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Manuel Antonio National Park (Quepos) – Manuel
Antonio National Park (Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio), one of Costa Rica's
most popular parks, is quite easy to get to from San Jose. Right on the
ocean, Manual Antonio is a dry-ish rain forest with mangroves and swimming
beaches. |
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The trails through the park are easy, mostly level
walking trails, and you can explore on your own. From the entrance, a good
route to take is to walk along Playa Espadilla, swim at Playa Manuel Antonio
(Manuel Antonio Beach), and walk back along Sendero El Perezoso. |
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At the entrance to the park, it's a good idea to hire a naturalist
guide to help you see all the marvelous wildlife in the park. The guides
have spotting scopes, and most importantly, know where to find all those
beautifully camouflaged animals (we stood with an iguana practically right
under our feet, and didn't see it until our guide pointed it out). |
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We saw common tent bats, tiny little proboscis bats, howler
monkeys making lots of noise, a mother and baby three-toed sloth and a two-toed
sloth snoozing in the trees, black iguanas (which are really black and ochre
colored, and hard to spot on the rain forest floor), a basilisk iguana with
a big fin down the back, toucans, iridescent hummingbirds, and squirrel
monkeys. We spent some time just watching a (non-poisonous) golden silk
spider hypnotically spinning a shimmering golden web. |
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Bring swim suits to swim at Manuel Antonio Beach –
the beach is a sheltered cove with wide sandy beach, turquoise waters, plus
picnic tables, bathrooms and showers to rinse off after your swim. |
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Because it's so popular, Manuel Antonio can get crowded. The
high season is December/January to April. Late May or June is a good time
to come, as it isn't all that crowded, and it's just the beginning of the
rainy season (October is the rainiest month).
Tip: Manuel Antonio National Park is closed on Monday. |
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Drake Bay (Bahia Drake) – Drake Bay is named after that intrepid
explorer, Sir Francis Drake, who stopped here in 1579. And it's still
somewhat remote, 45 min. by plane or seven hours by road from San Jose,
but Bahia Drake is well worth the trip. It's one of those places where
the wonders of the natural world are so extraordinary and the rain forest
environment is endlessly fascinating. You might have seen poison dart
frogs or scarlet macaws in the zoo, but it's completely different so see
these animals in their rain forest home. |
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The beach at Drake Bay is a huge crescent, a black sand beach,
perfect for combing for shells and driftwood at low tide (at high tide,
the beach more or less disappears). Surrounding the beach is lush, dense
tropical vegetation and flowering plants (it gets plenty of rain here).
In the trees along the beach, look for colorful scarlet macaws in the wild
almond trees. |
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 Rain
forest hikes – There are paths along the beach that go from the
little town of Agujitas, toward La Paloma, through the forest, across a
small suspension bridge, to the beach of San Josecito, where there's good
snorkeling. |
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To really see the rich and wonderful wildlife, hire an experienced naturalist guide. We took a two hour hike, perfect for kids, to look
for poison dart frogs. You'd think these bright red and green frogs would
be easy to spot, but you need to know where they live. Our guide led us
way into the rain forest and started turning over leaves and branches – out jumped the tiny poison dart frogs. On our hike, we also saw scarlet
macaws, two toucans high in the trees calling to each other, blue morpho
butterflies, monkeys, a crocodile in a shallow river, and if you're lucky,
you might spot an ocelot also. Corcovado
Expeditions has excellent guides and kid-oriented hike itineraries. |
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Tip: These are wet, wet rainforests, and you often
wade in the streams on your hike, so wear good sturdy sandals like Tevas,
not flip flops. Also, bring binoculars to spot the birds in the trees high
up. |
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Dolphin
and whale watching – Go out for half-day a cruise around the bay
where you can look for whales and dolphins year round – humpback
whales, orcas, bottlenose dolphins. |
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Corcovado
National Park (Parque Nacional Corcovado) – From Drake Bay,
take an unforgettable day trip to Corcovado National Park, fabulous rain
forest, with lots of opportunities to see unique wildlife. It's only a 20
min. boat ride to the park, then hike the trails with a naturalist guide,
including a trail to a waterfall, and a cooling dip. (This is a trip you'll
definitely want to do with a guide, so contact your hotel or Corcovado Expeditions). |
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Terraba
Mangrove Forest – Some places are only accessible by boat,
and this is the way to explore the maze of channels, lined with mangrove
trees, and home to all sorts of birds, caimans, crocodiles, river turtles,
boas and basilisk iguanas (they walk on the water). A day trip through the
mangrove forests of the Rio Sierpe feels like your own "Lost World"
adventure. |
