gandoca - manzanillo wildlife refuge

My wife, daughter, and I were led through the Manzanillo wildlife refuge by Abel. His knowledge, humor, and experience made this a fantastic experience. If your going on a hike in the refuge, get a guid, and if you get a guid, get Abel!

It was still free but they were building what looked like a large welcome centre so not sure if they will be charging an entrance fee soon. The first part of the trail is easy but soon the trail becomes hilly, muddy and slippery. We were in Manzanillo for 5 days and it rained 2 days (one day practically non stop). We did not see as much wildlife in the park as in Cahuita. We saw a hawk flying with his prey and eating it, butterflies, a scorpion with prey, woodpeckers, toucans, lots of oropendolas (with their beautiful exotic call) and 20-30 of their hanging basket-like nests, agoutis, howler monkeys, weird crabs and in one area a lot of strawberry poison-dart frogs. Also a rocket frog. The beaches are beautiful, the waves huge and we watched people surfing.

Get yourself to Manzanillo and then go for a hike. Gorgeous beaches and views of the surfers. Beautiful jungle and its a neat part of the world.

This is one of the world's best nature hikes. We saw Caiman, Morpho butterfly's, many frogs and somany sloths including moms with their babies. Hire a Guide through the association. We hiked for Four hours and visited an isolated farm briefly. You don't need to be in top shape to do this one.You start on an ocean trail behind Maxi's at Manzanillo beach with those beautifull Coral islands and then head inland. You must stop for a patio meal on the Beach at Maxi's, afterwards. I would advise having the fish of course.

If you want entertainment and a learning experience, Abel is your guy! He is so personable and fun and smart and will structure your tour around what you want. He took us through the refuge and also on the BriBri chocolate tour. We would highly recommend both tours. We would have done more tours with him but he wasn't available. You can hire him through the tour groups but we just contacted him directly at 506-8895-7394 or email him at crlocalguide@hotmail.com. Abel will not disappoint you!

We visited the Manzanillo refuge with Abel and had an unforgettable experience! Abel has a stunning knowledge about the park and all the plants and animals! He's a fantastic, funny and competent guide who knows how to fascinate visitors with the stunning beauty of the refuge, which is his home since 15 years. We can only recommend anyone to go on this adventure with Abel and promise you won't be disappointed!

Our first day in Puerto Viejo we were recommended to take Abel as our guide while walking through Cahuita National Park, by Shawandha Lodge. He is a great guy with humor and passion for wildlife and nature, and eager to teach. He made us work as he would pick a 'special tree' and we would have to find what made that tree so special. We found Sloths, vipers, racoons, many beautiful birds, emerald lizards, yellow headed gekkos, crabs, white faced monkeys (or maybe they found us). We found a big nest of Leaf-cutting ants and he made us jump up and down to get the Fighter ants out. It was great fun and his teaching made that we were able to find many more hidden animals during the rest of our stay in Costa Rica.In the evening he took us to Manzanillo beach, to look for turtles lay eggs on the beach. We were so lucky to witness an enormous Leatherback covering her nest of what were about 60-70 eggs. She was huge and beautiful, and this experience is the best of our whole journey. We much appreciated how the patrols and guides love to let you see this moment, but remain very protective about the animals. You only get to see 1 turtle, even if there are more present, and they only use small red lights to not upset the animals. No pictures allowed.I wouldn't recommend this trip for families with young children. Not allowed to use flashlights makes that you're in complete darkness most of the time. When a turtle is spotted you have to run through the jungle and over the beach, and in our case cross a river, with very little light. We also had a short encounter with a snake that was trying to go the opposite direction. Prepare yourself to be in the jungle without seeing what's beside you, and without proper paths to walk. Protect yourself from sandfleas! If you don't mind all this, witnessing the turtle is absolutely worth it.

