We started planning this trip after Jake saw the beautiful photos of Casa Alta on VRBO. Manuel Antonio is located on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica about 2 ½ hours from San Jose, the capital
city. I had traveled here more than 25 years ago with my grandmother for a few days and fondly remembered a beautiful beach with roaming iguanas and monkeys. Bob had been here with my brother Joe about 10 years ago for a few days as well. It’s a lot more developed now and Christmas week is the high season, but it is still gorgeous and there has been no shortage of monkey and iguana sightings.
We arrived the week before Christmas meeting Jake’s brother Roy, nephew Evan (14) and niece Casey (10) at the San Jose airport. We had arranged for a private van to take us out to Manuel Antonio and the driver was there waiting for us with a big Barnes sign after customs. He offered to stop for snacks, lunch or whatever we liked, but I think we mostly just wanted to get to the house! We did though stop to see the crocodiles. Along the main road is a river full of them. The van lets you off on one side and picks you up on the other side. Looking down from the bridge you can see a half dozen large (up to 15’) crocs. There were also 2 pairs of scarlet macaws that flew overhead while we were there. When Sarah and Bob stopped there was a boat with a guide and a couple tourists who were actually at the edge of the river feeding the crocs! Did not seem like such a good idea …
We got to the house just before dark and one of the owners met us to explain the key ring with 5 keys and a remote alarm. Although every house is essentially barricaded by walls, iron gates and fences, it has felt very safe walking around. We do get the impression though that petty crime is a problem. Our house has a large stone-paved patio. Half of it is covered and has a big table and comfortable chairs for dining. The other half has lounge chairs by a small pool. Palms and colorful tropical plants surround the patio and attract birds like the kiskadee, a yellow bellied flycatcher, orange orioles, and black and red birds. The patio is also occasionally staffed by two visiting cats. Casey promptly made friends with them and named the scarred older black cat Shadow, and the young pretty grey striped cat Smoothie. There is also a local dog pack that seems friendly.
Inside there is a long kitchen with a gas stove, no hot water, dishwasher, and a good sized refrigerator. There are four bedrooms, three of which have their own bathrooms all nicely done in stone or tile. Jake and I got the nicest room which comes with a large balcony with a hammock and some chairs. We do invite others up for the sunset views! You can see the ocean on both sides of the house as Manuel Antonio sits on a small peninsula. Back to the indoors, there is also a small, comfortable living room with tv and stereo on the main floor and a decent selection of DVDs. Flor arrives every day except Sunday to sweep and deliver fresh towels. Talk about luxury! There's also a guy who looks after the pool.
The first week we arranged a tour of the national park with Jade tours. Our guide was Mario, or “Super Mario” as he introduced himself. He was extremely knowledgeable about the park and its animals and knew at least the more charismatic plants. He had a great spotting scope and would set it up so we could see small critters like colorful grasshoppers, lizards and frogs. We saw all 3 monkey types our first day in the park, howler, spider and capuchin monkeys. Also both 2 and 3-toed sloths. There are several beaches in the park, but one has rip tides and poisonous trees whose sap can blind you for several days, so people seem to avoid that one. Another beach is only accessible when it is not high tide, but it was pleasantly empty relatively speaking. The main beach isn’t all that large, but it never felt especially crowded. You do have to watch over your things as the capuchin monkeys and raccoons search out every opportunity for a free lunch. The waves are small and the water blue and a wonderful temperature. There is plenty of shade at the edge of the beach. Black sharp lava rocks form the edges of the curved beach and hold some little tide pools with an abundance of tiny shrimp, fish, crabs and a few sea slugs.
We visited the public beach several times as well. One day the waves were pretty rough – good for boogie boarding and surfing. Another day the lifeguards wouldn’t let people in over waist deep because of rip tides at low tide. But other days the waves were smaller and no evidence of dangerous currents.
The nearest larger town is Quepos. It doesn’t look like much, but it has a small central market with a good fish stand and inexpensive fruits and vegetables. There is a big sea wall along the beach that prevents the town from being flooded too often as it is below sea level. We haven’t needed to go into town much as there is a pretty good super market 2 blocks from the house and plenty of good restaurants. You can also walk to the only ATM machine not in Quepos from the house. At the end of our street there is the local community center and soccer field and bus stops.
