A Day At Manuel Antonio National Park

Today, we took a 15 minute bus ride from the hotel to the Manuel Antonio National Park.    It was amazing to me that the fee to this National Park was only $10.00!!  And then to top it off there is a beach in the middle of this National Park!  I don't know about you, but I have never heard of a beach being in the middle of a National Park.

Map of Manuel Antonio National Park

I enjoyed listening to our personal tour guide as he shared the history behind Manuel Antonio National Park. 

Along the way we saw lots of monkeys, birds, and raccoons.

I've spotted something I am going to grab!!

Once the tour was finished, we had the opportunity to stay and enjoy the beach.  A bit of advice from the tour guide.  Make sure to watch all of your personal belongings.  Warning, if you do not watch your things, the raccoons and monkeys will steal them.  Chances are once the items are taken you will never see them again.  From what I heard from some of the locals, the animals steal your things, run up in the trees and throw them.  So pretty much watch your back at all times.  

Manuel Antonio National Park Beach

Funny story, I was sitting and relaxing with Carol the Alaskan and Donna the Canadian.  Carol had a plastic bag with her things in it, and Donna and myself had backpacks.  We were sitting under a poisonous tree to get shade and all of a sudden I turned around and a raccoon was going into her plastic bag and trying to take her things.  I yelled at Carol and she chased it off for a second but then the raccoon attempted to open my backpack.  Luckily Donna had found a walking stick earlier in the day for protection to chase off the thieves.  So Donna got up and started chasing off the raccoon.  We couldn't stop laughing.  It was a memorable experience I have to say.

After awhile we ran into the Bostonians Sue and Erin, I left with them and went to the public beach.  We stayed for a while, I walked around and looked at the shops.  The area reminded me alot of the main town of Puerto Viejo.  Once we headed back on the public bus to the hotel we all went swimming.  The rest is history.

After everyone went swimming and happy hour at the hotel bar, we all went out to dinner.  The tour guide picked a restaurant that was inside a cargo airplane.  The name of the restaurant is called El Avion.  After dinner people went for after drinks at a bar across the street.