Join IndiGo Birding Nature Tours for this unique birding and food tour of Costa Rica, a treasure chest of biodiversity and emerging cuisine. Because the Keel-billed Toucan has been nicknamed the Flying Banana (with its long, yellow beak) and because Costa Rica is a major banana producer, we thought the Flying Banana Tour would be a fitting name for a trip focused on both the foods and birds of this Central American country. Over the course of this 11-day tour we will spend our mornings in search of toucans, macaws, and hummingbirds and then visit unique restaurants and farms that provide a tasty, immersive experience for new and savvy travelers alike.

Don't miss out on this unique trip, a carefully selected mix of activities that will make for a delightful vacation of birding, tasting, and enjoying the tropics. Pura vida! 

Welcome to one of the top birding destinations in the world! Costa Rica has many different ecosystems and elevations to explore, and explore is what we will do! Starting at our hotel in San Jose, we will provide opportunities for daily birding walks at the places we are staying as well as at nearby birding hotspots. Expect to see more than one hundred species of tropical birds over the course of the trip, including spectacular ones like the Yellow-throated Toucan, Red-legged Honeycreeper, Montezuma Oropendola, and Violet Sabrewing. Some of our guided walks will focus on more than birds: a night hike at Finca Luna Nueva, a morning at the world-famous La Selva Biological Station, and a natural history hike at the Mistico Park Hanging Bridges. Take your birding to the next level with us: enthusiasm is required, but birding experience is not! 

This tour is designed for the casual birder who also enjoys learning about a different culture through culinary exploration and customized excursions. Costa Rica is known for its rice and beans (particularly gallo pinto), but there is so much more! We will learn all about Costa Rican mainstays like coffee, bananas, and chocolate. We will also try a variety of tropical fruits as we tour the central market and an organic farm. We will eat in local sodas (small, family-run restaurants) and also in some of the most contemporary dining establishments. We will even get to help prepare a meal for ourselves in the home of a Costa Rican! Taste the historical influence of Spanish, Caribbean, and indigenous cultures and also note the fusion tendencies from more recent international influences. Become a foodie if you aren't one already! 

If you want to get an early tutorial on Costa Rican cuisine, you might enjoy reading this article that gives a great introduction. 

Our lodging for this tour is an assortment of large hotels, ecolodges, and small family-run hotels. We start at the comfortable Hotel Bougainvillea, a place where we can gather and relax and enjoy their beautiful gardens. Our next four nights will be at Finca Luna Nueva Lodge, known for its amazing food and lovely setting. After that, we head north to the wetlands of Cano Negro, where we will stay at their lodge in one of the most important bird conservation areas in the country. We will then spend two nights at Selva Verde Lodge, which sits on the banks of the Sarapiqui River. Our last night will be at the Fairfield by Marriott in San Jose, which offers a shuttle ride to the nearby airport and a good night's sleep before we depart.

David Rupp is the owner and guide for IndiGo Birding Nature Tours, a business he started over 10 years ago with the goal of connecting people with nature through customized, immersive experiences. He lived in Costa Rica for 3 months during his college study abroad program, so the country has a special place in his heart. He has organized and led several birding tours to Costa Rica before designing this adventure. 

Lali Hess is owner of The Juniper Spoon, a harvest-based catering business located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Lali has spent several years in Costa Rica, becoming fluent in Spanish and well-connected and knowledgeable about the use of foods in the country. She joins David on this tour and lends great culinary expertise and enthusiasm as a leader for this trip.

One of the main goals of IndiGo Birding tours is to connect with the local culture, so we will use every opportunity to support local businesses and use Tico guides. We encourage our trip participants to bring curiosity and interact with all of our local guides in order to get the most out of the tour experience. 

TOUR PAYMENTS: All payments, including initial deposit of $1000, can be made through WeTravel. We do accept credit cards for an additional 2.9% fee, but you may also pay by bank transfer or check. Full payment is due 90 days prior to departure for the tour. 

CANCELLATIONS: 

IF WE CANCEL a tour due to low attendance, severe weather, health issues, or other unforeseen events, participants may either move their payments to another trip of their choice or receive a full refund. 

IF YOU CANCEL your place on this tour more than 90 days from departure, a full refund will be available. If cancelling within 90 days of departure, no refund will be given UNLESS we are able to fill your spot(s) with another participant. In that situation, $250 will still be withheld for administrative purposes, but the rest of your payments will be refunded. We highly recommend that you purchase trip cancellation (including medical emergency) insurance to cover your investment in case of injury or illness to you or a family member prior to or during a trip. 

Moderate pace. While we will move slowly (for birding), there are days where we will walk 2 to 3 miles. Ability to climb steps and maintain balance is required. Trails can be muddy and uneven.  

Welcome to Costa Rica! Schedule your flight to arrive in the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) on the 10th. A shuttle will be available to take you across town to Hotel Bougainvillea, where we will gather in the evening for a welcome meeting and dinner. If you arrive early, you can enjoy a walk and some birding in the lovely gardens on-site. 

