After being in the mountains for five days we were looking forward to seeing the coastal areas of Costa Rica. We travelled to Manuel Antonio which is located on the Pacific side. We ended up staying for six days because it was so relaxing with such friendly local people and a great hostel! The main photos we took on the camera were at the national park as the other times we were at the beach and didn’t want to leave our camera while we swam.

Biesanz Beach

Espadilla South

We got other pictures at the beaches on our phones. The amount of wildlife is astounding. On the walk to the beaches we saw monkeys, sloths and toucans just relaxing in trees and on one beach there were always so many crabs eating.

Manuel Antonio is a tiny town so we walked everywhere over the six days meaning we deserved an ice cream, everyday. The temperature was around 30 degrees most days. Quepos is the nearest bigger town and we made the trip down on Friday afternoon to visit the local farmers market. With our fresh produce we cooked our meals for five nights and on the sixth night had two for one burgers at a waterfront restaurant.

View at the restaurant (wish we took the camera, there was a family of rainbow macaws flying around, there is a very blurry photo of one here – phone cameras suck).

I loved seeing hibiscus growing everywhere.

The highlight of our time was visiting the national park. It is a beautiful protected rainforest with multiple beaches. We were the first of the morning to walk a track which had only just been reopened so managed to see many animals such as iguanas, raccoons, agoutis, howler monkeys, capuchins and lizards.

After exploring the rainforest we had a swim at one of the beaches which was also the home to some iguanas. They weren’t too happy we were there and tried to steal my bikini!!

Spot the animals

Our only photo from San Jose, home just before dark! 🚷

Have loved rocking the khaki pants and beige shirt park ranger style for a week but it’s now time to mix up the outfit because we are in the Caribbean!

We are in Belize for 9 days and thank goodness English is the first language here. It’s the official lobster festival while we are here so looking forward to some fresh lobster and Caribbean rum! 🏝