Day 1

Arrival in Costa Rica

Arrive at Liberia’s international airport and stay overnight downtown. If you arrive early in the afternoon, you’ll have time to explore the city including the strikingly modern church, the Museo de Sabanero which focuses on northwestern Costa Rica’s cowboy culture, and the Museo de Guanacaste, located in the city’s former headquarters & barracks featuring cultural exhibits & Costa Rican art.  Meals included: orientation dinner. 

Photo credit: José David Leiva, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38793000

Day 2

Transfer to Tenorio Volcano National Park

After breakfast, you’ll have some time to check out the sites/museums you didn’t get to on Saturday.  We’ll have lunch in Liberia or on our way to the Tenorio Volcano National Park and our mountain lodge hotel.  There will be an opportunity to check out the Lodge’s two-kilometer trail with Fabian.Meals included: breakfast & dinner.

Day 4

Tenorio Volcano National Park

Today we’ll spend in the Maleku indigenous community.  We’ll visit the Tonjibe village and spend time with a local family.  The community has had to adapt to a new lifestyle to survive and keep their traditions and culture intact, but even so they are working to preserve their language, dances, diet, clothing, and the use of natural medicines.  This cultural encounter involves visiting one of their traditional houses, a walk through a graveyard to see how they buried their family members in the past and through a botanical garden where they grow their medicines, and a performance of one of their traditional tribal rituals.  Our adventure will end with a typical Maleku lunch.  Meals included: breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Day 5

Transfer to Palo Verde

After a leisurely morning at the lodge, we’re transferring to the Palo Verde Biological Research Station.  On the way, we’ll have lunch in the small town of Canas (last chance for an ATM before we go to the Station!) and we will visit the Farallón of Canas.  The Corobici indigenous people recorded dozens of petroglyps on the 925 square-feet Farallón rock face.  They did this from the early years of the Christian era until about 800 AD according to anthropologist María Fernada Rojas. We’ll have lunch and get an orientation tour of the Research Station.  After you settle into your cabin, we’ll have dinner in the dining hall with the scientists and researchers in residence.  After dinner, we can take a night walk along the Station’s trails.  Meals included: breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Day 7

Palo Verde

This morning, we’re taking a two-hour, early morning (7:30) boat trip up the Rio Tempisque.   There will also be opportunity to walk the Station’s trails with Fabian. Meals included: breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Day 8

Palo Verde

The birders amongst us will have a chance before and after breakfast to do some birding on the Station trails with our naturalist guide.  There’s an option today, to take a second boat tour on the Rio Tempisque, but this time going downriver into the lush wetlands where we’ll hope to see monkeys, more birds, and crocodiles in their natural habitat. Meals included: breakfast, lunch & dinner.