This morning, we headed out on our spelunking tour of Venado Cave with EcoTerra. With flashlights to light the way, and helmets for protection, we were ready for the unknown. To get to the entrance of the cave, we had to walk down a couple of slippery steps. We got a glimpse of our first and last encounter with a tiny red poison dart frog. The frog was only about an inch in length. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of the frog because I left my camera and phone behind. Renata and I were told not to bring our cameras and phones because they would get wet in the cave. We walked, climbed, squeezed and crawled our way through various tight passages in the cave. I was definitely glad that I did not ... read more

Today, Renata and I are taking a guided hike to see the Rio Celeste Waterfall in Tenorio Volcano National Park. The Rio Celeste Waterfall is a striking waterfall that cascades down into magical turquoise blue waters. Apparently the magical blue colour of the water is attributed to the mixing of two non-colour tributaries: Rio Buenavista and Quebrada Agria. The point where the two tributaries mix is called El Tenidor, a surreal natural phenomena. The uphill hiking on uneven terrain made the day hike more difficult than I thought it would be. It was totally worth it, though. We even witnessed a cute monkey, entertaining us in the trees. After the fairly strenuous hike, we were treated to a delicious Costa Rican lunch before we headed back to our hotel. For dinner, Renata and I headed to ... read more

While the majority of our MacServe group headed out early for a day tour to Tortuguero, Renata and I decided to go on a guided half day tour to Irazu Volcano and Cartago City with Gray Line Costa Rica. We had an exceptionally clear day, so we had a great view of the Irazu Volcano in the distance. We also saw the massive craters that were made from the Irazu volcano eruption in the 1960’s. After our time at Irazu Volcano National Park, we headed over to Cartago. I thought that we would get a tour of the city, but we were only there for about 15 minutes before we left to go back to San Jose. There was this interesting farmers and artisan market that I wanted to check out. Instead we were dropped off ... read more

This morning, after breakfast, the group headed to Don Juan Coffee Plantation to learn how Costa Rican coffee is produced. At the plantation, we discovered the difficult economics of growing coffee. Much work is involved but very little money is made in coffee production. During the coffee harvest from November to February, ripe coffee cherries are hand-picked. Each cherry contains about one to two coffee beans. Workers get paid based on the weight of coffee they pick. Most of the coffee pickers are from the neighbouring country Nicaragua, and receive minimal earnings for their hard labour. Furthermore, coffee farmers receive very little income to justify having a coffee plantation. Most of the money goes to the big corporations that buy the coffee and sell it for 3-4 dollars a cup. Farmers have to support themselves by ... read more

This morning, after breakfast, the group headed over to Sky Adventures for our zip-lining adventure. Costa Rican zip-lines are known to be incredibly long and fast. They are a great way to view the beautiful Costa Rican forests from above. I’ve zip-lined in Jamaica before. However, the zip-lines in Jamaica, cannot compare to the ones in Monteverde. Zip-lining in Costa Rica was scarier but once accustomed I was able to appreciate the beauty of the cloud forest below. Like Jamaica, the last zip-line was a bungee jump. The hardest part was preparing myself to jump off the platform. I am glad, I forced myself to jump. Zip-lining was an incredible experience and I will definitely do it again. Three people from our group decided not go zip-lining. However, they did spot a quetzal while waiting for ... read more