Costa Rica, Post 4 - Manual Antonio

Lastly, we headed to Manual Antonio. What a beautiful town. We stayed all 4 nights at The Falls Resort. It's a small boutique hotel (24 rooms), with the most amazing service I've ever had in my life. From day 1 they knew our names and who we were and were so helpful with everything, explaining tours, booking tours, etc. It was a beautiful hotel, great breakfast, and the bartender was cool too. He made some great cocktails. While in manual antonio we went open sea kayaking, snorkeling, white water rafting (awesome!), took a guided hike through manual antonio park, and took a vanilla/spice tour. I loved the white water rafting the best. And, I didn't fall out of the boat! We did the 1/2 day class 3/4 on the Naranjo River with Iguana Tours. The manual antonio park guided hike was good because the guide pointed out all these wonderful animals that I would have never seen without them. Sloths, monkeys, owls, snakes, bats, toucans, lizards, turtles, etc... If you're there definitely get the guided hike (we used Los Tucanes). The vanilla/spice tour was pretty neat but I think it was a little expensive for what you got. I don't know that I would recommend it unless you're really into spices and plants, etc. Though it was kinda cool. The beaches there were very pretty, especially in the park. It was really beautiful to see the teal waters come hit the beautiful white beach and the brown rocks, then hit the green rain forest. It was amazing. Mostly everywhere you could walk to, but walking was only recommended during the day. The road was winding and people drove very fast. Plus there were basically no sidewalks. Usually we walked down the big hill and took a cab up. In the town of Manual Antonio there are a bunch of local street merchants selling their goods. I got a few cool skirt wraps. We also ate a bunch of great food. The BBQ Cantina had great ribs and beef tenderloin and Costa Verde had the best Mahi Mahi sandwich ever! Auga Azul and Barba Roja had great views of the sunset. Bambo Jam had great live music and we went dancing there one night. But it got really crowded so we left around 10:30pm (which was really late for us!). The fancy restaurant, Kapi Kapi, was okay, but I think a little too expensive for what you got.

Overall we had the most incredible vacation. It was fun and relaxing and interesting. I was sad to leave, but I am definitely looking forward to going back.