Abel Bustamante was our guide in the Manzanillo Gandoca reserve. He has a great sense of humor and is very knowledgeable about the sights and sounds of the forest. He speaks english very well and was very engaging. He took his time and I never felt rushed. We booked through ATEC, though you could book directly with him by calling or emailing him (2759-9043, crlocalguide@hotmail.com). We did a 5 hour walk - I think my wife and I both wished to go for a longer distance and cover more scenery, but we got immersed in the flora and fauna instead. We saw eyelash pit vipers, chestnut mandibled macaw, collared aricari, howler monkeys, 2-toed and 3-toed sloth, bullet ants, leaf cutter ants, tarantula, white collared manakin, hermits, and more. It was a fun and informative outing, and although we saw many of these same animals around town, it was important for us to go explore the area and expereince the living forest. Thank Abel for a great time!

What a basically wonderful person and knowledgable guide. He showed us things we could have walked by without ever seeing. I took a bird tour with him and it was so good that I went back for a jungle tour with him and if I had had time I would have gone on more. He is humorous and knowledgable about local flora and fauna. I learned a lot about the history of the area and about how things work there now. He goes out of his way to make his tours enjoyable for everyone there

Very good guides, 2 hours of entertainment, could even touch the monkeys and got pretty much info about all animals, activities rescue center do... Happy we went there and now we consider it as a must seen in this locality.

My husband and I returned this week from our vacation at Manzanillo, Costa Rica. We rented a beautiful little house just outside of town, with the intent of exploring the refuge and Bri Bri, also the hope of some horseback riding and perhaps snorkeling. After speaking with the person who manages the house we rented, Florentino "Tino" Grenald was recommend to us as the best guide. We walked to town (Manzanillo) asking around for Tino, and soon found someone who knew him and put in a phone call for us. Thence began, for us, the company of one of the most wonderful people we have had the opportunity of meeting. Tino is an excellent guide and, furthermore, he is very much a conservationist, a man of humor and his knowledge of the jungle is extensive. We learned a great deal from him as he took us into the wildlife refuge and introduced us to Caiman, eyelash pitvipers, strangler figs with ethereal interiors, leaf-cutter ant cities, lizards, anoles and a bewildering array of trees, plants, flowers, fungi and very many more biological life-forms that we happened across during the 5-hours we hiked with him. Tino knew something to tell us about everything we saw and told us the uses for the wood of the trees, which fruits were food and which were deadly. He also had funny stories and is a person of wonderful humor! My husband and I are both botanists in the U.S. and we were very impressed with Tino's knowledge of the history of the Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge and the life within it. We asked no few questions as we hiked into Primary Forest with Tino teaching us us how to recognize primary from secondary growth in the Atlantic Lowlands and told us the story of the refuge. A few days later Tino took us to Bri Bri to the Watsi community and we learned all about the medicinal plants of the area and how to make chocolate. Just before we left Manzanillo, Tino appeared at the caretaker's cottage of our house with a sack full of the fruit that he knew we especially enjoyed!After we left Manzanillo, my husband traveled back to the U.S. and went to the Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula, which was fabulous, but the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge is much easier to travel to, less expensive and, in my opinion, very beautiful. In addition, Manzanillo is a wonderful, quiet small town. If you are looking for excitement, shops and something to entertain you, don't come here. But if you are looking to entertain yourselves and for solitude, empty beaches and the opportunity to interact with nature you will appreciate this place, and what it offers, very much. Only on Saturday and Sunday, when the local Costa Ricans come to Manzanillo to escape the hoards of people further North, will you find a "crowd". But the crowd in this case is an engaging, fun part of the town.

