Ecotourism (370)

Have you ever thought of replacing the boring city skyline that greets you to work with something more fresh, natural, and scenic? Consider visiting Costa Rica, the country where the mountains, forests, waters, and wildlife create a symphony you will treasure forever. If you love meeting exotic animals, Costa Rica has that too. The rain forests alone are home to 230 or more animal species. A vacation villa in Arenal Hills in the beautiful Arenal gives you access to a lifetime of fun and adventur

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Some of the world’s best bird-watching is in Costa Rica, especially in the Caribbean region at Veragua Rainforest.

This time of year is a special time for birdwatchers. Equipped with binoculars, bird guides and checklists, avid birders throughout the Americas brave snow, wind, rain, and even tropical sun, to take part in the annual Christmas Bird Count.

Costa Rica holds the record in Central America for the highest number of birds counted in a 24-hour period, during the Christmas Bird Count on

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Fun River Trips in Northern Costa Rica

9296587680?profile=originalA trip down one of Costa Rica’s rivers, either by raft, canoe, kayak or small boat, is an excellent way to see some of the country’s extraordinary wildlife. The rivers in Costa Rica are as diverse as the terrain through which they flow.

 

Trees that line most river banks may hold troops of monkeys, lounging iguanas and boas, and birds such as egrets, herons, ibis, ospreys, and colorful kingfishers. Crocodiles and caimans like to sun themselves on muddy banks, or may be cleverly disguised as a floa

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9008858075?profile=originalThe tiny nature reserve at the extreme southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica seems too pretty and unassuming to have changed history, though it did.

The Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature ReserveCosta Rica’s first privately protected reserve – put the ecotourism capital of the world on the path to protecting the country’s natural resources.

It all started in 1960, when Swede Nicolas Wessberg (known as Olaf or Olle) and his Danish wife Karen Mogensen bought a farm near the town of Montezum

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Choosing seven wonders of the world seems like a very difficult task. Just like choosing seven wonders in a single country. The year 2008 saw the foundation of an internet movement to select the seven wonders of Brazil. The result of this selection is not very clear, so, here, we propose something more substantive and real in the country: a visit to the locations declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

CULTURAL


Christ the Redeemer (1938), Rio de Janeiro

This 38-meter-tall image of Jesus of Nazareth

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Guanacaste is one of the most popular provinces in Costa Rica, especially its beaches. But if you’re willing to go exploring, you can still find many beautiful and incredible off-the-beaten-path places to enjoy. These secret travel destinations offer beautiful sights, and interesting and unforgettable experiences. 

 

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Llanos de Cortés Waterfall


In Guanacaste you can find spectacular waterfalls hidden around the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano, like the Llanos de Cortes Waterfall. To get there, take the P

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Iguazú Falls are located in Iguazú National Park, in the extreme north east of Argentina and bordering Brazil. Surrounding the beautiful waterfalls at Iguazú are tales of ambition and power, fruits of the imaginations of travelers who have ventured within them. Before the falls can be seen, their murmur can already be heard, with the violent battering of the waters growing louder and louder as you approach.

The falls lie on the border of Argentina and Brazil, just a few miles from the Triple Fron

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From awe-inspiring nature to the joy of slowing down, discovering magic and finding gratitude, a visit to Santa Teresa, Costa Rica just might alter your life forever.

You’ll change your relationship with nature. In Santa Teresa, nature is center stage and everywhere. Walk down amazingly beautiful beaches where it’s just you and the sand, surf, sky and serenity. Encounter the mighty power of Mother Nature in a gushing thunderstorm. Experience the delicate fragility of life in an orchid. And you’ll

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It’s been said that you haven’t really seen the rainforest until you’ve seen it at night. Discover one of the best rainforest night walk tours in Costa Rica.


The jungle is a noisy place at night. All of those chirps, croaks, tinkling sounds, and booms, somehow seem a lot louder and a little scarier when you can’t see what’s making them.


Most people only visit the rainforest in Costa Rica by day. But they say “you haven’t really seen the rainforest until you’ve seen it at night”. So here I am;

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In ecotourism pioneer Costa Rica, being eco-friendly is extremely important. Eco-friendly travel and green tourism continue to be the fastest growing sectors worldwide in the tourism industry.

