The Nicoya Peninsula nature reserve that changed Costa Rica history

The tiny nature reserve at the extreme southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica seems too pretty and unassuming to have changed history, though it did.

The Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve – Costa Rica’s first privately protected reserve – put the ecotourism capital of the world on the path to protecting the country’s natural resources.

It all started in 1960, when Swede Nicolas Wessberg (known as Olaf or Olle) and his Danish wife Karen Mogensen bought a farm near the town of Montezuma on the southern Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific Coast. Like much of Costa Rica at the time, the forest on the peninsula was completely cut for farming and cattle except for a small piece of primary forest.

The nature loving conservationists, impressed by the abundant wildlife and the enormous size and diversity of trees still left, bought 3,100 acres with the help of an international conservation organization.

 In October 1963, the Costa Rican government gave it the status of the country’s first privately protected reserve, which eventually led to the development of Costa Rica's extensive national park system.

Today, the Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve safeguards 3,140 terrestrial acres and 4,420 marine acres. With pure white sand beaches covered with colorful shells, clear aquamarine sea, waterfalls and rivers, huge trees and abundant wildlife, Cabo Blanco is one of the most scenically beautiful areas of Costa Rica. 

Since before the time of the Spanish conquistadors, this area has been known as the “White Cape,” or “Cabo Blanco,” for the bird guano-encrusted rock island that is located 1.6 km offshore. Cabo Blanco Island is an important seabird sanctuary, inhabited by large numbers of Brown Pelicans, Magnificent Frigates, Laughing Gulls, Ospreys and the largest colony of Brown Boobies in Central America.

About 150 species of trees have been identified in the Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve. The forest is home to animals such as white-tailed deer, agoutis, armadillos, anteaters, coyotes, porcupines, raccoons, coatis, and howler and white-faced capuchin monkeys. Wild cats include margays, ocelots and jaguarundis. Due to the combination of sea coast, freshwater rivers, mountains and forest, you can see hundreds of different types of birds, including roseate spoonbills, kingfishers, toucans and bellbirds, in addition to the sea birds.

The Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve is open Wednesday to Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There are two main trails to hike. The shortest trail, called “Sendero Danes” (Danish Trail), is 1.3 km long and can be easily walked in a morning or afternoon. The longest trail, called “Sendero Sueco” (Swedish Trail), is more than 4 km and leads you to the pristine white sand beach in front of Cabo Blanco Island. This trip will take more than half a day, so plan to bring snacks, plenty of drinking water and allow time to enjoy the beach and have a swim. There are fresh water showers and drinking water available at the beach.

Where to stay on the Nicoya Peninsula:

Pranamar Oceanfront Villas & Yoga Retreat is a top beachfront hotel in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. The Costa Rica beach resort can arrange guided hiking tours in Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve. The holistic resort specializes in yoga and surfing holidays, daily yoga classes, and yoga retreats. Pranamar is offering Costa Rica yoga vacation package special deals from July 5 to Aug. 8, 2014.

Article by Shannon Farley

Costa Rica river trips and bird-watching at Maquenque Eco Lodge

The rivers in Costa Rica are as diverse as the terrain of mountains, volcanoes, rainforest valleys and lowland jungle through which they flow.

A trip down one of Costa Rica’s rivers, either by raft, canoe, kayak or small boat, is an excellent way to see some of the country’s extraordinary wildlife. Trees that line most river banks may hold troops of monkeys, lounging iguanas and boas, and birds such as egrets, herons, ibis, ospreys, and colorful kingfishers. Crocodiles and caimans like to sun themselves on muddy banks, or may be cleverly disguised as that “log” you see floating in the water. You may even catch sight of playful river otters or sunning river turtles.

In the Northern Plains of Costa Rica, the San Carlos River flows 148 kilometers from near Volcano Arenal to where it joins the San Juan River on the northern border with Nicaragua. On the banks of the San Carlos River, Maquenque Eco-Lodge opens the door for travelers to experience the remarkable rainforest of the Maquenque National Wildlife Refuge. Maquenque is an important region for birds in Costa Rica, and is on the migratory path for many bird species between North and South America.

Maquenque Eco-Lodge is one of the top bird-watching hotels in Costa Rica, with more than 410 species identified in the area. When a guest, be sure to go on a guided bird-watching tour through their gardens, wetlands and forest paths.

Trips on the San Carlos River, nearby Tres Amigos River, and on the lagoon at the Costa Rica eco-lodge are excellent for bird-watching and wildlife viewing.

