Travel Blog Costa Rica

Surfing spots in the South Pacific Coast of Costa Rica where you want to go are: Dominical Beach, Cabo Matapalo Beach, Pavones Beach, and Punta Burica Beach. Dominical Beach is a one and a half mile long beach that offers fifteen days of surfing each month. When surfing conditions are good at Dominical Beach there is left and right beach break that offer surfing for all abilities. The best time for surfing at Dominical Beach is when there is a mid tide. When the tide drops in Dominical Beach nice barrels can form. The problem about the high tide in Dominical Beach is that when the waves go too much overhead they tend to close out. In general Dominical Beach presents powerful and consistent beach break. Dominical Beach also receives south and west swells at the river mouth. Lefts and right breaks changes all the time at Dominical Beach.

Pavones Beach is considered one of the longest left point break beaches of the world. Pavones Beach has fast outstanding wave shapes but it takes and half hour boat ride to get to it. Surfing conditions at Pavones Beach is kind of inconsistent. Pavones Beach is a surfer destination that you want to visit from the months of April to October when there is a south swell. The rides Pavones Beach has are long, approximately a quarter of a mile long. Downside about Pavones Beach is the sharp rock after the end of the bay, so be careful when you are almost at that point.

Cabo Matapalos is a beach located right in front of Pavones Beach and is less likely to be packed with surfers as it is a very isolated Costa Rica Beach. Cabo Matapalo presents quality reef rock point break. Downside about Cabo Matapalo Beach is that is very rocky so be extra careful, it is best to surf at Cabo Matapalo Beach with a long board when the swell is very high. Cabo Matapalo Beach has three breaks, two right point surf breaks and one beach surf break. The breaks at Cabo Matapalo Beach can get really big and can pick up long west swells.

Punta Burica beach is a remote with reef breaks that can only be accessed by boat.

The following are some of the recommended surfing spots for Costa Rica Central Pacific Coast. Boca Barranca Beach has a river mouth that gets you long left point breaks and is considered to be among Costa Rica top ten surfing wave beaches. When Boca Barranca Beach is at its best it can stretch up to a kilometer. Surfing Boca Barranca Beach is recommended on the south swell at low tide. You have to go surfing very early because of the later crowds of surfers that arrive to Boca Barranca.

Playa Tivives has a variety of surfing beach breaks to rocky points with quality rights and lefts.

Puerto Caldera has really good lefts. Jaco Beach has decent beach breaks but the surf is small. Waves usually close out over five feet and are not consistent. Hermosa Beach in Guanacaste has strong beach break but surfing conditions there are not really consistent. The waves are better at Hermosa Beach when the tide is rising. At low and high tides great tubular waves can form at Hermosa Beach.

Manuel Antonio Beach has beach break with good left and right shapes. The only thing about surfing at Manuel Antonio Beach is that it requires a large swell for surfing conditions to appear.

Playa Escondida is a beach can only be reached by boat, so you will have to charter a boat to get here. The best thing about Playa Escondida is that it can work well with almost any swell direction, but the swells from the south are the best as they can produce left breaks that can go up to 100 yards. Playa Escondida also has perfect tubing reef point breaks that can peak up to form strong left breaks and ok right breaks.

Further descriptions of more great and awesome Costa Rica surf spots will come in further articles.

The protection of the rainforest and the wildlife of Costa Rica did not become an issue for the Costa Rica government until 1950 when a married couple from Europe started contacting international conservation organizations around the world to inform them that precious natural habitats were being cut down and destroyed in a Central America country and that awareness on the importance of the protection of these areas needed to be raised. It was after 1950 that the first protected area was established in Costa Rica thanks to the organized pressure and funds raised by this European couple, the protected area was Cabo Blanco Strict Natural Reserve. After 1950 the current Costa Rica National Park protection system and its laws were established but it took many more years, decades actually, for the inhabitants of Costa Rica to see the value of protecting Costa Rica nature. Let us explain the social, political, and economical scenario where conservation awareness takes time to reach the minds of people. Since the early establishment of Costa Rica the dense rainforests and any other natural habitats were viewed as obstacles for development (probably most other countries around the world have had this mentality at some point in their early development and some might still have). Worldwide natural environments were not seen as the unlimited resource for medicines and cures for many incurable diseases, nor did anyone think or even cared if wildlife species were becoming extinct because of the irresponsible use and destruction of the natural resources. It was not until conservationist and nature lovers along with biologists and other scientists started calling out and spreading out the word that it was fundamental for continuation of life on Earth to protect nature, the wildlife, the rainforest, and any other natural environment.