9009069269?profile=originalNearly two decades ago, in 1999, the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT) founded the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) program to regulate Costa Rican tourism businesses that are truly sustainable and eco-friendly. Their goal was to differentiate the real ecotourism businesses from those that are “gree

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Tramping around a damp rainforest in the dark with big rubber boots and headlamps is not the usual picture of a university spring break vacation. But for a group of first year Ph.D. students studying herpetology at Harvard University, it was perfect.

In April 2016, on the students’ spring break, they visited Costa Rica with Harvard University professor Jonathan Losos – Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and the Curator in Herpetology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology – who has l

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Costa Rica is always great for family vacations, with its exotic wildlife, amazing nature, thrilling adventure tours, and of course, being the safest place to travel in 2016.

Families who travel to Costa Rica know that the charming Central American country is a fun, easy and safe family vacation destination. Costa Rica is not only a most recommended travel hotspot in the world; it also tops the list of safe places to travel in 2016.


Costa Rica is always a great place for families to travel with ki

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On the coast of Bahia 82 kilometres north of Salvador, the town and beach of Praia do Forte are situated in a protected area with 12 km. of almost deserted beaches surrounded by lush plantations. It enjoys a privileged location close to the Mata Atlântica Biosphere Reserve, lagoons, beaches where the sea turtles lay their eggs, coral reefs, and places to observe humpback whales.

If you go to Praia do Forte, you should not miss the chance to take a deep-sea excursion to see these magnificent ce

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Did you know that you can find frogs and toads on every continent except Antarctica? Just in Costa Rica there are 133 species of frogs and toads.

From real-life Kermit look-alikes to miniature candy-colored frogs, Costa Rica’s amphibians are so incredible you have to stop and take notice.


In the tropics like Costa Rica, you can’t help but be enamored with rainforest frogs. They have all kinds of neat features, like red eyes, or green bones, translucent skin and neon colors. At night, their bett

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9008801252?profile=originalThe Tortuguero coast in Costa Rica is a 22-mile-long, desolate, volcanic black sand beach littered with driftwood and tree logs tossed up on shore from the untamed ocean. It is a wild place – like the imaginary jungle coast in Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” There is nothing but beach and low, swampy jungle for miles and miles. You can’t swim here because of rough surf, strong currents and sharks that will eat you – adding to the isolation.

Known as Costa Rica's “little Amazon” for

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Puerto Maldonado, Gateway to Peru's Amazon

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When many think of Peru outside Lima, what springs most readily to mind are the likes of the mighty Andes, Cuzco, and Machu Picchu. But nearly half the country is actually part of the great Amazon rain forest and ecosystem, with two main cities: Iquitos (considered the "capital" of the Peruvian Amazon) in the north and Puerto Maldonado in the south, near the border with Bolivia.

The latter, capital of the Madre de Dios region, is an hour and 40 minutes from Lima by air and just an hour from Cu

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The TAMAR Sea Turtle Project
was founded in the 1980s, although it all began in the 70s when some students who loved oceanography documented the mistreatment of sea turtles on Brazilian beaches by some people, and it has grown since to form the large organization it represents today.

Praia do Forte, in Bahia, is the national headquarters of the project. Around 30 kilometers of the beach are monitored, also ensuring the protection of the young of four species of sea turtles. This is the center th

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If you plan to visit the Golfo Dulce/ Osa Peninsula region on your Costa Rica vacation, one of the most wonderful excursions you can take is to Casa Orquídeas Botanical Garden, one of the oldest and most interesting botanical gardens in southern Costa Rica. As the name implies, especially phenomenal is its collection of orchids.

The beautifully landscaped private tropical garden shows off hundreds of species of ornamental and edible tropical plants that have been collected and cared for by U.S

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The Treasures of Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula

9008792273?profile=originalby Bert Woodson

As a recent transplant to the Osa Peninsula (six weeks) I am amazed every day by the unspoiled, pristine, and remote beauty I am surrounded with.  Every day is an adventure.  I moved here after 2½ years as the proprietor of the Bella Vista Lodge just outside of Dominical. I had heard from my guests about the Osa.  Without fail, they loved it.  I never had the time to get away and experience it for myself.  Running a small resort is all-consuming and leaves little time to get away.

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Brazil
is one of today’s most fashionable holiday choices and Praia do Forte one of the country’s most attractive destinations. White sandy beaches bathed by crystalline waters and lined by coconut trees, a whole host of water sports, luxury hotels, its exotic culture, the history of Portugal’s colonisation of America…Praia do Forte is all this and much, much more.

But if there’s one particular thing that Praia do Forte is famous for, then it has to be its nature reserves that overflow

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