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This is an awesome TR.
I'm getting married at Villa Calletas (just south of Jaco) in a couple weeks. We are going to MA, and going to go on some of the day trips. Are there any particular ones that you thought are can't miss. Obv everyone talks about the zip lines and such. Did you do any rafting? How was the croc tour?
We are staying for 2 weeks, so the first week will be at villa calletas and the 2nd week we are staying at the Tabacon Resort at the base of Arenal.
I can't wait!
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NOTE: I have no idea why these images aren't displaying.
The area between Jaco and Manuel Antonio is great. Nice scenery, not very developed except for a condo or resort here or there, and just overall a really nice scene. If I were to buy property in Costa Rica, it would be in this area.
One word of advice for MA, is to bring your swimsuit. I guess we missed that in the Lonely Planet, but the beaches there are awesome and the water is warm. The water is warm all throughout CR, but Manuel Antonio has the nicest, cleanest and most beautiful beaches.
I didn't do any zip lines, but some students did. It sounds pretty fun, and the scenery you get to "zip" over is the rain forest. Not too expensive either ($50 or $60 for a tour.)
None of us managed to do any rafting. There's a place near MA that does it. I would have loved to but it didn't fit in our plans when we went through MA.
The croc tour was really cool. We went up on a river north of Jaco and a boat took us on a little tour. There are crocs everywhere. Once they found a really big one (this guy must have been 15 ft,) one of the tour guides got out and started slapping a fish in the water to call him over. Once he finally did, the croc took a bite of the fish and the tour guide put his hands over the crocs mouth and gave him a kiss. It was cool. Here's some pics (I didn't get a good one of him kissing the croc unfortunately):
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And one more thing about Arenal. There's a waterfall called "La Fortuna" near the town. It's a really cool waterfall that is about 80-90 feet high and has a little swimming hole by it. The hike is pretty easy and it's worth a few hours.
Here's a video of it:
La Fortuna
And some pics:
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