San Carlos River Boat Tour

This trip explores downstream on the San Carlos River by boat. Wildlife you might see include crocodiles, river turtles, bats, herons, kingfishers, king vultures, and much more. Close to the Nicaragua border, the boat stops to visit the small village of Boca Tapada San Carlos.

Tres Amigos River Float Trip

Paddling a raft down the serene waters of the remote Tres Amigos River, through rainforest with overhanging trees and vines, is one of the most tranquil ways to discover Costa Rica’s great beauty. Crystal clear water harbors river otters, crocodiles and river turtles, and the surrounding forest is home to Great Green Macaws, Scarlet Macaws, toucans, aquatic birds, iguanas, and several species of monkeys.

Canoeing on the Lagoon

Early morning is the best time to float softly on the water of the lagoon at Maquenque Eco-Lodge. Listen to the rainforest wake up with all of its amazing sights and sounds.

Visit Maquenque Eco-Lodge

Accommodations at the eco-lodge are simple and comfortable in 14 bungalows, each having private bathrooms with hot water, and balconies overlooking the lagoon. Eight kilometers of trails wind through the Costa Rica rainforest lodge’s 68-acre property.

Maquenque Eco Lodge produces 70% of their fruits and vegetables for their restaurant in a large garden and fruit orchard.

Article by Shannon Farley

Visiting Nosara Costa Rica, is easy with seasonal travel deals

Recommended as one of the best places to go in 2014 by CNN and National Geographic, Nosara Costa Rica is now easier and more affordable to visit than ever. Leading luxury hotel in Nosara, L'acqua Viva Resort & Spa, is currently offering special green season rates to all guests who make direct reservations with the hotel.

From now through June 30, 2014, all guests who make direct reservations or online reservations will receive a 25% discount on all room rates.

Come later in the year, and take advantage of an even better deal: From Sept. 1 to Dec. 15, 2014, all guests who make direct reservations or online reservations will receive a 30% discount on all room rates.

Among luxury hotels in Costa Rica, L'acqua Viva Resort & Spa is a top boutique hotel in Nosara. Located at the beach of Playa Guiones, the hotel’s exotic Bali-style architecture surrounds abundant fountains, ponds and swimming pools.

Accommodations at L’acqua Viva Resort range from Deluxe Rooms to Suites, Master Suites, Junior Villas and the splendid Presidential Suite. Villas and Master Suites now feature Wi-Fi, in addition to the Wi-Fi hotspot in the restaurant, bar, lobby and pool area.

Playa Guiones at Nosara on the Guanacaste Pacific Coast is renowned for some of the best surfing in Costa Rica. The uncrowded beautiful beach also is home to the famous Nosara Yoga Institute and the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge – one of the few Costa Rica beaches where you can observe sea turtles nesting year-round. 

Article by Shannon Farley

Puerto Viejo Costa Rica sloths steal the show in Sloth Week

The slow-moving sloths of Costa Rica are streaking into the limelight with their own weeklong online special program. Starting June 20, 2014, Animal Planet and Animalist will stream daily footage from the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica.

Cute and cuddly sloths of the Caribbean Costa Rica have been in the spotlight since last year’s program “Meet the Sloths” aired on Animal Planet. The two-hour special program will run again on June 21 at 8:00 a.m. EST. The story follows a year in the lives of five sloths at the Sloth Sanctuary.

Located on the Southern Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica, just south of Limon on the way to Puerto Viejo Costa Rica, the Sloth Sanctuary rescues, protects and rehabilitates sloths. You can see sloths in person on a sloth tour.

“Sloth Week” will show six days of sloth-related Web content, sloth facts, the most adorable and interesting sloth videos and live cams. “So much sloth greatness, we gave them their own week,” reports Animal Planet.

You can visit the Sloth Sanctuary on a fun half-day tour. Tuesday through Sunday (closed Monday), tours start at 8:00 a.m. and go every hour on the hour; the last tour is at 2:00 p.m.

More top Caribbean Costa Rica tours

Turtle nesting: See giant Leatherback sea turtles, along with Hawksbill, Green and occasionally Loggerhead sea turtles, make their nests and lay their eggs on Gandoca-Manzanillo beaches.

Bribri Chocolate Tour: Learn about cacao’s long history in Costa Rica, its importance in the Bribri indigenous culture, and organic chocolate making.

Pacuare River Whitewater Rafting: For its sheer beauty and phenomenal class 3-5 whitewater rapids, the Pacuare River of Costa Rica is one of the world’s top whitewater river rafting adventures.

Cahuita National Park: Cahuita National Park is one of the most beautiful parks in Costa Rica, known for its white sand beaches fringed with endless coconut trees, calm and clear sea and spectacular coral reefs.

