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Rainforest Wildlife Open Photo Adventure
May 13-22, 2007
February 2-11, 2008
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.
Rosa de las Americas (no meals included)
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Day
2
After breakfast, we are off early for the Poas volcano
to photograph the world's second largest active crater.
After Poas, we head to Greg’s hometown of Zarcero
for an afternoon workshop at his home studio and backyard,
where we will review concepts such as camera functions,
exposure, light, composition, and color. We will enjoy
a typical lunch as well as coffee, juice, and homemade
bread throughout the day. As part of our hands-on learning,
we will have the opportunity to photograph hummingbirds
and tropical flowers in Greg’s garden. Later in
the afternoon, we will head out to the surrounding mountains
to photograph the fantastic sunsets that Zarcero offers.
After sunset, we head to a nearby restaurant for a group
dinner and evening photo review. This first day will be
a relaxing, but information-packed day designed to introduce
techniques and concepts that we will revisit throughout
our trip. Your overnight accommodations are a family-owned
bed and breakfast just off Zarcero’s famed park
and church.
Note: The Don Beto offers free Internet
to guests.
Rosa de las Americas (B) Greg’s house (L)
El Atico (D) Don Beto overnight |
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Day 3
After breakfast, we will travel to the La Fortuna area
for photography of the famous Arenal volcano. Our ecolodge,
the Arenal Observatory Lodge, affords some of the area’s
best photographic views of the Arenal volcano and offers
fantastic sunset views over Lake Arenal and the surrounding
hills. On the way, we will stop at the Danaus Ecocenter
for photos of boat-billed herons, tropical orchids, morpho
butterflies, and maybe even a sloth or rufous-tailed jacamar.
Upon arrival at our lodge, we will have time to unpack,
relax for a bit, and discuss some of the concepts of landscape
photography – in particular, the use of small apertures
to maximize depth of field, long exposures, use of polarizing
filters, controlling light with graduated filters (traditional
and digital), and composition. We will put these to practice
while photographing the volcano and the lake in late afternoon
light and at night after dinner from the hotel grounds
and the nearby rural road. In the afternoon, we will also
have the opportunity to produce excellent portraits of
the Montezuma oropendolas and coatimundis that frequent
the lodge grounds.
Arenal Observatory Lodge (D) Lava
Rocks Cafe (L)
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Day 4
Today, we will wake up for sunrise photographs of the
Arenal volcano. After breakfast, we will travel to a nearby
family-owned lodge to photograph tanagers, woodpeckers,
and honeycreepers on natural perches at their fruit feeders.
We can have lunch here or at our next destination, the
El Castillo snake zoo, which is owned by Greg's friend
Victor. Victor is very helpful and will set up plants
on which we can photograph numerous color forms of the
venemous eyelash viper as well as vine snakes and parrot
snakes. Toward the end of the day, we can search for red-eyed
tree frogs that come to breed in a small pond on the property.
After dinner back at the lodge, we will review our photos
and recap the lessons learned thus far with ample time
for questions and answers. If the weather is clear, we
can continue photographing the Arenal volcano’s
pyroclastics at night.
Arenal Observatory Lodge (B, D) El Castillo (L) |
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Day
5
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 country,
where Selva Verde is located, is home to over 500 bird
species and dozens of mammal, amphibian, and reptile species.
En route, we will stop to photograph a bit of local culture
at the numerous roadside fruit stands. We will also stop
in the small town of Muelle to photograph green iguanas
that are numerous in the trees just below a small river
bridge.
After lunch at our lodge, we will roam the grounds
of Selva Verde in search of wildlife subjects to photograph.
Selva Verde boasts excellent opportunities for photographing
emerald basilisk lizards, two species of poison frogs,
and birds such as motmots and collared aracaris. After
dinner, we will have a night hike to photograph red-eyed
tree frogs, chunkheaded snakes, leaf-mimic katydids
and anything else we can find.
Arenal Observatory Lodge (B) Selva Verde Lodge
(L, D) |
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Day 6
Optional early morning bird hike before breakfast or time
for bird photography at the lodge feeders on your own.
We can also attempt to photograph the two jewel-like species
of poison dart frogs present on the Selva Verde Lodge
grounds. After breakfast, we will depart for the La Paz
Waterfalls Gardens, a cloud forest garden complex located
at the base of the Poas volcano. We will spend the day
at La Paz putting our photographic skills to the ultimate
test, photographing subjects ranging from butterflies
to hummingbirds to emerald toucanets to orchids to tree
frogs to 100 foot high waterfalls – all in just
a few hours! We will return to Selva Verde Lodge in the
late afternoon with time to relax on the Lodge’s
riverside terrace area, have a cold drink, and review
the day’s photos on our laptops.
Selva Verde Lodge (B, D) La Paz Waterfall Gardens
(L) |
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Day
7
After an early breakfast, we head toward the jungle canals
of Tortuguero, a region of Costa Rica that has no roads
but lots of rainforest and amazing animals. We travel
to Tortuguero by boat, and though this is basically a
transport trip, we may be able to photograph a black-necked
stilt or sloth along the way. After lunch, we have a private
boat tour through the canals of the Tortuguero National
Park to photograph herons, egrets, caimans, monkeys, sunbitterns
and a wide range of other wildlife. After dinner, we will
take a night hike to search for nocturnal creatures such
as the famed red-eyed tree frog.
Selva Verde Lodge (B) Evergreen Lodge (L, D)
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Day 8
After breakfast, we head out for a full morning of photography
on the lodge grounds and adjacent rainforest looking for
monkeys, toucans, and all manner of small subjects such
as insects and flowers. After a leisurely lunch, we will
enjoy another private boat ride through the mysterious
jungle canals in the fantastic Tortuguero National Park
in search of water birds, caimans, monkeys, and sloths.
Optional night hike after dinner to photograph nocturnal
rainforest frogs and insects.
Evergreen Lodge (B,L,D) |
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Day
9
After breakfast we will have time to take some last photos
of birds and other wildlife on the lodge grounds before
our departure for the capital city of San Jose. We will
stop for a typical lunch en route. Upon arrival at our
hotel in the hills above the capital city, we will have
time to unpack, relax, and confirm departure flights.
After reviewing photos and providing any remaining caption
info, we will enjoy a farewell dinner at a local restaurant
near our hotel.
Tortuguero Lodge (B) Lunch TBD Dinner at restaurant
next to Buena Vista, overnight at Buena Vista Hotel |
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Day 10
Private transfer to the Juan Santamaria International
Airport for your departure flight back home.
Hotel Buena Vista (B) |
Rainforest
Wildlife Open Tour Pricing |
| #
of participants |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9
- 15 |
| price
per person |
$1,794 |
$1,738 |
$1,701 |
$1,590 |
$1,455 |
$1,445 |
Open
signup tour prices are in US dollars and include
all taxes and service charges. except for tips.
Prices also include all services as specified in
the itinerary above. Note that the prices do not
include international airfare. Final price depends
on the number of participants that sign up. We will
communicate the final price to you no fewer than
60 days from the start of the tour. Your reserve
deposit counts as a payment toward your total trip
cost. Transportation is in a spacious and air-conditioned
minibus with a professional driver. |
Click the button above to
reserve your spot on one of our open signup photo adventures.
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