Costa Rica Adventure Activities - Part III

Costa Rica has Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, both with beautiful beaches framed by lush green forests. Depending on your expectations, and the activities that you want to enjoy, you may chose which beach is better for you. The Caribbean beaches such as Puerto Viejo, Punta Cocles and Manzanillo are specially good for relaxing vacations, while the ones in Guanacaste are very good for surfing and scuba diving. Manuel Antonio beach is one of the most visited beaches in the country and the ones in the South side of Costa Rica are virginal, wild and untouched.

With more than 212 volcanoes, Costa Rica is such an exotic wildly beautiful country. Most of these volcanoes are dormant or dead, and only 7 are active. These active volcanos are: Arenal, Irazu, Poas, Turrialba, Miravalles, Rincon de la Vieja and Tenorio. All of these volcanos are located in national parks, and they offer numerous trails and facilities to enjoy the wonders of the natural phenomena. Experience the hot muddy spots, fumarolas, thermal waters, and lava.

If you are a waterfall lover you have come to the right place. Just by driving through Costa Rica you can find hundreds of beautiful waterfalls of all sizes. Some of them are touristicly exploited, such as La Fortuna Waterfall, Celeste River Waterfall and Angel Waterfall, among others.

Canyoning in Costa Rica is all an adventure. There are three places where we offer this tour; the first one is in La Fortuna with 4 waterfalls and one drop, the second one is in Monteverde in the middle of the Cloud Forest, and finally in Rincon De la Vieja close to an active volcano located on the norht of Costa Rica.

Link: Costa Rica Adventure Tours

Poas Volcano National Park

Poas Volcano is an active stratovolcano with frequent small geyser and lava eruptions, and with some of the most beautiful scenery in Costa Rica. It is located in the Alajuela Province, at about 2,708 meters above sea level and lies within two vast calderas. The last major eruptions at Poas Volcano were around 1954. The southernmost of two summit crater lakes, Botos, is about 2 km in diameter and over 1000 meters deep, it is cold and clear, and its last eruption was about 7,500 years ago. The other is warm and acidic crater that has a beautiful blue-green crater lake, and has been the site of frequent eruptions since the first was reported in 1828.

Poas Volcano National Park, founded on 1971, is the most develop of all national parks in Costa Rica and it has the most visitors of every other National Park in Costa Rica. It is a popular attraction located only 37 km from San Jose. This park may become crowded and cloudy so it is always better to visit the park early in the morning. Also the best time to view the crater is early in the morning before the clouds cover the crater and the lake.

This National Park is a great place for a one day tour because of its location, just an hour and a half from Downtonw San Jose. After arriving to the park, visitor can check out the Visitors Center, where is a coffee and volcanoes exhibition. There are very well developed trails that go to the main crater lookout point. The main crater is around 1.5 km wide and 300 meters deep, and is one of the biggest of the world. Another trail, around a 20 minute hike, goes to a second crater now a lake called Laguna Botos. The park is also an important power plant of the hydroelectric and geothermal generation.

There are many options to get to the park; the road is in good condition. There are many tours that visit the park, as well as other touristic sites in the surrounding area, such as the coffee plantations, coffee tours, and beautiful landscapes, among others. There are also public buses that go close to the Poas Volcano. The Poas Volcano bus station, Tuasa Co., is located in the Street 12-13, Ave. 2. The public bus leaves daily at 8:00 a.m. in the morning and returns around 2:00 p.m. The distance from San Jose to the National park is 55 km and the trip takes 1 hour and 30 minutes. To communicate with Tuasa Co., the phone numbers are (506) 2222-5325 and (506) 2442-6900.

Merry Christmas from Banana Adventure Tours

Banana Adventure Tours

Winners of the Worlds Series Green Cup

Yolanda Magallón (Bikezona Massi) and Santiago Arnés (BH Pro Teams) won the Wolrds Series Green Cup. This Cup was a duatlon that took place in Los Lagos Arenal, Costa Rica. Los Lagos Hotel was the place that sponsored the 5th International Series Green Cup, on the Arenal Volcano skirts; it took place on November 29, 2009. It was a hard biking ride after a run around the volcano for 10 kilometers.

More about Worlds Series Green Cup

Visit Costa Rica

Costa Rica Culture

Costa Rica was conquered by Spanish in the 16th century, so from the beginning it was heavely influenced by the Spanish culture. Limon and the Cordillera de Talamanca are the exception with the predominancy of Black Jamaicans and indigenous people. The Ticos and Ticas (the way Costaricans demoninate themselves) are generally of mixed origins. There was a great number of immigrants who came to Costa Rica during the construction of the railroad; mostly the immigrants came from Jamaica and from China, and stayed in the Caribbean side of the country on Limon Porvince.

Costa Ricans speak Spanish, although there have been a great effort from the government to teach English in most schools due to the wolrd necesities nowadays. Normally Ticos and Ticas speak in the respectful manner of "usted", and in the familiar form of "vos" rather than "tu", used in other latianmerican countries. The term Ticos and Ticas came from the way Costa Ricans talk using diminutives with the suffixing -ito and -ita.

Read more about Costa Rica Culture.

Visit Costa Rica

Costa Rica Adventure

Costa Rica has so much to offer. It is a tropical country located on Central America, which has both coasts, Pacific and Caribbean, many active volcanoes, great mountains, lush green forests and swamps. It is truly a place to enjoy family adventures and high adrenaline adventures. There are so many types of adventure activities to do, that it makes Costa Rica a never end place of fun.


There are canopy tours (zip plining) located in every region of the country, canoynning tours and rappel on beautiful waterfalls, white water rafting of different intensity (from Class I to Class IV - V), ATV (four wheelers), bungee jumping, kayaking, mountain biking, surfing, horseback riding, and hiking among many others, Depending if you want low intensity adventure enjoying the forests, biodiversity, volcanoes and hot springs, or if you would like to try high intensity adventure involving white water rafting, canyonning and bungee jumping, Costa Rica is the place to be.

Adventures in Costa Rica

Visit Costa Rica