We spent five hours hiking through Gandoca-Manzanillo Preserve and I strongly recommend it. But for safety's sake, if you have small kids, do take a guide to help ensure they don't touch something that could kill them! We all loved our guide, Michael Grenald, who met us at the restaurant in middle of town with the words "we have to go by my house to get my boots and machete". Haha!! 45 minutes later, we were still in his back yard because he had us sniffing and tasting everything in it -- allspice, cinnamon, lemon grass, ylang-ylang, wild coriander, miracle fruit, jack fruit, bread fruit, bitter lemon, wow! We then did an easy hike into the rainforest and along the beach (including a cave on the beach). Michael was a fascinating guy, well trained by his father Florentino who is mentioned frequently in these reviews. We learned so much about the forest from him. We saw 2 and 3 toed sloths, monkeys, toucans of several kinds, iron trees, eyelash vipers, strangler figs, bats, caimans, hawks, jesus lizards, bullet ants and leaf cutter ants. LOVED the stop for a fresh pipa (coconut water). And loved eating termites and discovering they taste like carrot tops. I cannot remember how much we paid but it was well worth it for the length of the tour.We also appreciated that Michael seemed to know everyone we encountered and those he didn't know he warned about safety, keeping hands to self and not touching plants. Michael can be reached through his Facebook page or by phone via the greencr.com staff who are located at Playa Chiquita.

The Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge was definitely a highlight of our trip in December 2013. We stayed with family in a vacation rental in Puerto Viejo and did a day tour to the Refuge. First off, I will say that it felt very undeveloped and uncrowded- for much of the time we hardly saw anyone but our group. What an amazing tour we had with Omar! A lifelong resident of Manzanillo with a laid-back attitude, great sense of humor, obvious respect for the forest and incredible knowledge of biology, geology, history, and culture, Omar seemed to really enjoy what he was doing. He found insects and spiders and frogs and birds that we never would have seen and had so much knowledge of the traditional use of plants. There was no question he could not answer- and our group had A LOT. He regularly cracked jokes and laughed with us and just seemed like such a great guy. He spent 5 hours with us for a very reasonable rate. The hike was not long, but was slow because we stopped so often to look at things. Also, our group was fairly adventurous, so we did some scrambling on some more challenging trails, and even kind of scaled along a cliff along the beach when the tide came in (Omar personally helped each one of us when needed). After going to Manuel Antonio National Park later in our trip, I realized how lucky were were to visit such a lightly travelled natural area at Gandoca-Manzanillo with such a wonderful a local expert guiding us.

I was very sad to read Cristina h's review about what happened to her and her partner during a hike in the Gandoca Refuge. Absolutely shocking but it is the first time I have heard about such a violent crime happening there. I have been travelling in Costa Rica for many years and have friends who live in Manzanillo. I must say that I would never go hiking without a local guide, even though I am familiar with the area. Not because I am scared of being robbed but due to the wildlife and the possibility of getting lost in the jungle. The local guides in Manzanillo are not expensive. They know the area extremely well and will show you things you would never be able to see if you didn't know the jungle. I have always felt safe in Manzanillo and often went out in the dark evenings alone without feeling threatened or afraid. I still love Manzanillo and will continute to go there on my holidays. Unfortunately, stories like Cristina h's happen all over the world. In general I would say that Manzanillo is a safe place to be but you need to be careful just like anywhere else.

Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge was one of my favorite areas of Costa Rica that we visited during our 4-week long trip in July 2013, second only to Corcovado. It’s beautiful, filled with wildlife, and the trails are suitable for just about anyone from kids to seniors. The trek takes about 4 hours to complete and is not too strenuous. While you’re there I highly recommend asking guide Florentino Grenald to join you. He is the most charismatic, funny, and witty guy we met in a long time! His sense of humor is simply irresistible. He’s interesting, honest and on top of his personality is very knowledgeable about wildlife and can spot it like no one else. He was born and raised in Manzanillo and knows the area like the back of his hand. What’s more, you get the impression that he enjoys showing it to you and takes pleasure in sharing his country’s natural treasures. In addition, what really impressed me about him was the way he respects and cares for the environment e.g. by collecting garbage other people left behind or making sure the frog he showed us didn’t get harmed in any way in the process. It’s more than just business to him. In my opinion, Tino is as good as a guide can get.