After breakfast meet your private, Naturalist Guide in the hotel lobby and depart for Carara (2-hour drive). In the afternoon take an outrigger canoe tour near Jaco. Outriggers have been plying the warm waters of the world for centuries, long before the Columbus, the Vikings and the Polynesians were paddling to discover new worlds. The craft they invented remains basically unchanged, and you will get a bit of that exploratory feel as you paddle to the most beautiful beaches in the area. Overnight at Villa Caletas.

After breakfast visit the Waterfalls Canopy Tour with your Guide. Waterfalls Canopy Tour is located just outside Jac and only 10 kms from Carara National Park. It is part of an important ecological transition zone between Costa Rica’s dry northwest and the humid southern zone. Much of the Canopy's 46 hectares of protected area is covered with transitional rainforest growing on steep slopes and studded with massive trees laden with vines and epiphytes. The Canopy Tour consists of 13 platforms, 7 cables of varying lengths, a 3-story tree house, a Tarzan Swing, a suspension bridge and a 90-foot rappel down at the end (optional for the adventure seekers). After the tour, lunch at the Pelcano Restaurant. Afternoon free with your guide. Overnight at Villa Caletas.

After breakfast, your guide and driver will take you on the approximately 2 -hour drive to Monteverde, a peaceful community made up of dairy farmers, naturalists and tourism service providers who have joined together to create a model for sustainable development known throughout the world. Founded in 1954 by a group of Quakers searching for a peaceful place to live, Monteverde has three important protected forests: the Cloud Forest Reserve, the Children's Eternal Rainforest, and the Santa Elena Preserve. In the afternoon, accompanied by a Spanish-speaking guide, take a horseback ride through coffee and banana plantations and end up with a view of the sunset over the Gulf of Nicoya. Overnight at Monteverde Lodge & Gardens.

After breakfast at Monteverde Lodge, you will visit the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve with your guide. Founded in 1972, the Reserve extends down both slopes of the Tilaran Mountains (elevation 2,300 to 5,600 ft.), encompassing six different ecological life zones and protecting more than 100 species of mammals, 400 species of birds and 1,500 species of plants. From January to July, depending upon your luck and patience, you may observe in its natural habitat the Resplendent Quetzal (occasionally a dozen or more individuals at once). Other species include the Three-wattled Bellbird, the Emerald Toucanet, and White-faced and Howler Monkeys.

After lunch visit the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens, which include a nature center, four gardens, a 500-square-meter netted flyway, three greenhouses, a gift shop and botanical gardens. Founded in 1991 by biologist Jim Wolfe and his wife Marta Iris Salazar, the main focus of the project is environmental education. In the nature center, guests learn about the complexities of the butterfly life cycle and can see live eggs, caterpillars and chrysalids. In addition, there are demonstrations of other live, local insects. Expect to see the flashy Blue Morpho Butterfly, and the Owl Butterfly, the largest in the country. Overnight at Monteverde Lodge.

After breakfast, depart on an approximately 2 -hour drive in an air conditioned 4x4 vehicle from Monteverde to the dock at Rio Chiquito, a small town on the shore of Arenal Lake. Board a boat that will take you across the lake (15-30 minutes depending on wind conditions) to Arenal Dam. (Total transfer time from Monteverde to the Lost Iguana Hotel, via Arenal Lake is approximately 3 hours.) The Arenal Volcano is an almost perfect cone, which soars 1,633 meters above sea level, has a crater 140 meters deep formed over an ancient caldera. From time to time loud explosions are heard and a mushroom cloud of gray, brown, orange or blue smoke billows out of the top. Although the volcano is capable of inspiring intense fright and awe in visitors, inhabitants of nearby Fortuna, San Carlos and the dairy farms at its base seem to live with relative peace of mind. If you ask, they will tell you with surprising tranquility about the time it erupted.

After lunch, afternoon visit to Arenal Hanging Bridges Trails, a project that consists of eight fixed bridges, ranging in length between 8 and 22 meters, and six hanging bridges, built with the latest techniques and designed with an eye for both beauty and safety. The bridges and trails, which cover a distance of 3 kms., were designed to blend with the natural environment, leaving the forest virtually intact. As you walk, you be able to appreciate the great diversity of flowers and wildlife that are typical of the rainforest, along with the imposing views (weather permitting) of Arenal Volcano. Overnight at The Lost Iguana Resort.