Where to stay: When visiting the southern Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica, the place to stay is Hotel Le Caméléon. The vibrant Costa Rica boutique hotel fronts the dazzling, turquoise Caribbean Sea and golden sand of Playa Cocles – one of the area’s most beautiful beaches.

 Hip, modern and upscale, Le Caméléon features ultra-chic rooms, beautiful tropical architecture, and lush jungle gardens. The elegant Le Numu Restaurant & Bar is one of the area’s top restaurants; and the newly remodeled La Sula Sea Lounge beach club is the place to hang out by the shore and meet friends for a cool drink or a light meal.

Article by Shannon Farley

See amazing wildlife and nature at Portasol eco-community.

What goes on in the rainforest when we’re not there? At Portasol Rainforest & Ocean View Living community in Costa Rica, they’re finding out with the help of a few hidden camera traps.

Camera traps placed in the rainforest at Portasol – located on the Central Pacific Coast between Manuel Antonio and Dominical – have captured images of such exotic Costa Rican animals as this ocelot, followed by a tayra and a nine-banded armadillo. The cameras have been placed in the 200-acre Portasol Biological Reserve and on property lots nearby.

“We attach them to a tree where animals pass by. They are motion activated and work at night with special illumination,” explained Stefano Luconi, Portasol client services manager. “We want to show people the biodiversity and nature that we have here in Portasol.”

Every few weeks, they pick them up to check the images. So far, they have caught on film the ocelot, tayra and nine-banded armadillo, along with an agouti, collared peccaries, a Great Tinamou and her chicks, male and female Great Curassows, a skunk and an opossum.

Other wildlife that Luconi, other staff and Portasol residents often see roaming around Portasol’s vacation bungalows and homes, include basilisk lizards, red-eyed tree frogs, poison dart frogs, toucans, trogons, geckos, iguanas, white-faced capuchin monkeys, sloths and coatis.

Portasol’s nature reserve is part of a large biological corridor that connects with three of Costa Rica’s most well-known national parks – Corcovado, Manuel Antonio, and Los Quetzales. A wide range of microclimates and topography on Portasol’s 1,300 acres of pure rainforest along the Portalón River Valley allow for high wildlife diversity.

The Costa Rica sustainable residential community, in the coastal mountains near Matapalo Beach, has building lots for sale and offers tourism hospitality with unique vacation rentals.

Article by Shannon Farley

Find out why people love living in Atenas Costa Rica

There are as many reasons for moving to Costa Rica as there are foreign residents living here. Every year, millions of tourists come to Costa Rica on vacation. Some choose to stay longer and make the leap to move here permanently.

The small, country town of Atenas Costa Rica, is one of the leading places that have captured the hearts of foreign residents.

“I love living here,” said Atenas resident Anna Hunt, who is originally from Poland. “One of the main reasons we picked Atenas is because we wanted a cool fresh climate, and it is close to the beach, close to the airport, and close to the city.”

“Atenas is a wonderful location. We’re beautifully situated in the Central Valley but we’re not in San Jose. Atenas has a wonderful climate,” commented longtime Atenas resident and U.S. citizen Scott Schlieman.

“We picked Atenas because of location – being half-way between San Jose and the beach,” agreed Darlyce Brown of Canada. “We love Atenas for the climate, living in the country and being a small town. People are very friendly. It’s a quaint old-style village.”

Well-positioned less than an hour from the capital city of San Jose to the east and some of the best Pacific Coast beaches to the west, the charming town of Atenas, Costa Rica, offers its residents the best of all worlds: year-round warm tropical weather, stunning mountain landscapes, and panoramic valley, volcano and coastal views.

• Atenas’ warm sunny days and cool mountain nights are owed to its elevation range of 2,200 to 4,000 feet.
• Atenas has easy access to all three major highways of central Costa Rica.
• Quality medical care is close by.
• There are public and private bilingual schools.
• Atenas is a short 20 minute drive to the San Jose International airport.
• Atenas has all of your basics: banks, grocery stores, bakeries, pharmacies, medical facilities, shops, and one of the best farmers’ markets around.

Costa Rica is a hot retirement destination and is ranked by International Living, HelpAge International and AARP as a top place to retire. “We’ve been coming to Costa Rica for nine years on vacation, and my husband really wanted to move here,” said Pippa Baumgartner of England. “We like that Atenas is the real Costa Rica. It’s not just foreigners.”

Others, like Scott Schlieman and Anna Hunt, transported their working life to Atenas, now working on-line from home for their businesses. Still others have bought Atenas real estate as a second home and use it as a Costa Rica vacation rental.

