Annual eco-tourism trips focused on tropical conservation and wildlife photography are offered with a built-in contribution to the MCLUS. They are two weeks long, draw on the expertise of local scientists and naturalists in the field. They are not luxury trips, but the opportunities for wildlife sighting are wonderful! Scroll down for detailed itinerary!
Join the Costa Rica trip June 22-July 5, 2009
$1895 plus airfare
These trips include a $200 tax deductible gift to the Monteverde Conservation League
Costa Rica Trip Overview
Rachel and Dwight Crandell lead tropical adventures filled with conservation, biodiversity, and a spectacular opportunity to stay in the biological field station in the largest private reserve in the country, El Bosque Eterno de los Niños.
You can view the active Arenal Volcano from the veranda. The 54,000 acre reserve includes Monteverde cloud forest and tropical rain forest. Bring your raincoat and rubber boots. You will raft the Corobici River through tropical dry forest and visit Carara National Park, a lowland Pacific forest. The differences in each ecosystem will be apparent as local biologists and naturalists share their expertise. You will get to help catch birds in a mist net as our scientist/guide collects data. You will visit a local school, learn about women’s issues in Costa Rica, learn a little Spanish, do lots of hiking and see fabulous birds, monkeys, coati, agouti, and maybe the tracks of margay, ocelot, jaguar or tapir.
Visits to a Wild Cat Refuge, a Butterfly Garden, the Orchid Garden and the Ranario (frog garden) are easy ways to see and learn a lot in a short time. Optional activities include canopy zipline, horseback riding, a live bat exhibit, and suspension bridges through the canopy of the forest. Photo ops are everywhere! This is not a lie-on-the-beach trip. Come ready to have a jungle adventure, sleep in a bunk, be willing to hike, learn a lot, and try new foods, learn a little Spanish, meet new people and appreciate a whole new culture and ecosystem.
$1895 includes all lodging, overland transportation, guides, admissions, instruction, taxes and meals. A deposit of $200 will hold your spot and is refundable (less a $40 cancellation fee). The balance is due April 1, 2009. The FREE day expenses and departure tax of $26 are not included.
TESTIMONIAL from 2005 trip participant, “My Costa Rica journal is filled with the startling, inspiring and glorious discoveries of this wondrous trip. My senses and my spirit were repeatedly awed and refilled by the discoveries this journey holds … Going to sleep in the navy blue night to the metallic clinking of tree frogs and the lush whispers of a stream … Laying between the giant arms of a giant buttress tree … Listening to a Bellbird, training my binoculars on chattering toucans and white-faced Capuchin monkeys bouncing through the canopy of branches above me, and spotting, near my feet, a beautiful silver-grey fox.”
Itinerary for Costa Rica Trip - June 22-July 5, 2009
Mon 22 Arrival at airport in San Jose, Costa Rica- overnight Hotel Cacts
Tu 23 Visit National Institute of Biodivesity. Begin nature journal w/sketches of flora and fauna. Lunch en route through coffee plantations etc. to Monteverde on Pan Am Hwy (4 hours). Supper and Overnight at Los Llanos Field Station. Take in the sunset over Gulf of Nicoya.
W 24 Hike through the cloud forest to El Bosque Eterno de los Niños (BEN) the Eternal Forest of the Children, 54,000 acres of protected forest. Settle in San Gerardo Biological Field Station view of Arenal Volcano - Solo on trails w/sketch and journal time – howler monkeys, coati, morpho butterflies – Supper – night hike w/Mark Wainwright author of Mammals of Costa Rica –
Th 25 Early a.m. bird walks are always an option – orientation hikes with Mark and Chico:
Praying mantis, beetles, orchids, morpho butterflies, coati, lianas, palms, white-faced monkeys -Afternoon solo w/sketch and journal time amidst towering strangler figs festooned w/epiphytes-Supper and journal by candlelight – ever possible volcanic eruption of Volcan Arenal - Games
Fr 26 Mist-netting birds w/ornithologist - photo or sketching ops of individual species: maybe nightingale thrush, wood wren, manakin, spinetail, wood thrush, flycatcher, swallowtail kite, oropendula, toucan, toucanet, cotinga, resplendent quetzal - Lunch-Trail maintenance or other service project- Typical CR dinner homemade tortillas you get to make yourself! Free time til lights out
Sat 27 Hike out through cloud mist for return to Monteverde, bus pickup to Los Llanos-LunchVisit CASEM and coffee Roastery, Cheese factory for best milk shakes in the world - Supper –Slide show by Deb Derosier re: Pacific Slope Forest and Bellbird migration –Los Llanos overnight
Sun 28 Attend Quaker meeting, the historic beginning of Monteverde. Women’s Issues afternoon visiting homes of artisan members of the Women’s Co-op and visit an orchid garden.
