Costa Rica is a wonderful country, benefited by nature and sublimated by the cultural richness and the kindness of its people. This trip allows us to know different experiences that Costa Rica has to offer. We started our rural experience in Providencia de Dota where the hospitality and kindness of the people is something that excites. Living with such kind people is a unique experience. You can feel their authentic and sincere human warmth. Their main goal is to make the visitor feels the wonderfulness of their place. In Dota we will take one of the best coffees in the world, visit waterfalls, different crops and the best views of the valley. Then we will be in touch with the experience in the Community and the Boruca culture is very interesting. Their way of living is a combination between preserving their roots and traditions with a modern conventional life due to multiple social factors. Mrs. Marina talks, one of the leaders of the community, are always enriching. Finca Sura is a feast for the senses with the aromas of flowers, spices and other aromatic plants. The taste of organic pineapples freshly picked from the plant is truly an experience like no other. The birds, the reptiles, the amphibians that swarm the farm! In the Caribbean side, the visit to the Chocolate women is a very rich experience in knowledge. The efforts people make to follow the progress without losing their ancestral customs is part of their achievements. Here we can be active participants in the entire process of chocolate manufacturing: collecting, drying, roasting, peeling, and grinding to obtain the cocoa paste and finally be able to taste the precious product. Costa Rica is a small country of exuberant nature, which works every day to conserve the balance between progress and conservation of its biodiversity and culture. Come and enjoy this different trip through Costa Rica!
Places to visit:
➣ Providencia de Dota
➣ Comunidad Indígena Boruca
➣ Carate
➣ Ojochal
➣ Monteverde
➣ Sarapiquí
➣ Caribe Sur
Main attractions:
➣ Lots of wildlife (flora and fauna)
➣ Irazu Volcano National Park
➣ Direct contact with the hosting people in each lodging and shearing experiences
➣ Corcovado National Park
➣ Marino Ballena National Park
➣ Caño Island Biological Reserve
➣ Canopy Tour in Monteverde
➣ Chocolate Tour in Talamanca
Price US $ 1,650 per person. Could change depending on seasons.
✓ Airport transfer - hotel and assistance
✓ 1 night at San Jose hotel
✓ 2 nights in basic and rural lodging in Providencia de Dota
✓ 1 night in basic and rural lodging in Boruca Community
✓ 2 nights tent at Carate Lodge
✓ 2 nights at Ojochal hotel
✓ 2 nights at Monteverde hotel
✓ 1 night in basic and rural lodging in Sarapiqui
✓ 4 nights at Cahuita hotel
✓ Daily breakfast
✓ Three daily meals in Providencia, Boruca, Carate and Sarapiquí
✓ Rented car 4x4
✓ Caño Island Biological Reserve
✓ Canopy Tour in Monteverde
✓ Chocolate Tour in Talamanca
✓ Included and detailed activities in the rural areas
✓ Service and hotel taxes
✓ Price US $ 1,650 per person. Could change depending on seasons.
➣Meals and drinks not specified in the itinerary
➣Optional Tours
➣Local and international calls
➣Personal medical expenses
➣Car rental insurance
➣Departure taxes (US$29 per person)
➣Air tickets from and to Costa Rica
DAY 1: ARRIVAL TO COSTA RICA
Reception at the airport and transfer to the hotel in San José. Accommodation.
DAY 2: SAN JOSE – PROVIDENCIA DE DOTA
Breakfast. Departure to Providencia de Dota in Los Santos area. Accommodation in family house of the community.
Providencia de Dota is a community of rural and sustainable tourism directed by its inhabitants. Here you can live together with families and the community, and learn about their customs and traditions, cook in a wood stove and participate in the different activities they offer.
DAY 3: ACTIVITIES INCLUDED
Breakfast. Starting of the activities in the community.
Dairy tour: here you will have the opportunity to do the whole process of milk like milking, make your own cheese, and feed the animals of the farm.