No matter the reason you want to move to Atenas, Costa Rica, you’ll need a reliable realtor who specializes in Atenas homes for sale and residential development. Dennis Easters and Gerardo Gonzalez-Porras of Pure Life Development of Atenas are certified with the Costa Rica Chamber of Real Estate and have successfully helped new residents find homes in Atenas for 10 years.

Article by Shannon Farley

Join the Rincon de la Vieja Bird Count in Costa Rica, June 14-16

The massive Rincon de la Vieja in northern Costa Rica is known for its imposing outline on the horizon, its steaming fumaroles and bubbling mud pits, and impressive tropical dry forest. The highly-popular adventure tourism location also is becoming known for spectacular bird-watching.

This weekend, birders from all over Costa Rica will gather at the Rincon de la Vieja hotel Hacienda Guachipelin for the fifth annual Bird Count Rincon de la Vieja.

Bird Count Rincon de la Vieja 2014 will be held June 14 to 16 at Hacienda Guachipelin and the neighboring Rincon de la Vieja National Park in Guanacaste.

The annual bird count is being co-hosted by the Costa Rica National Parks Association (SINAC), Ornithological Association of Costa Rica, Ornithological Union of Costa Rica and Neo Travel.

Space is still available; contact Hacienda Guachipelin for reservations.

Professional birders and avid bird-watching fans will meet at the top Guanacaste hotel on June 13. The count will begin the morning of June 14 on the trails in the Rincon de la Vieja National Park and on the Hacienda’s enormous property that encompasses protected dry tropical forest and a working cattle and horse ranch, in addition to the hotel facilities and Costa Rica adventure tour center.

Rincon de la Vieja National Park is part of the Guanacaste Conservation Area, a World Heritage Site. Diverse micro-climates produce a wide variety of ecosystems. Rincón de la Vieja is home to approximately 300 bird species, including: the Blue-crowned Motmot, Whitefronted Parrot, Spectacled Owl, Laughing Falcon, Lesser Ground Cuckoo, Slaty-tailed Trogon, Black-faced Solitaire, Curassow, Royal Flycatcher, Emerald Toucanet and the Montezuma Oropendola.

See a list of more than 60 birds spotted near Hacienda Guachipelin in the Rincon de la Vieja National park. Get a full list of Costa Rica’s birds here.

One of the best times to visit Rincon de la Vieja is now in the green season (May to November) when the active volcano’s fumaroles and boiling mud pots are most active. The hiking is fantastic while birding at Rincon de la Vieja. Afterward, one of the benefits of Hacienda Guachipelin is to enjoy a warm volcanic mud bath and soak in natural hot springs to relieve sore muscles.

In green season, you also can enjoy great Costa Rica travel deals at Hacienda Guachipelin. The Rincon de la Vieja hotel was recently awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence 2014.

Article by Shannon Farley

Raise your voice on World Environment Day

“When multiplied by a global chorus, our individual voices and actions become exponential in their impact.” – United Nations, World Environment Day Committee

Today is all about working together for the good of the planet. It is World Environment Day (WED)!

Every year on June 5, the United Nations celebrates the biggest day of the year for positive environmental action. This year’s host nation for World Environment Day is the small Caribbean island of Barbados, which is rising as a world leader in solar energy. The host nation fits perfectly with the United Nations naming 2014 the International Year of Small Island Developing States.

This year’s slogan, “Raise your voice not the sea level,” addresses the issue of rising sea levels around the world and global warming, and calls to people to work together to do something about it. According to the UN, the global sea level has risen by about 10 to 25 cm (up to about 10 inches) over the past 100 years, and is continuing to surge upward due to climate change.

World Environment Day is the United Nations’ global campaign to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Celebrated by over 100 countries, it is an opportunity for every person to realize they are responsible to care for the Earth and can effect change. We can combine “individual actions into a collective power that generates an exponential positive impact on the planet,” states the UN.

How will you make your voice heard this year for the environment?

It doesn’t have to be just on June 5. Every day is a good day to start clean-up campaigns, initiatives to reduce food waste, walk-to-work days, recycling drives, using re-usable containers instead of plastic, tree-planting drives, social media campaigns, and different contests. Every action counts.

See what the rest of the world is doing for WED 2014.

World ecotourism pioneer Costa Rica is working toward reforestation, reducing transport carbon emissions, controlling harmful and illegal fishing practices, and protecting the country’s natural resources.

Get the best Costa Rica vacation deals with Costa Rica Special Deals online travel service. Check out their Costa Rica vacation packages and Costa Rica all-inclusive deals.

Article by Shannon Farley