After breakfast, join your guide for a half-day biking tour. The ride takes you on the old road connecting Arenal Dam with the main entrance to Arenal Volcano National Park. From there go toward the Arenal Observatory Lodge and the village of El Castillo. You’ll be biking on a quiet lane surrounded by dense forest and a few cattle farms. Along the way, look for Howler Monkeys, coatis and birds like toucans, egrets and kingfishers. Picnic on the shore of Lake Arenal where it’s possible to swim. The Volcano is visible during most of the ride and you may hear volcanic activity as you bike.

In the evening, a visit to the Hidalgo Family Hot Springs is planned. The Hidalgo Hot Springs are the ideal alternative to the mass tourism hot springs in the Arenal Area. When we first met the Hidalgos in 2000, they were reluctant to open up their family farm to visitors. Finally they agreed to try it by appointment only on a trial basis. They found, perhaps to their surprise, that they enjoyed having foreign guests on this basis and have now put in changing rooms and a restaurant. The springs consist of 5 free-flowing pools set in a natural river gorge. Water temperature ranges from 100F (38C) to 109F (43C) depending on the pool. A Costa Rican home-style meal in the restaurant, modeled after the first house that Don Manuel and Dona Hortemida Hidalgo built when they settled on the farm in 1940, is included. Overnight at The Lost Iguana Resort.

After breakfast at the hotel, you will drive to the La Fortuna airstrip (30 mins.) to meet your Costa Rica Adventure Vacation chartered flight** to Tortuguero. Your guide will accompany you. After lunch at Tortuga Lodge in Tortuguero, depart with your guide for a 3-hour kayak tour on the Tortuguero National Park jungle creeks.

Originally intended to protect a major nesting beach of the Atlantic green sea turtle, Tortuguero National Park now protects 51,870 acres, one of the last large areas of tropical rainforest in Central America. Eleven habitats are found in the park. Three species of monkeys (Spider, Howler, and White-faced), Three-toed sloths, and river otters are frequently seen along the natural inland waterways and canals. Caiman, iguanas, river turtles, Basilisk Lizards, and Poison Dart (Dendrobates) Frogs inhabit the area, along with more than 320 species of birds including all 6 species of kingfishers found in the new world, 3 species of toucans, 8 species of parrots, and other neotropical species such as the Slaty-tailed Trogon, White-collared Manakin, Purple-throated Fruitcrow, and White-fronted Nunbird and many more species which you will have the opportunity to observe during this morning boat ride through the back water creeks of Tortuguero National Park. Overnight at Tortuga Lodge & Gardens (deluxe room).

Today after breakfast at the hotel, depart with your guide for a 3-hour boat tour on the creeks in Tortuguero National Park. After lunch at the Lodge, your guide will take you to the village of Tortuguero. Learn about the history of the village and its efforts to get their basic needs met such as running water, medical and dental care, garbage collection and management. Visit the Park headquarters, the general goods store and walk through down the paths lines with colorful afro-Caribbean homes. Visit the Atlantic Green Sea Turtle Museum founded by the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC). The late Dr. Archie Carr began to study and tag the thousands of Atlantic Green Sea Turtles that every come yearly from June through October to Tortuguero Beach to lay their eggs. The study has continued without fail ever since, under the auspices of the CCC. It is the longest running continuous study of its kind in the world, and it has had a profound effect on the community of Tortuguero. Overnight at Tortuga Lodge.

Boat transfer to Cano Blanco where your driver will be waiting to take you and your guide back to San Jose (4 -hours). En route stop at the Rainforest Aerial Tram, a unique ecotourism and research facility in Sarapiqui. The tram takes visitors on a 90-minute excursion through the rainforest canopy and its hanging gardens of plants and animals. Home of two-thirds of all rainforest species, the canopy is a little-known world of beauty and biological diversity. The site, next to the northern border of Braulio Carrillo National Park, possesses one of the richest canopy communities in the world. Overnight Grano de Oro (deluxe room).

A Costa Rica Adventure Vacation transfer guide will meet you for the transfer the airport. You will arrive at the airport at least two hours before your flight’s scheduled departure.