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Tropical Fauna & Flora
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 breakfast, you will have a scenic drive to the beautiful
San Gerardo Valley. Nestled at 10,000 feet above sea level
in between the peaks of Costa Rica’s highest moutain
range, this picturesque location has one of the most abundant
populations of Resplendent Quetzals in the country, as
well as many hummingbirds that are easy to photograph
around the feeders at your lodge, which has its own private
reserve of oak cloud forest. Arrival for lunch is followed
by free time to explore the grounds and do some photography
around the feeders.
Hotel Bougainvillea (B) Savegre Lodge (L, D)
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Day 3
This morning you will have a guided hike to try to locate
a Quetzal to be photographed along the trails in Savegre’s
property. You will also have a good chance of photographing
other birds such as trogons and the highly photogenic
collared redstart. After a hearty lunch, you are free
to photograph more hummingbirds or to do scenic photography
of the oak forest and beautiful rushing cloud forest streams.
You might also consider driving a bit along the road in
search of acorn woodpeckers to photograph.
Savegre Lodge (B, L, D) |
Day
4
Morning departure for the San Vito area in Coto Brus,
not too far from the Panamanian border, with lunch en
route (price not included). Founded by Italians after
World War II, San Vito hosts one of the most impressive
tropical botanical collections in the world – the
Wilson Botanical Gardens at Las Cruces Biological Station.
Owned and managed by the Organization for Tropical Studies,
the gardens and field station are also an important habitat
for a number of bird species endemic to the southern part
of Costa Rica.
Savegre Lodge (B) Las Cruces (D)
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Day 5
All day at Las Cruces to photograph at your leisure. The
feeders just outside the restaurant offer good opportunities
to photograph silver-throated tanagers, Passerini’s
tanager, and the blue-crowned motmot. Since the botanical
collection covers a wide variety of plant families, there
are always colorful specimens of bromeliads, orchids,
heliconias, and palms that make for dramatic closeup images.
Las Cruces (B, L, D) |
Day
6
This morning you will travel down the mountain to the
Pacific Coast. You will be staying at La Cusinga Ecolodge,
which is an excellent spot for photographing wildlife
such as chestnut-mandibled toucans, fiery-throated aracaris,
and green and black poison dart frogs. La Cusinga also
offers spectacular views of the beach for images of waves
and sunsets. You will have all day to relax and photograph.
Las Cruces (B) La Cusinga Lodge (L, D) |
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Day 7
In the morning, you will travel by horseback to photograph
a beautiful local waterfall. After lunch, you can visit
Ballena National Marine Park, a particularly good location
for seascape images. Spend the afternoon staking out your
spots, and prepare to take your images as the late afternoon
light begins to develop.
La Cusinga Lodge (B, L, D) |
Day
8
After breakfast, transfer to Carara area in the Central
Pacific area. Carara is an important transitional zone,
where the dry forest from Costa Rica’s Northwest
overlaps with the rainforest of the South Pacific, resulting
in an extraordinary diversity of wildlife, including the
amazing Scarlet Macaw. Arrival for lunch is followed by
some time to relax and settle in. For the afternoon, you
will enjoy a boat ride on the Grande de Tarcoles River,
famous for its giant crocodiles. The ride also gives the
opportunity to photograph many species or water and shore
birds on the river banks and in the mangroves. Return
to the hotel for dinner and free evening. Be sure to check
out the ponds on the hotel grounds for photo opportunities
of colorful nocturnal tree frogs.
Villa Lapas (L, D)
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Day
9
Morning visit to Carara National Park. Carara has a distinctive
vegetation that includes examples from both dry and wet
forests, and it is one of the few nesting areas for the
Scarlet Macaw. Return to the hotel for a leisurely lunch
and afterward time to pack before departing for San José.
You will arrive at the Hotel Bougainvillea in the capital
city in late afternoon, with time to relax and pack for
your flight home the next day.
Note: The Hotel Bougainvillea offers free wireless
high-speed Internet throughout the property.
Villa Lapas (B, L) Hotel Bouganvillea (D)
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Day 10
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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