Manuel Antonio sometimes called Quepos. It is a town of 8,000. There are three major beaches which make up the area. Together they make up 1.5 km across. They are called Espadilla del Sur and Playa Manuel Antonio, they are both sheltered for safe swimming. Although the area is very beautiful it is not recommended to go during summer because 1,000-5,000 tourists have been known to visit at once. And the capacity is really only about 300. Plus when its not winter it is very expensive.
Some history on Manuel Antonio: It was first explored by Juan Vasquez de Coronado who found the Quepoa, a subtribe of the Borucas, when he arrived in 1563. These indians were largely wiped out in succeeding years by disease, intertribal warfare, and theft of lands by the spaniards. It was actually built by United Fruit aka Chiquita in the 1930's. Quepos like Golfito was originally laid out as a company town, established to service nearby plantations. Production of African Palm oil supplanted bananas as the local crop during the 1950's. However Panama diesese destroyed the crop and Quepos was the only became the only town in costa rica to suffer a population decline during the second half of the 20th century. The name Manuel Antonio was for a Spaniard who had a memorial plaque. He died from a "skirmish" with a group of Quepoa.
There are three programs that manage the park´s conservation. Enviornmental Education program, which contributes to the communities which surround manuel antonio park. The program of Protection, which tries to limit and take care of physical and biological alterations to the park. It also and makes sure conservation laws are followed by the people. The last is a program of Administration which participates with local communities and uprising businesses.
(Before we went to Manuel Antonio, which according to our tour guide Roberto is the second most popular tourist spot, I remember Luis told us that many species had been scared away by the people and the animals are in a way trapped between all the tourism. (
Adventure guide to costa rica, 3rd edition by Harry S. Pariser
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