After being inspired both by the beautiful wedding ceremony and the stunning scenery around Manuel Antonio we decided to spend our ‘honeymoon day‘ at Manuel Antonio national park.
We were assured at the gate we would see 2 and 3 toed sloths, monkeys, iguanas, birds and butterflies among a huge list of other things. We paid our $20 ( quite steep I thought) and stepped through the gate into Jurassic park…with a gravel road down the middle. We wandered looking at our simple map and decided to just take the walk to the beach first and then maybe do a few of the small hikes of the main track afterwards. As we packed away our map we looked up to see swarms of tourists all noisily milling about wearing safari gear, camouflage clothes and swinging blister packs of water from their belts, they had sure come well prepared for a 3 km walk on a path through the jungle!
We spotted binoculars and cameras and then we spotted the tour guides…complete with telescopes! These things could probably make the moon look like it was in your lap! The tour groups were of 20 plus people fresh off the bus all looking to see themselves some animals! We looked at each other and thought…fat chance. We tried to make our way through the crowds of people peering through telescopes at ‘dancing flies’ and oohing and aahing all over the place and find our way onto a quieter path.

We followed the 12 foot wide, straight gravel road through the jungle until we saw a small path snaking into the trees. We snuck down it in our all terrain flip flops and shorts and wound our way through the thick bush. The path had been closed for some time as the
bushes and vines were finding their way back into the path and a tree had fallen over a section. We didnt go too far as we couldn’t see a thing, no animal in its right mind would come out…unless it was animals day out to the tourist zoo! We disappointedly rejoined the tourist highway and as a reward we came to a glorious beach. We walked to the opposite end of the beach to where everyone else was slumped with exhaustion from their day off a bus seat moaning about how they were going to have to walk the 20 minute, down hill 3k back.
We went for a swim in the clear cool water and laid on the sand and dried under the sun. After the terrible excuse for a park we really enjoyed the beach. Walking back we saw capuchin monkeys around the beach stealing the prepared lunches that had been carried down from the tour buses. They cheekily searched in peoples bags as they sat and laughed at the hilarious monkeys.
We left feeling sad instead of enlightened, we love National parks and think that the work they do is so very important. They protect the natural habitat of fantastic and beautiful creatures and offer to let us in for the day to take a look around their kingdom. This place sadly had thrown a near tarmac road down the middle, added essential amenities (flush toilets, showers, drinking water fountains etc) and rented out a telescope to pry into the lives of the shy sloths, the quiet iguanas and have given the capuchins prime access to a limitless supply of sugary snacks.
I am guilty of being a tourist, I am guilty of visiting zoo’s where I feel they are responsible and treating their animals well and I am guilty of being sooooo desperate to see a sloth in the wild! I know there are few ways to see these amazing animals in their natural habitat but really, this national park in Costa Rica for me was not one of them. I’m not getting all high and mighty or holier than thou I was just so amused to see the tables turned. It was like it was our turn to be stared at from a distance, like there were a hundred eyes
watching us and waiting for us to do something funny like eat our lunch and as we left and the guard at the gate asked what we had seen Alex’s response was “a whole lot of 5 toed sloths with telescopes”.

Find out what happens next on our travelling wedding adventure!