Costa Rica Ultimate Wildlife Adventure
April 17 – May 1, 2026
Dates:
April 17 - May 1, 2026
Your Pros:
Jaclyn Merica
Dennis Valverde
Tuition:
$10,995 USD
Single Accommodations
Location:
Costa Rica
Fitness Level:
Moderate
Availability:
5 Seats Available
Dates:
April 17 - May 1, 2026
Your Pros:
Jaclyn Merica
Dannis Valverde
Tuition:
$10,995 USD
Single Accommodations
Location:
Costa Rica
Fitness Level:
Moderate
Availability:
5 Seats Available
“The most biologically intense place on Earth”
Those who have joined us on our Costa Rica Photo Adventure, and those who haven’t, will all rejoice in this ‘Ultimate Costa Rica’ Itinerary, with extra focus spent in the areas we know and love.
This new trip itinerary boasts 6 full days spent in the Osa Peninsula, venturing deep into the beautiful and bio diverse jungles of Corcovado National Park.
Through our many years spent in this region, our team has found some incredible off the beaten path photo locations. After our days in the Osa, the team transfers to stunning cloud forest of San Gerardo de Dota. There, we’ve partnered with our local friends at their eco lodge to visit a series of nesting sites for Resplendent Quetzals.
Finally, we will venture far north toward the Caribbean Coast for a visit to the Sarapiqui region to photograph more species of birds, amphibians and reptiles.
Embraced by the both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, Costa Rica is truly a wildlife and photography paradise, as my multiple trips here each year indicates. While encompassing only about 0.03% of the world’s landmass, Costa Rica boasts 5% of the world’s biodiversity.
Costa Rica is truly a pacifist nation. With no standing army and very progressive environmental policies, they are the ONLY country in the world to meet all five UNDP criteria established to measure environmental sustainability.
For this workshop, we have selected superior accommodations for the group. All of our lodging and transportation is first rate, and the impressive food, including fresh seafood and tropical fruits, will prove to be an experience to remember.
Our group will focus on the wildlife of Costa Rica, and we will set our sights on a variety of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibian species.
Not only are we intimately familiar with Costa Rica and the Osa Peninsula, but we also have a longstanding friendship with the best naturalists in the area. Our local guides are native to Costa Rica, excellent spotters, talented photographers, and know the region and the fauna like no other.
We believe in order to truly enjoy your trip, and receive the most out of an adventure photography workshop, you need to have small groups and a very high ratio of instructors to participants. That is why we’ve decided to limit this workshop to a maximum of 8 participants and 2 instructors. By capping the number of participants, we are ensuring everyone gets the attention and one-on-one instruction they need to make incredible images.
Our gatherings are distinctive in that we have taken thorough care of all the necessary logistics during your excursion so you can solely focus on the photography pursuits at hand. Your comfort and ease on this adventure is the utmost priority.
You will be accompanied by Jaclyn Merica and Dennis Valverde on this excursion. Jaclyn is an accomplished photographer and has visited Costa Rica over a dozen times. Dennis is a native of the Osa Peninsula and spends his time guiding adventurous travelers throughout Costa Rica and has been working with us in Costa Rica and beyond for many years.
We believe the best way to teach is by demonstrating, and to this end, we will be shooting alongside you, showing you our technique, and sharing our love and knowledge of the culture and the landscape of Costa Rica. However, our priority is always YOU, and assisting you to get the best images YOU can.
The biggest advantage of having small groups is the flexibility they provide for customizing and adjusting our schedule to accommodate for the particular interests of the group as a whole. This allows us to cover only those topics that you are all interested in, including:
• Techniques for creating exciting and captivating wildlife images
• Digital darkroom techniques to enhance the quality of your images
• Best use of your equipment
• Image reviews
Our workshops are fairly intensive experiences, and as such, you should not expect this to be a leisurely vacation. Our goal is to capture the best images we can during our travels around this incredible country. This means there will be days we begin very early, typically at dawn, and end after sunset. However, we will always have breaks and lunch rest hours to recuperate.
About 3 months prior to the workshop start date, you should expect to receive important details regarding your flight arrangements to San Jose via email.
Then, about 2 months prior to our gathering, you will start hearing from me on a regular basis. We will provide you with a Workshop Participant Information Packet with all trip details, and share relevant resources to get you inspired and thinking about the images you want to capture during our workshop. At this time, you will also receive a tentative itinerary, a list of clothing and equipment recommendations, and even discounts for equipment you may want to acquire for this excursion.
Juan and Jaclyn are always available to answer any questions you may have leading up to the workshop- simply call or email and we can help you as best we can.
Additionally, we will plan a Zoom meeting 4-6 weeks prior to the start of our workshop. There, you can meet your fellow workshop participants, ask any questions before traveling, receive insights and recommendations for reference books, and much more.
Tuition for the workshop is $10,995.00 USD for single occupancy per person.
If you would like to reserve your spot on this workshop, you can do so with a $5,995.00 USD deposit. The remaining balance of the workshop fee ($5,000) is due 6 months prior to the workshop. We will send you a reminder when the due date is near.
This is a fully inclusive workshop
• All lodging
• All meals
• All private ground transportation
• Domestic flights within Costa Rica
• All gratuities
• Snacks and water in the vehicles at all times
• All permits & fees
• Instruction
• Inspiration
• Camaraderie
• A great time
You will be picked up at the San Jose airport in Costa Rica via a complimentary transportation service, and from there everything is taken care of for you until we drop you off at the airport in San Jose (except those items listed in this section).