Mon 29 -– Visit Bajo del Tigre trails – solo, nature journaling, white-faced monkeys, agouti, chachalaca,blue-crowned motmots – Climb the strangler fig tree – picnic lunch – Reforestation with Deb for afternoon. Supper ,art, journaling time with sunset over Gulf. Mark’s DVD “Rhythms in the Clouds”
Tu 30 Visit Butterfly Garden w/four habitats and hatching pupas –more sketching ops: morpho, owl eye, heliconia butterflies and cool insects to sketch– picnic lunch at MCL office – Afternoon breather to catch up on watercolor - Supper - Slide show of essential efforts of the Monteverde Conservation League. Overnight Los Llanos.
W 1 Bus to nearby rural San Luis Valley for strenuous hike to spectacular 200’ waterfall and bathing pool. Sketching time and picnic lunch. Visit local rural school and take donation of school supplies. Supper at Los Llanos – Evening visit to Ranario when frogs are singing. Overnight Los Llanos.
Thu 2- FREE DAY on your own - options: Horseback riding, Sky Walk (canopy suspension bridges), Sky Trek (zipline above tree tops), cloud forest hike w/guide, live Bat exhibit –Hummingbird Gallery, Cloud Forest Preserve, serpentarium. Be sure to bring your nature journal. Shopping op- Supper at Los Llanos 6 pm. Pack for early departure tomorrow for lowlands
Fr 3 Chartered bus to Cañas - Raft Coribici River: caimen, iguana, basilisk lizard, howler monkeys, egrets, herons, wood storks, ibis, roseate spoonbill, kingfishers, etc. Picnic Lunch- Visit Las Pumas Wild Cat Refuge (puma, jaguar, ocelot, margay, jaguarundi) –Supper in small town and strole around the plaza. Overnight at La Pacifica Hacienda with swimming pool.
Sat 4 Bus to Tarcoles River to see giant salt water crocodiles and Carara NP to look for lowland rainforest species- palms, parrots, poison arrow frogs, paca, agouti, turquoise-browed motmot, scarlet macaws – Return to San Jose -Farewell dinner –Cacts Hotel
Sun 5 Airport – fly home - Departure tax $26
Panama Trip Feb 16-28, 2009 (FULL)
Namibia Trip Overview - October 9-22, 2007 (was fabulous and we might do it again someday - stay tuned)
During your time in southwest Africa we saw a country of primeval and unspoiled beauty. It is a land of spectacular landscapes, rich treasures of wildlife, unique flora and indigenous people still practicing much of their traditional culture.
Namibia is a land of superlatives. You will experience an overflight of the Skeleton Coast of the Namib Desert, the oldest desert in the world with the highest sand dunes in the world, unparalleled viewing of African wildlife at Etosha National Park where animals congregate at major waterholes during the dry season, a visit to Damaraland, a vast rocky desert, a viewing of ancient petroglyphs left by the earliest inhabitants of this part of the continent at the Brandberg, an overnight at the Cheetah Conservation Fund site where you will be right up close with cheetahs, a meeting with the last of Namibia’s endangered Cape Griffon Vultures at a rescue project, hiking on Waterburg Plateau high above the thorn savannah below, and return to Windhoek, the civilized, spotlessly clean capital with many reminders of its German colonial roots.
You will meet Himba people, pastoralists who wear very few clothes and cover themselves daily with a mixture of red ochre and butter, hence their nickname, the “Red People.” You will meet biologists and conservationists who are working to protect the wildlife treasures in this corner of Africa. You will meet white farmers who raise cattle and trophy hunt.
You will go to places with names like Okahandja, Swapokmund, Khorixas, Kamanjab, Outjo, Okaukuejo, Halali, Namutoni, Tsumeb, Otjiwarongo. Fun just to try to pronounce them! Etosha National Park is one of the major sanctuaries of wildlife in all of Africa. The park is 22,270 square kilometers. The savannah and scrub landscape provides excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing at the waterholes and in open countryside. You could see elephant, giraffe, zebra, lion, rhino, hyena, kudu, dik-dik, springbok, ostrich, wildebeest, impala, hartebeest, cheetah, leopard, wart hog, meercat, aardwolf, secretary bird, kori bustard, lilac rollers, hornbills and dozens of other species of birds.
The Himba people you will visit are carrying on their traditional lifestyle herding cattle and goats, little changed from the ways of their pastoralist ancestors. The Himba are an extraordinary people who have resisted change and continue living their rich cultural heritage.
A deposit of $300 held the spot and was refundable (less a $40 cancellation fee).
Contact info@mclus.org for more information and reservations!