The protection of the Costa Rica wildlife and worldwide wildlife has been hard to achieve. First, we have large and powerful companies that do not want to use greener and usually less profitable methods to produce their goods or subtract or get the resources to produce their goods from the environment. Second, you have a government that does not care for the wildlife or natural resources because they all hold on to the myth that natural resources grow back and are unlimited. Third, you have a group of citizens that have lived many generations from logging, hunting, or practicing any other environmentally harmful money earning practices. And last, no programs or environmental education because those who establish what needs to be taught at schools do not yet think that the protection of the environment is important.

Thankfully this careless mentality has changed over the years and many laws for the conservation of Costa Rica wildlife have been established. In schools the conservation of the precious Costa Rica environment is taught along with practices on how we can all help to with simple steps to protect the wildlife in Costa Rica. But there was still a missing link for the conservation awareness to be raised in the living practices of the inhabitants of Costa Rica, especially on those that lived in rural areas close to protected areas of wildlife. Environmentally sustainable development was not established. Costa Rica was sold as a one of the best natural destinations in the world but there were few regulations on the development of hotels, resorts, towns, and any other tourist profit related activities. And when the laws for the protection of the wildlife in Costa Rica were dutifully applied none considered negative impacts on the ways of earning a living of the surrounding communities.

It was due to this problematic scenery that Costa Rica Government decided that something needed to be done in order for the natural resources to be protected, tourist to be able to enjoy the natural resources Costa Rica had to offer, and communities to achieve develop in a harmonious way that enabled them to profit from the protection of the natural environment. This was when the department of Development of Sustainable Tourism was founded. The Department of Development of Sustainable Tourism created a program designed to certify companies, enterprises, hotels, restaurants, and the sort to reward them if they practiced management policies that protected the environment, aroused environmental awareness on its clients, and worked with the surrounding communities for the well being of the wildlife in Costa Rica, the well being of the community, and the well being of the enterprise. Currently, the certification for sustainable development is only applied to hotels but plans to spread the certification to other tourist enterprises are on future plans. Just like the quality of hotels is categorized with five stars for perfect performance or achievement, five stars are granted to those hotels that comply to a 95% degree in the four areas the certification measures. The four areas include the interaction of the company with the surrounding natural habitats, the management policies and the operational systems within the company and its infrastructure, how much the company allows and invites the client to be an active contributor to the company’s policies of sustainability, and finally the interaction of the company with the local communities and population in general. // Currently there are only three Costa Rica hotels that have the five stars one of these is Hotel Si Como No in Manuel Antonio Beach, around five other that have fours stars one of these is Almonds and Corals in Manzanillo, Limon, and many other that have tree, two, and one stars for sustainable tourism development. Every year the department of Sustainable Tourism diagnoses each of the applying hotels to either maintain last years granted level or increase it if they have improved their services since the last check. The higher levels of sustainability are rewarded by the Costa Rican Ministry of Tourism and each high sustainable ranking hotel is promoted for free as a hotel that has high standards of protection of the wildlife in Costa Rica and cooperates with the sustainable development of the surrounding communities.

Surfing Costa Rica Caribbean Coast

As you might already know Costa Rica has a reputation of being the perfect surfer destination. The number of beaches with great surfing conditions is countless as Costa Rica has been blessed with two coasts, the Pacific Coast and the Atlantic Coast. This article tries to compile as many popular and great surfing beaches as possible giving a brief and simple description of the surfing conditions that can be found on some of the awesome Costa Rica Caribbean Coast surfer destinations. Some of the surfing beach descriptions will include a tip on when is the best time to catch the best waves on them.

Thankfully surfing Costa Rica beaches is best on the more remote and isolated places where there is less surfers waiting in line to catch the same wave you have been dreaming of. So let us start with the more fabulous surfing Costa Rica destinations and describe the decent surfable beaches at the end.

