10-Day Costa Rica Wildlife and Cultural Expedition
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
COLUMBUS ZOO and AQUARIUM WILDLIFE and CULTURAL EXPEDITION TO COSTA RICA FOR TEENS 10-DAY DISCOVERY EXPEDITION DEPARTS July 23, 2016 Escorted by Ginger Earley, Volunteer Supervisor Cost: $3350 per person, double occupancy All-inclusive from the San Jose, Costa Rica International Airport TRIP TO BE OPERATED: July 23 - August 1, 2016 NUMBER OF DAYS: 10 MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PASSENGERS: 14 DEPARTURE CITY: San Jose, Costa Rica Cost, based on 10 or more participants, all-inclusive from Costa Rica’s San Jose International Airport: $3350 per person, double occupancy The single supplement charge is $350 if/when available WHAT IS INCLUDED: . All activities in Tortuguero, as described, with local guide, including National Park entrance fee . Entrance fee to Paradise Hot Springs and dinner . Cultural tour at a local school and visit to a local farm, plantation and sugar cane mill . Arenal Volcano National Park Entrance fee (guided walk with your private English speaking guide) . Entrance fee to La Fortuna Waterfall (guided walk with your private English speaking guide) . Guided night walk at Ecocentro Danaus, with local English speaking guide . Entrance fee at the Bosque Eterno de los Niños in San Gerardo de La Tigra, including tree planting, and visit to the community “La Lucha” and lunch . Half day tour at Samara, with river kayaking, including transportation and local bilingual guide . Farewell dinner at the Holiday Inn San Jose Downtown on day 10 . Services of World Discovery Safaris . Transfers from and to the San Jose International Airport on days 1 and 10 . San Jose International Airport departure taxes . Tips for drivers. hotel staff and naturalist guides . 2 nights accommodations at the Villa Tournon, San Jose, Costa Rica . 2 nights accommodations at the Mwamba Lodge, Tortugero . 3 nights accommodations at the Arenal Montechiari . 2 nights accommodations at the Hotel Samara Inn . Meals as indicated by B= Breakfast, L= Lunch, D=Dinner, and PL = Picnic Lunch NOT INCLUDED: International air to and from San Jose, Costa Rica, excess baggage charges, and items of a personal nature such as travel insurance, reciprocity fees, visas and / or passports, medications, souvenirs, drinks that are not included with meals, laundry, faxes, e-mails, telephone calls, excursions or other services not included in the program itinerary. Ginger Earley, Volunteer Supervisor, looks forward to traveling to Costa Rica with you! A graduate of Otterbein College, Ginger has been at the Zoo since October 1995. This will be Ginger’s fourth trip to Costa Rica with teens and, for her, each trip has been just as exciting, educational and beautiful as the first. 10-DAY COSTA RICA WILDLIFE AND CULTURAL EXPEDITION DAY 1 - SATURDAY, JULY 23 – ARRIVE SAN JOSÉ, COSTA RICA Upon arrival at the San José International Airport our English-speaking naturalist guide will greet and escort us to the Villa Tournon hotel. Here we will receive some additional information regarding our program and an opportunity to get answers to any questions we may have. After checking into our rooms we assemble in the dining room for dinner. D DAY 2 – SUNDAY, JULY 24 - SAN JOSÉ / TORTUGUERO NATIONAL PARK Early in the morning we travel past lush pasturelands and banana plantations through Braulio Carrillo National Park. After stopping for a typical Costa Rican breakfast we drive to the village of Caño Blanco. Here we board a boat and travel along the inner coastal waterway to our accommodations, for the next two nights at Mawamba Lodge near Tortuguero National Park. After checking into our rooms we walk, for about a 10 minutes, to the village of Tortugero and the Sea Turtle Museum. Here we meet the Sea Turtle Conservation staff, tour the station and are provided with information regarding the 50+ year history of this conservation organization’s data collection procedures and methods for tagging and monitoring these endangered animals. After dinner, we join our local, English speaking, naturalist guide on a night hike in search of the area’s nocturnal wildlife. B/L/D DAY 3 – MONDAY, JULY 25 -TORTUGUERO NATIONAL PARK After breakfast we walk to a school in the village of Tortuguero, meet the students and villagers and assist them with the painting and refurbishing of a classroom. Following a Costa Rican lunch in the community we join our naturalist guide at the dock for an exploritory boat excurion on the waterways of this fascinating wildlife sanctuary. Three species of monkeys, three-toed sloths, herons, egrets, parrots, toucans and all six species of New World kingfishers may be seen here. The raphia palm, which has the largest leaves of any plant, grows at the water's edge. On our return to the lodge we walk along the beach looking for turtle tracks and nesting sites. Tortuguero is the largest nesting area in the Caribbean for the endangered