Saturday, January 24th, 2015
Hike: Manuel Antonio National Park – Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
Weather: HUMID, warm, upper 80s-lower 90s
Hikers: Ian, Court, and most of the wedding party
Length: about 7.5 miles total
Our first international hike! Courtney and I got married in Costa Rica and the morning of the wedding we went with most of the wedding party down the beach to Manuel Antonio National Park for a self-guided hike of the trails. The hike was fantastic and filled with plenty of unique plants and animals, most of which aren’t usually found in the US. Capuchin monkeys, Agoutis, Raccoons (which actually go by another name I can’t remember), Iguanas, and multiple bird species surrounded us. It was pretty amazing.
walking toward the park
Court looking at one of the hotels off the beach
park entrance, $16 each
first trail head
We took the main trail from the park entrance and then on to the Cathedral Point trail which looped up a peninsula that used to be an island, but has now been reconnected to the mainland by about a 20 yard wide stretch of land. On this strip are a family of raccoons that love to steal food from unwary beach goers. I heard stories of them being in cahoots with the Capuchins as well. After a couple of days in Costa Rica, I remembered what I learned in Sri Lanka: monkeys are cute at first, but their shenanigans get old really fast.
dense forest
as close as I could get without having a heart attack
Iguana
Capuchins hanging out
views through the plants
beach trail on the narrow strip connected to Cathedral Point
trail junction
Mom leading the others up the steep path to Cathedral Point
Cathedral Point was the highest of the hike, but there were several other viewpoints on the way down as well. It was very warm and you could cut the air in the forest with a knife, but everyone did really well.
big tree
Court enjoying the view
one of my favorite pics
I got really close to this one
big palm leaves
snake right over the trail. he was thin, but long. very pretty.
As I said, the raccoons were fearless.
We all made our way back at our own pace. I stayed a bit behind with Greg because he hadn’t put his shoes back on from the beach stop we made and we saw another of the green snakes in a creek. It was holding itself up out of the water and very still, waiting on food to swim down to him I assume.
What an amazing hike. I don’t know if we’ll ever make it back, but I’m glad we had the experience, especially with the great family and friends who made it down. We are very lucky.
Greg, Ike, and I stopped for a cold brew after the hike. Well deserved.
The trail map below is the best I could find. Our route was a combination of the trails on the southwest corner (roughly down the yellow trail, out to the loop on Cathedral Point, then down the purple trail on the beach, then backtracking back to the yellow trail and out).
