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Turrialba: Tour Descriptions
All weekday and weekend tours rotate every 4 weeks. Special
weekend tours are often scheduled by our activities director
to take advantage of unique tour opportunities. These special
tours are in addition to our regularly scheduled tours.
Please contact our headquarters for the
scheduled dates of our tours:
1-800-237-2730 In
the United States and Canada
1-209-588-1805 Outside
the United States and Canada
Serpentario/Bird
Sanctuary | Rio Pejibaye Scenic Float Trip
| Cartego/Lancaster Gardens | Coffee
Adventure |
Rio Pacuare Rafting | Horseback Riding/Guayabo
Monument | Mountain Bike/Waterfall
| Turrialba Volcano
HALF-DAY TOUR DESCRIPTIONS
| Serpentario
/ Bird Sanctuary |
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Tour: Located high
in the Reventazon corridor lies the small village
of Chitaria where a small farm operates as a rehabilitation
center for avi-fauna found throughout Central America.
This bird sanctuary is one of three facilities located
in Costa Rica providing necessary conservation,
development, and sustainable practices for the natural
and cultural heritage of Latin America. In this
small area are found representatives of the flora
and fauna of "the two great bio geographical
kingdoms of the American Continent: The Neo-tropic
and Neo-Arctic regions," - Birds of Costa Rica.
In the town of Pavones, the Camacho family operates
a serpentarium with an incredible collection of
exotic snakes, frogs and orchids. |
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| Rio
Pejibaye Scenic Float Trip |
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Tour: Close to Turrialba,
this gem of a little river features excellent tropical
and rainforest canopy and water so clear it's almost
blue in color. There are a number of different access
points near the school, which allow us the ability
to tailor the trip to different groups. Some sections
have class 3 rapids, whereas the Scenic Float Trip
is a perfect activity for those who wish to go rafting,
but do not want to deal with difficult whitewater
runs. This trip offers excellent scenery, aquatic
birds, and opportunities for clean water swimming.
This is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon in
a tropical paradise. |
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| Cartago
/ Lancaster Gardens |
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Tour: 40 kms southwest
of Turrialba, Cartago is the nation's first city,
founded in 1563. It was the colonial capital until
losing its status to San Jose in 1823. Known as
the nation's religious center and home of Costa
Rica's patron saint, La Negrita or Virgen de Los
Angeles. She lives in the most impressive church
in the country, La Basilica de Los Angeles. The
world famous Lancaster Gardens are seven kilometers
east of Cartago and are one of the most valuable
botanical centers in the Western Hemisphere. They
have over 800 hundred native and exotic orchid species.
Founded by Englishman Charles Lancaster Wells in
1917 (who originally came to work in coffee production)
this 649-acre preserve also many winding trails
from which you can see bromeliads, ferns, palms
and a tropical forest. It is also a great place
for birding and has been declared a refuge for migratory
birds. |
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| Coffee
Adventure |
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Tour: We will show
you, not only authentic local agricultural and sustainable
forestry methods of planting and production in beautiful
locations, but also take you back on a historical
voyage way back into the cultural, agricultural
and commercial past of this private farm and the
petroglyphs discovered there. The Contreras Family
has been farming for over 50 years in this area
of Turrialba once known as the Eagles View (Barrio
Colorado). Here they utilize nurse trees to shade
the coffee, and grow a diversity of other cash crops
to shield them from the risk of unstable coffee
prices on the World market. This crops include wood
trees, and fruit trees like bananas, plantain, lemons
and citrus trees. We will discuss how he balances
the harvesting of these trees to avoid damage to
the coffee. |
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** All Adventure Education Center half-day excursions will
take place on Tuesday afternoons after classes and lunch are
finished. Each is a unique and interesting experience, designed
to be something in which all students, no matter what age
or physical condition, can participate. All tours are subject
to change due to weather or holidays. When possible the school
will run another tour in its place or the offered tour will
be made up at a different time.
FULL DAY TOUR DESCRIPTIONS:
| Rio
Pacuare Rafting Trip |
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Tour: The Pacuare
River is widely considered to be one of the top
10 most scenic river trips in the world. The entrance
to this most popular river-rafting destination in
Costa Rica lies just a few minutes east of Turrialba
and the AEC campus. This is a full day trip with
a stop in the middle for a picnic lunch along the
banks of the river. During both the morning and
afternoon runs, twenty-five different class 3 and
4 rapids will challenge rafters. These are broken
up by sections of calmer waters where you will have
the chance to take in the truly spectacular flora
and fauna of this rainforest paradise. At each and
every turn in the river you will see different natural
wonders from tall majestic waterfalls to jungle
canopy draped canyons filled with native wildlife.
This trip will challenge the beginner and expert
rafter alike and is the highlight of many a Costa
Rican adventure. |
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| Horseback
Tour with Guayabo Monument |
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Tour: Students are
picked up in Turrialba Saturday morning and driven
a half-hour from Turrialba to the remote village
of Peralta. There they saddle up their horses at
the RainForest World Banana Farm and ride down the
abandoned railroad tracks of the famous jungle train.
This will takes students through primary and secondary
rainforests, past numerous bridges and even a long
tunnel. After a couple of hours the tour turns up
into the hills and soon arrives at the extremely
remote and secluded Laguna Bonilla, a beautiful
volcanic lake. There the tour will stop for an hour
and half and students can swim in the lake and eat
lunch. After lunch students will remount their horses
for the remainder of the ride to the Pre-Columbian
Ruins at Guayabo. The ruins are reached via a series
of trails through the rainforest and are in an exquisite
natural setting. At the national monument students
will be given a detailed tour of the site. At the
end of the day the driver will pick everyone up
and take them back down to Turrialba. |
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| Mountain
Bike / Waterfall |
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Tour: 5 kilometers
east of Turrialba In the town of Pavones, students
will start their mountain bike ride of 5 kilometers
with awesome views of the Turrialba Valley leading
into the coffee plantations of Santa Cruz. After
cruising through the coffee plantations and tropical
rainforest, students will reach the waterfalls of
Aquiares. This is one of the undiscovered gems of
the Turrialba area and the falls are over 80 feet
high and offer an excellent example of the cascading
waters found in the tropical Costa Rican rainforest.
Here the tour will stop for lunch and an opportunity
to swim in the small pond at the base of the falls.
The setting is absolutely wonderful and offers students
the perfect break in a day full of riding to relax
and enjoy the nature. After lunch students will
ride farther into the forest before returning to
Turrialba and the end of the day. |
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| Turrialba
Volcano Tour |
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Tour: Located on the
central volcanic range, the Turrialba is the only
volcano in which people are allowed to descend into
the main crater. For centuries, this crater's low
volcanic activity, has made it ideal to get up close
to all its varied geological formations. At the
same time, the hike to get there gives students
a chance to experience the rain forest with all
its flora and fauna. During the months of September
to November it is possible to glimpse the beautiful
quetzal, the dazzling Central American bird that
was of ceremonial importance to the Aztecs and Mayas,
and became a symbol of the desire of the Central
American people to rid themselves of colonial oppression,
because of its inability to live in captivity.
The hiking from the base of the volcano lasts about
four hours and the journey has a moderate intensity. |
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