Snorkeling Key Largo's Coral Reefs: An Exploritas/Elderhostel Program

In 2010 we spent 13 days in Costa Rica, touring various sections of the country and participating in numerous activities. Here are links to our reports of the various places and activities we experienced, including photos and camcorder footage of the adventures. If you are thinking of a trip to this beautiful country, here are some ideas of what to do and see there.

This trip was put together by a fantastic travel agent, Adriana, in San Jose, of Green Creations. Here's Ellen's post about that travel agency.

Our first adventure was rafting 18 miles of the class 3 and 4 rapids of the Pacuare River, ranked in the top 10 rafting rivers in the world...



Here's a video to convey the excitement of this river...



Arenal Volcano is one of seven historically active Costa Rican volcanoes. Here's Ellen's post about the area. We also visited Paos Volcano, but our entire time there was shrouded in thick fog and light rain so we couldn't photograph it or fully appreciate it.

In the Monteverde Mountains Cloud Forest, we ziplined the jungle canopy and hiked in the jungle...




Here's a video of our ziplining adventure...



While in Santa Elena, we rode horseback through the forest and had some wonderful and quite unique hot dogs...



Here's a video of our 2 horseback rides...



On the Caribbean side, we stayed in Puerto Viejo and snorkeled and hiked in Cahuita National Park...



Here's a video of the snorkeling and jungle hike...



Then we boated to Corcovado National Park where we hiked the jungle and beach and had a wonderful lunch.





Here's a video I made of our naturalist hike in the jungle:



Finally, we toured the Doka Estate coffee plantation and finished our Costa Rican adventure at the beautiful La Paz Waterfall Gardens.



In addition to the magnificence of the falls, the animals are a highlight of your trip here. My favorites include the magnificent Blue Morpho butterfly...



...and the big cats...



...as well as the three-toed sloths...



...and finally the hummingbird area, which had dozens of these busy workers bustling about...



Here's my post on the Waterfall Gardens and Ellen's post on the frogs found there, and here's a video of the gardens, waterfalls, and their amazing collection of animals...