| Our campuses in Costa
Rica offer a mix of in-school activities such as dance classes
and cooking lessons (at no extra cost) with a whole range
of tours and activities that differ by school. Here is a sample of some tour activities for the different
campuses. Our schools organise one half day our each week
and one full day weekend tour each week. These tours can be booked at the school or are already included
if you booked the Deluxe Course. The tour schedule varies
every week and is subject to weather conditions. TURRIALBA Rio Pejibaye Scenic Float Trip (Half day excursion)
Close to Turrialba, this gem of a little river features excellent
tropical and rainforest canopy and water so clear it's almost
blue in color. There are a number of different access points
near the school, which allow us the ability to tailor the
trip to different groups. Some sections have class 3 rapids,
whereas the Scenic Float Trip is a perfect activity for those
who wish to go rafting, but do not want to deal with difficult
whitewater runs. This trip offers excellent scenery, aquatic
birds, and opportunities for clean water swimming. This is
a wonderful way to spend an afternoon in a tropical paradise. Coffee Adventure (Half day excursion)
We will show you, not only authentic local agricultural and
sustainable forestry methods of planting and production in
beautiful locations, but also take you back on a historical
voyage way back into the cultural, agricultural and commercial
past of this private farm and the petroglyphs discovered there.
The Contreras Family has been farming for over 50 years in
this area of Turrialba once known as the Eagles View (Barrio
Colorado). Here they utilize nurse trees to shade the coffee,
and grow a diversity of other cash crops to shield them from
the risk of unstable coffee prices on the World market. This
crops include wood trees, and fruit trees like bananas, plantain,
lemons and citrus trees. We will discuss how he balances the
harvesting of these trees to avoid damage to the coffee. Horseback Tour to Laguna Bonilla (Full day weekend
excursion)
Students are picked up in Turrialba Saturday morning and driven
a half-hour from Turrialba to the remote village of Peralta.
There they saddle up their horses at the Rain Forest World
Banana Farm and ride down the abandoned railroad tracks of
the famous jungle train. This will takes students through
primary and secondary rainforests, past numerous bridges and
even a long tunnel. After a couple of hours the tour turns
up into the hills and soon arrives at the extremely remote
and secluded Laguna Bonilla, a beautiful volcanic lake. There
the tour will stop for an hour and half and students can swim
in the lake and eat lunch. At the end of the day the driver
will pick everyone up and take them back down to Turrialba PLAYA DOMINICAL Flight of the Toucan Zipline Tour (Half day tour)
This is the most exciting of the tours offered by Hacienda
Baru. The group arrives to the reserve at 2:00 p.m., where
they are geared up with harnesses and helmets. Then after
a short hike up into the rainforest, you arrive at the first
platform where you can launch yourself across the valley below.
During the tour, your guides explain the flora and fauna of
the primary and secondary rainforest around you, including
the 150 year-old trees, sloths, and poison dart frogs you
may encounter along the way. Recommended items: comfortable
shoes for walking, camera, water, and insect repellent. Cowboy for a Half a Day
For this visit to Rancho La Merced, you will learn to ride
horses on the ranch driving cattle. Techniques are taught
how rope cattle, tag a new calf, and check cow's heat cycle,
and maintain the ranch. Things to bring: sunscreen, insect
repellant, comfortable clothes you can get dirty, pants for
riding, sneakers or boots. Trip to Manuel Antonio National Park (Full day weekend
tour)
Leaving at 7 a.m., you get to travel past private nature reserves
and palm plantations north from Dominical to Quepos, possibly
sighting monkeys, pizotes, or sloths up in the canopy. Then
the ride continues to the park entrance, where a bi-lingual
guide will help you spot all four species of monkeys found
in Costa Rica with their telescope, along with identifying
some of the ancient trees of the primary rainforest. After
the approximately 3 hour hike through the National Park's
well maintained trails, you get to relax on the amazing beach,
check out the local artisan stands, or rent a kayak to paddle
out to a uninhabited island before returning to Dominical
at about 4 p.m. Recommended items: comfortable hiking shoes
or sandals, swimsuit, sunscreen, and insect repellent. ARENAL Arenal Volcano Tour (Half day tour)
Hiking tour: Takes 20 minutes from the school to the Arenal
Volcano National Park. The guide starts the tour giving a
brief description of the area. There are different trails
and the most interesting one is the old lava flows trail,
where students can appreciate the vestiges of last eruptions.
At almost sunset time, we walk into the primary and secondary
forest trails to watch several animals of the area, such as:
toucans, guams, white nose coatis, parrots, and more. Returning
from the park, around 6:00, we stop in a special view point
to admire the lava flowing from the volcano. Rio Toro Rafting (Full day weekend tour)
Rio Toro is a pristine water river located one hour away from
La Fortuna. This is a class 2 and 3 rapids river, so any experience
is required. Birds and some mamals are easy to see on the
border of the river. We enjoy the lunch in a beach river in
the middle of the tour. Canopy Tour and Horseback Riding (Full day weekend
tour)
The adventure begins when you arrive at the stables and the
guides give you an idea of your tour, then you get part of
your equipment and you horseback ride for approximately 45
minutes. When we arrive at our destination, we give you the
rest of the necessary equipment. We continue with a short
walk through the transitional forest where a guide points
out things that prevail in the rain forest. Some times it
is possible to see several species of animals, such as white
faced and howler monkey, rodents, snakes and a great diversity
of birds. |
|
Important links:
Overview
Deluxe
course
Intensive
Course |
