DAY    1            DEPARTURE FROM NORTH AMERICA - ARRIVE SAN JOSE
                          (4 NIGHTS)
We will be met at the airport by our tour manager/guide, where we will board our own private coach and transfer to our hotel in San Jose.

DAY    2            COFFEE PLANTATION TOUR & SAN JOSE
Costa Ricans call coffee grano de oro, the grain of gold, and with good reason. The humble bean lifted the nation out of obscurity two centuries ago, bringing wealth to countless farmers and to the country as a whole. This morning we will take a Coffee Plantation Tour where we will learn from experienced personnel the origins of coffee-growing, one of the major exports of Costa Rica. This very amusing and informative tour is a multimedia presentation for all ages, using actors to bring to life the coffee production experience. This afternoon we will take a guided San Jose City Tour. We will view all of the city's most important sights and landmarks including the University of Costa Rica, the Supreme Court, Democracy Square, the Metropolitan Cathedral, elegant residential homes, and many sights that display the finest in Costa Rican architecture. During our tour we will also visit the National Theater. Designed after the Opera House in Paris, it is considered to be Costa Rica's most important architectural landmark. Our afternoon concludes with a visit to the Museo del Oro, featuring an impressive collection of pre-Columbian golden treasures. Time permitting, we will also visit the Museo Nacional, in the former Bella Vista Military Fortress, which today houses pre-Columbian artifacts along with art, historical items, and natural science exhibits.

DAY    3            CARTAGO, LANKESTER GARDENS & THE OROSI VALLEY
Our morning begins with a visit to Cartago, Costa Rica's first city founded in 1563 and a former capital of Costa Rica. We will visit one of Costa Rica's most famous buildings, the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles, which is dedicated to the patron saint of Costa Rica. Within the walls of the Byzantine-style church is a shrine containing the tiny figure of La Negrita (the Black Virgin) where legend has it that La Negrita was revealed on this site to a peasant girl in 1635. Miraculous healing powers have been attributed to La Negrita and, over the years, thousands of pilgrims have come to the shrine seeking cures for their illnesses and difficulties. Next we will visit Lankester Gardens, created in the 1940s by an English naturalist, where no fewer than 800 species of orchids are on display. The University of Costa Rica now administers the gardens, and their primary goal is to preserve the local flora, with an emphasis on orchids and bromeliads. We will walk along Paved Trails that meander from open, sunny gardens into shady forests. In each environment, different species of orchids are in bloom. After time to visit the Information Center, we continue with a tour of the Orosi Valley. Our scenic driving tour will take us into a Shangri-la canyon edged on the south by the dauntingly forested flanks of the Talamanca Mountains. The rivers that drain into the valley have been dammed to form Lago de Cachi, around which the road and our tour will loop. Our tour will be highlighted by Mirador Orosi, offering amazing views over the valley; the village of Orosi, including the charming Iglesia de San Jose de Orosi; the shores of Lago de Cachi, which attracts large numbers of waterfowl; the rough-hewn Casa El Sonador (House of the Dreamer), a wooden and bamboo structure adorned with primitive carvings; the Presa de Cachi (Dam); and Ujurras, renowned for its ruined church, Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Limpia Conception, which dates from 1681. We return to San Jose for the evening.

DAY    4            ZOO AVE & AERIAL TRAM TOUR
This morning we will visit Zoo Ave where we will view dozens of scarlet macaws, reclusive owls, majestic raptors, several different species of toucans, and a host of brilliantly colored birds from Costa Rica and from around the world. We will enjoy a stroll along the paths where we will get a close look at many birds, large iguana, deer, monkeys, and a 12-ft. long crocodile. Zoo Ave houses only injured, donated, or confiscated animals. This afternoon we will enjoy an Aerial Tram Tour through one of Costa Rica's most unique eco-tourism and research facilities. The tram takes us on a 90-minute, one-mile-long excursion through the rain forest canopy and reveals details of everyday life in the treetops where 75 percent of all rain forest species dwell. We will come eye-to-eye with monkeys some 200 feet above the forest floor and will view an abundance of plants and animals hidden at the tops of the tall rain forest trees. We return to San Jose for the evening.

DAY    5            SAN JOSE - POAS VOLCANO - LA PAZ WATERFALL
                          GARDENS - ARENAL AREA (3 NIGHTS)
This morning we depart San Jose and begin our sightseeing with a visit to Poas Volcano National Park, an active volcano whose main crater is more than one mile wide and constantly active with fumaroles and hot geysers. Poás is surrounded by dense cloud forests, and we will hike some of the nice gentle trails. This afternoon we will visit La Paz Waterfall Gardens where we will hike a series of trails through primary and secondary forest alongside the La Paz River, with lookouts over a series of powerful waterfalls, including the namesake La Paz Fall. We will also explore an orchid garden, a hummingbird garden, and a huge Butterfly Garden which some claim is the largest in the world. We continue to our hotel in the Arenal area.

DAY    6            LA FORTUNA WATERFALLS & ARENAL HANGING
                          BRIDGES
Today we will hike to the impressive Río Fortuna Waterfall in a lush jungle setting. After viewing the falls from the top, we will take another hike (weather permitting) down a steep path to the pool formed by the waterfall. We can swim in the pool, the calm pool just around the bend, or join the locals at the popular swimming hole under the bridge. Our day continues as we visit the Arenal Hanging Bridges, where we will hike the trails and bridges over the Lake Arenal dam. The trails are gentle and suspension bridges link a beautiful tract of primary forest.

DAY    7            CANO NEGRO WILDLIFE REFUGE & HOT SPRINGS
This morning we travel to Los Chiles, near the Nicaraguan border, where we will enjoy a Boat Tour of the Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge. We will board a riverboat (with shading) and make our way along the river to view wildlife in one of Costa Rica's most spectacular wildlife refuges. During our tour we are likely to view long-nosed bats, caiman, turtles, Basiliscus lizards, herons, storks, Anhinga, as well as howler and white-faced capuchin monkeys. This afternoon we will return to Arenal where we will visit the Hot Springs and have the opportunity to submerge ourselves in the natural medicinal waters. The springs include several pools with varying water temperatures in a natural setting. This evening we will travel around Arenal Volcano to a viewing spot where, if we are lucky, we will witness Arenal Volcano hiss and spray lava.

DAY    8            ARENAL AREA - ZARCERO - SARCHI - SAN JOSE (1 NIGHT)
This morning we begin our journey back to San Jose and travel on picturesque roads to the town of Zarcero. We begin in a small park in the middle of town to view the Menagerie of Sculpted Shrubs, which includes a monkey on a motorcycle, people and animals dancing, an ox pulling a cart, a man wearing a top hat, and a large elephant. We continue to nearby Sarchí, Costa Rica's main artisan town, where we will view the colorfully painted miniature oxcarts, which are made here. Oxcarts such as these were once used to haul coffee beans to market, and they remain a well-known symbol of Costa Rica. In addition to miniature oxcarts, many carved wooden souvenirs are made here with rare hardwoods from the nation's forests. We will return to San Jose for a Tiquicia Dinner and Show that includes a show of native Costa Rican folklore dances and a buffet of local cuisine.

DAY    9            DEPARTURE FROM SAN JOSE
Our rewarding tour will come to an end as our tour manager/guide accompanies us to the airport for the return flight home.