Manuel Antonio, Quepos and the national park

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MANUEL ANTONIO:
It's no wonder thousands of vacationers flock to Manuel Antonio during the dry season. It's not only home to a famous national park, but also has pristine white-sand beaches framed by jungle. Is has a little something for everyone: good swimming areas and surfing spots, delicious restaurants and 2x1 drink specials, parasailing and beach bumming. Its Costa Rica's own Orange County. The only thing this tiny town doesn't have is much nightlife. We checked into the national park backpackers hostel about a hundred feet from the entrance of the park and a five minute walk to the beach. This is the first hostel we've stayed at that had a pool. Even though it felt like bath water, it was still a nice relief from the intense heat. Every night they show a movie on a projector screen that you can watch from the pool or the lounge chairs. It was also nice having a kitchen again to prepare our own meals since food prices are elevated due to the nature of the touristy area. The first night we tried to go grab a beer in town with some friends from the hostel and found ourselves aimlessly walking uphill into the darkness with nothing open in sight. The guys were very persistent and refused to be defeated by the quiet town. There's only a handful of restaurants near the beach and the rest are scattered throughout the hills on the way to the nearby town of Quepos. Apparently that's where all the nightlife was but it was too late to catch a bus at this point. Eventually we stumbled upon lights and music...which turned out to be a gay bar. We were warmly welcomed with an ice cold beer and good company. It's funny because lonely planet had described this town as a gay jet setters' paradise, and sure enough, they were right. We finally got up early enough to go to the national park before the afternoon heat set in. It's $10 per person to get in and $30 with a guide. As we were walking through it was clear why people splurged on a guide; the wildlife could only be seen through the giant lenses of the guides cameras. We saw a couple sloths, that our naked eye would've never found on our own. One apparently had a baby with it, but my eyes are bad enough when I'm not trying to spot a small animal in a faraway tree. The beaches were gorgeous and great for swimming with gentle waves and no currents. We hiked up to several miradors (lookout points) through the jungle with paved steps. Now I understood where our dollars were going, there was nothing rustic about these trails. We saw a couple beautiful iguanas down on the beach about two feet long! I was just sitting there writing this blog feeling a little disappointed about the lack of wildlife, when this white faced Cupuchin monkey came and perched on this log ten feet away from me. Minutes later a family of monkeys started walking in our direction with a baby in tow. It was so incredible to witness these beautiful creatures, in the wild, just inches away from me. One even drank from a water faucet. Ive never seen so many monkeys, and they weren't camera shy either. They were obviously used to human presence. Seeing them made me miss Cloud, and sad that he'll never have that family dynamic. They all stayed within ten feet of each other, took a moment to groom and relax on a branch. Amazing animals. Made my day, no my month!

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