The most recommended Costa Rica surfing spots in the Caribbean Coast are: Salsa Brava in Puerto Viejo Beach, Manzanillo Beach, Cahuita Beach, Westfalia Beach, Isla Uvita Beach, and Playa Bonita. One of the top ten places in Costa Rica for surfing, is in Puerto Limon located in the Costa Rica Caribbean, Salsa Brava Beach. An important detail about Salsa Brava Beach is that this beach is definitely not recommended for the beginner or even fairly good surfer. Surfing Salsa Brava Beach should be left only to the real pro surfers as the breaks are dangerous especially in the shallow reef waters. The pro surfers will be able to enjoy at Salsa Brava Beach right reef breaks with one of the biggest waves that can be found in Costa Rica and great east swells. The best time for surfing at Salsa Brava Beach is from the months of January to April. Overall Salsa Brava has thick voluminous waves that come deep into shallow water reef. Salsa Brava Beach waves can get big and tubular. Again watch out for the strong rip current at Salsa Brava Beach when surfing. Definitely swimming at Salsa Brava Beach is not recommended.

Manzanillo Beach is located in front of the lush Caribbean rainforests about 20 kilometers from Puerto Viejo, Limon. Manzanillo Beach surfing asset is its fast constant beach breaks. Some sections of Manzanillo Beach offer tubular waves.

Westfalia Beach is located south of Cahuita in Limon and it presents a stretch of beach breaks with good left and rights for surfing. The downside of Westfalia Beach is that if the swell is too high waves close out.

Isla Uvita is an island located in the Limon Coast. Isla Uvita surfing characteristic is its left break. In order to go surfing at Isla Uvita you will need to charter a boat.

Surfing Playa Bonita in Limon gives you a chance to get thick, strong, and dangerous lefts. Playa Bonita also offers point reef break.

Surfing Costa Rica North Pacific Coast

This is the second article about Costa Rica surfing spots for

Travel Blog Costa Rica. The surfing spots described in this article will be for the Costa Rica North Pacific Coast. The last article about surfing spots in Costa Rica included recommendations for surfing the Caribbean Coast with descriptions of surfing beaches such as: Salsa Brava in Puerto Viejo Beach, Manzanillo Beach, Cahuita Beach, Westfalia Beach, Isla Uvita Beach, and Playa Bonita. Due to the fact there is a great number of Costa Rica beaches that are spectacular surfing spots; this other article contains the remaining surfing beaches on the North Pacific Coast. When surfing the awesome Costa Rica North Pacific Coast the main recommendation is to surf beaches during high tides as you will have the best surfing conditions. Some of the greatest Costa Rica surfing spots in the North Pacific Coast are: Ollie’s Point, Witch’s Rock, Playa Grande, Tamarindo Beach, Avellanas Beach, Playa Negra, Nosara Beach, Mal País Beach, and Santa Teresa Beach.

Ollie’s Point Beach (a.k.a. Potrero Grande Beach) is a great Costa Rica beach for surfing with fast hollow right point breaks. The swell at Ollie´s Point is excellent in almost any direction, but it goes off with the strong northwest winds in the dry season. The best way to get to Ollie´s Point is by chartering a boat from Playa del Coco, Tamarindo Beach, or Ocotal Beach. Ollie’s Point is located next to Witches Rock.

Witch’s Rock Beach (a.k.a Playa Naranjo) is one of the top ten Costa Rica surfing spots with fabulous breaks. Witch’s Rock Beach has strong offshore winds from December to March. There are no facilities at Witch’s Rock Beach so if you want to go surfing there you either have to arrive by boat or camp at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp. Witch’s Rock is located next to Santa Rosa National Park. There is a big rock with a whole inside that makes a strange noise when the wind blows strong, thus the name. The best break at Witch’s Rock is right in front of the rock itself. Fast hollow rights and smaller good lefts during small swells is what you can find at Witch’s Rock Beach.

The next Costa Rica beach that you want to head for surfing some of Costa Rica best waves is Playa Avellanas. Playa Avellanas is a white sand beach that can be reached from either Tamarindo Beach or from Santa Cruz. The great thing about Playa Avellanas is that this incredible beach has about eight different left and right surf breaks. Playa Avellanas offshore swells can reach up to eighteen feet making it just a great spot for surfing. At Playa Avellanas you can find perfect tubes when the tide is high enough. Playa Avellanas is a Costa Rica beach for the expert and pro surfers, but the beginner surfer can find a beginner surf break beach with a sandy bottom with enough whitewash.

