, soaking in the natural beauty of the place. We head back to Jaco for another night or so before making our way back to the capital city where we'll catch our flight to the United States. We can hardly believe that our time in Central America is almost done. Sigh. It's too bad that all good things must come to an end. What an unbelievable experience. We are truly two of the most blessed people in the world.