Jetsettersblog

Wild Planet Adventures is offering packages for Costa Rica’s Veranito season in July, a month-long break in the rainy season that showcases the wildlife expertise of the tour operator with increased chances of seeing rare and endangered wildlife.

A 14-day Costa Rica Ultimate Wildlife Eco-Tour during this season is $4,398 per person double occupancy (single supplement $798) for a program combining jungle lodges and private reserve accommodations, meals, guides, entrance fees to over eight national parks and all activities, including whitewater rafting, a canopy tour, sea kayaking with dolphins, night snorkeling in bioluminescence and more.

Dates coinciding with Veranito are June 25 to July 8, July 2 to 15, July 9 to 22, July 16 to 29, July 23 to Aug 5, and July 30 to Aug 12. Nine-day itineraries from $2,798 are also offered.

Josh Cohen, director, notes that the secret of the Ultimate Wildlife itinerary is that it visits some of the country’s most remote and rarely frequented destinations, thereby allowing highly experienced guides to find more rare and endangered species than any other tour company.

One such location involves paddling on a particular flat-water stretch of the Puerto Viejo River that runs through a remote section of La Selva Biological Preserve in Barullio Carillo National Park.

“Very few people run this lush stretch of the Puerto Viejo River,” he said. “We have seldom, if ever, seen other paddlers there.”

The tour combines wildlife viewing with multi-sport adventures in over eight national parks, reserves, cloud forests and rivers that 20 years of tracking have shown to reach their annual peak of wildlife sightings during Veranito.

Cohen adds that during Veranito days are cooler, off-peak airfares are often less, and the flowering trees and fruits attract an abundance of wildlife — including more rare and endangered species than any other time of year.

The coast-to-coast adventure follows a trapezoidal route east from San Jose starting with the little known Cahuita National Park on the Caribbean (excellent for primates) then north to Sarapiqui, Arenal and Monteverde Cloudforest, then stopping at a number of Pacific coast beaches on the way down to the remote Corcovado National Park.

Accommodations en route that are anything but cookie-cutter take inspiration from their mountain or coastal locations and often themselves offer wildlife sighting possibilities that run the gamut from sloths to primates to endangered sea turtles to Resplendent Quetzals.

The expert wildlife guides of Wild Planet Adventures go the extra mile to explore remote wildlife habitat and study wildlife patterns in destinations not often accessible to the general public.

Thanks to the company’s comprehensive itineraries that balance diverse and complex ecosystems and habitats, guests enjoy wildlife and game viewing that is carefully aligned with animals’ daily and nocturnal migrations.

Following a philosophy that interacting with nature has the power to transform lives, tours are conducted in Africa, Baja, Belize, Costa Rica, Galapagos, India, Laos, Panama, Peru and Thailand. Wild Planet Adventures is recognized by top publications in the travel industry for its itineraries that combine intimate encounters with nature with local culture.

For more information, call 800-990-4376, email josh@wildplanetadventures.com  or visit www.wildplanetadventures.com