Tourism has been developing around Manuel Antonio since 1972, the conservationist says, and back then nobody here was really ready for it. But the banana plantations the region had depended on for decades were disappearing fast, and something had to replace them. Tourism, in that sense, arrived at exactly the right moment.
It didn't replace everything. Fishing and oil palm plantations remain the area's other major industries, and the extra demand tourism brought gave the fishing trade in particular a welcome boost.
What set Manuel Antonio apart, he believes, is that Costa Rica already had deep experience in nature conservation by the time the tourists started arriving. That let the region build its tourism around ecotourism from the very beginning, rather than trying to bolt conservation on afterward. Despite the steady flow of visitors, the park has, so far, stayed protected.
Lately, though, there's more reason for caution. As more money moves through tourism here, it draws in a different kind of business — people interested only in the short term, not the place itself.
He lists them off almost wearily: real estate agents who buy land purely to speculate on its price, international companies pushing for hotels far larger than the area can absorb, and, most recently, a hotel owner who wanted to poison the frogs on his property because their nighttime calls were disturbing guests. It's exactly why, he says, the park has started doing more to raise awareness.
“A hotel owner recently wanted to poison the frogs on his land because they made too much noise.”
The tension he lives with daily is a genuine balancing act. Manuel Antonio needs the income tourists bring to fund its own protection — but the park itself cannot absorb many more visitors without nature paying the price. His job, as he describes it, is making sure there are enough tourists to keep the books balanced without asking the forest to carry more than it can.
Tourists can help more than they might think, he says. He regularly sees visitors ignoring the rules posted throughout the park — small things, mostly, but they add up. Respecting those signs, he insists, is one of the simplest ways anyone can help keep Manuel Antonio, and the nature around it, intact.