Costa Rica's gem

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Our next destination was Manuel Antonio national park. This is the most beautiful place I have been in all of Costa Rica. The park consists of an area of jungle leading out to the beach. As soon as we got to the park I could tell it is very touristy- there was a queue to get in and a lot of groups with guides. As Jess and Andy didn't want to pay extra for a guide we went alone. It was handy having a lot of guides around as we could pick up on what they were showing their groups! Thanks to the guides we spotted some small frogs and lizards, and a very far away sloth. I also found my first toucan! It was beautiful, but unfortunately flew away beds I took a photo. Walking around the park further we saw a lot of beautiful butterflies and could hear monkey and lots of insect noise in the trees. We then came across our second sloth. This was much closer and very photogenic, we stayed near him for ages whilst he posed on the branch for us.
The advantage of not being on a tour was that we got down to the pristine beach sooner, when there was hardly anyone else on it. The beaches here are beautiful, with white sand and bright blue calm waters. After a walk around the headland we settled on the beach, near a sunbathing Iguana. We hadn't sat down long when a pair of curious raccoons came to see us too. They were obviously looking for our food, but they were very cute and friendly.
After leaving the beach we went for a sunset drink, then at the bus stop there was another sloth right by the beach on the power lines! It was definitely a lucky day for wildlife.
Next stop - tortugero national park

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