Beach Walk Dinner at Bahia Azul

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Geo: 8.53622, -83.3051

walk the beach and up the road by Coast Guard school to old American zone as said by Max and dinner with Craig and Nery at Bahia Azul

When one is planning a vacation to Costa Rica that includes visiting the Quepos-Manual Antonio area, there is no end to the activities you can engage in for a cost. Aside from visiting the National Park there are both water and land activities of a wide variety.

The National Park Manual Antonio is in a beautiful setting with hills and white sand beaches. The cost is $16 per adult and children under 12 are free. They do take both cash and credit cards. There are guided tours as well both private and group tours with varying costs. The park is open from 7 am to 4 pm and is closed on Monday. Sunday is a very busy day in the park as many people from San Jose chose to visit on that day.

As budget travelers, we have found other activities that do not cost as much as some of the ones that are offered to visitors. One of our main activities is finding roads in the area and walking looking for wildlife and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

On this trip we found a road that took us above the town of Quepos and gave us some great views back over the water. The owner of the place we are staying had told us of this road and he called the area the old American zone. Not sure why it was called this but to find this road you walk the Malecon toward Marina Pez Vela and then continue walking past the police station and the turn left at the sign for the Coast Guard School.

You can walk as far as you want and the road to the left eventually brought you back down to the road that led past the marina and back into town. The birds were not as good as the view but it was a nice day.

Went to Restaurant Bahia Azul which is to the right of the Malecon, across the bridge heading out of town. It is more of a locals restaurant/bar but they have great food, and an awesome sunset view.

Craig and Nery gave us a ride up the hill to Manual Antonio to Sanchos where there was live music being featured. This Mexican Restaurant is right next to Manual Antonio Backpackers and the food looked good and the music was nice. The only downside was they did not serve wine.

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Photos

woodpecker resting
never have seen anything like this, but this woodpecker flew up and stretched out on this limb to our amazement!

hunting along the river
right near the marina, there is a river that runs along the edge of the Malecon and then empties into the ocean. You quite often see birds hunting along the river.

boats docked along the river
not sure what the story is on these boats but sometimes see a small boat leaving from or arriving to this area