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            IRAZU VOLCANO & INBIO PARK
Our morning commences with an ascent to the breathtaking summit of the Irazú Volcano, the highest active volcano in Costa Rica. We will enjoy impressive views of the massive crater and its lake, an almost perfect circle with steeply inclined walls (sometimes the lake is lime-green and other days it is red). The name of this sub-conical volcano is derived from an indigenous word meaning thunder and earthquake mountain. After an exciting tour of the volcano and the National Park, we will visit INBio (Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad), run by the National Biodiversity Institute. The Institute is part-museum, part-educational center, part-nature park. We will begin with an Informational Video, followed by a tour of the two large pavilions that explains Costa Rica's biodiversity and natural wonders. Next we will enjoy a Hike on Trails that re-create the ecosystems of a tropical rainforest, a dry forest, and a premontane forest. There is also a good-size butterfly garden, a plexiglass viewing-window into the small lagoon, and a series of wonderful animal sculptures donated by one of Costa Rica's premiere artists, José Sancho.

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 - COROBICI RIVER TOUR - LAS PUMAS CAT ZOO
                          BUENA VISTA LODGE (1 NIGHT)
This morning we begin our journey to the coastal region of Guanacaste. En route, we will admire nature as we float down the Corobici River on a rubber raft. We will enjoy spectacular and exotic sights of flora and fauna, as well as a wide variety of bird and animal life including iguanas, monkeys and osprey. We will also visit Las Pumas Cat Zoo where Costa Rica's six different cat species (cougars, jaguars, jaguarondis, margays, ocelots and "tiger" cats) prowl safely behind chain linked fences. The zoo takes in orphaned, injured, and confiscated cats. We continue to the Buena Vista Lodge, our hotel for the evening.

DAY    6            BUENA VISTA LODGE - PACIFIC COAST (2 NIGHTS)
Today will be a day filled with adventure! We begin the morning with a Horseback Riding Tour to the Rincón de la Vieja Hot Springs and fumaroles where we will have the opportunity to take a Mud Bath and relax in the sulfur water pool. Our day continues high above the forest floor where (those who choose) will enjoy a Canopy Tour, soaring from platform to platform through the canopy of the rain forest. We will enjoy a sense of freedom and adventure like none other in the world, and have the opportunity to view howler monkeys and white-faced monkeys, whom often delight visitors with their antics. Before making our way to one of the wonderful Pacific Coast beaches of Guancaste for the evening, we ride the Natural Water Slide through the jungle.

DAY    7            PACIFIC COAST BEACHES
Today we will enjoy a day of sun and fun on the beach or in the Hotel pool. This evening we will enjoy a Farewell Dinner and Bonfire on the Beach.

DAY    8            DEPARTURE FROM LIBERIA
Our rewarding tour will come to an end as our tour manager/guide accompanies us to the airport for the return flight home.