• Flights to and from your home and San Jose, Costa Rica
• Alcoholic or specialty drinks
• Meals on the day you arrive in San Jose, and any meals on the return travel day except for breakfast- which is included in your hotel stay in San Jose.
• You are responsible for making your own flight arrangements to and from San Jose, Costa Rica (Airport code SJO). The Juan Pons Photography team will send travel recommendations for arrivals and departures prior to the workshop.
• Workshop daily schedule is subject to minor changes based on weather and logistics
• Deposit is fully refundable up until 6 months prior to the start of the workshop, NO REFUNDS after 6 months.
• Make sure to check the Terms and Conditions for all my workshops.
We highly recommend Travel Insurance from a reputable insurance company. I have partnered with Squaremouth, a website that allows you to compare multiple travel policies from multiple providers to choose the best one for you based on your needs and costs. Check them out here: https://www.squaremouth.com/
Day 1 – San Jose
• Arrive in San Jose (SJO) in Costa Rica anytime on this day.
• You will be picked up at the airport and transported to a hotel near the airport, where you will spend the night.
Day 2 – Puerto Jimenez and Corcovado National Park
• On this morning, the group will take a short flight from the San Jose Airport to Puerto Jimenez, where we will be based for the first 6 nights of the workshop.
• Introduction to wildlife photography presentation during lunch
• Tour of our resort grounds
• In the afternoon, we will roam the grounds of our resort which is rich in wildlife for searching for photo opportunities
• Scoping out wildlife include sloths, monkeys, herons, and many species of birds living under the canopy.
Day 3 – Full day safari around Corcovado National Park
• In the morning we will head out towards Carate in search of monkeys, birds, sloths, anteaters and much much more.
• The road to Carate provides an incredible number of opportunities for different species of wildlife, as well as the best place to photograph Scarlet Macaws in their natural environment
• Lunch out in the field
• In the afternoon we will target macaws in flight
Day 4 – Macrophotography in Corcovado National Park
• Macro photography outing with tree frogs and insects
• Observing reptiles and amphibians (including vipers, poison dart frogs and more) in a controlled environment
• In the afternoon, we will hold a classroom session to download, edit, and conduct an image review
Day 5 – Sloth Tour
• Our focus on this day will be a natural sloth sanctuary where we have had the opportunity to see close to a dozen sloths on previous visits
• But the sloth sanctuary offers much more than sloths, in the past we have had a myriad of bird species including Spectacled Owls, toucans and more
• In the late afternoon, we will continue on to a Safari searching for more species to photograph
Day 6 – Sierpe
• We depart our resort early this morning to board pontoon boats and cruise the Sierpe River photographing many species of wildlife
• Target species include crocodiles, boas, iguanas, herons, macaws, owls (spectacled, crested and more) and possibility of potoos
• In the afternoon, we will have a classroom session to download, edit, and conduct an image review
Day 7 – Full day safari around Corcovado National Park
• On this day we will head out once again towards Carate in search of monkeys, birds, sloths, anteaters and much much more.
• The road to Carate provides an incredible number of opportunities for different species of wildlife, as well as the best place to photograph Scarlet Macaws in their natural environment
• Lunch out in the field
Day 8 – Cloud Forest
• On this day, we say goodbye to our resort in the OSA peninsula and depart early in the morning to head into the Cloud forest (4 hour drive)
• After lunch, we venture to a local vantage point, hoping to spot the resplendent quetzal, emerald toucanet, and silky-flycatchers
Day 9 – Cloud Forest
• Today, we continue our search for photo opportunities with Resplendent quetzal, emerald toucanet, and silky-flycatchers
• We will also visit some hummingbird gardens to capture photographs of the multitude of hummingbird species that call Costa Rica home
Day 10 – Cloud Forest
• On this day we will photograph the myriad of hummingbirds and individual species that prefer the high elevation of the cloud forest.
• We will visit a bird garden specifically set up for photography where we hope to photograph unique species to this habitat such as Emerald toucanets, Acorn woodpeckers, volcano hummingbirds, and much more
• In the morning we depart the cloud forest and make our way towards the Caribbean in search of new species of birds, mammals, amphibian and reptiles.
• We continue our search for new species of birds in this area, including toucans, hummingbirds, trogons and more
Day 12 – Sarapiqui
• On this day we will visit a local sanctuary that attracts some incredible species of hummingbirds
• As the evening approaches, we will set up flash units to photograph a number of species of fruit bats feeding on the wing.
Day 13 – Sarapiqui – Macro
• Today we will focus on some macro photography at a local private reserve. We will create a number of setups to get up close and personal with some astonishingly beautiful tree frogs and other amphibians and reptiles.
• In the afternoon we will go out n search of the rare green macaws
Day 14 – depart to San Jose
• In the morning, we depart toward San Jose but not without first visiting some beautiful bird feeders that have been strategically created for photographers.
• On this elevated platform you will have the opportunity to photograph 3 different species of toucans, trogons, Mot Mots and much more.
• In the afternoon, we continue our travels towards San Jose (4 hour drive)
• We will stay overnight at hotel near the airport in San Jose on this last night
Day 15 – Depart for home
• Participants can depart for home anytime this day
