Go to Manzanillo if visiting a jungle is on your bucket list. It doesn't matter what kind of hotel you book or how close to the beach you are. If you are in Manzanillo you are guaranteed to have a jungle experience.
There are no taxis in this area and the wifi is spotty so be prepared for that but otherwise it's a nice dip into the wilderness. Instead of ubering around, you use bikes or horses. When I was on Agistri Island in Greece a few years ago we used bikes to get around as well however the jungle felt more remote. Agistri Island in Greece is 1.5 hours (45mins on a fast cat) out of Pirieus in Athens whereas Manzanillo is a 5-6 hour drive south of San Jose so this could have been why I felt uncomfortable being cut off from data and car transportation. Also the sun goes down much earlier in Costa Rica than other places I've visited.
Our first full day in Manzanillo we relaxed at our house since we were tired from traveling. I love vacations but I don't like when we end up running around more on vacation than we do at home. We decided there was no better place to be than our hammocks. The day went surprisingly fast, I think part of the reason is because it got dark before 5:00pm. After some pasta and frozen oreos for dinner we were in bed before 8:00pm. The jungle was already waking up for the night so we pulled our mosquito nets over our beds and went to sleep.
The following day we had more to accomplish; we wanted to check out the Jaguar Rescue Centre about a 10 min drive away. Originally we were going to call an uber but with no Uber and shotty wifi we had to look at different options. Public transit looked like the best way to get around so we went out on the road and flagged down the first bus we saw. The public buses here were coaches. I expected something more like a recycled american school bus (public transit in Mexico) or something more made for the dust. Nope, a nice big bus with AC. We were on the bus about 10 mins when we saw the sign for the rescue centre. We pulled the stop line and got off.
The Jaguar Rescue Centre is a centre where they rehabilitate animals back into the wild. The name is a tribute to a jaguar cub they lost at the time the centre was coming to creation. They didn't have a jaguar when we were there but they did have a wild cat that had been harmed by a farmer when the cat was trying to kill their chickens. The image at the beginning of my post is from the centre. Most of the animals are orphaned from their parents being electrocuted from the power lines. SUPER SAD. It makes sense that they would grab onto the lines thinking they were branches.
Rehab centres for animals are common in Costa Rica specifically because of electrocution and wild animals being kept as pets.
This image is of baby sloths in preschool <3
Both the baby monkey and the sloths had handlers to take care of them but they weren't in cages. All of the animals at the centre are in the process of being rehabilitated so they can re-enter the wild. This made us feel better about seeing animals outside of their regular habitat.
After the rescue centre we flagged the bus down again and headed back to our place. Once there we jumped on the bikes and headed for the beach. I was really interested to check out the sand because I knew it would be different from the Black Sand at Jaco. Here is what it looks like!
I expected the sand to be lighter in colour. It was more of a white sand mixed with black sand. No matter the colour the sand was super soft! We had a great time in the water and relaxing on the shore.
We still had to book our transportation back to San Jose the next day so we didn't stay long at the beach. Once we got back to our place I started looking into hotels and shuttles back to the city but of course the wifi wasn't working. Further, the power at our jungle oasis started flickering. This was terrifying because of how far out we were. No power is scary anywhere but no power in the jungle?! It flickered all night waking us up when the power went off and reinvigorating us when it came back on.... It also poured rain all night so at least it was quieter than normal but it was also very very sticky. In fact, it was so humid that my moms bathing suit was still wet from the beach more than 12 hours later.
We packed up our bags and got ready for the shuttle to pick us up. Our time in Manzanillo had come to an end... next up..exploring San Jose!