EXPLORE

This active one-day tour is done in a private primary forest reserve only 15 minutes from Turrialba. The various stations on the route include the descent of four waterfalls, alternating with four cable rides in the forest canopy; rappelling down rain forest trees with ropes; and crossing a 125-foot-long (40 meters) swinging hammock bridge.

This singularly beautiful and untouched river is ranked in the top five in the world for rafting, this tour will cover 28 kilometers or about 15 miles of excitement, interspersed with tranquil contemplation of virgin tropical forest with its fruits, flowers and animals. The more adventurous among you will enjoy running the Class III and IV rapids on this one-day tour.

The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center Known, to all as CATIE (káh-teeay, its Spanish acronym), is known worldwide for its valuable research in tropical agriculture and forests, crop genetic research and biodiversity studies. Its Botanical Gardens contain a wide range of tropical plants, trees and fruits from around the world (including groves of cacao trees, whose pods that sprout out of the trunk itself give us chocolate). Such an environment attracts many interesting and unusual insects and birds that share the Gardens with them. Tour starts at the Cabiria laboratories, winds through archaeological sites and petroglyphs, and finishes at the lake near the center of CATIE grounds, which itself is home to hundreds of snowy egrets and is a stopover for many kinds of migrating birds. Watch out for the small alligator that lives there!

The Pejibaye River is mostly tranquil, with beautiful turquoise blue water, and our half-day tour with cover about 3 miles (5.5 km). You will float alongside traditional plantations of coffee, sugar cane and macadamia, separated by sections of tropical rain forest. The Pejibaye River rapids are Class I and II, suitable and recommended for families and children. The very sinuous course of this river has created many deep, quite calm pools, where our tours usually pause for swimming, photos-whatever.

Southernmost in Costa Rica's central volcanic range is Turrialba, active but long dormant, and the only volcano where you can actually descend into the crater itself, a moderate to difficult trek. The crater currently hosts a vibrant tropical flora and fauna different than those found on its highest slopes.

Once again, the Pejibaye River charts our course for this half-day tour over Class II and III rapids in a river section some 30 minutes from Turrialba. These are two-person inflatable kayaks traversing a notably clear and clean river. You will pass coffee and sugar cane fields as well as sections of rain forest. Choose the morning or the afternoon for this tour-no kayak experience necessary!

Located in the nearby village of Atirro (where we will travel by bus), the high-quality stables we use for this tour have docile, amenable horses, and everyone will be instructed in how to mount, ride and control the animals. Our ride will pass through coffee plantations and sugar cane fields, with no lack of impressive natural landscapes with primary and secondary tropical forests. The ride culminates in a lookout point offering a panoramic view of the Turrialba Valley and the mountains and volcanoes that surround it.

On the slopes of the Turrialba Volcano lies Guayabo, one of the most important archaeological sites in Costa Rica, and the only one able to be visited year-round, with attractive pathways (that are also traversed alongside you by millions of leaf-cutter ants-one of their giant nests will amaze you) and a lookout point with a view of the central elite precinct. Guayabo was a political-religious ceremonial center and also a key node of trade between different eco-zones from about 900 to 1300 A. D. It was strategically located for defense, and its remarkable network of cobble-paved roadways, circular cobble-faced house mounds, terraces, multi-ton stone slab bridges, huge stone box tombs, and especially its complex water control system with underground aqueducts and open pools ensuring constantly circulating fresh water, all attest to the engineering sophistication of its builders. At its height, Guayabo was probably home to about 10,000 people and the visible architecture you will see is only about one-third its whole area. This one day tour will be led by Michael J. Snarskis (Yale B.A., Columbia Ph.D.), Costa Rica's foremost archaeologist, who has excavated at Guayabo and was responsible for the first scientific mountings of the National, Gold and Jade Museums in San Jose.
The Tayutic Foundation, created in 2007 by the Ortuño-Victory family for the rescue of Costa Rica's pre-Hispanic patrimony, dedicates much of its efforts to Guayabo, as government funding is insufficient to preserve, improve and further research at this important site.