Rio Celeste Waterfall Hike & Ethical Sloth Tour Combo
This is a combo tour through a small local company. It starts with a visit to Tenorio Volcano National Park, home to the Rio Celeste Waterfall, for a 2-2.5 hour guided hike.
Rio Celeste Waterfall Hike
The Rio Celeste Waterfall is the main attraction in the Bijagua area. It is an absolutely stunning waterfall with bright blue water. In our opinion, it is one of the most beautiful in Costa Rica. The river and waterfall get their color from a chemical reaction that occurs naturally between volcanic minerals.
To reach the waterfall, it’s an easy-to-moderate hike through Tenorio Volcano National Park.
The first part of the hike to the waterfall is fairly easy. It’s about a half-hour long, and you access the falls by walking down a steep, but well maintained, set of 250 stairs. From there, you can view the waterfall from a platform.
Continuing on, you will come to other sights like the tenideros (point in river where it turns from clear to blue) and blue pool. The second part of the trail is moderate in difficulty.
Your bilingual naturalist guide will take you along the trail to see the waterfall and other points of interest mentioned above.
Along the way, they will point out interesting plants and animals that you may spot in the mix of tropical rainforest and cloud forest. The guides we use are locals from the Bijagua area so they are very familiar with the ecosystem and knowledgeable about the area.
Sloth Tour
After the hike, you’ll head to the tour company’s office in the countryside (20 minutes away) for the sloth tour.
This is an ethical sloth tour, meaning that you will see sloths in their natural habitat. In some places in Bijagua and elsewhere in Costa Rica, sloths are, unfortunately, taken from the wild and brought to private reserves for purposes of tourism. You can learn more about this problem with our post, Sloth Tours in Costa Rica: What’s Ethical?
For this sloth tour, the tour company works with local farmers to help find sloths that are in the area on the day of your tour.
When we did this tour, our bilingual guide drove us along a side road looking for sloths. We saw a three-toed sloth in a neighbor’s tree and one much farther away on the edge of a field.
We then went to meet a local farmer at his property. There we walked a short trail in the rainforest with the guide and farmer. We were able to see a two-toed sloth at a distance and close up through the guide’s scope. We also saw some howler monkeys and Great Curassows (pheasant-like birds).
There are no guarantees that you will see a sloth, but both three-toed and two-toed sloths are common in the Bijagua area so with a little luck, you should be able to spot one.
Cost of Combo Tour: $85 per person plus 13% tax. Children ages 2-4 are $5 pp to cover national park tickets. Children under 2 are free.
Offered: 8:00 a.m.
Duration: 4-5 hours (approximate) (2-2.5 hours hiking, 1-2 hours for sloth tour + time for getting from the national park to the tour company’s office)
Includes: Bilingual naturalist guide and national park entrance fee.
*Lunch is available for purchase at the tour company’s office.
Transportation: Transportation can be arranged for an additional charge. Please request it when making your booking and we will email you with the cost.
If you self-drive, you will meet the guide at the national park in the morning (parking is available for about 3,000 colones or $6/day), then follow them in your own car to the tour company’s office for the sloth tour. Their office is in Katira, about 20 minutes away.
For more information on the hike, read our post, Rio Celeste Waterfall: Essential Tips.
Have a question? Send us an email at bookings(at)
Return to Bijagua/Rio Celeste Tours
Two Weeks in Costa Rica, Inc. is registered with the State of Florida as a Seller of Travel. Fla. Seller of Travel Ref. No. ST41024.
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