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4% of the world’s biodiversity can be found in Costa Rica, a land of incredible beauty that has been remarkably well-preserved over the years. When you combine the government’s vigilance regarding the health and well-being of its unique rainforests along with the year-round tropical climate of the region, you get rainforests that are always a real treat to visit and tour through. How best to experience these rainforests, though?
High Above the Mucky Muck
Some visitors to Costa Rica’s rainforests choose to go on a rainforest walk – and not just a walk on the forest floor, either, where most of the forest is actually obscured, but rather a walk among the high treetops of the rainforest. According to biologists, roughly 90% of all life in the rainforest lives in the treetop canopy, not on the forest floor, and so suspension bridges have been built throughout the canopy to allow biologists to study the ecosystems that exist there.
These same bridges can be used by visitors to go on a “sky walk” with a guide, traveling from village to village as they take in the beautiful world around them. Some of the bridges span whole canyons or drainages, with one even going a whole mile, making the journey a lasting one!
There’s More to Costa Rica than Forests!
Some visitors choose to experience the rainforest in a more active manner – for those visitors to the Costa Rican rain forest, kayaking is a popular choice. Some of the world’s finest whitewater rapids can be found deep in the rainforest canyons that those suspension bridges are built over. On a whitewater rapid, your body and mind will be challenged by the river, even as you have an opportunity to observe and take in some of the most beautiful kayaking routes in the world.
If water doesn’t interest you, what about horseback riding? Horses have been an important part of Costa Rican culture since their arrival, with cattle ranches breeding their own horses for generations. You can take one of these horses onto horse trails spread throughout the rainforest and through canyons and along rivers in order to tour the rain forest on the back of a well-trained, traditional Costa Rican horse.
A Vanishing Beauty
Whether you’re on horseback, kayaking, walking along the forest floor, or high above the ground on a suspension bridge spanning the rainforest, the Costa Rican rainforest experience is not one to be missed. These environments are quickly growing smaller and less diverse as logging, pollution, and other environmental issues encroach on the natural habitat that these forests provide. As long as there is a Costa Rica, however, there will be Costa Rican rainforests.
