SPECIAL OFFER
NEW TOUR TO RESERVA LOS CAMPESINOS
A cultural exchange experience in rural Costa Rica
Here you’ll interact with the real Tico Spanish lifestyle. This 85 acre (33H) community based eco-tourism project, within the Zona Protectora Cerro Nara has received United Nations (PNUD) funding. It began in 1994 as a community vanilla project, when the plague hit, it was converted to an eco-tourism project. The "Sky Bridge" is over 40 meters (131 feet) high and 127 meters (416 feet) long, above the tree tops, you can often see Iguanas sunning themselves. Here you'll experience spectacular waterfalls while walking through the canopy of both primary and secondary forests, with a stop at the mirrador where you can see the coast of Manuel Antonio, then you can cool off in the pozo, (swimming hole). Your (Spanish) tour will include a history of the village farming practices and they'll explain the traditional uses for many of the plants and trees. You'll also have a good chance at observing the endangered Titi Monkey early in the morning or late afternoon. You can ride the andarivel, (or metal cable cart, see below) 75 feet across the gorge. This project has received UN and Canadian grants desiring to preserve the cultures, traditions and provide income while preserving families within Costa Rica’s rural communities.
Tours to Reserva Los Campesinos
1) Day tours with transportation from Quepos includes: Reserve entrance, typical Tico lunch prepared on a wood stove, & guided tour in Spanish to the Sky Bridge and water falls: $75.00. from Quepos or from Londres $65.
2) Overnight/ tour/3 meals begins with an afternoon, a 45 minute 4x4 adventure tour to the Reserva, including entrance, guided tour, 3 meals cooked on a wood stove, one night in the Cabinas where you’ll awaken to the playful monkeys and rancorous birds. From Quepos $105 or $110 from Manuel Antonio. From Londres $95.00.
*If you are adventurous and want to save some money, you can catch a cab for about $10.00 from Quepos, or take a bus. For less than 50 cents, the Quepos to Londres bus leaves daily from the Mercado across from Super Mas at: 7:00*; 9:00; Noon; 4:00 & 6:00* *except Sunday. New service: at 2:30 to SABALO leaves from the curb of the terminal and costs about 75 cents.
3) Two nights/tour/4 meals, with transportation. Afternoon pick-up in Quepos, overnight in Londres at Finca Amanecer (hot showers) with a tropical breakfast. Departure at your leisure to the Reserva, with tour including 3 typical Tico meals cooked on a wood stove and overnight in the new, but rustic cabins with private (cold) baths and balconies overlooking the forested gorge with an afternoon return to Londres or Quepos, $145.
4)Three tours/2 night/5 meals: begins with an early pick-up in Quepos/Manuel Antonio and 45 minute 4 X 4 tour to Quebrada Arroyo, entrance, a full day and overnight in the Reserva los Campesios with 3 meals and tours to the waterfalls; the hiking tour includes the andarivel, which zips 75 feet across to the other side of the gorge, controlled by ropes and pulleys; the sky bridge and the swimming hole; early morning horseback ride to the "fork in the road" and then you hike down 2 miles, with lunch on your own at Las Brisas de Nara, relax and refresh in Rio Naranjo before your return to Quepos. $175.00. or $165.00 from Londres
5) 3 nights/2 days/3 tours/6 meals: your tour includes afternoon pick-up in Quepos, overnight in Londres at Finca Amanecer (hot showers) with a tropical breakfast. An early departure by 4 wheel drive vehicle to the community of Quebrada Arroyo for a tour including the vanilla project and waterfalls in both primary and secondary forests. Three typical Tico meals will be included and an overnight in the new spacious cabinas. The following morning, after breakfast, you'll return via horseback with a stop at the Quebrada Arroyo waterfalls. You'll continue on and have lunch at a typical Tico Rancho where your 4 wheel drive vehicle will return you to Finca Amanecer for the night with an early morning van back to Quepos. $200 pp includes 3 nights/2 days, 3 tours, transportation, 3 breakfasts, 2 lunches and one dinner. In the green season add an extra day rafting for only $65 with a return to Quepos the same day or an extra day rappelling down waterfalls for only $75 with a FREE nights stay and a return to Quepos early the next morning.
How can we offer so much for so little cost? Low overhead and fewer middlemen, you are dealing with the owner operators and in the case of the Reserva it is a community based project funded by international agencies.
For reservations call (011 506) 779-1123 or CONTACT
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The following is from http://www.keytocostarica.com/conservacations.htm by Beatrice Blake
After a 4-hour trip to the coast, we arrived in Quepos, near famous Manuel Antonio National Park. Our destination was not the beautiful but over-visited beach, but an isolated community about an hour and a half inland from Quepos. In Londres, about 30 minutes from Quepos, we changed from our 15-seater bus to a 4-wheel drive taxi to negotiate the 45-minute trip to Quebrada Arroyo and Reserva Los Campesinos. After a delicious dinner we retired to our spacious cabins. The railings on the porch emphasized the natural shapes of the branches used in their construction.
In the morning, Don Miguel, president of the Vanilla Producers Association, talked of the history of the village. They had been successful in raising chocolate until monilia started ruining the cacao pods. Then they had a successful business raising vanilla and making extract, until another disease wiped out the vanilla crop. He showed us beautiful crafts that villagers had made out of the vanilla pods, still sweet-smelling after eight years. Now they are starting to raise vanilla again, only organically, and are supplementing their farm earnings with income from their cabins and tours.
Miguel and his friend Misael led us up through the Los Campesinos Reserve, stopping often to tell us the uses of different flowers, trees and plants. Almost everything is used for food or medicine--and Miguel and Misael even showed us which plants they used to make into toys when they were kids. The wide, round leaves of one tree make terrific pinwheels. Miguel deftly shaved off part of the stiff hairs on "monkey's comb" pods with his machete, and made monkey faces on the pods to give to the kids. Halfway up the trail, at the edge of a deep gorge, is an "andarivel", a sturdy metal box suspended from a cable. Four people can fit in the andarivel, which zips maybe 75 feet across to the other side of the gorge, controlled by ropes and pulleys that Miguel and Misael handle. It was a quick and exciting ride. Not long after that, we reached the covered lookout at the top of the ridge, from where you can see the coast south of Manuel Antonio. I asked Miguel if he had ever imagined all the things he learned working beside his father in the countryside would someday be so fascinating to foreign tourists. " I never imagined it," he said. "Never." What an incredible way of preserving culture!
Pineapple grown in the village awaited us when we came down, and then we were off across a narrow 400-foot suspended bridge offering a view of the village's spectacular waterfall. At the other end of the bridge is a large waterfall-fed swimming hole, refreshingly cool after our long walk. We were in paradise! Our lunch featured heart of palm, which we had seen freshly harvested the same morning. Reluctantly we left Reserva los Campesinos, and made our way back over the steep, muddy roads to our little bus.
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