Saturday, February 27, 2010
Rafting the Upper Pacuare River
This section takes around 2 hours of non-stop excitement and adrenaline pumping drops. The best part is that the river at this section drops so fast that you can never see what is coming next. For all serious rafters I would suggest the upper Pacuare and if you are a serious Kayaker than without question catch a ride to the upper Pacuare section. If you are a tourist or just recreational rafter then its better that you enjoy the commercially rafted section of Pacuare which happens to be a much more scenic ride that you will surely enjoy.
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Friday, February 26, 2010
An Amazing Rescue from a Raft
The problem with this immediate flooding of the river is that there was a man taking river rock in a back-hoe in the middle of the river because before the rains came you could walk across the river. It turns out after the river flooded the man did not have time to drive his bould-doser and was stuck in the middle of the river. Anybody that knows anything about rivers knows that they can have the force to move just about anything from large trees to bould-dosers. Fortunately a group of 4 rafters went into the river up-stream and made there way to the man among large rapids and fast moving water that put their lives in extreme danger. The day ended with the rafters making an amazing rescue and the man from the bould-doser getting out in time before becoming a victim of the river. To all my fellow rafters out there I think we owe a great applause to the four men who made the rescue yesterday as they took their skills to a whole new level. Just for the record rafting in the Chirripo river is not commercially rafted and other rivers of Costa Rica are considered much more safe for taking part in the sport of rafting.
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Building a House in Costa Rica
We bought some land as close as possible to our rental house. Actually our new property was a hundred meters away from it. It took almost a year to get approval from the local government to build. They wanted to make sure that our building would not harm the precious water supply on the mountain.
Building went along without a hitch. Every day a crew of fourteen men busied themselves around our structure as the building rose out of the ground. The view in the new house was even better than the rental house. Not only is there a great view but on a clear day we can see the Pacific Ocean between a gap in the mountains.
It was a gamble, it seems to be paying off.
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
What it feels like to be a Millionaire
Today is your lesson on Costa Rican currency. It turns out that Costa Rica uses the Colone which was named after a sailor who first arrived on the Limon side of Costa Rica named Christopher Columbus. His name in Spanish is Cristobal Colon for which the currency was named. Costa Rica has moved through the years from using everything from the Cacao fruit as currency to the many different size coins that they have today. The largest bill of the colone is 10,000 colones which is worth around $18.50 US Dollars. Today the exchange is around 550 colones to the US $1. This my friends is how I became my families first millionaire. To say it correctly I am really only a thousandaire and on some days probably just a hundrednaire. This was your lesson on the Costa Rican currency and to let everyone know that you dont need a fancy car and nice house to live the life of a millionaire. Just a few rice and beans, nice people, and natural beauties is what I consider living the high life.
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica's Best Kept Secret
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tourism drops 8% in 2009
The number of tourist that entered the country were down 167,000 from 2008. In 2009 1.9million foreigners entered the country as compared to over 2 million in 2008.
I happen to think this was great for the country. I have been working in tourism down here for 9 years and there are plenty of people who have many more years than I working in tourism. The changes I have seen in the last 9 years are amazing and at such a fast speed that I can only imagine what this country looked like 20 years ago. The point that Im trying to make is that the people and natural beauties is what made this place the tourist destination it is. If you take the economic growth of the tourist section really fast it affects both the people and the natural beauties. When people find out they can make money in tourism and big money they tend to do it. Anyone knows that making big money fast can change some of your dailing habits and how you live your life. Im not saying the Costa Rican has turned into a country full of greedy snobs. All Im saying is that this is an excellent situation for the people here and extremely fast growth would not benefit anyone.
The second is the obvious that has been talked about for years and that is the more tourist, the more foreigners developing land, the more the natural beauties take a risk of being affected. Yes, 25% of Costa Rica is protected but every piece of bio-diversity on this planet is connected and just marking off your boundries does not make you a protecter of the environment. It is important that this developement be built very conscience of how their project will affect the nearby areas and its surroundings (air, soil, where materials come from, ect.)
So with this said, I feel the 8% drop in tourism is a chance for the industry to keep its feet on the ground and recieve this excellent blessing of opportunity of economic and natural wealth with a solid plan and mindset for the best future possible for everyone.
Click Here or Call Today: 1-855-CRR-TOUR
Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Monday, February 22, 2010
United Nations to look at Stone Spheres
The United Nations is sending down a dream team of archeologist to study the spheres and to decide if the spheres should be considered World Heritage. During their stay this March if they decide that these spheres are worthy of being considered World Heritage this could be a boost in tourism for the particular section. They still dont know what the spheres were used for and most experts think they marked special buildings. My question to that is where the heck are the special buildings they were marking? So if they are right then maybe Costa Rica might have some digging left to do. If they are wrong then maybe a better guess would be that the spheres were created with the idea of beach volleyball (just a guess).
some of the information in this blg was taken from www.amcostarica.com
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Bruin Pride International Wide
During the week here in the office we do our best to keep up with the guides on how things are going. There guide for the week was Erik and it was very good to hear that everytime we called Erik his response was "this group is GREAT". The group visited a village where we do homestays called Sitio de Mata and different members of the group stayed in homes of different members of the village. When the Bruins left the village I got calls from different members of the family saying how special the Bruins were. They mentioned that they felt they knew them their whole lives and they could not believe the relationship they developed in just two days.
