Costa Rica with A Natural Focus, LLC

A Natural Focus, LLC (56 Montague Rd., Westhampton, MA 01027; 413/527-5903 or www.anaturalfocus.com), conducts personalized natural history tours in northwest Costa Rica. I had a great experience on a 10-day tour in January ’06. The cost was $1,670 per person, double occupancy, not including airfare from the USA, which was $606 from Atlanta.

What made it special were our guides, the husband-and-wife team of Fred Morrison and Laurie Sanders, who have been leading tours and working on biological projects in Costa Rica for 20 years. They have a home adjoining the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve where they spend part of the year. Their experiences in this part of Costa Rica made for a seamless trip, and their knowledge of the flora and fauna was invaluable.

We flew into the small and uncomplicated international airport at Liberia, which doesn’t have the traffic problems of San José. From there, it was a one-hour minibus ride to Hacienda Guachipelin, a 1,600-hectare working ranch with excellent accommodations and opportunities for horseback riding and mud baths.

The next day started with an optional birding walk before breakfast, typical for all our mornings, followed by a hike in the dry tropical forest of nearby Rincón de la Vieja National Park. That afternoon, most of us enjoyed a swim at a local river waterfall before departing for an overnight in Liberia.

The next morning we had a 4-hour bus ride through forest and fields up to Monteverde, at about 4,000 feet. Our accommodations for the next three days were at Hotel Belmar, which has gardens, a Jacuzzi and impressive views of the Guanacaste lowlands and the Gulf of Nicoya.

The following morning we were off to the famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, walking through the dense tropical forest in small groups with local guides. The sun broke through the clouds, and we saw numerous bird species, including hummingbirds, guans and rare resplendent quetzals.

On the final day in the Monteverde area we visited Selvatura Park, which features a nature walk that crosses through the cloud forest canopy on eight long suspension bridges, and also toured an excellent insect museum. Additionally, some of us elected to do the zip line tour, traveling at treetop level or above between 19 platforms on 15 cables. That was exciting!

We had a guided night walk in the early evening to see sleeping birds and other creatures, including a two-toed sloth. Following that was dinner at Sofie’s Restaurant, recognized as one of the best in the country.

From Monteverde we traveled over mountain roads to Lake Arenal, with stops en route to watch howler monkeys and birds. We boarded a small boat and cruised the shoreline, seeing kingfishers, egrets, ospreys and other waterbirds before meeting the bus on the far side. In the afternoon we enjoyed the thermal hot pools at the Baldi Termals resort before moving on to our hotel for two nights.

The first hotel in the area, built in 1987, Arenal Observatory Lodge is located just three kilometers from the base of Arenal Volcano. The volcano is quite active, and seismic recording equipment can be seen at the lodge. All of our rooms had views of the volcano, and even though the top was obscured by clouds, at night we could occasionally hear and see red-hot rocks clattering down the side. We did a couple of hikes in the forest, including one up the slope of the volcano to the most recent lava flow.

From Arenal, we did a 4-hour trip to the Nicoya Peninsula and Hotel Sugar Beach at Playa Azúcar, on the Pacific Ocean. This hotel was most enjoyable, with small cottages on a large private beach. We had a final day to swim, walk the beach and watch large flocks of pelicans do their diving show.

It was a 2-hour ride the next morning to the Liberia airport and our return home.

— RICHARD SHEARER, Greenwood Village, CO