Playa Grande is another recommended Costa Rica surfing spot with beach break that you should visit. You can find Playa Grande just 25 miles away from Tamarindo Beach. Playa Grande asset is that it has bigger waves with better shape than the ones you can find in Tamarindo Beach. The downside of Playa Grande is that its asset is known by quite a large crowd of surfers so it is usually crowded. Playa Grande can offer either big close outs or perfect barrels. Overall Playa Grande has consistent beach break with perfect left and right peaks and it is fun decent waves for surfing at almost any time of the year.

Tamarindo Beach offers outstanding surfing conditions but is almost always crowded. Some of the most coveted breaks you can find at Tamarindo Beach will be at Pico Pequeño river mouth, El Estuario, and Langosta which has the biggest waves of the three. El Estuario at Tamarindo Beach has great river mouth breaks. Mid tide is the best time for surfing at Tamarindo Beach. Tamarindo Beach has long perfect lefts and rights which are better when waves are a couple of feet overhead. Langosta Beach provides left and right point break curl off the mouth of the small river that is located about one kilometer away from Tamarindo Beach.

Playa Negra is a black sand beach located in the Northwestern region of Guanacaste which has been cataloged as part of the top ten list of beach breaks in Costa Rica. Playa Negra offers fast waves with hollow right point reef breaks. One of the main features of Playa Negra are its consistent waves and surf break almost all year round. Playa Negra is a great beach for either the beginner surfer or the expert surfer. Playa Negra used to be an uncrowded Costa Rica beach for surfing, unfortunately word has spread out about this great surfer spot and currently it can get pretty crowded with surfers, none the less if you are able to catch a good swell it is worth the trouble of it being crowded. The good side of Playa Negra being a well known surfer destination is that it is easy to find budget lodgings especially designed for the surfer crowd. The best time to surf at Playa Negra is at dawn when there is less surfers and you can catch surfable fast drop and perfect right tubes.

Surfing Nosara Beach will provide you with beach breaks with left and rights.

And last in the Costa Rica North Pacific Coast the remaining recommended beaches for surfing are: Coyote Beach, Manzanillo Beach in Guanacaste, Santa Teresa Beach, and Mal País Beach which all offer good beach breaks with consistent left and rights at a few points.

Costa Rica Frogs

The colorful and interesting Costa Rica frog species have become one of Costa Rica logo. (Just like the one on Travel Blog Costa Rica). One species that is found on many Costa Rica brochures is the golden toad. The golden toad species has been mostly found on Monteverde Cloud Forest, but it can be one of the most difficult to spot species, even for very adamant and experienced biologists, so brace yourself if you happen to see one. It is speculated that the golden toad could be actually extinct. The golden toad has a neon orange color and it’s an arboreal type of Costa Rica frog and when seen it was inside or near bromeliads. Females have a different color pattern; they are yellow with black and patches or red.

Another interesting frog species is the poison arrow frog. The name of these frogs comes from the indigenous people of Costa Rica that used to smear their arrows on the frogs as the poison these frogs produce can paralyze whoever comes in contact with it. The alkaloid toxin they produce contains atelopidtoxin, bufogenin, bufotenidine, and bufotoxin. Actually, if a bird or small monkey touches a poison arrow frog they can be paralyzed on the act. The poison arrow frog is a tiny frog of bright green, red, and black color. The poison arrow frog is said to only exist in Costa Rica rainforest, especially in the lowlands of the Dulce Golf. Corcovado National Park is a common place to see the poison arrow frogs, mostly in the forest floors. The poison this frog or other frogs produce works as a mechanism that guarantees their survival, as frogs are an easy and fleshy target for larger predators (and most of the predators will be larger than these Costa Rica frogs). Their bright color usually works as a toxic warning. Most frogs leap around during the night, when they have fewer predators, but due to the respect predators have for them, these colorful frogs are safe to leap around in daytime. A large frog species, called the Bufo Marinus, is a poisonous frog and it can even spray its poison when in treat.

Costa Rica has 39 species of hylids that live exclusively on the tree canopies in holes and inside bromeliads that collect water from the rainforest. There is also a carnivorous species, called the hyla zeteki, which eats other species of frog tadpoles. Costa Rica rainforests are also home to the smoky frog, which is an impressive frog specie that is cannibalistic. Smoky frogs can grow up to eight inches long and can eat snakes as big as 20 inches. The smoky frog found in Costa Rica emits a loud hiss, it can inflate like a balloon, it secrets a poison, and even emits a loud scream when captured.