I had the chance to meet the group on their final day when they were painting a rural school in a rural area of northern Costa Rica. I was curious to see this group because of all the positive things Ive heard about them. When I went to meet them it was raining buckets and it looked as if it would rain all day. My first thought was that they might be a little bummed that it is raining on their last day. But when I met the group it was the same laughing and smiles that Erik described. Nobody gave a hoot about the rain and they were just happy to be going to a school to spend time with the locals. When we arrived to the school we had half the group paint and the other half play duck duck goose with the kids. The kids put on an excellent show for us of dancing and then the Bruins gave some gifts and we made a complete morning out of it. Another interesting thing was that a member from the Bruin group brought letters from the 3rd grade class in Colorado to share with the 3rd graders here. The local kids loved it and they immediately wanted to respond to the letters and send them back to the Colorado 3rd graders.
With all the memories that were made on the adventures I can assure you that with the Bruin group the memories that will last the longest are the ones they left with others during their stay. The gifts they shared, the time they spent, and the smiles they gave will last a lifetime. With this said I just want to say you better be PROUD TO BE A BRUIN!!! Also a short note I know there was an English teacher on the trip and I usually dont proof-read my blog so sorry for the grammar errors, hehehe! PURA VIDA MAE!!!
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Is Costa Rica a developed or developing Country?
Just to give you an idea 20% of the country makes $120 or less a month. If you decided to visit one of the fancy malls in the San Jose on a daily basis and pay the $2 toll to get there and the $2 for parking then in one month you would spend $120's. In the article of the TicoTimes they talk about the different organizations that label countries as developing and developed. On a worldwide scale Costa Rica is ranked as the upper middle section of all countries and the upper section being the developed countries. There are around 30 developed countries on the planet and Costa Rica is ranked around 54th 1 spot behind Mexico along with other countries of Brazil, Panama, and South Africa. In all of Latin America they say Chile is the most developed country.
Costa Rica is considered to be moving forward at a fast pace up the scale. Two strong points given to Costa Rica is how educated the people are here and the healthcare that is provided allowing life expectancy to be high at 77.
The new elected President Laura Chinchilla brought up that her goal was to make Costa Rica a developed country and if she can do it in four years I dont know but atleast it looks that the country is already on its way. To see the full article on the TicoTimes you can visit http://www.ticotimes.net/business.htm.
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Rafting in Costa Rica
Family Vacation Costa Rica
Family Vacation Specialist
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica Newspapers
Another source of information that I would suggest is www.nacion.com. There are a number of different newspapers in Costa Rica. This is by far what we believe to be the best newspaper. It is in Spanish and is a daily newspaper with a lot of information. It discuss topics of all types and often have very educational campaigns for people of all ages to get involved. This newspaper can be bought for around 50 cents or you can look at it online.
One other respectable Spanish newspaper is called Al Dia. I like to say it has the same information more or less like La Nacion but it is much smaller with in size and not as many articles. But it is very proffesional and has an excellent sports section.
Two newspapers that I dont find the best piece of information and news is La Teja and Extra. These papers are a bit cheaper and not as big as La Nacion but they are daily, in Spanish, and the covers always have a half-naked girl on the front. It is set up more like a comic book with exaggerated information on many topics. It often seems to be just a little much especially when kids of all ages are seeing this daily.
As you an see, yes, there is freedom of press in Costa Rica and just be careful what you read.
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
What does Costa Rica Measure on the Ultraviolet Scale?
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Facebook Page
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Friday, February 12, 2010
A nature guides advice
Jhuedy was proud because he is a naturalist guide that works for our company and has a sincere love for nature and is always looking for ways to protect it. Jheudy looks at the beautiful natural surroundings of Costa Rica as his workplace, his office, and his home and he wants to do everything to make sure it stays that way. Jheudy starts his lessons by teaching at home to his son. Since his son was young Jheudy has taught to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and REJECT. The last "R" of Reject is exactly why Jheudy was so proud of his son. If you dont need the plastic bag then dont take it. Jhuedy was able to see first hand through his son that it is possible to educate the next generation and leave make this planet a much better place.
Americans use around 100 billion plastic shopping bag each year and less than 1% of these bags are recycled. To make these bags it uses around 12 million barrels of oil. It is important to reuse the plastic bags as many times as you can. It turns out that in places such as San Francisco plastic bags are not even an option as the government voted to ban the use of plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and pharmacies. Most people that would use a plastic bag at a pharmacy would use a plastic bag just to carry a few pills.
