Central America,  Independent travel,  Photography,  Travel Blog,  Walking,  Wildlife,  World food

Quepos: Animal Magic & Other Stories

December 26, 2021 /

By the end of our second day in Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, we have covered every inch of its trails and hiked to every corner, and had many wonderful close encounters with amazing and exotic creatures. For our third day in the Park, we hire a guide to see if we can dig deeper and see things which our untrained eyes may have missed.

But first, that second unguided day is truly magical. It really is very hard to put into words the unbridled joy of seeing exotic wildlife at close quarters, and marvelling not just at this wonderful, environmentally conscious country, but also at the magnificence of nature. In fact, words really can’t do it justice, so we’ll let our photos do the talking:

Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloth
Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloth

Our guide, like the park itself, is named Manuel. As we expected, he has the sharpest eyes and ears, acute senses and real in-depth knowledge of the creatures in his territory, but in addition to this, Manuel’s ability to explain the history and evolution of this place is extraordinary. Which species are truly indigenous; which are introduced and how they came to be here; the position of everything in the food chain; those which are beneficial to the ecology, those which are a threat.

Sleeping Howler Monkey

We learn which plants to eat if we ever get lost in the jungle, not to mention which plants, and animals, might kill us. We learn the diet of many creatures, and how the prey tries to avoid the predator: maybe a frog using camouflage, maybe monkeys which have a special call to warn of the presence of a snake, maybe the Jesus Christ Lizard, so named because it can run across water on its hind legs to make its escape.

  • Jesus Christ Lizard
  • Deadly Viper

Manuel is rightly proud of his country’s record on conservation and awareness, and in particular the education programmes designed to make each generation more savvy than the last, and is acutely aware of the delicate balance which enables tourism to fund conservation. And fund his living. 

  • Hoffman’s Two-Toed Sloth
  • Bats
  • Crabs love coconut
  • Beach Crab

Our three days walking every inch of the trails in the Park have been absolutely stimulating. To be able to complete each of those three days with some time on one of the paradise beaches which are the stuff of dreams, swimming in the cooling Pacific and feeling the powder soft sand between our toes, has been just a perfect ending, each time. 

Christmas Eve brings with it the first day in a while where we’re not committed to an early start: it’s advisable to rise early if you want to catch the best of the wildlife and our Quepos story so far is one of early starts and early finishes, we haven’t exactly burnt the midnight oil! We’d planned a night hike for Christmas night but circumstances work against us and it gets called off, so note to selves to add it to the list for later. 

On our first day here, there was a chirruping in our kitchen which we assumed was a cricket or similar. To our surprise it turned out to be a small gecko, we had no idea that geckos had such a loud call – and apparently it’s usually a male mating call. Why this fella thinks he’ll find a girlfriend by lurking behind our fridge is beyond us. Two days later, there’s two of them. Shows you how much we know about dating.

  • One of our Geckos
  • Our resident Iguana

You know, one of the inescapable truths you regularly meet when travelling is inequality: it’s a regular feature of life across the world, however unpalatable it may be. Kolkata was one of our most extreme, but there have been others, and Quepos has its own ripped backsides too.

Isla Damas
After the storm

Towards the northern end of Quepos seafront, across the swirling creek on a rusting raft of a ferry, lies Isla Damas, tucked away on a lengthy peninsula and home to a shanty town housing the town’s less affluent. Corrugated houses line the back of the beach of hard sand and mangrove silt, some of the ramshackle houses surrounded by sandbags as protection against the rising tides.

Ferry to Isla Damas
Approaching Isla Damas

The strand line is strewn with litter, coconut shells and palm debris, stray dogs lay on the sand or sniff amongst the flotsam, and several times the peace is shattered as young men drive pick-up trucks or motor bikes at breakneck speed along the sand, their own private racetrack. A man sleeps in a makeshift hammock tied between his home and a tree; a child wades barefoot through the deep puddles left by recent storms. As if to complete this desolate scene, a large flock of vultures descend to where a huge fish corpse rolls in the surf. 

Houses in Isla Damas

The community of Isla Damas looks directly from their corrugated shack houses across the bay to Quepos marina, where, just a mile away, private boats are moored and diners spend money in restaurants. Life was and ever will be thus, we guess. Like it or not.

With our time in Quepos drawing to a close, we award ourselves some beach time at Manuel Antonio after our exciting hikes and before we head to our next destination which will no doubt be equally demanding. The Pacific swirls in rip currents, the sun beats down and palm trees line each paradise beach, whilst strung along the seafront road are cool shaded restaurants serving exquisite fresh fish and amazing seafood. 

  • Marlin Restaurant Manuel Antonio
  • Grilled Fish
  • Fried Fish
  • Fish Tacos
  • Fish Ceviche

Some guide books are not too complimentary about this village: we actually can’t fathom why that is. Yes it’s popular, yes there are plenty of American tourists, but we think it’s a great little beach town. When I take a comfort break at the end of a delicious fish lunch, I am followed into the Gents by one of the bogus officials in bogus uniform, who brazenly tries to sell me drugs without batting an eyelid. Of course, we know this is commonplace in parts of Costa Rica, but I have never previously thought of myself as looking remotely like a potential customer for dealers!

We leave Quepos on Day 14 of this trip. It’s been absolutely stunning, yet even more spectacular places are ahead. Next stop Monteverde.

And so ends Christmas Day

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