Enjoy breakfast and a bird walk at Bougainvillea before checking out. Our main activity today is a customized tour in downtown San Jose with San Jose Urban Tours. Our guide will show us the city market and introduce us to many of the specialty fruits and foods of Costa Rica. He will then take us to a nearby house and guide us in cooking up a Costa Rican feast! We then depart the capital city and drive to Finca Luna Nueva Lodge, a working farm and ecolodge, where we will spend four wonderful nights.

Today we bird the grounds of Finca Luna Nueva and relax in the midst of tropical rainforest, dining on farm-to-table foods that delight the tastebuds. Before breakfast, a local guide will lead us on an early morning bird walk on the property, where over 250 species have been recorded on nearly 200 acres. One highlight is the 35-foot tall canopy tower, which puts you eye-to-eye with some of the beautiful tropical birds. In the afternoon we will gather for an herbal medicine workshop. This activity will involve hands-on work with plants and herbs freshly harvested from the organic farm on-site. In the evening we will drive into the town of La Fortuna for a sophisticated dinner at the popular Don Rufino Restaurante, one of the best in town. 

The Children’s Eternal Rainforest is one of the most beautiful natural treasures of Costa Rica, created in 1987 through the efforts of children from 44 nations. It is the largest private reserve in Costa Rica and anchors a 250,000-acre expanse of cloud forest and lower-elevation forest habitat. At the Poco Sol research station you will hike through a mid-elevation rainforest, giving a possibility of seeing the famous Umbrella Bird, Montezuma Oropendola (pictured here), multiple tanager species, and bubbling mud pits where geotectonic plates collide. The many trails offer a range of hiking challenge, and after your hike you can refresh yourself with a swim in the lake that fills the caldera of this extinct volcano.  

The mountains and rain forests of Costa Rica can be explored in many ways, but one of the best approaches is to hike the hanging bridges. We will go on a guided natural history and birding hike at the Mistico Park Hanging Bridges in the morning. Then we head into town for a cooking class in the home of Lali's friend Giselle. Learn how to cook (and eat) like a Costa Rican! You will be given some time to explore and shop the town square in La Fortuna before heading back to Luna Nueva for dinner and the evening. 

Time to keep exploring Costa Rica! After one final delicious breakfast at Finca Luna Nueva, we continue north. We will stop at Eden Organic Farm for a tour and chocolate-making demonstration, where we learn everything about the process of making artisanal and organic chocolate. We will also have lunch at Eden before heading to Natural Lodge Cano Negro. 

The Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge is an international RAMSAR site, providing wetland habitat and important ecosystem services to the northern zone of Costa Rica. By staying at the lodge, we have easy access for outings into this unique area. We will go on an early morning boat ride--a guided expedition in search of Roseate Spoonbills (above with White Ibis), Black-collared Hawks, kingfishers, and other wildlife. We will spend the middle of the day relaxing and birding around the lodge before heading out again in the afternoon, this time exploring the area on foot. The lodge restaurant will be our dining destination, where we will enjoy locally-sourced and internationally-inspired cuisine that is sure to delight. 

We will go on one more guided forest walk at Cano Negro before departing late morning. Our destination today is Selva Verde Ecolodge which serves as a haven for macaws and howler monkeys and much more wildlife. On our way there, we will stop at a local restaurant for lunch before a mid-afternoon stop for a cultural banana tour. Bananas have a long and ongoing history in Costa Rica with many current impacts on the current culture. Can't have a Flying Banana tour without this experience!! 

We start the day with a visit to the Finca Ecoorganica Sarapiqui for a guided tour of their farm. We will learn about and sample traditional crops like heart of palm, pineapple, passion fruit, coffee and more before they cook lunch for us. After an an afternoon siesta, we will join Oasis Nature Tours for a boat tour on the Sarapiqui River, where we could see kingfishers, monkeys, and other amazing wildlife. We end the big day with a visit to a local restaurant for some more typical Costa Rican cuisine. Yum!

We pack up at Selva Verde and depart after breakfast, taking a short bus ride to meet our guide for a morning of exploring the rainforest at La Selva Biological Station, one of the top birding destinations in Costa Rica. While birds will be our focus, we will also explore the mammals, amphibians, botany, and general ecology of the area.  After the hike, we start the drive up and over the mountains to San Jose. However, we will stop for lunch at Soda y Mirador Cinchona for a classic Costa Rican lunch, with specialties drinks and Olla de Carne among the numerous options. We will enjoy the spectacular view and the amazing birds (like the Northern Emerald Toucanet pictured here) at their birdfeeders while we eat. We then drive into San Jose, where we will stay at the Fairfield by Marriott by the airport. The grand finale to the tour is our dinner at Silvestre, one of Costa Rica's premier restaurants, where a tasting menu awaits. 

The Flying Banana Tour has come to an end, but you should be departing with a full belly, many wonderful memories, and some new friends. Breakfast is included at the hotel at your leisure. Free shuttle transportation to the airport is also available, so you should be able to catch a flight at whatever time works best for your schedule and budget.