Hi there,
From Santa Teresa we went to Quepos to visit the Manuel Antonio National Park from there. We decided to base ourselves in this place because we had read that it was cheaper and had a good public transport connection.
We had reserved an apartment that looked good in the photos and after being in the crappy hostel in Santa Teresa, we were very excited. How wrong we were!
An Argentine that we met told us that Manuel Antonio “was crap” and that we should not waste time in that destination. Since he had a different style of travel because he was only looking for beaches to surf, we ignored him.
We arrived in Quepos and the Vistas del Pacífico accommodation was far from the center, and we had to climb a kilometer up a mountain to the building. On the way, the husband of the hostess met us and did us the favor of taking us.
Rocío, the owner of the property, the only thing she recommended to us in Quepos was places to “have drinks”. The apartment was all dirty and it was obvious that they hadn’t even bothered to sweep before letting us in. The WI-FI never worked, and the kitchen was unusable as it was practically empty.
Quepos in general is an ugly place. To go to the closest beach, you must walk an hour and cross a river; having to pay 300 colones to a boat to pass you from one side to the other and travel around 10 meters. No one in this town has thought of building a bridge yet. Once again, in Costa Rica, instead of solving problems, everyone sets up their own mafia to make money by taking advantage of the problems of the place.
The first day we decided to visit Quepos and wasted time because there is nothing to see. The only good thing is that in a park we saw a sloth with her baby a meter away, the closest we saw them on the whole trip.
We visited the marina, a beach that was all made of stone, and we hiked to a mini waterfall. Then we cross the river to go to the other beach. On the boat they told us that it was very dangerous and that we should put our backpacks forward. It was the first time in the country that we felt unsafe. We put our valuables in our clothes and as soon as we stepped onto the beach, it started to rain hard, so we went back to the apartment.
The next day we went to Manuel Antonio National Park. We took a bus for $1 and when we arrived, it reminded us of Chichen Itza because it was full of vendors, and everyone was harassing you to buy. The entrance to the national park costs $16 per person and it rained during the entire visit.
All roads were paved. Imagine the number of trees they had to cut down and the nature they had to destroy to fill it all with concrete paths. This was more of an amusement park than a nature reserve. We went through all the circuits that mostly led to viewpoints where different animals could supposedly be observed.
From 11AM it is filled with tourists even in low season.
The park has two small beaches compared to the rest of the beaches we have seen in Costa Rica. In a part between the two beaches, we saw a boa constrictor eating a raccoon.
Being on the beach, we heard a scandal and we approached. In a tree were the capuchin monkeys making a show because they took things from the tourists who were there. Thus, more than 100 monkeys arrived and began to run and fight everywhere.
Capuchin monkeys are one of the few animals that do not fear humans, quite the opposite. Also, here it was obvious that they were used to tourists giving them food, so they behaved like this.
We spent a while on the beach between rain and a few rays of sunshine and at 15h we started our way back. Further on there were more monkeys taking things from the tourists and two of them chased me for a while to take the bag I was carrying.
Before leaving we went up to see the waterfall in the middle of torrential rain and like almost everything in the park, it was closed and not suitable for bathing.
In Quepos there is nothing to see, and Manuel Antonio National Park is exactly what we avoid on all our trips: too many tourists, Disneyland style and little respect for nature. In my opinion, it’s not worth it. The only good thing was seeing the sloths and the boa constrictor close, this helped us not to leave so disappointed.
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