The week the kids were here we arranged a Canopy Safari tour. The van picked us up at our house at 1pm and we drove out past Quepos turning off suddenly onto a dirt road that led through the oil palm plantations back into the hills. Most of the roads off the main roads are dirt and rough going. The bridges are often made of wood with no railings. One bridge had been washed out in a flood and the van drove through the shallow river. Canopy Safari has a small open lunch spot and an enclosed butterfly garden and serpentarium. We toured these while they got the gear together. The course consists of 8 zip lines strung through the canopy, a tarzan swing from one tree platform to another and 2 repels to get to lower platforms. The guides (another “Super Mario” was our main guide) seemed well-trained and a photographer accompanied us to get our smiles caught on film (you could then buy a DVD of photos). It was great fun and there’s at least a little time to admire that canopy itself before you’re off zipping or plummeting though it. In this case it was just our group and the friend of one of the guides who was on vacation from studying to be a special ed teacher in San Jose. Jake’s favorite part of this trip was the “henna” extracted from the leaves of a teak tree. Tear off a bit of leaf and rub it into a ball and a brilliant red sap comes out. It can be used like henna although it appeared to wash off more quickly. The guide painted a big red arrow on Casey’s arm so she wouldn’t forget which way was down! The Costa Rican woman painted stripes on her face that fit her fun attitude towards zip lining!
The basic dish here is black beans, rice, and chicken, fish or meat (or eggs if it is breakfast time). Often plantains come with the Plato Casado too (married man’s plate). The most common fresh fish are red snapper, sea bass, mahi-mahi and tuna. The nicer restaurants get pretty creative with chipotle sauced tuna or tamarind flavored snapper. There are plenty of cattle in CR, so the meat has been good too. Mangos, pineapples and avocados seem to be in season. We’ve made lots of guacamole and pureed fruit drinks!
We’ve probably eaten most at Café Milagro, which has one branch in Quepos and one in Manuel Antonio. They started out as a coffee café and roast their own coffee. A couple days ago I discovered the Mono Loco, a cold drink they make with expresso, banana and chocolate. Sarah had a great coconut crusted shrimp roll up for lunch another day. For dinner one night we got arepas with pulled pork, ceviche, and several other excellent dishes. For Sarah’s birthday we ate at the elegant Kapi Kapi. I had the pepper-crusted tuna over green papaya salad which was excellent. They brought out a specially decorated dessert plate that said Happy Birthday Sara in blackberry-flavored syrup around a delicious lemon and fruit tart. With Roy and kids we got pizza at Victoria’s one night. A good guitarist was playing in the background to go with our pesto, chicken and pepperoni pizza. In Quepos we lunched at El Gran Escape which had a good sandwich selection. Evan got the towering super large burger while I enjoyed a more modest fish sandwich. We’ve had lunch near the Manuel Antonio beach a few times too, but I wouldn’t say any have been exceptional. A hotel restaurant near the park entrance had good fruit juices and reasonably priced plates of the day.
We take the bus usually to get around or sometimes a taxi. The bus only costs 50 cents but it has been crowded this Christmas week. The park limits visitors to 600/day and to get a ticket you have to get in line at 5:30 am for when the ticket booths open at 7 am according to our guide. Or wait until people start coming out of the park. We were lucky enough to piggy back on to Sarah and Bob’s arranged tour just to get tickets to get in one day this week. I wanted to explore the 2 trails that aren’t as frequented to the Mirador and Playa Escondido. They are nice trails although all the woods is second growth. The beach sands were alive with hermit crabs wearing all manner of shells. It’s hard to find unoccupied shells. We also watched the odd behavior of sand crabs balling up little bits of sand. Not sure what that action is all about.
The week leading up to Christmas the main activity seems to be the random lighting of fire crackers. On Christmas eve, there were frequent bursts until about 2am! That was the night Sarah and Bob got here. Apparently Costa Ricans generally celebrate Christmas with family on Christmas eve with a big family meal and opening presents at midnight. There is relatively little decorating of houses although most restaurants and hotels have some decoration. The stores all stayed open to our surprise.
We head back to the US on Sunday. I’ll miss the breezes and tropical bird soundtrack!
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