For the most part, we stayed on the property but we did take two tours. Both of them were through the hotel. They were both wonderful and the tour guide was excellent as was the driver.

We took a private tour of Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge. It was about 90 minutes north of the resort and close to the Nicaragua border. We were told to bring a copy of our passports in case we were stopped. While that was a bit disconcerting, we went anyway. The drive took us past many different plantations including sugar plantations and refineries, coffee, and pineapple plantations as well as beef and sheep farms. Also, we saw lots of wildlife especially many birds.

Caño Negro is a protected area and is considered to be one of the most important wetland areas in the world. Caño Negro is a sweet water lagoon area with a river and wetlands that total about 24000 acres. It is located between the Pacific lowlands monsoonal climate and the Caribbean coastal areas humid climate. Because of it, there is a large variety of plants, birds, and animals including many rare plants and animals.

 We arrived at Los Chiles where we boarded a open tour boat. We were the only ones on the boat so we could speak with the tour guide as well as the man running the boat.

He took us a bit out of the way to see a rare family of howler monkeys who are albino but look “red/orange.” They call him “Trump”.

and glide up the Río Frío through canyons of green towards the everglade like Lago Caño Negro.

Caño Negro is also a key migratory route for birds from the north. We saw caimans, anhingas, roseate spoonbills, egrets, great blue herons, monkeys, lizards, turtles, and lots more. My very favorite was seeing a toucan. 

We also saw howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, and spider monkeys. We found out there are 4 species that live in Costa Rica. The other one lives in jungles near the beach.  

Caño Negro is definitely a special place and should be on anyone’s list who visits Costa Rica.