Hey there, adventurers! Today you get to see loads of crazy monkeys, cute sloths and other fun animals that I met in Costa Rica. My boyfriend and I spent the last few days of our three-week trip in Manuel Antonio before heading back to the capital San José. We actually stayed one night in Quepos after leaving our pacific paradise Santa Teresa and before heading to Manuel Antonio. Quepos is a small busy town with lots of shops and restaurants and even though it's pretty authentic we didn't like it much, too busy and commercial for us. So after stopping there for a night we took a bus to Manuel Antonio the next morning.
We heard so many good things about the national park there that we just had to go see it. And we were not disappointed, it's the perfect place to experience the wonders of the forest - I've never seen so many wild animals in my life. My boyfriend and I loved the park and its tropical coast. Miguel spotted one sloth after the other and three of them carried around little babies which was my highlight! Baby sloths are sooo cute, I could've taken them all home. At least I got a few great shots of them. We also met loads of playful capuchin monkeys, funny little guys. They came super close and were just jumping up and down and curiously walking around our feet and cameras. It's amazing how they behave like humans, I couldn't stop watching them eating, playing and sleeping. Even their facial expressions are surprisingly human, I took so many pics of the monkeys looking annoyed or serious or smiling like a person. Then there were some howler and squirrel monkeys, coatis, racoons, tropical birds and lots of iguanas and insects.
The Manuel Antonio National Park is really beautiful, you can walk through the huge forest or just chilll at one of the park's idyllic beaches. It's about $16, well maintained and really easy to walk. After you enter the park you have to hike about 30 minutes to reach one of the beaches. But honestly, it's a pretty crowded park, there were moments when I felt like I was fighting with other photographers to get the best pic of a sloth, haha. However, it's what you make of it. My boyfriend and I didn't follow any groups, we took different routes where we rarely met more people and went to the beach later during the day to avoid the tourist crowds. It was crazy hot that day and we walked the entire park cause we wanted to see everything, thus we were done by the end of the day and just wanted to dip into the ocean. So we ended our jungle excursion with a bath and a few relaxing minutes at the beach before heading back to our hotel. What an adventurous day!
And now you get to see some more pics of Manuel Antonio, where we stayed one more day after visiting the national park. The village is located right next to the park and you can find loads of hotels, restaurants, shops and a huge beach there.My boyfriend and I spent our second day at the Playa Manuel Antonio and relaxing at our hotel which is called Costa Linda. It was one of the prettiest hotels we stayed at. Right next to the rooms there was a little garden with an outdoor shower, which I absolutely loved, and everything was decorated or painted, even the bathrooms. They alo had a great restaurant where we had a romantic dinner on our last night. Hope you like the pics!