When visiting Costa Rica rainforest keep your eyes open for flowers that collect water as they can be home to beautiful small colorful frogs. Do not touch any as they can be poisonous. If you are not able to spot one these amazing frog species, keep your ears open as you will most likely be hearing many different types of frogs when you visit the rainforest.

Costa Rica Ants

Of the 500 000 species of animals that Costa Rica has, 300 000 belong to the insect family. Probably the ant species is the one that can seem more easily mainly because it’s one of the most abundant species that can be found in Costa Rica. Ants are related to bees and wasps and they also pass through the four life cycles (egg, larva, pupae, and adult) as butterflies. It has been estimated that each hectare in a dense Costa Rica rainforest can be home to about nine million ants. So you can be sure that if you visit the Costa Rica rainforest you are due to see ants. The most interesting characteristic about ants is they are social creatures that behave as a sole organism that achieves to survive and protect their larvae thanks to the well developed and organized working system. Ants are mostly blind and rely on their noses to follow pheromone trails that scout ants leave behind to mark trails from the nest to food sources. Pheromones are also released to signal dangerous treats around the area. The queen ant is so important to a colony that if she dies the entire colony cannot subsist. The reason for this is that the queen is the only fertile ant in the colony, being able to lay 50 000 eggs once a year, meaning her only goal in her 20 year span of life is to lay eggs. In Costa Rica the queen ant usually begins laying eggs during the rainy season, especially during the months of May and June. From those 50 000 eggs about a fifth will become queens and the rest are males. Queen ants are like a thousand times bigger than the average worker ant and they usually live up to 20 years.

When queen and male ants mature and grow wings and synchronize to mate in a large scale orgy. The queen ants mate several times and store the sperm which will be used throughout their life. The male dies shortly after mating as they only exist to fertilize the queens. Just after mating the fertilized queen ant pulls her wings and starts looking for an appropriate underground hole to bury herself and lay her eggs. In general, only about 1% of the fertilized queens are able to establish a colony. The only purpose the entire colony has it to feed and take care of the larvae, due to the fact that if the larvae die the colony cannot guarantee a long term survival. A colony will need an approximate of a year to start producing soldier ants that will be able to protect the colony. If the colony manages to survive for three more years then it will produce queens and males and thus continuation will be guaranteed.

Costa Rica does not have an army as you might now but it does have an amazingly destructive army of ants. Army ants are absolutely an impressive Costa Rica insect, you will see them marching like soldiers (thus their name) through the Costa Rica rainforests looking for small creatures that could serve them as prey. Once a vulnerable small rainforest creature has been spotted they organize a massive attack on it and in a short amount leave nothing of it but the bones. Army ant produce a quiet hissing sound while they are marching. Some indigenous tribes of Costa Rica learn to use the army ant to stitch wounds. They will place the army ant with the jaws over the wound and gave it squeeze that automatically made the army ant bite into the flesh and press it together.

The other species of ants that can be found in the lowland forests of Costa Rica in large numbers and that is equally interesting as the army ant is the leaf cutting ant. Leaf cutting ants don’t eat the leaves that they fiercely chop from plants and leaves. They chop and literally banish any green parts of the plant, leaving only brown bark and take it to their underground nest. Once the leaves are inside the nest another type of ants mulch the leaves to form compost that is destined to feed a mushroom that grows inside the nest. What the leaf cutting ants leave is not the mushroom itself but the tiny white fruit like product the mushroom produces. This long term symbiosis has been going on for so long and is so strong that this mushroom has stopped producing sexual spores and totally relies on its symbiosis with the leaf cutting ants to stay alive. Mushrooms are assured their permanence in the Costa Rica rainforest by the process in which the new queens that spawn from the nest take a piece of it and use it to establish their own mushroom cultivation once they make their own nest.

There are types of ants on the leaf cutting ant species. The queen which can be as big as five centimeters long, the medias which are the workers that trail back and forth from the nest to plants with pieces of leaves, the soldiers which are mean looking ants with a large head and large jaws that protect the workers fiercely with their lives and also keep the trail clean, last the minor workers which are in charge of mulching the leaves and feeding it to the mushroom. The minors also check the leaves to make sure there are no parasitic phorid flies eggs on them, as these could hatch inside the nest and start feeding on the larvae.

Next time you visit the amazing Costa Rica rainforests make sure to pay more attention to the little creatures around you as they unravel incredible living behavior patterns that will leave you marveled.

