Costa Rica and Panama Trip Part 1: Costa Rica

Late on Saturday February 8th, 35 of travelers arrived, a little exhausted in San Jose, Costa Rica. The trip was done by plane all that day. After a rather short night, the exploration of Costa Rica started with a tour of the Doka Coffee Plantation. The plantation taught about the entire process from farming and cultivating to roasting and selling.

Jud Spencer, a tour director for Holiday Vacations, says "Costa Rica is known for it's great quality coffee and it's respect for it's environment and nature." Which was able to be seen all over the country. From the Doka Butterfly Gardens, to the Country side. There were several volcanoes, including Arenal volcano located near La Fortuna.

Jud Spencer says the volcano "has all of these natural hot springs, where they supposedly say, they give healing touches to ones body."

The biological diversity of Costa Rica was clear during a boat tour, where many different types of birds, iguana's, monkeys and even a caiman, which looks a lot like a crocodile, only smaller were seen. A hike around the base of the Arenal volcano showed many species of plants and flowers. The tour then headed to Monteverdi, where the view and sunsets were incredible.

Linda Theriault was on the trip and she says "Costa Rica was just beautiful! Anybody that has an opportunity to go, should go to see all the florals, the volcanoes, and it's really an awesome place to be!"

And of course, the food was also an experience.

Linda says it was a lot of chicken, a lot of rice and a lot of fish! Different flavors.

Costa Rica was wrapped up by seeing the Cloud Forest and several of the local snakes and turtles. Part two will air Thursday's NewsSource 8 at 5:30. We will take a look at the Panama part of the trip.