THE LUXURY TRAVEL
MAGAZINE FOR INDEPENDENT
TRAVELLERS

Our next “vacation station” was Manuel Antonio, home to the National Park by the same name. Our hotel, Arenas Del Mar, is reachable by steep, but passable dirt road (thank God for the 4-wheel drive). It is a secluded hideaway in the rainforest. Our first day alone we saw two sloths, a squirrel monkey and a frog about the size of small cat on the property. Our room had an indoor living room and huge outdoor balcony with upholstered arm chairs and ottomans, cane lounge chairs, and tiled Jacuzzi overlooking the jungle and the private beach and roaring Pacific Ocean below A golf cart came to retrieve us for dinner which was among the best I have had in Costa Rica.

Breakfast here is among the best I have ever had and is included in the price of the room . In addition to the choice of a buffet which offers, among other things, the best hone-made pastry selection ever, the menu choices are equally tantalizing. It’s nice to start the day with a smile.

Dinner too is such a treat. Using all local ingredients, Chef Angelo Venegas Lara prepared a meal that started with zucchini rolls, amazing macadamia and pineapple pate wrapped in paper thin slices of zucchini, served with guacamole mixed with tree tomatoes and a delicious soy and sesame vinaigrette followed by pepper-crusted fresh tuna drizzled with a coconut sauce and accompanied by frilled eggplant and crispy potato strings. All the dishes were unusual, delectable preparations.

Our first day we went ATV-ing with Fourtrex Adventure on a private palm oil plantation. The kids loved the steep winding trails through rivers and mud, passing toucans, iguana and monkeys along the way. We ended our experience at the owner’s home and were served a lunch of chicken, rice, beans and salad in their beautiful tropical garden. When the kids were little I used to judge how much fun they had that day by how dirty they were, and using that measure as a barometer, we had loads of fun.

We chose to end our visit in Manuel Antonio with a tour that included ziplines in the canopy. Unlike the thriller joy-ride in Arenal, this experience was more about being a part of the rainforest than soaring above it. The perches were simply wooden platforms fastened to trees at the pinnacle of the forest and the experience included a “tarzan swing” and two rappels as well as the ten ziplines cast in such a way that we could truly imagine what our lives would be like if we were the howler monkeys that surrounded us.

Before heading back, I stopped at the Manuel Antonio National Park. I had planned to go on our last day, unaware that the park is closed on Mondays. I was lucky enough to pass a guide on his way home, Leo Godimez. He offered to take me on a popular one hour loop hike before the park closed. Through his powerful monocular on a tripod, I saw wildlife I otherwise would not have seen, including several species of birds, capuchin monkeys and even a strange pink and blue crab whose descendants wandered up from the ocean to the rainforest and never went back, adapting to life on land. The hike winds itself through the rain forest to a secluded beach adorned with nature’s driftwood sculptures. Shaded by the forest, we followed the beach to the last leg of our hike where a fisherman took us the last stretch by boat as high tide made it impossible to complete our journey without a bathing suit. This combination of thick tropical forest abutting the ocean is what makes the experience in this park so magnificent. My struggle with the timing of the visit meant I was there at sunset, a magic hour for photographing the splendor I witnessed.

Returning to Arenas Del Mar, I was wet, tired and happy. I treated myself to a combination hot stone, deep tissue massage in their small, but inviting spa. This ended with a foot scrub of honey, sugar, crushed almonds, cinnamon and cream. As I left, I was offered a glass of water with strawberries and mint. Delightfully refreshing. I returned to my room and sat on my balcony, trying to capture my overall impressions of our Costa Rican vacation and why I feel strangely different from on other vacations I have taken. Upon reflection, I am struck by the realization that among other things, this has been a vacation of sounds. In Arenal, it was the sound of volcanic eruptions, periodically punctuated by a clap of thunder and the rush of teaming rain. In Manuel Antonio, it is the sound of the ocean combined with the sound of light rain hitting the thousands of leaves of the forest and the howler monkeys communicating their eerie tones to each other across the forest. Perhaps because I am unaccustomed to being “moved” by sound in such a profound manner, it will be my way of remembering Costa Rica and summoning it back when I return to the sounds of the telephone and the doorbell and my computer announcing the next email. For now, I’ll simply close my eyes and try to memorize the rhythmic sensation of the waves and the pattering of raindrops in this luxuriously green rainforest.