Manuel Antonio National Park

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Manuel Antonio National Park

February 14

After our 7 hour 3.5-hour drive from Heredia (see previous post for those details), we dropped Ann off at her nearby hotel and arrived at El Faro Containers Beach Hotel around 6:30 PM. At check-in, the desk attendant gave us an amusing but very real warning: always lock both the door and the porch slider when leaving, because the monkeys know how to open them! We figured that it might come in handy if we ever misplaced our key.

The hotel itself was unlike anywhere we’d stayed before—a creative structure made from stacked shipping containers, arranged seven across and four high. Perched high on a hill, our room was on the top level, rewarding us with a stunning ocean view.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which features a beautiful patio overlooking the water. The servers here are, hmm…let’s say indifferently aloof, but the food is decent. Afterward, we took our drinks to the nearby pool and spent some time relaxing and unwinding.

With an early 7:30 a.m. guided tour of Manuel Antonio National Park scheduled for the next day, we turned in early for the night.

February 15

As strategically planned, our hotel is only a 5-minute walk to the entrance of the Park.  After a very early breakfast at the hotel restaurant Em, Sue, and I carefully made our way down the very steep hill to meet Ann.

Together we continued on about 100 more feet to meet the guide for our 7:30 a.m. private tour of Manuel Antonio National Park, which we had arranged through GetYourGuide. After meeting up with our guide outside the main entrance we got in line. Even though we got there at 7:30 AM, before the gates opened, there was about 20-minutes worth of people ahead of us in line.

Our guide, Jean Pierre, was excellent, leading us on a roughly three-hour walk through the park while pointing out wildlife that we never would have spotted on our own. We saw sloths high up in the trees, an agouti, hummingbirds, lizards, land crabs, and beautiful owl butterflies. Jean Pierre, like all guides on all tours we found out, carried a scope and tripod so as to ensure we could see the wildlife better, or at all, since often they are hard to see amongst the trees.  The guides take pictures with people’s phones through their scope to capture the shots.

Jean Pierre led us to the park’s only snack shack just before the tour’s end for our included snacks.  It was here that we encountered the largest lizard of the whole trip.

Manuel Antonio Beach

The tour ended at the beach within the park, about 1/4 mile from the snack shack. Knowing this in advance, we had come prepared with towels and swimwear. While there are changing stations, there are no other amenities—just a stunning stretch of sand and a pleasantly warm ocean. We spent about an hour swimming and relaxing.

Cathedral Point Trail

Taking our guide’s recommendation, Em and I set off on the 1.5-mile Cathedral Point loop trail from the beach.

The trail is mostly paved and relatively easy, but the many stairs had us stopping now and then to catch our breath. About halfway through the loop, we encountered a large family of white-faced (Capuchin) monkeys. They were incredibly playful and entertaining, and at one point we found ourselves surrounded by them.

Things got briefly tense when one monkey grabbed a woman’s foot from a nearby couple, but everything turned out fine as her beau shooed the monkey away. That couple was the only human encounter we had on the hike.

Between the unforgettable monkey encounter and the fantastic ocean views along the trail, the hike was well worth it.

Around 3:00 p.m., we completed the loop, arriving back at the beach just as the park was closing. After a 30-minute walk back to the entrance, it felt like we had truly made the most of the day—opening and closing the park.

Just outside the entrance, we grabbed some gelato and chatted with a friendly couple from France before making the trek back up the hill to the hotel. There, we met up with Ann and Sue at the pool and relaxed for a while. Before heading out for dinner, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset from our balcony.

Later, Em, Sue, and I walked down to pick up Ann, and together we headed toward the lively area by the public beach to find dinner. We soaked in the gorgeous afterglow of the sunset before settling on Restaurante Buru Seaside.  The primary reason for selecting this place was that they could actually seat us with a minimal wait, and it was now raining off and on. The food was decent, service valiant, but with a location like that, it hardly needs to be exceptional.

On the way back up toward the hotel, it had stopped raining and we decided to stop at El Chante del Parque, a small, friendly pub tucked down a shortcut alley toward the beach. Being off the main road, it was quiet with only a handful of people—an ideal spot for a relaxed and fitting tropical nightcap to end a full and memorable day.

Off to bed and to prepare for our drive to Monteverde the next day.

Next: Monteverde Cloud Forest