Bali Tree House
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, July 23-26, 2018
The Bali Tree House is a 3-bedroom home located in rolling jungles of Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. Wonderful open living room upstairs with a wraparound deck. We saw white-faced monkeys, howler monkeys, spider monkeys on most afternoons - up to 20 on one occasion. Lots of steps up to main dirt road and down to the car parking area. In the first 5 minutes of our arrival, we saw a white-faced monkey on a two-toed sloth right from our deck. Hazel was the VRBO contact. Pool was good - a little cold - and the hot tub worked for the most part. Great location - walked to most restaurants and a beautiful view of the jungle. Houses being built around us and a construction truck flipped at the top of the driveway when we wanted to leave. Took about 3 hours to clean it up.
Naucaya Waterfall
Dominical, Costa Rica, July 24, 2018
Took a 2-hour 4x4 tour to the Naucaya Waterfall, a two-level waterfall about an hour from Manuel Antonio. Definitely the best waterfall we visited. The upper waterfall is primarily for viewing and climbing on the huge rocks and the lower is for swimming.
Marino Ballena National Park
Dominical, Costa Rica, July 24, 2018
About 10 minutes south of Dominical, a very secluded beach. We saw about 20-30 scarlett macaws feeding in the trees right above us on the ocean.
Naranjo River Rafting
Naranjo River, Costa Rica, July 25, 2018
We were picked up and driven about 1.5 hours to the Naranjo River, where we went on a 2-hour raft ride with the Rios Tropicals River Raft group. Our guide was Drumond, a fun loving, experienced guide who knew every rock of the river, which was running about a Class II-III. I fell out of the boat in the first 3 minutes - whicih was actually quite refreshing. Fortunately, every member of the other boat fell out later in the trip so I didn't have to buy beer for anyone!
Manuel Antonio Park
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, July 25, 2018
Went to Manuel Antonio Park, one of the smallest parks in Costa Rica but the most visited due to its varied fauna with 109 species of mammals and 184 of birds. We walked the trials in a slight rain and didn't see many animals, but the beaches were amazing and we did some great body surfing. Spent a couple hours before it closed at 4pm.
Restaurants
Taco Bar in Jaco: excellent food, swings for seats, first place we ate, good smoothies
FuegoBrew in Dominical: great place after Naucaya waterfall; good beers, nice outside, great tacos
Barba Roja in Manuel Antonio: nice outside area and view, went there in the dark; food okay; everyone tired
Aqua Azul in Manuel Antonio: good food and packed. Really the only place in Costa Rica where there was a wait
El Avion in Manuel Antonio: more touristy then good food, got appetizers and drinks
Victoria's in Manuel Antonio: Haleigh and I got pizzas, which were pretty good
Emilio's Cafe in Manuel Antonio: great breakfast place, we went here while waiting for the dump truck accident to be cleaned up. It also featured some of Shepard Fairey's work.
