Beach hopping – Manuel Antonio

​In my last post I mentioned that I thought we may enjoy it here, well after sleeping like babies and waking up at 5am so I could do some early morning yoga and get in some work hours, I can say I LOVE IT HERE! We have a deck overlooking the jungle with weights, a TRX and yoga mats so getting in some early morning exercise really made my day.

From there we made the call not to hit the National park today as it’s the weekend and overcrowded but instead do a 6km loop of the nearby beaches, Biesanz and Espadilla. Our host Fernando wass luckily leaving just as we were so offered us a lift to the beach which would cut out al least 2km walking in the heat, so we jumped aboard that offer. He mentioned a fantastic hotel by the beach called ‘Shana’ which is WAY to expensive for backpackers like us, but he said if we bought a drink then we can use their facilities as well as their private track to the beach. 

Well we walked in, pretended we were staying there and before you know it we were sat in the back of a golf cart being driven to the start of the walking trail. HAHA, we couldn’t believe it, but just went with it, because WHY NOT? Arriving at the beach we were taken aback with how small the area of beach itself was and the amount of deck chairs already lined up ready for rent. However, we found a great shady spot, dropped our stuff, made a picnic and had fun splashing around and getting hit by the crashing waves. Overall, we would give this beach a 7/10.
​
Next, we headed back up to our ‘hotel’ and kept walking to where you can turn to start the trek to the next beach. I should mention as I have never read this in any blogs, but Manuel Antonio is SO STEEP and full of hills. The town itself is situated about 2km up from the beach so be prepared to walk a lot unless you want to pay for transport.

​We arrived about 40minutes later, a little more sweaty and gross than I would have liked, but it was worth the walk. Espadilla beach is the largest public beach here and it was pretty busy but being large we still managed a peaceful walk along the beach and found a spot to have a quick half hour tanning sesh before heading home for lunch (and before the afternoon rain hit…the joys of traveling in rainy season). Loved this beach but it was packed and had quite a lot of vendors which I hate so I would give this beach a 6/10 overall, but 8/10 for being simply stunning!

​We had planned a serene sunset walk tonight to grab a beer and reminisce about our wonderful day, but the rain hit around 4pm and MY GOD did it hit. It didn’t stop until 7pm and by that time it was dark, so we made use of Netflix and my wonderful cheap as chips cooking and had a night in.