One of our prime reasons for choosing Costa Rica is because it’s one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world and spotting wildlife at Manual Antonio National Park was high on our to-do list.

We’d already hit the Caribbean at Tortuguero, and the highlands of Orosi, but we had high hopes for spotting even more species as we headed to Manual Antonio National Park on the Pacific side, one of the country’s premier parks. Camera in hand, we drove an hour or so south of our AirBnB to reach the park right as it opened in a mostly failed attempt to avoid the crowds.