Manual Antonio

Last weekend I had the luxury of experiencing Costa Rica's second most-visited national park, Manual Antonio. Located on the Pacific shore, Manual Antonio has the benefit of both the gorgeous ocean view and the wildlife-packed forest all wrapped up in a nice little package for us tourists. We walked up a well-worn dirt path, struggled through the hordes of tourists, and passed a monstrous hotel which was built right outside the edge of the park. If I could have removed the swarms of tourists dressed for a safari and the imposing hotel, then our entrance would have been picture perfect.

After we paid for our tickets we made our way to the trail. It was still soaked from a recent storm so a misstep could have resulted in thick mud up to the knees. Luckily, I managed to avoid that pitfall.  The forest was filled with all kinds of animals. There were tiny insects who found their way to my t-shirt, I saw a sloth doing absolutely nothing in the top of a tree (now that's the life by my standards), and there was a never-ending supply of plants and flowers of every shape and color.

At the end of the trail was my favorite part, the beach. This beach was certainly not the beach I imagined. When I think of a Costa Rican beach, I think of clear water, white sand, a sunset, and of course there's no one there but me. This particular beach in the Manual Antonio park was none of those things. Everywhere I looked there was a tourist. There were little pieces of plastic, including a plastic fork, floating in the water, and there was driftwood everywhere. One more unexpected appearance made the trip unforgettable. Monkeys. There were dozens of monkeys all around. I couldn't believe my luck! They were everywhere and they practically posed for pictures. Some of them ran right up to people. I even saw a monkey unzip an unattended backpack on the sand in search of food. One monkey strutted right up to a man eating a sandwich and snatched it out of his hand, and apparently that's not such an uncommon sight. He then scampered up a tree to feast on his treasure. It was a hilarious sight with plenty of photo opportunities. Nature 1, Humans 0.

After practicing my paparazzi skills on the monkeys, I finally made my way to the water. I waded out past the garbage buildup and found that it was quite pleasant. The water is shallow enough to stand for a good distance so I could find a place that wasn't surrounded by strangers. I was still in shock about the monkeys when I looked over at the rocks beside the water and saw a huge iguana sunning himself. Soon there was a girl iguana and the first was no longer so interested in the sun. Then, predictably, the national geographic scene began and I had to look away to give them some privacy. As I moved my gaze and scanned the beach, I saw a pack of raccoons ransacking someone's beach bag. One of them took off with a plastic bag because it had an energy bar inside. The poor guy tried to chase the raccoon, but to no avail. Nature 2, Humans 0.

I have never seen so much wildlife anywhere except a zoo. Even if the animals beat the humans in every battle I witnessed, I had a great experience and was thrilled to have been so close to the action. I left the beach with a huge smile on my face and slight burn on my shoulders. Nautre 2, Humans 1.