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The Manuel Antonio National Park hike will take you into the most visited Costa Rican attraction.
This place merges natural beauty, frequent wildlife sightings, breathtaking white-sanded beaches, and vibrant rainforest. It was established in 1972 and is the smallest national park in Costa Rica, with only 683 hectares (1687 acres).
For decades this small patch of forest was surrounded by rice, banana, and oil palm fields, and animals started using it as a refuge to survive. Nowadays, it works as part of a significant biological corridor in the Costa Rican Central Pacific. However, it keeps the wildlife concentration, and therefore animals’ sightings are almost guaranteed.
You will start the tour as you enter the park, and your guide will begin explaining the natural and cultural history of the area as well as pointing out whatever wildlife comes to the walking path.
You may see howler, capuchin, and the rare squirrel monkeys. As well as two and three-toed sloths, green and black iguanas, boa constrictors, spectacled caimans, white-tailed deer and hundreds of bird species.
Your tour guide will be a highly specialized naturalist carrying top-notch optical gear to assure the participants of the hike a greater enjoyment while watching nature.
You will understand and appreciate the ecosystem’s relations and the life network before your eyes as the rainforest is full of secrets in biochemical communication and symbiotic trading. And your tour guide will uncover them for you.
You will also learn about the Quepoa, the original indigenous tribes in the area, and of course, about the pirates that visited in the colonial days, this region.
After walking for around two hours in the forest and as you finish you may enjoy some fresh fruit and refreshments.
After this first part of the tour, you may go for a second trail into the forest to see another area of the national park or choose to delight in the warm turquoise waves bathing the beach.
