Hotel Banana Azul - Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limon, Costa Rica

Animal Rescue Centre, Waterfall and Chocolate House

Our Animal Rescue Centre, Waterfall and Chocolate House trip combines three of our favorite local activities. It includes:

Entrance and tour of the Jaguar Animal Rescue Centre located near Playa Cocles. This centre serves as a refuge and rehabilitation center for many local animals including members of the cat family, monkeys , snakes and more.
Hike to a beautiful waterfall
Visit to see organic indigenous chocolate being made — the whole process from the growing of the Cacao plant to the making of chocolate
Transportation: pickup and drop-off at your Puerto Viejo hotel

Jaguar Animal Rescue Centre

The Jaguar Rescue Center offers shelter, treatment and protection to ill or wounded wild animals in the South Caribbean area.

The Center is run by Sandro, an expert in poisonous snakes, and Encar, a biologist with a vast experience with looking after wild mammals in captivity.

Sandro and Encar started the Jaguar Center with the aim of saving the lives of as many animals that come in to the shelter, as well as trying to re-introduce them to their natural habitat, the forests of the South Caribbean.

Their house has become a sanctuary for wild animals and they try to accommodate their jungle guests as well as they can: terrariums for the snakes, large spaces for the Congo monkeys to rest in after spending the whole day playing in the garden’s trees, special quarantine cages for the animals arriving seriously injured and also a large supply of medicine and an operating theatre for emergency surgery if necessary.

Your visit helps support the work of the centre. Jaguar animal rescue centre photos by Lori Sorrentino.

Chocolate House

Next we will visit an indigenous family where they make chocolate from the Cacao trees growing beside their house. You will learn and see demonstrated the process by which the cacao fruit is transformed into delicious and unique chocolate. You will have an opportunity to purchase some chocolate or other indigenous made handicrafts here. Note the owners of the chocolate house speak very limited English so if you don't speak Spanish your explanation of the process may take the form of a pantomine!

Waterfall

Finally, you and your driver/guide will take a short hike (about 20 minutes through the jungle where you can see local plants and butterflies) to the Volio waterfall, a 12m high waterfall in the Talamanca mountains, where you can swim if you like. Should this waterfall be too dry, we will take you to an other waterfall in the area where you can enjoy swimming in the pristine nature pools.

Duration:	Half day
Departures:	9 a.m. daily except Sundays when the Jaguar Rescue Center is closed. 11 a.m. departure upon request.
Pickup point:	Your hotel in Puerto Viejo, Cahuita or area. Transportation includes pickup from hotels in Puerto Viejo. Additional transport charges for other hotels apply as follows (per booking not per person): Playa Cocles $10 Playa Chiquita $15 Punta Uva $20 Cahuita $20 Manzanillo $25
What to bring:	Rubber shoes with traction, shorts, insect repellent, bottle of water, money for lunch or snacks. Note: you should not touch the animals if you have applied sunscreen or insect repellent. We recommend you to bring these items with you instead and apply them after the visit with the animal rescue center.
Cost per person:	$90.00 for 1 person $60.00 p/p for 2 people $45.00 p/p for 3 or more If you are 1 or 2 persons and we are able to find more people to share the tour transportation then a refund will be given to the lower per person pricing.
Fitness level:	The jaguar animal rescue center and chocolate house are suitable for all fitness levels although they unfortunately are not wheelchair accessible. The waterfall trail is not long but it can be steep and sometimes a little muddy so a adequate fitness level is required. The second waterfall offered is a shorter walk so should you prefer that regardless of the water level, please let us know.
Includes:	Transportation, driver/guide*, entrance to jaguar animal rescue centre and chocolate house.
Notes:	* We put this tour together since it's so expensive to hire a taxi just to get to these locations so we put together an itinerary that lets you see several things in one short trip and minimizes the transport cost. We do have our own Gecko Trail Adventure Guide going with you on this tour. However, his English is limited and he may not be available for the tour at 11am. The drivers available don't generally speak much, if any, English. So while they're happy to explain things to you along the way if you speak Spanish they may not be much help in English. The jaguar rescue centre staff do speak English. The chocolate house not.

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