Costa-Rica Highlands and Coast Adventure Details
Colorful and Bio-diverse Costa Rica! West 9-Day Adventure
The Costa-Rica Highlands, Cloud-Forests and Coast
Costa-Rica is so diverse and rich in beautiful scenery and home to so many unique birds and wildlife of ALL kinds that a photographer cannot really experience the beauty of this country without missing some really choice locations. As a photographer, I find these special locations are the very reason you pack your gear and head to Central America, to get you and your lenses before really special places and creatures. To experience and develop.
We have created TWO awesome Costa Rica Adventures, East and West and 9-Days each. You can experience them back-to-back if you wish. You can also add a 3 night Extreme Jungle Adventure in the Corcovado. Details are below...
Tropical Summer Colors Season - November - April
Green Jungles Season - May- October
DAY ONE - Wednesday - Arrivals in San Jose- Lodging and Dinner at Bougainvillea Hotel.
If you are joining us from the Panama Adventure, please enjoy the magnificent Bougainvillea gardens. We will meet with everyone in the lounge at 7pm to get to know each other, distribute the materials, itineraries, lodging details and other documents. The food at the hotel is excellent! Affinity staff will meet you at the airport and take you to Bougainvillea.
DAY TWO - Thursday - Travel to Tapanti National Park and the Costa-Rica highlands. Stay at Savegre Lodge.
We will make our way to the Highlands, but first we will visit the Valley of Orosi, we will visit here Tapanti, one of the most beautiful national parks in Costa Rica, the landscapes, rivers and waterfalls plus lush rainforest and wildlife are great for a day of photography. After lunch we will continue our way to the highlands. We will visit the highest point near Panamerican #2 for astonishing sunset pictures at 11,000 ft .elevation. Our final destination is the Valley of San Gerardo de Dota.
DAY THREE - Friday - Exploring the cloud forests seeking the marvelous and rare Resplendent Quetzal. Stay at Savegre Lodge.
Today we explore in of the most beautiful areas in the world seeking one of the most wonderful and sought after birds in the world will be our adventure this early morning. If we are fortunate will see the Resplendent Quetzal and many other rare species to enjoy in this very dense wildlife habitat. We will walk along the valley and will have the chance to photograph unique and lovely cloud forest mountains, waterfalls and streams.
DAY FOUR - Saturday - Cloud forest wonders - Explore more of the highlands beautiful scenes and wildlife. Stay at Savegre Lodge.
Today we will explore new areas seeking the Resplendent Quetzal and other species only found at this elevations. The gardens and surrounding areas have a great variety of high elevation flowers and we will spend time photographing them towards the days end.
DAY FIVE - Sunday - Landscape photography in the highlands, bird photography and sunset at the beach. Stay at Villas Rio Mar.
Today after breakfast we climb in elevation to our first stop in the highland ecosystem of the Paramo at 11,000 ft elevation. Here we will spend some time photographing the impressive landscapes, rock formations and the great biodiversity of colorful flowers and lush forest vegetation. Then we continue our way down the mountains and will stop at a feeding station to photograph new species of birds. We will reach our final destination near the coast in time to catch a beautiful sunset.
DAY SIX - Monday - Nahuyaca Waterfalls and Central Pacific. Stay at Villa Lapas
We will start early visiting one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Costa Rica, The Nahuyaca Waterfall. This is a much visited destination so we aim to be there very early so we can get great photographs of the falls before others arrive. We will pick up our luggage and continue to the central Pacific region, with some stops on the way to photograph birds, hopefully the Scarlet Macaw known to frequent this area. In the afternoon we will visit a lookout to photograph the sunset on the Pacific.
DAY SEVEN - Tuesday - Boat tour in Tarcoles River, Macaws and Sunset in Baja Mar. Stay at Villa Lapas
This morning we will start with a boat trip along the Tarcoles River where many species of birds and impressive American Crocodiles dwell. Also we will look for the large and beautiful Scarlet Macaws. In the afternoon we will head to Baja Mar where we will take wonderful photographs of the sunset from the cliffs along the coast.
DAY EIGHT - Wednesday - Dry forest species photography, drive to San Jose. Stay at Bougainvillea
We will leave the hotel after breakfast and with the help of a local guide we will seek some of the species of birds and wildlife only found in the particular ecosystem of Tropical Dry Forest. Among the species we will be looking after are, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Spectacle Owl, Lesser ground-Cuckoo, Long-tailed Manakin to name a few. After this we will head back to San Jose and to the always breathtaking Bougainvillea Hotel. We will enjoy a group dinner at the hotel.
DAY NINE - Thursday - Departure Day
On this final day, depending on your flight schedule we will enjoy morning photography in the simply awesome Bougainvillea gardens. We will arrange shuttles to the San Jose Airport for your flight home - OR..
4-DAY DRAKE and CORCOVADO EXTREME JUNGLE ADVENTURE - For an additional $1550 you can join us for a life adventure in one of the most beautiful jungles on the planet. We will stay at Drake Bay and boat each day to the jungles.The ecological variety is simply stunning. National Geographic described Corcovado as "the most biologically intense place on Earth in terms of biodiversity". Yes, Jaguar, Puma, Tapir, all four monkey varieties, Scarlet Macaws and other exotic animals are all present.
Get the Extreme Jungle details here...
