Costa Rica Pura Vida: Manuel Antonio and San Jose

After three days in Arenal, we spent the second half of our Costa Rica week in Manuel Antonio!

The little hotel we stayed out was right next to the Manuel Antonio National Park gates, and we spent a day on a guided tour there. Our guide was great and helped point out all the animals in the trees as well as let us see them up close on his monoscope that he lugged around with us. Though it was kind of funny that I spotted the first animal on the hike, a basilisk lizard that was crawling all over a tree eating a breakfast of termites.

I’ve always been fascinated by animals and plants. I just think it’s really cool to observe them in nature and learn how the living world all interacts within ecosystems. In an alternate reality, I would trekking through jungles as an animal researcher.

For me, this hike was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We were lucky enough to see three sloths (both two-toed and three-toed species), including a mother holding a baby, and one super up close. We also saw squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, white-faced capuchins, blue morpho butterflies, agoutis, birds, iguanas, bats, spiders, snakes, and a ton of small bright red-clawed crabs.

At the end of the hike, we relaxed on the beach Playa Espadilla Sur, which was where scenes from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. The beach was absolutely stunning and it was great to cool off in the waves, though we had to chase off a few gangs of raccoons and monkeys that tried to steal food from our bags.

To finish off that day, we grabbed some beers at El Avion, a pub built out of an old US cargo plane that was abandoned there during the 1980s Iran-Contra Affair. It’s not every day, you get to have a drink in a cockpit.

Cafe Milagro was another nice cafe/bar with some great local beers and live music to wind down the night to.

Another morning, we took a boat tour of the mangroves, which was really cool as well. We weaved our way through the mangrove canals and saw more wildlife on our way to an opening to the ocean.

There was a group of bats perched camouflaging under a large tree trunk, and a sleeping boa constrictor curled up in other branches. Some monkeys even crawled through some mangroves right up to our boat. We ended the boat trip with a nice local lunch and tamarind lemonade, which was delicious and refreshing for a hot day.

On that note, I really enjoyed the food in Costa Rica! Though a lot of it was corn-based and there was always rice and beans for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner,  we had a lot of good fish by the beaches and quite a few casadas too. A casada is the typical Costa Rican dish that includes salad, rice and beans, a protein (grilled steak, chicken, pork, or fish), and plantains. We ate it at a bunch of sodas (small restaurants) and every place did it a little differently.

After a fun few days in Manuel Antonio, we finished off our trip with a day in San Jose. Though a lot of places were closed because it was a Sunday, we still got a chance explore a couple of cool, hip neighborhoods in the up and coming city.

Barrio Amon had some really colorful graffiti art and Barrio Escalante was lined with trendy bars and restaurants. Because it was set in a pretty suburb-y area, it reminded me a lot of Rainey Street in Austin, Texas.

All in all, Costa Rica was a blast. It was a great mix of everything: hiking, animals, hot springs, adventure sports, and beaches. Will definitely be back again! Pura Vida!