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Rainforest Digital Learning Adventure
Day 1
Arrival to Costa Rica. Meet our representative at the
Juan Santamaría International Airport and transfer
to your hotel on the outskirts of Costa Rica’s capital
city, San José.
Note: The Hotel Bougainvillea
offers free wireless high-speed Internet throughout the
property.
Bougainvillea Hotel (No meals included)
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Day
2
After an early breakfast, you will travel to the Central
highlands for your full-day workshop with Foto Verde’s
Gregory Basco in the picturesque town of Zarcero. We will
shoot all day focusing on camera techniques with flowers,
songbirds, and hummingbirds and then sunsets and skies
later in the afternoon. Your lodging overnight will be
at the local Don Beto B&B in Zarcero, with dinner
on your own at a local restaruant in town (dinner price
not included).
Hotel Bougainvillea (B) Greg’s House (L)
Don Beto Overnight
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Day 3
After an early breakfast, you will head northwest toward
your next destination, the Lands in Love nature hotel.
Located in the Arenal Biological Corridor amidst spectacular
transitional forest that hosts both highland and lowland
species from the Atlantic Slope of the Tilaran moutain
range, Lands in Love is a photographer’s paradise.
Greg Basco of Foto Verde Tours has been working with the
owners of this lodge to place fruit and nectar feeders
with natural perches that offer outstanding opportunities
for photos of colorful birds such as Passerini’s
tanager, golden-hooded tanager, honeycreepers, and even
the collared aracari, a relative of the toucan. The feeders
also attract a variety of hummingbirds (e.g., the green
hermit, band-tailed barbthroat, and the occasional black-crested
coquette). Upon arrival, you can have lunch, and then
settle in and head out along the hotel’s road to
photograph the misty forests in late afternoon light.
Or you might want to photograph some of the blooming orchid
flowers in the hotel’s sizable orchid collection.
Note: Lands in Love offers free wireless high-speed
Internet via satelite throughout the property.
Don Beto (B) Lands in Love (L, D) |
Day
4
Today you can wake up early and photograph songbirds at
the customized fruit feeders. After lunch, you can continue
to photograph the birds, relax by the pool, or take one
of the optional tours available at Lands in Love. These
include horseback riding, canopy ziplines, and canyoning.
Or enjoy an optional yoga or massage therapy session (price
not included for these activities, which can be arranged
with the front desk). Later in the afternoon, photograph
hummingbird at the hotel’s feeders and nearby perches.
Hummingbirds become particularly active in the late afternoon
as they try to store up energy for the coming night.
Note: Lands in Love offers free wireless high-speed
Internet via satelite throughout the property.
Lands in Love (B, L, D) |
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Day 5
After breakfast, you may continue with hummingbird photography
or just relax and organize your things for your next destination,
the Arenal Observatory Lodge. Stop along the way at one
of the many roadside restaurants for lunch (price not
included). Arenal is the country’s most active volcano,
with continuous emissions of lava and incandescent pyroclastic
flows since the beginning of the present active cycle
in 1968. On clear nights, the views of incandescent avalanches
are breathtaking! You will arrive in the late afternoon
with time to photograph the volcano and the sunset over
Lake Arenal. The Arenal Observatory Lodge affords some
of the area’s best photographic views of the famous
Arenal volcano and offers fantastic sunset views over
Lake Arenal and the surrounding hills.
Lands in Love (B) Arenal Observatory Lodge (D)
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Day
6
Early wakeup for sunrise photographs of the Arenal volcano.
After breakfast, you will visit the nearby Danaus Ecocenter
for great photographic opportunities of tropical butterflies
and their life cycle, tropical flowers, reptiles, and
possibly even the unusual boat-billed heron. After lunch
(on your own at the restaurant of your choice, price not
included) you will head to the Aerial Skytram, where you
will have a late afternoon tram ride over the forest canopy
with spectacular views of the Arenal Volcano and Lake
Arenal as well as a good opportunity for aerial shots
of the rainforest canopy. After dinner back at the Lodge,
you can photograph the volcano and lava flows at night
from the observation deck just outside the restaurant.
Arenal Observatory Lodge (B, D) |
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Day 7
After breakfast this morning, we travel to the Selva Verde
Lodge located in the tropical lowlands of northeastern
Costa Rica. The lodge is situated on a 500-acre private
tract of primary and secondary tropical rainforest on
the Sarapiquí River. Sarapiquí county, where
Selva Verde is located, is home to over 500 bird species
and dozens of mammal, amphibian, and reptile species.
Accommodations at Selva Verde are in jungle lodges built
on stilts above the forest floor, connected by a network
of covered walkways. After lunch, you will enjoy a boat
tour on the Sarapiquí River, an excellent and relaxing
way to photograph caimans (a crocodile relative), herons,
anhingas, kingfishers, basilisk lizards, and possibly
even howler monkeys and sloths. Take the late afternoon
to photograph the beautiful Sarapiquí River in
late afternoon light.
Arenal Observatory Lodge (B) Selva Verde Lodge
(L, D) |
Day
8
Optional early morning bird hike before breakfast (courtesy
of Selva Verde Lodge) or time for bird photography at
the lodge feeders on your own. You can also attempt to
photograph the two jewel-like species of poison dart frogs
present on the Selva Verde Lodge grounds. After breakfast,
you will depart for the La Paz Waterfalls Gardens, a cloud
forest garden complex located at the base of the Poas
volcano. You will spend the day at La Paz putting your
photographic skills to the ultimate test, photographing
subjects ranging from butterflies to hummingbirds to emerald
toucanets to orchids to 100 foot high waterfalls –
all in just a few hours! Return to Selva Verde Lodge in
the late afternoon with time to relax on the Lodge’s
riverside terrace area with a cold drink.
Selva Verde Lodge (B, D) La Paz Waterfall Gardens
(L)
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Day 9
After an early breakfast, you will check out and then
visit Heliconia Island, a local botanical garden and outstanding
location for flower and bird photography located on the
banks of the placid Puerto Viejo river. The owner has
fruit feeders with natural bird perches that make for
great portraits of species of tanagers, honeycreepers,
and woodpeckers. Colorful Heliconia flowers abound and
are especially interesting photographic subjects in terms
of color and shape. You will enjoy a delicious lunch cooked
by Heliconia Island’s owner and served in his ranch-style
dining area with a beautiful river view. After lunch,
you will depart for San José, arriving again at
the Hotel Bougainvillea with time for photography in the
wonderful tropical gardens outside the hotel. Or just
relax and e-mail friends and family before dinner.
Note: The Hotel Bougainvillea offers free wireless
high-speed Internet throughout the property.
Selva Verde (B) Heliconia Island (L) Hotel Bougainvillea
(D) |
Day 11
Private transfer to the Juan Santamaria International
Airport for your departure flight back home.
Note:
The Hotel Bougainvillea offers free wireless high-speed
Internet throughout the property.
Hotel Bougainvillea (B) |
Click
the button above to fill out our online customized trip
form.
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