Manuel Antonio is one of the easiest places in Costa Rica to actually see animals rather than just hope for them. Rainforest runs down to the sea here, so forest, coast and reef sit within a few hundred metres of each other, and the wildlife moves between all three. Whether you are walking the national park or the roads and gardens around it, you will meet something. At Boutique Hotel Las Cascadas we arrange guided nature tours and excursions with guides who know where to look, which is most of the difference between a nice walk and a good one.
Here are ten encounters worth planning for.
1. White-faced capuchin monkeys
The signature animal of the park, and the one you are most likely to meet at close range. Capuchins are clever, quick and entirely unbothered by people, which is charming until one is going through your bag. Watch a troop work through the canopy and you will understand why they are everybody's favourite. Do not feed them, however hard they lobby.
2. Sloths hanging in the trees
Both two-toed and three-toed sloths live here, and Manuel Antonio is one of the more reliable places to see them. They are far easier to miss than to spot: look for a grey-brown lump in the fork of a tree that has not moved since the last time you looked. This is where a guide with a scope earns their fee in the first ten minutes.
3. Toucans in the treetops
Listen before you look. Toucans are usually heard first, then found near fruiting trees, and their bills are unmistakable once you have them in view. In Manuel Antonio the species you will actually see are the yellow-throated toucan and the fiery-billed aracari, rather than the keel-billed toucan most people picture, which belongs to the Caribbean slope.
4. Iguanas in the sun
Green iguanas and their relatives are common here, draped along branches or flattened on warm rock. The big males get genuinely large and surprisingly colourful. They are easy to walk past because they do not move, which is rather the point of what they are doing.
5. Squirrel monkeys
The Central American squirrel monkey, the mono titi, is the one you cannot see almost anywhere else. It lives only along Costa Rica's central and southern Pacific coast, and this is one of the more reliable places to find a troop. They move fast and noisily through the canopy, usually early morning or late afternoon. While you are looking up, keep half an eye on the sky: scarlet macaws pass along this coast occasionally, though they are rare here and come from a small reintroduced population rather than a resident one.
6. Howler monkeys
You will hear howlers long before you see them, and the first time is a genuine surprise: the call carries for a very long way and sounds far larger than the animal making it. They are bigger and slower than capuchins and tend to sit high and still, so scan the upper canopy once you have a direction.
7. Frogs after dark
The humidity here suits amphibians. The local poison dart frog is the green-and-black species; the red strawberry dart frog and the red-eyed tree frog belong to the Caribbean slope and are not found here, whatever the postcards suggest. Most frogs are active after dark, so a guided night walk is the way to see them properly.
8. Life along the coast
The wildlife does not stop at the waterline. Snorkelling and boat trips turn up tropical fish, rays and dolphins, and humpback whales pass on migration in season, with sea turtles an occasional bonus rather than a given. The coast here has rocky reef and coral formations rather than a developed reef system, and visibility is best in the dry months, roughly December to April.
9. Butterflies and insects
Look down as well as up. The butterflies here are extraordinary, and the insect life generally is doing most of the work that keeps the forest standing. Leafcutter ant trails crossing a path are worth two minutes of anybody's attention.
10. Agoutis and the smaller mammals
Agoutis are the large forest rodents you will see bolting through the leaf litter beside the trail. They matter more than their profile suggests: they bury seeds and forget where, which is one of the main ways this forest plants itself. Coatis are the other common one, usually in a loose, busy group.
Manuel Antonio rewards patience and an early start more than luck. Staying nearby means you can be on the trail when the animals are active rather than when the car park is full, and our guides know which tree the sloth was in yesterday. Whether you have come for monkeys, birds, reptiles or what is out on the water, there is more here than three days will cover.
