Swillett

DO NOT stay at COSTALINDABACKPACKERS in Manuel Antonio! They confirmed reservation through e-mail during one of their highest seasons of the year (Christmas) and then didn’t honor that reservation when we arrived and we were left wander around Manuel Antonio for 3 hours before finally returning to Quepos.

DO stay at Wide Mouth Frog in Quepos. GREAT place with awesome facilities and staff for a great price.

Beaches in Manuel Antonio park are MUCH nicer than the public beach – definitely worth the entrance fee even just for the beaches. Great hiking trails too. We spent about 4 hours in the park. We hiked the many trails and also had time to stop and take a swim in the ocean at one of the many BEAUTIFUL beaches in the park.

We also saw a ton of wildlife! We didn’t hire a guide but were lucky enough to come up on other tour groups who had spotted things so we could see them too.

Both forests are nice.

MONTEVERDE:

We were up at 6:45 in order to catch the 7:30 public bus from Santa Elena to Monteverde Cloud Forest. It was only about a 20 minute ride? Once there, we payed the entrance and were off on the trails. We hiked for 2 hours through multiple trails, but could have done much more had we not been booked for a canopy tour that afternoon. It was beautiful.

SANTAELENA:

Booked canopy tour through our hostel (pension Santa Elena) with the Selvatura company. Their van picked us up and took us to our awaiting canopy adventure. What a GREAT adventure it was. There were 15 ziplines. They strapped us into gear, gave us a briefing on how to hold on and how to break with our hand, then we were off. The last zip was the best, as it was 1km long and was SO high and SO fast. The wind was blowing so quickly in our face, that I could hardly keep my eyes open. SUCH a rush!

The grand finale was a leap of faith that they call the “Tarzan Swing”. You’re strapped into your harness, but you jump off the platform and do a bit of a free fall before swinging out.

We arrived in Santa Elena via the Jeep-Boat-Jeep tour that cost us each $20 and was TOTALLY worth it. It cut out about 3 hours from a public bus from Fortuna to Monteverde and was MUCH nicer scenary. The whole trip was about 3 hours from Fortuna.

We stayed at Pension Santa Elena (HIGHLY recommend them!) This place was VERY helpful before I even arrived – sending me sample itineraries and everything. Private room with shared bathroom for $18 per night. The bed is SO comfy too!