green sea turtle. Although their feeding grounds may be as far away as Florida and Venezuela these turtles return, each year, to these sandy beaches to mate and deposit their eggs. After dinner we join our local guide on a night hike along the beach in search of nesting sea turtles. Our overnight accommodations are at Mawamba Lodge. B/L/D DAY 4 – TUESDAY, JULY 26 - TORTUGUERO /ARENAL VOLCANO Early this morning we walk the beach on a turtle track and nesting site survey, while picking up any trash and litter we find. After breakfast we return, by boat, along the inner coastal waterway to Caño Blanco. Following a stop at a typical Costa Rican restaurant for a delicious home- cooked lunch, we drive to our accommodations at Arenal Montechiari at the base of Arenal Volcano. In the evening we ride to the nearby Paradise Hot Springs. Here, at the base of Arenal Volcano, a hot to warm water mineral spring flows through exotic tropical gardens, forming cascades and pools.... the perfect setting for an unforgettable experience. Following dinner at the hot springs we return to our rooms at the Arenal Montechiari. B/L/D DAY 5 – WEDNESDAY, JULY 27 - ARENAL VOLCANO AND LA FORTUNA WATERFALL After breakfast we visit a local school where we will be received by the students, beautifully dressed in traditional folkloric clothing, and directed to a classroom for an artistic performance. After seeing the rest of the school and an opportunity visit with the teachers and students we travel, in a tractor drawn wagon, to a local organic farm with its plantations of pineapple, papaya, yucca and medicinal gardens. We next visit La Casona, the renowned and elegant, turn-of-the-century country home of former Costa Rican president Rafael Iglesias. La Casona is considered to be one of the most-charming and authentic cultural sites in Costa Rica and our hosts, Elieth and Milton Molina, famous for their warm Tico hospitality, will introduce us to its interesting history. While our traditional lunch, served on a banana leaf and complete with fresh coffee, is being prepared we visit a 100 year old sugar cane mill to learn how the juice is extracted and converted into raw sugar, syrup and rum. In the afternoon we join our naturalist guide on a nature walk in Arenal National Park, part of the Arenal Tilaran Conservation Area. It protects eight of Costa Rica's 12 life zones and 16 reserves in the region between the Guanacaste and Tilarán mountain ranges. Most of Costa Rica’s 850 bird species, including the endangered resplendent quetzal, can be found within the park's borders. Other animals that occur here include white-faced capuchin and howler monkeys, jaguar, deer, coati, ruby-eyed tree frog, strawberry poison dart frog and snakes such as the fer-de-lance and parrot snake. The park’s plant life includes orchids, ferns, laurels, palms, bromeliads (including the endemic Pitcaimia funkiae) and strangler figs. Although Arenal is ranked as one of the world’s 10 most active volcanos most of its activity consists of smoldering cinder-blocks and lava flows. In the afternoon we hike through the rainforest to La Fortuna Waterfalls. Located near the town of La Fortuna, this waterfall emerges from dense jungle greenery before plunging some 200 feet into an emerald pool below. If we have brought along swim suits and a hearty sense of adventure we are welcome to swim in the chilly water below the falls. After dinner, in the town of La Fortuna, we return to our accommodations at the Arenal Montechiari. B/L/D DAY 6 – THURSDAY, JULY 28 - JUANILAMA ECOLOICAL RESERVE AND ECOCENTRO DANAUS In the morning we join our naturalist guide for a wildlife and nature walk in the Ecological Reserve Juanilama, which consists of 25 hectares of primary rainforest and has an impressive waterfall. In addition to its wildlife about 100 people live and work here. Most are stockbreeders and dairy farmers and they also raise pineapple, bananas and different types of root crops. Our 2 hour excursion includes a walk, of about 2 kilometers (1.25 miles), to the La Leona Waterfall. Here we can enjoy the scenic beauty of this lovely environment or swim in the crystal-clear water below the falls. Following lunch in La Fortuna we join our guide and walk to the Arenal Hanging Bridges. Later in the afternoon we take a hike in the Ecocentro Danaus Reserve where two and three-toed sloths, Central American agoutis, a huge variety of birds (over 150 different species have been identified), basilisks, iguanas, insects, and strawberry poison dart frogs are just a few of the wildlife species we may find. We also visit a butterfly breeding center where 30 species of Costa Rica’s day-active butterflies are raised. A natural spring on the property provides a habitat for boat-billed herons, red-eyed tree frogs and spectacled caimans and a medical plant garden provides us with an introduction to more than 60 different species of plants which have been found to contain medicinally important compounds.