Fruit pulp process of the area: using local fruits such as blackberry, tomatillo tree, naranjilla and others, the Valverde family demonstrates the process of pulping the fruit and processing it for commercialization.
Artisanal coffee tour: one of the families of the area treasures a great knowledge in the artisan coffee process. Here they will learn how their grandparents made their coffee in the patios and how they inherited it to their family. Your hosts will make you spend the most entertaining moments between life stories and the cozy sound of your guitar while you taste one of the best coffees in the world.
Armonía Ambiental Sustainable farm: Armonía Ambiental is an ecological farm where everything is produced organically. The knowledge they share is related to organic farming and waste management, and the auto-sustainable management of the farm.
DAY 4: PROVIDENCIA DE DOTA – BORUCA COMMUNITY
Breakfast and departure to the Boruca Indigenous Territory in Buenos Aires of Puntarenas. Accommodation in family house of the community.
The Boruca Indigenous Territory is one of the two indigenous territories of the Boruca ethnic group that exist in Costa Rica, the other is the Curre Indigenous Territory, both delimited in 1993. The Boruca are known for their crafts, especially textiles, and their unique masks painted in balsa wood. These masks are important in the annual ceremony of “Fiesta de los diablitos”, which is celebrated every year since colonial times. The Community is subdivided into several settlements and has about 2500 inhabitants, not all indigenous. Agriculture is based on the cultivation of corn, beans, rice and tubers, as well as the breeding of cattle, pigs, horses and poultry, produce handicrafts with cotton fabric, baskets, bows, spears or balsa wood masks. Most of the land is used for coffee cultivation, grains and protected areas.
DAY 5: BORUCA COMMUNITY – CARATE
Breakfast. Early departure to Carate near Corcovado National Park. Accommodation. Arriving in Carate, where contact to the hotel staff and start the walk along the beach until arrive at the lodge. It is a 3.5 km walk along the beach. Both the entrance and the exit of the Lodge are made walking by the beach. Accommodation.
DAY 6: CORCOVADO NATIONAL PARK TOUR
Departure from the Lodge in the morning to make the Tour. The entrance of the Corcovado National Park is located few meters from the lodge. This walk goes along the beach and crosses several paths of the park. Most of the trails are within the secondary forest, and others in the primary forest. The trails are flat, and we just must cross a river and several small streams. In this walk we can see the trees of Ceibo, matapalos, naked Indians, rafts, endemic plants such as heliconias, fruit trees, medicinal plants, bromeliads and epiphytes. Generally, you can see monkeys, anteaters, macaws, coatis, squirrels, many species of birds, such as turkeys, trogons, hummingbirds, tanagers, hawks, among others. Sometimes and with good luck, you can see the puma, the tapir, and sloths. Accommodation.
DAY 7: CARATE – OJOCHAL
Breakfast. Departure to Ojochal, Marino Ballena National Park. Accommodation.
DAY 8: CAÑO ISLAND BIOLOGICAL RESERVE SNORKELLING TOUR
Departure in the morning to make the Tour. With turquoise waters and colorful coral reefs, the Biological Reserve of Caño Island is one of the best places for Snorkeling in the South Pacific. The island has some of the healthiest coral reefs in all of Costa Rica. The excursion leaves from Punta Uvita at 7:30 am and arrives at Isla del Caño 1.5 hours later. It is a magical trip with the possibility of seeing whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. Upon arrival to the island, Snorkeling will be practiced for an hour and a half. In the best sites of the reserve you can observe a great variety of marine species, many of them in danger of extinction. Then we will go to Isla Violines where the guides prepare a picnic lunch. Afterwards we will have time to relax on the beach, sunbathe or a bath or read a book, or walk around the island. In the afternoon departure back. Accommodation.
DAY 9: OJOCHAL – MONTEVERDE
Breakfast at the hotel. Departure to the area of the Cloud Forest in Monteverde. Accommodation.
