With more than 60 national parks Costa Rica is a paradise for conservation and eco tourism. And not surprising the old economy of the country of coffee and bananas was switched in the present time to tourism, foreigners flooding the country wherever you go.

The charming village of Puerto Viejo, a typical hang out for backpackers of all ages is close to two national parks out of which Cahuita National Park teems with wild life roaming its dense forests and its beautiful beaches washed by the green of the Caribbean Sea.
From Puerto Viejo, a quick transportation to Bocas del Toro across the border in Panama is a sure bet for several relaxing days sleeping on houses on stilts with water blinking under your see-through floor.

You pass briefly through San Jose to visit its remarkable museums and its resplendent theater on the way to the Arenal Volcano area. The area is under one Arenal National Park managed by private entities with hikes, waterfalls, hot springs and indigenous villages, all surrounded by tribes of monkeys that hover on top of the canopy.

Not far you reach by a potholed road Monteverde where the cloud forests offer long and secluded hikes in dreamy veils of silence.

Descending to the Pacific by the surfing town of Jaco you get to the best park of the country, Manuel Antonio. The park has it all and may keep you there an entire day to admire the toucans, sloths, iguanas and the monkey tribes drinking one by one water from a faucet.