Most Inspirational Moment
My daughter and I loved the rafting trip at Sarapiqui - which was the "floating safari" rather than the white water version as we felt too nervous to do that. In fact, because of heavy rain the night before the water was quite stirred up so it was actually quite thrilling. The guide on this raft was wonderful - he made it really fun. She also loved the zip wiring at Sarapiqui, and we all enjoyed the hot springs at La Fortuna - absolutely magical in the twilight. But the stars of the show were all the animals we saw - especially sloths and monkeys, and endless iguanas!
Thoughts on Group Leader
Katia was one in a million - so knowledgeable and such a brilliant communicator. Long journeys were broken up with really good background on where we were and what we were seeing, and she gave us really good historical, cultural and social background too. - As a birdwatcher I really appreciated her willingness to take us on 6am bird spotting strolls. I would never have seen half so much if she hadn't shown me it - and her passion for flora and fauna is infectious. I will never forget her detailed description of the social organisation of the leaf cutter ant! She is a born leader - always managing to make things feel organic and informal, while doing masses of contingency planning behind the scenes. She also treated us all as individuals and sought to offer options that would appeal to each of us. Her local knowledge of restaurants was invaluable - she gave us choices and took us to great places.
Advice for Potential Travellers
We went in the rainy season - and boy, did it rain. Not just an hour or two a day, but torrentially for hours on end, especially on the Caribbean side where it rains more or less all the year round. And when it isn't raining it is more often than not very overcast. Once we got to the Pacific side the weather was much better - sunshine for at least half of every day. So be prepared for the weather - it can be demoralising. Others have mentioned the difficulty in drying clothes out - our guide was ingenious and took us twice to local laundrettes where a service wash was efficient and far cheaper than in the hotels. Returned either same day or following morning. Hotels are simple - but we liked the simplest one, at Cahuita, the best because you could hear the ocean from the garden. We had a miserable time on the optional turtle trip at Tortuguero locally run, not organised by Exodus. We had to walk through rainforest to get to the beach and, because of heavy rain, floodwater was nearly up to our knees - the pitch dark and the warnings about going single file because of the risk of snakes resulted in our daughter being absolutely terrified. We did see turtles but by this time she was unable to enjoy and just wanted to feel safe again. It felt very overcrowded and not really in the interests of the turtles. But the river trips made going to Tortuguero worth it. Do consider doing what we did: we booked a hotel on the Pacific coast and stayed on for five more nights after the tour relaxing, swimming and whale watching. Really worth it - after travelling all that way.
Suggestions
This is a really good way of seeing fantastic wildlife and visiting a tropical country very different from our own, with children. The organisation and the guide take all the stress out of this kind of travelling leaving you all free to get the most out of the experience. The Caribbean coast is wetter but it is really fascinating and shouldn't be missed - its Afro-Caribbean heritage making it very different from the rest of the country.