DAY 10: CANOPY TOUR
Get your heart pounding by taking a zipline ride through the Costa Rican forest canopy. Along cables slung between canyons, admire incredible views, fly over and in between trees to feel an adrenaline rush like no other. Sky Trek or Canopy is a thrilling zip line circuit that starts riding an open-air gondola from the ground to the heights where you’ll be dropped off at an observation area for fantastic views. From this area, you will start riding down on a zip line track stretching across canyons and in between treetops, the exhilarating adventure of zip lining down the mountainside begins; ultimately returning you to the starting point at the main building. This is the most thrilling zip line in the country.
You can combine this exciting adventure with other activities such as: Hanging Bridges Tour, Day or night tour to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve, visit to the frogs and snake’s observatory, Hummingbird Farm, Rappelling in waterfalls, Horseback Tour, bats tour at night, Bird Sanctuary and Night tours through the forest. Accommodation.
DAY 11: MONTEVERDE – SARAPIQUI
Breakfast at the hotel. Departure to Finca Sura in Sarapiqui. Accommodation.
Finca Sura is a Sustainable Rural Tourism project. The farm is in Chilamate de Sarapiquí. Sura offers us a unique and unconventional experience sharing with the family that owns the farm. There you will be able to fish the tilapia for lunch and they will cook to their liking whether fried or hoe, accompanied by fried plantains, fried yucca, salad and natural drink. The Gómez family prepares it while you take a tour in the farm.
Night walking Tour It starts in search of frogs, owls and other nocturnal species, lighting us with "churucas" so as not to scare the possible animals that we can find because is a very low light. We will finish the tour with a campfire to roast marshmallows and a natural drink or hot chocolate.
DAY 12: MORNING TOUR IN FINCA SURA
After breakfast we will be accompanied by the guide to make the tour of the farm. The tour includes cutting the sugarcane plant and then grinding it and enjoying a glass of juice. The tour continues enjoying the season fruits with the absolute certainty that it has no chemicals, you can also observe plants, native trees of the area birds, butterflies and frogs in their natural habitat. We continue to pineapple plantation where we will enjoy this delicious fruit, totally natural. You can also plant a pineapple plant if you wish and listen to a small talk about planting pineapple or if you prefer to plant a tree in a strategic place with your name, the planting date and email to send photos of the tree every year and be aware of the growth of the tree. We will end our tour visiting the butterfly garden where the Morpho butterflies reproduce.
In the afternoon departure to Cahuita in the Caribbean South. Accommodation.
DAY 13: CHOCOLATE TOUR IN TALAMANCA
Breakfast. Early departure to the Chocolate Tour in Talamanca. The Women of Chocolate Tour began with the departure of Cahuita or Puerto Viejo at 8 am after breakfast in your hotel. Take road towards the Bribri village to reach Shiroles village. The trip lasts approximately 40 minutes, and you will enjoy the landscapes of the route of the surrounding banana plants and emerald green forests characteristic of the Costa Rican South Caribbean. Arriving at Shiroles and in front of the soccer field will be waiting the hosts of the Tour. The chocolate women will guide through the process, how it started from the tree, take out the seed, dry it, toast it, and process it until it becomes pure Cocoa, as well as chocolate. The processes they use is organic and sustainable with the environment. After enjoying the cocoa experience, we share lunch. Return to the place of accommodation.
DAY 14-15: CARIBBEAN SOUTH
Breakfast at the hotel. Enjoy the stunning beaches. The South Caribbean zone is one of the most privileged areas of the country. It is possible to find a diversity of beaches, and the best thing is the proximity. Let yourself go and explore the varied Caribbean beaches of white sand or black sand if you prefer. Either if you are looking for strong emotions or if you just want to rest, let yourself be carried away by what this cosmopolitan area of Costa Rica offers you. Among the activities you can do are visit to the Gandoca Refuge - Manzanillo, visit to beaches such as Cahuita, Cocles, Punta Uva, Chiquita and Manzanillo, take a tour at Cahuita National Park with snorkelling activity. Accommodation.
DAY 16: RETURN
Breakfast at the hotel. Departure to Juan Santamaria International Airport.
.svg)
