Quepos and Manual Antonio

We left La Paz and headed down to Quepos a small town just outside of Manual Antonia National Park. We decided to stay at a hostel that was highly recommended in our guide books and quite cheap. This one was called the wide mouth frog, really great location (right in the heart of the town) and was lovely...had a great pool (kids must have) and a bright and airy common room/kitchen area. We felt right at home and quickly settled in.

Wide Mouth Frog Hostel

The next day we left early and headed to the park...It is Costa Rica's smallest park however it is the most visited, this is because of the beautiful beaches and abundance of wild life. We have been spoiled so far with the amount of animals we have seen and had very high expectations. Before we entered the park we started to see evidence of what was to come....and once we paid our fee ($15/pp) and entered the park we were not disappointed. 

just outside the entrance to Manual Antonio

Wildlife was everywhere, from the sloths to the iguanas, there was no shortage. Once we got to the beach, the monkeys, racoons and Coatis (a mix between a raccoon, badger and anteater) were everywhere, they have obviously been fed my the tourists so they were so pesky trying to grab your bags from from under yur nose, got to a point that the kids had to chase them away....

Check  out the monkey and raccoon  

Other then Manual Antonio, we really didn't do much in Quepos...We loved our little place so much one day we stayed and just hung out all day. Part of me always feels guilty when we do this, I think to myself- "there is so much to see here we shouldn't just be sitting around". But I have to remember the kids can't constantly be on the go...and hanging out at a pool all day watching some Netflix and lounging around is all they want to do. We did manage to do a quick little zip lining ride (nothing compared to what we did in Monteverde- wait until that post!), and went to a cool airplane restaurant in Manual Antonio (literally an old airplane from the gun running,/drug dealing CIA /Nicaragua days- we just saw Made in America starring Tom Cruise so this was particularly cool)... 3 days later we were off to La Fortuna for some serious adventure.

The Airplane restaurant

La Paz Waterfall and Garden

As sad as we were to leave , we were all excited to start new adventure. We were heading down to Manual Antonio, (on the Pacific side in the south of Costa Rica). Manual Antonio is Costa Rica's smallest National Park, however one of the most visited because of the wildlife and beauty of the park. After talking to our travelling friends we decided to make a pit stop in La Paz, an area in the middle of Costa Rica up in the mountains. La Paz Gardens is a privately owned ecological park, that has 5 waterfalls as well as many animal houses (kind of like a zoo meets animal rescue place??). We picked our car up for the next few weeks in Puerto Viejo (very cheap only $400) and away we went.

We didn't have our accommodations yet as it is off season we figured we would just find a place when we got there. Just as it started to get dark we were about 30 minutes away from La Paz, I saw on my Trip Adviser a very highly rated pace in San Miguel...we took a chance and drove up. What an amazing find! A small family run business, the son spoke perfect English and said he would give us our little cabin for $75 for 2 nights (what a steal!).

Hotel Los Gallitos a special little gem

our sweet little cabin for two days just outside of La Paz

We drove to La Paz the next morning bright and early, as we knew we would probably want to spend the day, this place was quite expensive to get in (a little high for our normalyl frugal budget about $40/ adult $20 for kids)... but man was it ever beautiful. The hike around the grounds was very well planned, wide walkways and staircases to make it easy even for the young ones get around. They had a butterfly garden (the most butterflies in one place I have ever seen!) a monkey area, the cats center (all the big jaguars etc were here) A snake house, frog area, the aviatory  and a hummingbird garden (that had so many hummingbirds buzzing past your head, it was incredible! The grounds were so beautiful with infinity pools and waterfalls around every corner totally worth the visit despite the expensive price tag.

1 of 5 waterfalls at La Paz Gardens

The girls help out fruit and the butterflies kept land on them

three monkeys watching 3 monkeys

sleeping poison green dart

this was the biggest hummingbird I have ever seen