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May005
After reading the good reviews about Tortuguero Infocenter Tours on Tripadvisor, I emailed Victor a month before my trip, asking if I could book a 2 day tour with him. The email communication between us was short and clear. I had no idea that Tortuguero is such a heavenly place and I would enjoy Victor’s tours that much.Victor arranged Jungle Tom Safaris to pick me up in downtown San Jose, met me at the dock of Casa Marbella (a great B&B I chose to stay), helped me on checking in and explained all the tours to me.Victor is a local legend. He is highly recommended by several tour books. I found that Victor is much more a naturalist than a tour operator. He knows all the animals, birds and insects in Tortuguero. His knowledge about plants qualifies him to be a college professor. The 2 hour nigh walk with Victor was a lot of fun. We found some amazing red-eyed tree frogs. They were so cool! But the best experience was the canoe tour next morning in Tortuguero National Park.Since we were in the canoe, we could not only circle the islands but also go inside when the water level was high to get a closer look on the plants. We saw a lot of wildlife: howler monkeys, caimans, green basilisk, gray-necked wood rail, yellow-crowned night heron, etc. Comparing to the people who were packed on the big motor boats, I felt like a celebrity, having a private tour.Seeing how much I enjoyed the tour, Victor took me for another canoe tour in the afternoon instead of a jungle walk in the park (the national park admission is good for the whole day). What a treat! We saw so much more, including spider monkeys, sloth, more basilisks and iguanas, adult caimans and baby caimans, river turtles and more birds. The most impressive bird Victor spotted was a boat-billed heron.Going to Victor’s tours was the best decision I made for my trip to Costa Rica. I benefited from reading the reviews written by his previous guests. There were two people talking to Victor before the afternoon canoe trip. I encouraged them to join us, but they didn’t. Big mistake! They had no idea what they missed. Of course, you may still do fine for getting a package from one of the big lodges in Tortuguero. It is such a beautiful place, you will have good time. But if you are a nature lover, I would strongly recommend that you take Victor’s tours: you pay less, see more, eat better in the village, and take home unforgettable stories to brag to your family and friends.Victor is passionate about Tortuguero and its conservation. He enjoyed seeing the wildlife as much as I did. On the personal side, Victor is good family man, a proud husband and father. He speaks perfect English, he is easy going and has great sense of humor. I loved the time we exchanged some monkey stories.Coming back from a 12 day trip in Costa Rica to the frozen east coast of the US, I kept thinking how much I like to visit the country again in the future. Costa Rica is indeed a beautiful country with its volcanos, cloud forest, beaches and national parks, but it is the warm, kind Costa Ricans like Victor made us want to go back. Thank you! Victor, for the wonderful experience in Tortuguero. --Julia
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d0wnt0wn2011
We had a wonderful tour of the canals, I would recommend seeing them via canoe over motorboat so that you can get in the smaller canals and not disrupt the wildlife. We saw many birds, lizards, caiman, and the highlight, a kinkajou. According to Victor, they are never seen during the day. Victor was an informative guide with an amazing eye for spotting things we would never have seen. He also went above and beyond taking us around town and recommending restaurants. This is a must do trip.
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1cynthia2007
Victor Barrantes was terrific. He arranged for round trip transportation from San Jose to Tortuguero, 3 tours (a morning boat tour by canoe, an afternoon jungle walk, and a night walk), and accommodations at Casa Marbella (we didn't want to stay at the less expensive/hostel type place). He was quick to respond to all my questions by email both before and after I decided to go with him, and he was extremely knowledgeable and really really nice. Also very honest and reliable. I am really happy that I decided to go with Victor. I saved a ton of money by not going with one of the lodges, which would have been around $280/pp. I think I paid a total of $320 for me and my husband, including transportation to/from San Jose/Tortuguero, two nights lodging and the 3 tours. The only things that weren't included were the meals and the entrance fee to the national park ($15/pp). We were glad we were able to choose which restaurants to go to (and what to order) since the reviews of the lodge food were terrible. We also liked that we were free to decide what to do when we wanted, rather than being herded like cattle on a big organized tour. I also liked that there were only 2 other customers on the canoe ride/boat tour and I was the only one on the jungle tour (my husband didn't want to go since his knees were hurting him). I was also glad that we were in a canoe rather than on a larger motorboat since a motorboat would not have been able to go into the small inlets that we were able to go into. We were able to see more wildlife this way. Victor arranged for the boat to take us directly to our hotel rather than dropping us off at the main visitor's center in Tortuguero so we didn't have to walk with our luggage in the rain, and he arranged for the boat to pick us up at our hotel the day of our departure.
