Oct 252012
 
CostaRicaTurtles Costa Rica Turtle Nesting Calendar

Costa Rica's turtle nesting and breeding calendar

Just as a potentially useful planning tool for anyone looking to travel to Costa Rica and would like to see marine turtles nesting. Bear in mind that we generally advise against going to Costa Rica in late September through October and the first three weeks or so of November – it can be simply too wet to enjoy much of anything at all. The places which are most common for sightings of turtles and where we usually send people, are Tortuguero on the Caribbean side and Ostional on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

We tailor make all of our holidays to Costa Rica so please call us on 01273 676 712 if you are interested in discussing a trip to this Central American gem.

 

 

 

Oct 012012
 
canopy Dont try this at home... (Pt 2)

Dave is hard at work in Costa Rica, testing out the canopy

 

Unleash your inner Tarzan

Zip Wire. Zip Trek. Zipline. It goes by many names, but it basically involves wearing a rather undignified (and rather uncomfortable to certain areas) harness by which you get attached to a steel cable in order to sail through the upper reaches of the forest. Costa Rica (and, increasingly, Nicaragua) are nuts for it – here it goes simply by the name of “Canopy.”

Depending on your appetite for heights and adrenaline, this is either one of the most fun and exciting things you can do on your trip, or something not to be touched with a bargepole. In Costa Rica you can literally find this everywhere you go, often having been extended to incorporate abseiling / rappelling / hanging bridges / “Tarzan Swing” (you swing attached to a rope hanging vertically) / and sometimes even climbing.

Having tried this out once before (in British Columbia, the home of the concept), I was delighted to see this on offer all over the place. Certainly surprised though to see it even at Tortuguero, given its absolutely flat, sea level location! As Tortuguero is often featured at the start of a Costa Rica trip though, it’s a great chance to have a first taste of the fun for those a little unsure of the benefits…

Sep 282012
 
ashboard Dont try this at home... (Pt 1)

Now that's just showing off...

Unless you happen to have a suitably sized volcano in your back garden.

In this Central American realm of mountains, rivers and jungles, it seems there’s no limits to the ways people will dream up to hurl themselves up / down / along / over and through the natural terrain. While some people may look up at an active volcano and admire its form, others feel that the best thing they could possibly do would be to climb to the top. However, what goes up…

But how to come down? For most of us, the logical thing to do would be to walk / scramble back down as best as our feet can carry us. At Cerro Negro Volcano just outside Leon though, they have a different idea in mind – “ashboarding” (aka sandboarding in some places).

This, fairly obviously, involves something akin to snowboarding the descent, although most people invariably end up taking a rather more “posterior-centric” approach – volcanic sand and rocks not being quite so easy to turn on as fresh powder!

So if you’re looking for a speedier way down after having slogged up the volcano, make sure you remember the ashboarding option. They’ll give you some great protective gear, consisting of knee and elbow pads, goggles – and a really fetching boiler suit.

Do take a look if you’d like to hear about more of the Nicaraguan adventures you could have with Pura.