Manual Antonio and Monkeys

Our last stop on the trip was Manual Antonio National Park on the Pacific Coast.  We had a lovely drive here, first crossing a bridge above tons of
 alligators, and then cruising down the coast.  Our hotel is the Costa Verde, and we've got an AMAZING view of the Pacific coastline from high up on the hill.  In the morning we saw monkeys right outside our hotel room window.

The first night we grabbed dinner at a barbecue pirate place.  You can tell this is much more touristy than the other locations, sort of honky-tonk beach town.

One day 2, we did a Mangrove tour by boat, something my parents had done on a cruise stop that promised a lot of wildlife.  It didn't disappoint.  There were SO MANY MONKEYS.  This was definitely my highlight of the trip. The guide was a local who seemed to know the animals well having grown up around them.  We also saw Jesus lizards and a scary looking snake.  We stopped for lunch on the way back and had the most amazing fried plantains.

We went to the beach that afternoon- I've never seen such beautiful water.  It was even purer than the turquoise of Cancun, even clearer than the stillest pond.  It was also incredibly rough surf!  We read and sunbathed in between swims and then caught a cab ride back up to the hotel (the walk down was a lot further than expected and flipflops were a poor choice).

On the last day we switched to a penthouse suite, which was just amazing.  The views were 360, even from the bathroom!  We did a guided hike and saw a few new things, including bright red and blue land crabs and a gorgeous blue morpho butterfly.  It feels like we could give the guided walk ourselves though by this point.


For the afternoon we went back into the park and hiked on our own up to a lookout (nothing special, our hotel room had a better view!) but then saw more lizards and got to stop off at the beach for some pretty scenery on the way home.  Overall it was a great last day.  There are lizards everywhere here.  By the end of the week, this was the conversation:

Do not want him in my bathroom!

"Hey, there's a lizard in the bathroom?"
"Big or little?"
"Little."
"Ok.  He'll find his way out then"

In the morning we packed it up and drove back to the airport in San Jose.  I definitely recommend Costa Rica for an ecovacation, especially to anyone looking to travel with kids.  It was affordable, adventurous, with good food and great people.  Pura Vida!