Manuel Antonio National Park

One of the last adventures we went on with the in-laws while the kids were still out on the Costa Rican version of summer holidays (Nov 28 to Feb 7th) was to Manuel Antonio National Park. After Arenal Volcano, this is probably Costa Rica’s next biggest tourist attraction, and for good reason. It’s both a land and marine protected area harbouring a large variety of plant and animal life.

Out of all the places we’ve been to in Costa Rica (including Arenal), this one struck us as the most “touristy”. Still, it’s a far cry from Cancun, say. And really beautiful.

However, touristy places usually have some interesting restaurants, and this was no exception. Two of the most interesting ones we’ve been to were here. El Avion is a must see for anybody going to Manuel Antonio. Click the link above to get the whole story, but basically they took an old cargo plane used in the Iran-Contra / Sandinista scandals of the 80’s and made it into a restaurant. Really cool, and the food was excellent.

The next night we went to “Ronny’s Place” which is situated on a hill top where you can see the sun set on the Pacific Ocean. We got there too late to see the sun go down, but did see a great lightning show way off shore that gave us just a hint of how cool the sunsets must be. Also, the food was excellent as well. I had a Mahi-Mahi dish that was my best meal in Costa Rica so far.

Here are some pics. (Click to enlarge):

The intrepid hiking party.

A Capuchin seen along the way.

Crappy quality picture, but that blob is a sloth… Honest!

La Playa I

La Playa II

La Playa III

The bar at El Avion.

The cargo door of the plane opens out into the main part of the restaurant.

They had another small plane standing up on it’s tail that they had converted into a working dumbwaiter. How cool is that?

One of the last nights for the grandparents & grandkids to spend together. Both enjoyed it.

The girls.

One of the hazards / joys of mixing enormous bio-diversity and open-air restaurants.