When you feel you need a bag or you just get tired of walking out of the store with your hands full there is a solution before using a plastic bag. You can get yourself a reusable bag of nylon, cotton, and other materials (one nylon grocery bag requires the same amount of energy as producing 50 plastic bags). Most places will not care if you arrive with your own bag. Also put the recycle logo on your bag and be a marketer for what you are doing.
Congrats to Jheudy not only for being a good naturalist guide and an excellent father but helping set an example on a simplier and greener way to live your life.
Click Here or Call Today: 1-855-CRR-TOUR
Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Ideas for Traveling Green
It seems that on some vacations that you can't leave anything behind. Well if you are coming to Costa Rica it is a casual dress from start to finish and its never really cold so PACK LIGHT! Every additional ten pounds per traveler requires 350 million gallons a jet fuel per year. This is enough to keep in flight a 747 for ten years.
The idea that a disposable camera can be recycled is garbage. More than half the camera ends up as trash. Since we have the digital camera now and you can get them for almost around $100 bucks make the investment. There are over 686 million rolls of film still developed every year which have hazardous chemicals to them.
The luggage tag on your suitcase although seems like a very small piece paper is still a waste. If every American before their flight used the original luggage tag from the bag instead of taking the tag the airlines have on their counters we would save 60 million sheets of paper each year. Also when making the purchase of your airline ticket you dont have to print it out. They call them e-tickets for a reason and again if every American did not print out their e-tickets there would be a lot of paper saved.
Bring your own!!! What I mean by this is dont forget your toothpaste, shampoo, bodywash, ect. The hotels offer the little bottle samples but you dont need them unless you really forgot yours. A 300 room hotel in Las Vegas uses over 150,000 plastic bottles a year.
When you leave your home let it take a rest. Dont forget to unplug your appliances, stop newspaper and mail. This is energy that does not have to be used if nobody is home.
Bottled water. The water in Costa Rica is some of the cleanest water you will find on the planet. Check with your guide and dont be afraid to fill up a bottle water and not have 100 empty plastic bottles laying around the car.
I know if you do some of these small things it can make a big difference. You will surely still enjoy your trip and the natural surroundings that are putting on the spectacular show will thank you for it and your kids and their kids will have a chance to enjoy the same trip. Buen Viaje!!!!!!!!!!
information taken from "the green book" www.readthegreenbook.com
Click Here or Call Today: 1-855-CRR-TOUR
Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Why Student Travel in Costa Rica
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Friday, February 5, 2010
The Tico's Monkey
- Squirrel Monkeys live in the Tropical Forest in the Canopy
- Brain to Body mass is 1:17 which is the largest of all primates
humans have a ration of 1:35.
- They live in groups of up to 500.
If I had to pick a monkey that best represents to people of Costa Rica I would have to go with the Squirrel Monkey. First of all they happen to be the smallest monkey in Costa Rica. Most Ticos happen to be not extremely large although with the arrival of Wendy's and other fast food chains this could change. When on a family vacation or traveling with your students I suggest taking the extra effort to try and see these monkeys. One sure bet is that they will make their way to the park of Manuel Antonio at 4pm everyday jumping ridiculous lengths and free falling to and grabbing onto branches the size of an eyelash. Another reason why I like to call this the Tico's monkey is that it is the most passive monkeys. I feel this is quite fitting for a country that doesnt have an army and for a country that has a reputation of the people being very peaceful and kind. Probably the most interesting fact about this monkey is that is that it is endangered. There are an estimated 1500 monkeys left in Costa Rica and this is the only area where these monkeys can be found making it endemic to Costa Rica. So if you have the chance to pass by Manuel Antonio make sure you pass by and visit a species that might not be along too much longer. We can hope that it is and their are associations doing much to help and if you want more information you can visit www.ascomoti.org.
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The New Highway from San Jose to the Pacific
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Costa Rica ranked number 3 on the Planet
quality, water resource management, biodiversity and habitat, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and climate change. This was a study done by Yale University including over 160 countries. The two countries that were ahead of Costa Rica were Switzerland and Iceland. This is a great accomplishment for Costa Rica ranking third compared to the US ranking 61. The US was ranked very well for safe drinking water and forest preservation but really fell with emissions of gases. Costa Rica can be very proud of being so close to the top in a decade in when the country has gone through so much development. The new and up coming countries of China and India are ranked 121 and 123. This study was concluded at the end of 2009 and does not reflect any action that has gone into affect for 2010. Much of the study is based on the amount of money a country is willing to invest in the the environmental concerns of the nation. Not to say that money will fix everything but when money is managed correctly and invested into the environment of a nation it seems that their scores became higher. Chile invest a lot of money into their environment and was ranked a solid 16th while Argentina does close to nothing for the environment and was ranked 70th. One interesting fact in the Press Release of this study is that the countries known to have less corruption in the govt were also seen to have better scores on the EPI. So I leave you with saying dont be afraid to invest a little in your environment it makes for a great gift to anyone.
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Owner, Tom Ranieri ►
Biography: 10 year Raft & Canyoneering Guide in Costa Rica, Certified Naturalist Guide, Wilderness EMT, Over 200 Family Trips Planned & Guided in Costa Rica.