Day trip to Manuel Antonio National Park

We haven't been in touch for a while now - it's been really busy the past few days! ;) 

From the cloud forests in Monteverde, the tour continued south to Manuel Antonio National Park. 

The park is located on Costa Rica's central Pacific coast and offers lush rainforests, white sandy beaches, and coral reefs. The national park is particularly known for its great biodiversity. It is home to numerous tropical plants, hundreds of bird species, capuchin monkeys, and three-toed sloths. 

We spent a total of 2 full days in the area, had our first experience staying at an open-air jungle hostel, which was a little challenging for me. 

On the first day, Stefan and I took a 'walk' to Playa La Macha. It was recommended to us by the hostel owner. He said it could be reached by a leisurely 45-minute walk and would be beautiful because it was secluded and untouched. 
Our conclusion: It was certainly secluded and beautiful. However, the walk was more of a climbing adventure, and it took us a total of 3 hours instead of 45 minutes. Of course, we didn't have any water or sunscreen with us. That was a bit suboptimal. We still aren't sure whether we took the right path - it led us through a private property?! :D 

But the effort was definitely worth it - the beach was breathtakingly beautiful! 

The next day, we visited the national park itself. It is the most visited and smallest national park in Costa Rica, making it much easier to navigate compared to the way to Playa La Macha. Due to the current situation, the park was very quiet, and we were able to observe some animals - we saw 3 sloths (2 large ones and a tiny baby sloth). Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to take a decent photo - in retrospect, I realized that the head of the sloth was hiding behind a branch in the picture. In addition to animals, we spent a lot of time on the beaches in the national park, which are said to be among the most beautiful in the country. We can confirm that they were truly beautiful!