Cultural Heritage & Gardens

Walking in Jaco, you’ll see a lot of restaurants, souvenir shops, and stores clustered together along the main street near the beach. But if you take a closer look at …

There’s always something new to discover when traveling around Costa Rica. Usually, it is a hidden waterfall or amazing wildlife encounter. But on a recent visit to Nuevo Arenal, we …

Not far from San Jose, on the outskirts of the city of Heredia, is a beautiful, little-known botanical garden. El Arca Botanical Garden has several gardens with everything from medicinal …

When Costa Rica city dwellers want a relaxing time away, they often drive into the nearby hills to find a slice of nature. In this post, we’ll share one popular …

Many visitors to Costa Rica want to see hummingbirds. While these tiny birds are indeed abundant in Costa Rica, when viewing them in the wild, you typically catch little more …

Costa Rica has a strong Catholic heritage. In fact, Catholicism is the country’s official religion. About three out of four Costa Ricans identify themselves as Catholic. Catholicism runs deep in …

Costa Rica is said to hold as much as five percent of the world’s total biodiversity. For such a small country, that means that around every corner you can see …

Not far from Costa Rica’s capital city of San Jose is the Botanical Orchid Garden. This little-known garden in La Garita may not see a ton of visitors, but is …

Outside the world of ornithology (the study of birds), the name Alexander Skutch might not be at all familiar. But much of what the world knows today about neotropical birds …

Long before eco-tourism vans took to the roads of Costa Rica, there was another much simpler mode of transportation: the oxcart. Brightly painted with intricate designs, these original wagons or …

Set on the jungle-rich slopes of the Turrialba Volcano is one of Costa Rica’s most important archaeological sites, the Guayabo National Monument. Thought to have been first inhabited more than …

A couple of months ago, Matt got a call from one of our friends in Costa Rica. Not just any friend, but the one who probably played the biggest role …