Pick up your rental car upon arrival at the airport and drive to Sarapiquí, an adventurer's paradise. Sarapiqui is also home to a number of nature reserves and national parks including the Braulio Carrillo National Park. A lush and green area, Sarapiqui is also famous for its agricultural activity, since it is a major banana producing region in Costa Rica. However, coffee, cardamom, cacao, corn, pineapple, the heart of palm and other fruits are also grown here; therefore the agro-tourism is also an important activity that all the visitors can benefit from.

Today after breakfast you travel to the river port to get the boat that will take you to your lodge in the canals of Boca Pacuare. Today’s destination is the north coast with its fascinating canals, very similar to the canals of the Tortuguero National Park, considered the Costa Rican Amazonia.  Your boat will take you up to this natural area, with its extensive system of canals, and to the lodge where you will spend the night. Your guide will give you detailed explanations of this complex Eco-system. Many compare Boca Pacuare with Tortuguero 30 years ago!

Another full day to explore the area: a floating trip on the canals is a great opportunity to see a big variety of birds, reptiles, monkeys, and butterflies.  You will visit the little town and the interesting conservation of the sea turtle project.  When in season, the leatherback sea turtle can be spotted nesting or hatchlings running from the beach to the ocean for the first time.

After breakfast, you will get back on the boat through the canals so you can rejoin your car at the port and head to the South Caribbean. Here, you can visit an iguana conservation project lead by the Bribri Indigenous Group of the Kekoldi Reserve. You will have the rest of the afternoon and night to enjoy the relaxing Caribbean mood, their music and gastronomy, as you reach one of the best beaches in Costa Rica.

After meeting your local guide in Manzanillo, you will hike this amazing refuge. It was created in 1985, to protect both marine (4,436 hectares) and coastal land areas (5,013 hectares). It also integrates the people whose traditional lifestyle has always been to care for their natural environment, so it has some residential/ecotourism zones. After the hike, you will board your boat to search for dolphins: between Punta Mona (Monkey Point) and the mouth of the Sixaola River you can observe three species of dolphins, including the rare Small Pink Tucuxi.

The Jaguar Rescue Center is a temporary or permanent home for ill, injured and orphaned animals. You will find monkeys, sloths, other mammals, birds and reptiles since the Center provides veterinary services, round-the-clock care and comfort to animals that would otherwise be unable to survive in the rainforest or the sea of the Caribbean. Whenever possible, the animals will return to nature! Their work is inspiring and a good model to help the conservation of the local fauna.

Today you drive back to the valleys, but this time you’ll take a detour and will end up in Turrialba, the city that was once the gateway to the Atlantic coast, and now it’s an important agricultural region and tourism destination.Recommendation to stop at the biggest archaeological site of Costa Rica, Guayabo National Monument.

The Wildlife Refuge The Marta is a protected area that is approximately 1518 hectares. Surrounded by five rural communities whose main activities are subsistence farming and ranching, the refuge provides a great natural barrier to stop the expansion of deforestation. It is also the gateway to the National Park La Amistad and Death Tapantí Massif, two of the 12 protected areas that make up the large block of territory incorporated into the Biosphere Reserve of Friendship and Natural World Heritage Site, nominations international awarded to the Cordillera de Talamanca by UNESCO.Once a coffee plantation, the visit is also a historical one, as you will be able to see the ruins of one of the most important coffee processing systems of the early 1900s. Of course, the bio-diversity is great so this is not only a bird watching tour but a wildlife searching walk with great history and culture!

Today you drive back to the San José for your last night in Costa Rica. We do recommend that you visit the highest volcano in Costa Rica, over 3400 meters above sea level. The last time Irazú erupted was in the first half of the 1960s when it constantly threw ashes for four years covering the cities of Cartago and San José. Today, as you travel along the southern slope of the volcano to the park, the potato, onion, and cabbage fields give way to dairy farms at a higher elevation. The summit of Volcán Irazú has three craters rimmed by gnarled, scorched trees, and lined with a brilliantly coloured rain fed mineral pool, where you can easily imagine yourself walking on the moon.

Get in your rental car for the last time to drop it off at the international airport in San Jose in time to board your flight back home. Hasta luego!