Travel

By Susan Mahr Today was a free day, so everyone was on their own to relax or take the optional excursions.

By Susan Mahr We had a little taste of what it’s like most of the time in a cloud forest this morning, with heavy mist/light rain drifting over from the cloud-shrouded mountain. Usually the mountain top is enveloped in clouds, so we felt fortunate to have had a clear but windy day to explore the

By Susan Mahr Sign at Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve. This morning we visited Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve with Willow Zuchowski, author of A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica. It was awesome having a world-renowned expert leading us through the forest, stopping every couple of feet to look at another plant.

By Susan Mahr Today was a long travel day, starting out with a short boat ride to the tiny airstrip in Tortuguero for an early flight back to San Jose.

By Susan Mahr This morning’s activity was an excursion to Tortuguero National Park. Over 77,000 acres was declared a National Park in 1970 after being protected as a turtle nesting sanctuary since 1963. The park has great biological diversity and ecosystems including tidal mangrove swamps, rainforest, beaches, and lagoons, with more than 400 species of