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heloise15
We booked 2 tours on the same day: early tour in canoa and night tour to see the turtles. Both tours have been amazing experiences (excellent explanations and knowledge led us to see caimans, monkeys and birds amongst other things) and it was very pleasant to start our trip in Costa Rica like this! Thank you Victor!!
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Anastasija_anarid
I booked three tours with Victor and all were great. Highly appreciated him using a canoe versus motorised boat as this gives you a much more intimate experience while navigating through the canals as well as lets you to get into more narrow canals where bigger boats don't go. Great night turtle spotting tour and an excellent walk in the jungle which ended up spotting some baby turtles hatching on the beach on a late afternoon. Victor possesses great knowledge on the local flora and fauna, is a passionate naturalist and a great individual to be around! I am sure my stay in Tortuguero wouldn't have been the same without his guidance, eyes and ears!! Also, very flexible with bookings and easy communication via email prior to my arrival which put my travel plans at ease and very trouble-less .Highly recommended and I would definitely use this service again!
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demekypr
We book 2 tours with Victor and they were both exceptional! The 1st one was to see the turtles laying eggs in the evening and the 2nd one was a canoe tour. The knowledge of Victor is just unbelievable! He was able to locate animals that took us a few min to locate and also he knew the area like the palm of his hand. We would definitely recommend Victor for any kind of tour in Tortuguero!!!
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Ziv6095
We took the 1 night pack. And it was great. Victor know everything about the jungle and he is the most nice person ever. He just helped us in any little thing we asked fir. Thank you Victor :)
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mwires
I want to thank Victor and the Tortuguero Infocenter for a beautiful welcome to Costa Rica. Tortuguero was my first stop in Costa Rica and thanks to Victor and his staff my eyes were opened to a new world. His knowledge of local wildlife, plants and passion to educate others was outstanding. I went on a canoe tour through the canals where Victor pointed out caimans, jesus christ lizards, sloths, numerous bird species, monkeys and medicinal plants. I also went on a great hiking tour where we saw a variety of butterfly species, snakes, monkeys, beautiful frogs and ended up eating a delicious lunch by the beach and kayaking down the canal. I would highly recommend Victor as a guide, he is a true naturalist and is extremely passionate about his work. Thank you!
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prevatt33
You know when you go on vacation, it's good to meet people who are connected, right? And it's even better to meet "The Guy" - you know, The Guy who knows everyone, knows how to make things happen faster, cheaper, and/or better... Well, VICTOR IS THAT GUY in Tortuguero. You literally can't go wrong. Very deserving of 5 stars.
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IsaBerlin
It was an amazing experience. We got up at 5 a.m. to be the first ones at the entrance of the Tortuguero National Park. Definitely worth getting up so early since we were the only ones in the canals being able to see animals which would have been gone later. We saw a lot of birds, monkey jumping from tree to tree, caiman babies getting out of the water, spiders, turtles, otter family .... incredible.Our tour guides Victor and Carolina were very friendly, explained us a lot about the animals and even sent us pictures about our trip since our camera run out of battery after taking tons of pictures of all we saw.I can highly recommend going with them on a tour. They also had some very good tips regarding dining and others tours in Costa Rica.Thanks again for the awesome time with you guys.
