Day 1, Arrival/San Jose

 

Arrival to Costa Rica. Meet our representative at the Juan Santamaría International Airport and transfer to your hotel near the capital city of San José, where Foto Verde Tours’ Greg Basco will be awaiting your arrival. Those who arrive early can take the afternoon to photograph the beautiful orchids and other tropical flowers in the hotel’s expansive gardens. The hotel has free wireless Internet throughout the grounds and in the rooms.

 

Day 2, Atlantic Rainforest

 

After an early breakfast, we check out and head to our first destination, a rainforest lodge where Foto Verde Tours has worked to set up a feeder that offers unparalleled opportunities to photograph keel-billed toucans, chestnut-mandibled toucans, and brown-hooded parrots, hummingbirds, and bats. We arrive at the lodge for lunch and set in immediately to photograph at the feeders!

 

Day 3, Atlantic Rainforest

 

Today we concentrate on photographing the amazing king vulture at a private blind. We'll also photograph toucans, oropendolas, parrots, and tanagers throughout the day. And this evening we have a special treat – bat photography!

 

Day 4, Atlantic Rainforest

 

This day we'll split the group into two. In the morning, half of us will head to a nearby house for hummingbird and macro photography. The other half of the group will visit another local house to photograph honeycreepers. After lunch back at our lodge, we'll switch it up. At the end of the day we'll enjoy a well-earned cold drink after this busy day of photography!

 

Day 5, Arenal Volcano

 

After an early breakfast, we travel to the Arenal Volcano area. Though currently experiencing a lull in activity, until recently Arenal had been the country's most active volcano, with continuous emissions of lava and incandescent pyroclastic flows since the beginning of the recent active cycle in 1968. En route to Arenal, we stop for lunch at a restaurant that has a large population of wild iguanas. We arrive at our lodge in the afternoon and, after check-in, photograph the sunset over Lake Arenal.

 

Day 6, Arenal Volcano

 

Today we travel to a nearby spot with an amazing collection of frogs, snakes, and lizards. This place is run by good friends of Foto Verde Tours, and the staff there will help us to photograph these colorful animals on natural stages that we will set up on site. This is a great opportunity to photograph a number of species that are very difficult to find in the wild and to begin working on creative lighting for pleasing macro images. We will enjoy a delicious home-cooked lunch as well as refreshments and coffee throughout the day. We return to our lodge in late afternoon to photograph the sunset and the Arenal Volcano.

 

Day 7, Cloud Forest

 

This day we have a chance to do some very special photography. We will spend all day and even the early evening photographing frogs, reptiles, and snakes out in the forest with wide angle lenses and flashes. We'll learn Greg's flash techniques for seamlessly blending flash and natural light. We enjoy a late dinner and then a well-deserved rest after we finish.

 

Day 8, Cloud Forest

 

After breakfast, we travel to the higher cloud forests of the northern Central Volcanic Mountain Range and our last lodge and photography base for the rest of our trip. Our lodge is located in one of the most biodiverse areas of the country, nestled in a picturesque valley at approximately 4,500 feet above sea level. With its rushing mountain streams, cool air, and orchid and moss-festooned trees, the area is akin to a tropical Colorado. En route, we stop at a local farm where Foto Verde Tours has worked to set up photo opportunities of the wild, free-flying great green and scarlet macaws that inhabit the owner's large farm property. Upon arrival to our lodge, we can explore the cloud forest for macro and landscape photos. This evening, Greg will do a presentation on the technical and artistic aspects of multiple-flash hummingbird photography. 

Day 9, Cloud Forest

 

After breakfast today, we set in immediately to begin photographing hummingbirds at our multi-flash setups right on the lodge grounds. We will concentrate on the violet sabrewing (Costa Rica’s largest species), green hermit, purple-throated mountain gem, and green-crowned brilliant. Greg and Paulo will run the setups and provide attractive native flowers to ensure that you capture some fantastic hummingbird images. Foto Verde Tours is the only company that has permission to do multi-flash hummingbird photography at this lodge. When not on the setups, you can relax and download images, shoot the black guans, tanagers, agouti, and coatimundi, or explore the cloud forest trails for macro and landscape photography.

 

Day 10, Cloud Forest

 

We visit a nearby waterfall that is 110 meters high and offers beautiful photographic opportunities of the waterfall itself and the surrounding cloud forest. There are some absolutely world-class landscape and lush tropical foliage images to be made here. In addition, we have permission to set up our multiple-flash here to take advantage of some very interesting small hummingbird species such as black-bellied hummingbird, coppery-headed emerald, and green thorntail. We'll shoot throughout the day, alternating our time between the setups, perched hummingbirds, and landscape photography.

 

Day 11, Back to San Jose

 

After breakfast, we check out and head back toward San Jose. En route, we stop at a local farm where Greg has worked to set up photo opportunities of the wild, free-flying great green and scarlet macaws that inhabit the owner's large farm property. We arrive to our capital city hotel in the afternoon with time to relax and then enjoy a farewell dinner in the evening at the hotel restaurant.

 

Day 12, Airport

 

Private transfer to the airport for your flight home.