curi cancha reserve

We would love to thank Mauricio for letting us having such and amazing day and an extraordinary guide at Curi-Cancha.Our guide was Rafa Elizondo, because of him, we were not only able to see an agouti, several birds like Emerald Toucanets, a Bicolored Hawk, Quails, Keel-billed toucans, Crested Guans, lots of hummingbirds and our main goal, the Resplendent Quetzal (males, females and juveniles), we also get to learn a lot about the forest, plants and flowers, so many fun facts that you´ll be missed if you don´t get a guide such as Rafa, he is so knowledgeable, kind and great with kids (I went with my 11 year old son).Rafa, thank you for introducing us into a magic forest and giving me the chance to see my first Quetzal! I´ve been working on tourism for over 16 years but behind a desk, and I have sent hundreds of people on guided tours, but never been able to go on one until now, this was my time to get spoiled! Rafa, you definitely made my entire week!!! Now I even fell happy to go behind my desk... again, I just hope it doesn´t take me another 16 years to repeat this amazing experience.Thank you guys at Curi-Cancha, I will always be grateful for such an awesome day! Ivonne :)

Plenty of Trails. Especially recommended for bird watchers! We were lucky to run into a Quetzalcoatl on an avocado tree.

We really liked a trip to this small reserve. It was quiet and had lots of great trails. We did a guided tour in the morning with Adrian Mendez and he did a great job pointing out snakes, sloths, birds and trees. We came back in the afternoon to do our own bird watching. It has two kinds of forests, great bird watching and was especially peaceful in the afternoon. It is well worth a trip to this less know reserve.

On recommendation from our hotel, we did an early morning guided hike with Gravina (so?) who was an excellent guide. We saw several kinds of birds including 7 Quetzels in one avacodo tee which apparently is amazing. The birders in the crowd we're going crazy but for us, 45 minutes watching them was a little too long for a 3.5 hour tour. We saw a tarantula, coati, blue Morpho butterfly and lots of plants. The hummingbird garden was pretty fun to watch. The reserve is beautiful. We ate a picnic lunch after the tour and then walked the trails around the perimeter...about another 5 km and we only met 4 other hikes the whole afternoon which was pretty magical. Way less busy than Monteverde so good for a second or third day.

We went as part of our private tour we booked ahead of time with Forest Alive, we had Jorge as our guide and he was fabulous. The forest is amazing so many orchids and strangler figs. A beautiful stream and lush foliage. We saw 2 male Quetzals in very close range and watched them for about a half hour. The place to watch the humming birds is very nice with a table and seats to sit and view. So many different species came, very nice. We saw coatis as well. Only time we really ran into people was when we saw the quetzals. Other then that it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Definitely visit this reserve while you are in Monteverde.

Few tourists and lots of wildlife particularly Quetzals ,hummers and Toucans well maintained paths and a fab hummers viewing area

We - a midaged couple from Austria - made a guided tour through the cloud forest of Curi Cancha. It was a wonderful experience of nature and we saw the Quetzal, humming birds, the motmot, a cuckoo, .... We have been in luck, that we got Rafael as tour guide. He is a great guy with a huge knowledge (not only about birds), nice and humorous - and his english is wonderful and (also for us german speaking people) perfect understandable. We can recommend him without any reservation (r.elizondov@hotmail.com; +506 8838-8145).

This reserve has very good not too hot hiking trails. be sure to stop in the clearing and watch the humming bird tree. ask at the front desk where to view wildlife.

Our guide chose this park to escape the crowds. It is difficult to see animals in a group. We were able to see toucans, quetzal, white-faced monkey, hummingbirds and other birds.

Our hotel recommended this day tour to Curi Cancha reserve because it isn't as busy as some of the other biological reserves nearby. It was about three hours long and was probably the best guided tour we took during our two week vacation around Costa Rica. Our group was small, the reserve is not as busy as some others. We thoughts it was fabulous.

We booked a two-hour night tour at Curi Cancha our first night in Monteverde. Our guide was Victor and we got a private tour as no one else booked that night. At first Victor seemed somewhat quiet but he quickly warmed up and we had a great two-hour tour. He was very knowledgeable and was quite invested in ensuring we enjoyed our experience. Among our sightings were a large tarantula, some monkeys in the canopy, two green vipers nesting in the branches and several types of birds. As it is dark early we found this to be a great early evening nature walk. Thanks to Victor for sharing his time and expertise with us.

We took a birding tour for a few hours in Curi Cancha and were not disappointed! We saw a lovely turquoise browed mot mot within the first minute of our arrival! Numerous hummingbirds visited the feeders and we saw 5 or 6 types, maybe more. Then we saw a Resplendent Quetzal, both a male and female and watched them for quite a while at pretty close range. We saw agouti, coatis and a sloth sleeping. Numerous other birds were seen and the vegetation showed a really nice transition of forest types (rainforest to cloud forest, primary and secondary growth) which our guide, Adrain Mendez pointed out to us. We then went to Monteverde on our own and were a bit disappointed, just in the numbers of people we encountered. We felt lucky to have gone to Curi Cancha first!

Gorgeous reserve. It's truly unique with two very different ecosystems (transitional forest and cloud forest), allowing for more diverse wildlife to be seen. Our guide, Danilo Brenes, was fabulous. He was very informative and pointed out wildlife to us (including a quetzal!). I recommend booking him directly (I googled him) instead of through the reserve or a tour company because he is an independent. He is timely with emails, accommodating, and affordable. Great guide. Having him with us really enriched our experience at the reserve.

Loved our tour of the reserve with Johnny. We were able to see a male quetzal relatively close up, and with the spotting scope, it was amazing. Curi Cancha is a little lower elevation, so a little less wet compared to Monteverde. We saw a selection of mammals and particularly enjoyed the hummingbirds.

Following the advice of the staff at the hostel we stayed at we visited this reserve. Our expectations were more than exceeded! Not only we got to see the beautiful Quetzal right at the beginning but we also had the chance to see a lot of other animals and flowers we would never have discovered on our own (snake,sloth,birds etc.). Thanks to Danilo and his incredible knowledge we had a wonderful time but also a lot of fun! Time went by so fast and in the end we left Curi Cancha impressed and with huge smiles on our faces!!