It is said that about two-thirds of the species of the planet live in tropical rainforests and that a million more await their discovery inside the rainforests. Worldwide a lot of efforts are been made to protect the rainforest, not only because of the value of preserving the planet’s species and not letting them get extinct but also for the medicinal value the plant species have or could have. Costa Rica rainforests are no different in this sense. Currently the National Institute of Biodiversity in Costa Rica (InBio) has hired international pharmaceutical companies to fund and assist them in  cataloging species of flora from the Costa Rica rainforests. Their objective is to retrieve as much information of plant species from the plethoric rainforests of Costa Rica as possible and learn about the medicinal value each plant might have. If you are thinking that the medicinal values of plants are mild, think again, many medicines have been extracted from forest trees, shrubs, and flowers from the rainforests. These medicines from the rainforests range from antibiotics, anesthetics, contraceptives, medicines for heart diseases, malaria, among many others. Rainforests also play an important key in moderating the global climatic patterns, thus the destruction of the rainforests results in contributing to the global warming.

In the past the lush rainforests of Costa Rica were destroyed to make way to pasture lands and to extract timber. After 1960, the government of Costa Rica realized the terrible damage of neglecting the rainforests will produce on the long term, and urgently established a system of National Parks. Currently the invaluable rainforests of Costa Rica are an economically productive resource that attracts many tourists every year, and leave more income to the country than pasturing or timber ever did. Protecting the unique rainforests of Costa Rica saves the species that are found inside of them, and overall improves the economy of the country and of its inhabitants. Visiting the exuberant rainforests of Costa Rica not only is a reward to the visitor searching for a natural destination, but also makes them a little more conscious about the importance of taking care of the rainforests and not contaminating the planet.

The plethoric Costa Rica rainforest contains 5% of the world’s biodiversity and it only represents a 0.1% of land mass in the world. Costa Rica rainforest hold well over 10000 species of vascular plants and regularly more species are found and added. 1300 of these species come from the family of the orchids. The most famous of these flowers is the purple orchid (Cattleya skinneri), which is Costa Rica’s national flower and is found in great numbers in the Rincon de la Vieja National Park. 2000 tree species have been identified in the Costa Rica rainforest. Rainforests of Costa Rica are part of a biodiversity bridge that unites Central America with South America; this strategic position probably accounts for the list of 850 bird species recorded in this country. Costa Rica rainforests are also home to approximately 260 mammal species, 65000 classified insect species (many thousands remain unclassified), 180 amphibian species, 235 reptile species (more than half are snakes, 18 are poisonous), and 835 fish species; according to the registers of the InBio from a few years ago.

Costa Rica rainforests are also home to many endangered species, among these 16 bird species, 13 mammal species, eight reptile species, two amphibians, and dozens of plants according to InBio records. Costa Rica laws have a longer list of endangered species which are protected from hunting and trafficking, these are 87 bird species, 36 amphibian species, 27 mammal species, 16 reptile species, all the orchid plants, cacti, tree ferns, and some other plants. The best place to spot wildlife is inside the National Parks that protect Costa Rica rainforests. Mountain lodges and areas that are ecofriendly that surround almost any rainforest of Costa Rica might also be a good place to spot wildlife. Locals are usually good guides as they know the area and the wildlife, they know the behavior patterns of the different local species and know were each of them likes to roam. // Seeing the wildlife takes patience and quietness. If you want to go to the rainforest and see as much as you can, try to go with the minimum amount of people in a group, look around and focus on the small details around you: You will be surprised how the wildlife starts appearing before your eyes, especially during the early morning and late afternoon.//

Worldwide the best Costa Rica attractions are known to be the natural destinations. Costa Rica has 68 areas of protected rainforests. From these 68 areas 26 are National Parks and the rest include wildlife reserves, refuges, and indigenous reserves. Overall, it is said that around 25% of the area of Costa Rica is protected by National Parks, reserves, and refuges. There are 112 volcano formations in Costa Rica, and from these the most recommended attractions are Arenal Volcano, Poas Volcano, Irazu Volcano, Rincon de la Vieja Volcano, and Turrialba Volcano. Poas Volcano and Irazu Volcano are the closest and more accessible of these. Irazu Volcano is the tallest volcano of Costa Rica. Arenal Volcano is one of the most famous worldwide, its one of the most active and the one that can better be seen from afar because of its almost perfect conical shape. Rincon de la Vieja Volcano is located inside the National Park that bears its name and is definitely a Costa Rica attraction worth visiting. Rincon de la Vieja National Park has several different habitats because of the different attitudes it contains and several beautiful lagoons and waterfalls. Corcovado National Park is certainly another Costa Rica attraction that should be schedule into any vacation plan if you want to see the wildest wildlife. Manuel Antonio National Park is one of the prettiest and also close to San Jose. What makes Manuel Antonio National Park a Costa Rica attraction is its lush tropical rainforest with views to the ocean and the several beaches that border it that are contained in the park’s protected area. Tortuguero National Park is a magnificent Costa Rica attraction to spot wildlife, especially turtles. And if you are looking for a Costa Rica attraction were you can enjoy the best bird watching, Cano Negro Wildlife Reserve is the perfect place to go.

