Our fourth day was mainly a travel day. We left La Fortuna and drove through several hours of beautiful jungle and then along the coast to our destination, the Manuel Antonio National Park. We made several stops along the way including taking a walk along the “Crocodile Bridge.” It’s just a bridge along the road, but crocodiles are known to hang out here. And it did not disappoint. When we looked over the edge, there were several waiting for a meal to float down the river to them.
We continued our drive to Manuel Antonio, and when we arrived in town it was still light so we drove down to the beach and came across several monkeys just playing in the park!
We wrapped up our travel day by checking into the hotel and having dinner at “El Avion.”. This is a restaurant with a beautiful view, but what’s more interesting is the C-123 cargo plane the place is built around. The inside of the plane is the bar and you walk through it to get to the seating area. This plane, and another just like it (which crashed in the jungle), were used by the CIA to fly arms and drugs back and forth to Central America as part of the Iran-Contra scandal in the 80s. The plane was abandoned at the San Juan airport and the restaurant owner had it brought to Manuel Antonio as an attraction. Random, but definitely made for a unique attraction.
