Rural Experiences in Providencia de Dota

Highlights

  • Get to see a side to Costa Rica that most tourists miss out on 
  • Learn the process behind making two Costa Rican staples - the sugary ‘tapa’ drink and ‘sobado’
  • Your host will show you how to make various jams, juices and salsas from the native fruits and vegetables
From £88 pp
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What you'll do

Get off the beaten track and immerse yourself in authentic, rural Costa Rican ways of life. Get in touch with a wholesome, down-to-earth experience with an eco-friendly community to truly understand Costa Rica's culture.

On this visit to the hard-working, eco-conscious community of you’ll get the opportunity to see a side to Costa Rica that most tourists miss out on. Located two hours from San Jose and even 12 kilometres from the Pan American Highway, you’ll be travelling deep into the impossibly lush and fertile Parque Nacional Los Quetzales, to learn about and immerse yourself in the local way of life.

It’s easy to forget that there are still populations out there who have to work the very land they live on to survive. This specially curated tour acts as an eye-opener, as a way to gain exposure to tight-knit communities we don’t often come across, and as an opportunity to get stuck in with traditional practices, all surrounded by the stunning natural beauty of the Costa Rican countryside.

We start the tour at an old sugar cane mill, which provides a perfect example of these traditional methods still in practice today. These are authentic processes that have been passed down through generations, from lighting the stove to employing oxen, it’s a genuinely fascinating process that gives real insight into how the people here make a living. You’ll the process behind making two Costa Rican staples, the sugary ‘tapa’ drink and ‘sobado’, a sweet, breadlike delicacy. If you’re lucky, you might even get to try some!

Before you see how these are made however, you’ll be taken on a picturesque hike through the steamy jungle to the tropical paradise that is Salitre Waterfall. You’ll stumble across iridescent lagoons surrounded by thick, deep green forest, feel the spray from the beautifully pure water, that rises in a fine mist from majestically towering waterfalls. After all, the river basin here is the cleanest and purest in Central America.

Having worked up an appetite, you’ll arrive back at the community for an incredibly fresh, traditional lunch. Your host will show you how to make various jams, juices and salsas from the native fruits and vegetables, and then you’ll get a chance to show what you’ve learned by getting stuck in and having a go at producing your own culinary masterpieces.

Finally, you’ll visit Ana and Enrique Calderon Aguero, who run a small, rustic, coffee plantation. After an ‘old style’ tour of the plantation, where you’ll see exactly how the pair go about their day to day lives, they’ll treat you what we can guarantee is going to be the best coffee you’ve ever tasted, made fresh with beans straight from the plantation.

All in all, this day helps you escape the hustle and bustle of the tourists and crowds. It’s a leisurely paced, dreamlike kind of day, where you learn that it’s okay to slow down a bit. Finally, you’ll be dropped off back in San Jose downtown, for you to continue the rest of your travels.

What's included

Included

  • Transportation from downtown San Jose and return trip
  • Sugar cane mill tour
  • Hike to Salitre Waterfall
  • Jam and juices workshop
  • Coffee plantation tour and tasting
Your local host

Roberto

I was born and raised in Costa Rica and have lived here my entire life. And ever since I could, I’ve been travelling the world. Soon after I left school, I travelled around Costa Rica and discovered every single part of it! Although, we do have a fairly small country, there’s an insane amount to explore, and I’m still exploring it today, seeking out new hiking trails, new lagoons, different viewpoints, that take you to places you hadn’t even knew existed before, it really is fascinating.

My deep knowledge of countries extends far beyond just Costa Rica as well, I’ve been lucky enough to have a broad knowledge of most of the other Central American countries, as well as, a lot of the South American coun... Read All

I was born and raised in Costa Rica and have lived here my entire life. And ever since I could, I’ve been travelling the world. Soon after I left school, I travelled around Costa Rica and discovered every single part of it! Although, we do have a fairly small country, there’s an insane amount to explore, and I’m still exploring it today, seeking out new hiking trails, new lagoons, different viewpoints, that take you to places you hadn’t even knew existed before, it really is fascinating.

My deep knowledge of countries extends far beyond just Costa Rica as well, I’ve been lucky enough to have a broad knowledge of most of the other Central American countries, as well as, a lot of the South American countries, allowing me to extend tours over there as well.

You might be surprised to know that I started out in a completely different field altogether, I studied engineering at university and worked in this industry for a little while. But, a little while later, due that passion for discovery and exploring new places eating away at me, I started my immersive travel company with a friend (14 years ago to be exact) and began having way too much fun helping people discover my wonderful country and the countries around it, so as soon as the possibility came around I just grabbed it, decided to leave engineering behind and have worked in the industry ever since.

What inspired you to work in travel?

As I’ve mentioned, I do have a bit of an obsession when it comes to showing people the beauty of Costa Rica. But apart from this, I’ve always been very much pro environment and have a keen interest in conservation. One of the best things about travel is that it can have a large component of conservation, at some point before I started working in travel, I thought I would work within conservation. So travel is a great bridge between my passions of discovery and conservation. Because if tourism is done right can help change both people’s lives and the world, and that’s really powerful.

What makes your experiences special?

Firstly, supplier and destination selection is key for us when choosing our experiences. If you get these right, you have a pretty good shot of having a truly authentic experience. So, we choose destinations that are not the same as all the other tour companies out there, those that are emerging or have something special about them, that most people don’t know about. An example would be, Drake Bay in Costa Rica, there’s a few things that everybody does e.g. the Corcovado National Park, a must visit for this area. But the difference between us and the other companies is that we use the local companies, that employ real locals, so this gives smaller companies a chance to compete with the large companies. When we choose hotels, we choose those that are sustainable, away from the normal ones.

And we always ensure the places/people we work with are committed to sustainability, it’s our mission to spread the wealth of toursim, to make sure money just doesn’t go to all the large companies, we think it should be shared equally to everyone in the country. So our suppliers are always real local people, that truly love their country and are trying to make an honest living out of it.

 

What Sustainability Efforts are we Taking?

Location

Pick up and drop off will occur in downtown San Jose.

Providencia de Dota is around a two-hour drive away, a journey that includes driving down narrow and winding dirt roads.

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