Visiting the many beautiful natural destinations of diverse wildlife is one the main Costa Rica attractions. These visits can also be combined with outdoor adventure tours, which are also great Costa Rica attractions. Between the recommended adrenaline pumping Costa Rica attractions there is white-water rafting, windsurfing, sportsfishing, and rappelling and zip-lining through the rainforests. The best white-water rafting in Costa Rica is done at Pacuare River and Reventazon Rivers with rapid levels of II to V depending on the season and the section of the river. Sarapiqui River offers some good white-water rafting from May to November. Laguna de Arenal is a great Costa Rica attraction for windsurfing, actually it is said to be one of the three best windsurfing spots worldwide from December to May. Around 12% of the tourists state that one of the main reasons for them to visit the country was to do some sportfishing, thus making it one of Costa Rica attractions. Sportfishing is recommended at the Caribbean coast, Central Pacific Coast, Osa Peninsula, Nicoya Peninsula. You should be able to find good fishing lodges and charters of boats for rent around the area of Tortuguero Beach, Barra del Colorado, Golfito, Quepos Beach, among other areas. Zip-lining or canopy tours as they are widely known are other adrenaline pumping Costa Rica attractions. These tours consist of a series of platforms on the tree tops in the rainforest that are connected by cables. You slide from cable to cable through the green rainforests at a fairly fast speed. Monteverde offers one of the best canopy tours, same as Arenal.

Other outdoor Costa Rica attractions that are more tranquil are the Hanging Bridges at Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, where you will be able to see the Cloud Forest from the top but with more calmness and be able to take pictures. Scuba diving is also a popular Costa Rica attraction, especially on Cocos Island. The downside of Cocos Island is that is about 500 km away from the Pacific Coast and diving trips to this island are pricey, but it doesn’t stop hundreds of professional scuba divers from visiting it annually as it is among one of the world’s best diving destinations. Some good diving can be done at the Nicoya Peninsula, especially at Coco Beach, Ocotal Beach, Hermosa Beach, Cano Negro Island and Bat Islands.

Surfing is also among one of the most important and well known Costa Rica attractions, mainly because the country offers point and beach breaks, warm water and good waves all year round along the different surfing beaches. The best spots for surfing are: Jaco Beach, Quepos Beach, Dominical Beach, Santa Teresa Beach, Mal Pais Beach, Nosara Beach, Pavones Beach, Naranjo Beach, Puerto Viejo Beach, Tamarindo Beach, Samara Beach, Carrillo Beach, Montezuma Beach, Hermosa Beach, Witches Rock Beach, Punta Uva Beach, and Manzanillo Beach. Note that some beaches are less crowded than others and they all have different surfing characteristics. Beach resorts, spas, and jungle lodges are also among Costa Rica attractions. The range of hotels is countless all over Costa Rica so you can certainly find the type of accommodation that you always dreamed of. In conclusion, Costa Rica attractions are great and the options are countless and for all different tastes.

Costa Rica has an area of 13 725 sq miles and inside this 0.1 % of world’s landmass there is a 5% of the world’s biodiversity contained. Costa Rica protects 25% of territory where the major rainforests are located. Each of these conservation areas have either been declared National Parks, Wildlife Reserves, or are privately owned refuges. Costa Rica has about 26 National Parks which contain around an 11% of the area of the country. Between the National Parks and the protected areas there are a total of 68 sites.

A chain of volcanic mountain ranges divide Costa Rica in two. From the Nicaraguan border descends the Guanacaste Mountain Range which is home to Orosi Volcano, Rincon de la Vieja Volcano, Santa Maria Volcano, Miravalles Volcano, and Tenorio Volcano. The Orosi Volcano is located in the Guanacaste National Park and the remaining mentioned are located in the Rincon de la Vieja National Park. The following mountain range is the Tilaran Mountain Range. This mountain range is home to the well known Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and to the always active Arenal Volcano, and Arenal reserve. The Central Mountain Range is the next one and it is where the Poas Volcano and the Irazu Volcanoes are located. These two volcanoes are in the center of the Poas National Park and the Irazu National Park. Volcan Barba follows this stream of volcanic mountains and is located in the Braulio Carrillo National Park. Finally, the last mother mountain range is the Talamanca Mountain Range. This mountain range has the highest mountain peak of Costa Rica, which is the Cerro Chirripo at 12 530 feet above sea level. All of these mountain ranges together belong to the Pacific Belt of Fire.

To the east of the entire Costa Rica mountain range lays the Caribbean coast. The lush and tropical Caribbean coast is 131 miles long, has very wet rainforest, swamps, mangroves, an intracoastal waterway, sandy beaches, and some good tides. It rains all year round at the Costa Rica Caribbean, the rain is usually torrential but it only rains for a few hours and not for days. There are some months over the Caribbean coast when it rains less; these are the months of September, October, February, and March. Sunny days or sunny hours are also present in the exotic Caribbean Coast year round, but even if it rains the humid rainforest is still enjoyable. Actually the rain adds a magical and vibrant element to the rainforest making plants and trees greener and birds and insects livelier.

The rugged and rocky Pacific Coast of Costa Rica lays on the west and south parts of the main mountain range, with a 631 mile long coastline. The Pacific Coast is bordered by Dry Forest, swamps, mangroves, and beaches. It has various gulfs and peninsulas and many offshore islands. The main peninsulas; are Nicoya Peninsula, which is famous for its beach resorts and the other one is the Osa Peninsula where the Corcovado National Park is located.

The tropical Costa Rica climate has two seasons, dry season (December to April) and rainy season for the rest of the year. During the rainy season it usually rains in the afternoon or evenings for a few hours. Occasionally it rains in the mornings. Regardless of the season Costa Rica always manages to offer sunny days. The exuberant Caribbean coast has its own microclimate with a year round rainy season. Some months during the year are less rainy at the Caribbean and these are usually other months different from the dry months in the rest of Costa Rica. The weather is usually pleasant all year round in the Central Valley. Usually this pleasant weather at San Jose, Costa Rica has hotter temperatures during the rainy season and windiest and coldest temperatures during the dry season. The average low temperature in San Jose, Costa Rica is around 59 F and the highs at 78 F. The temperature at the Caribbean and Pacific coast is much hotter, with lows of 69 F and highs of 86 F.

The different altitudes in such a small area have made Costa Rica flourish with twelve different tropical life zones. Each of these tropical life zones is named accordingly to the type of forest they have and for the altitude at which they are located in this biologically diverse Costa Rica. The most commonly used names for these zones are: Dry Forest, Moist Forest, Wet Forest, and Rain Forest in tropical, premontane, lower montane, montane, and subalpine areas.  Not only does Costa Rica have all these different tropical life zones, there are also life zones that have several types of habitats occurring within, as it happens in the Santa Rosa National Park, which has deciduous forest, evergreen forest, mangrove swamp, and litoral woodland.

Costa Rica has about 112 volcanoes, ten of which have some kind of activity. Five are active and expectacular each in their own way, which definitely makes them worth visiting. These top of the top five volcanoes are Arenal Volcano, Poas Volcano, Irazu Volcano, Rincon de la Vieja Volcano, and Turrialba Volcano. Arenal Volcano is the most active of these five and it has a perfect conical shape. Poas Volcano has one of the greatest and biggest craters to be seen. Irazu Volcano is the tallest of them all with an altitude of 11 257 feet over sea level. Rincon de la Vieja Volcano is the largest of the five and it is just magnificently stunning. Turrialba Volcano is one of the few were you can get really close to the craters, although lately it has shown some activity so distance from the craters is advised.

So, yes, there is a plethora of natural destinations that are worth visiting in Costa Rica. Once you visit Costa Rica you’ll realize that you’ll need more than one week of vacations to cover all the invaluable natural treasures it holds, which will only make you want to come again to visit the places you were not able to visit or to spend more time at the places that you loved.