Jaguar Rescue Center – Puerto Viejo

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When I was in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, I decided to go to the Jaguar Rescue Center. For once because I was looking for activities close by that wouldn’t require booking an expensive tour and on the other hand because I really wanted to visit a Rescue Center.

Puerto Viejo is quite a small town with only a few roads and basically in a few minutes you can reach everything by foot. It is small but really beautiful as well! Right at the beach, with lovely little restaurants and this hippie vibe going on everywhere. There are a lot of beautiful places around that you can visit while staying in Puerto Viejo.

Jaguar Rescue Center: Getting there

I saw there are a lot of companies offering a tour to the Jaguar Rescue Center but I can assure you there is absolutely no need for that. The centre is really easy to find. I would suggest renting a bike somewhere in town, which will cost you $5 for the whole day.

If you are on the main road just follow the road that goes a little bit up the hill and then just stay on the road for about 20 minutes. One the left hand side on the way to the rescue center, you will see some of the most beautiful beaches around Puerto Viejo. A sign of the Jaguar Rescue Center will show up on the right hand side. That’s where you’ll turn right and you will see the entrance.

Offerings & Costs:

The centre offers public as well as private tours. For the private tours you have to make a reservation in advance but for the public tour you can just show up.

The centre is open from Monday to Saturday and public tours are held twice a day, at 9:30am or 11:30am. Different languages are available, the tour lasts 1.5 hours in total and costs $20.

I would recommend arriving about 20 minutes earlier to secure your spot and buy your ticket since it can get really crowed.

Jaguar Rescue Center: The Tour

After purchasing my ticket I made my way into the centre. I went on a Monday, which was supposed to be a busy day, it was so crowded! Thankfully they divided us into smaller groups. I think we were around 14 people and every group started off at a different location.

I believe most of the tour guides were volunteers that are working at the Jaguar Rescue Center. As we were going around and looking at the rescued animals, we got to hear a lot about the work that the centre does and how animals end up there.

Our tour guide was so enthusiastic about her work and seemed to know each and every animal and its history, which made me feel like they really wanted to make a difference.

We got to see all these different animals, from sloths to owls to deers and hear about if and when they were going to be released back into the wild. It was really interesting.

Want to know what else you can do in Costa Rica? After Puerto Viejo, I headed to La Fortuna where I did a volcano hike, which was pretty amazing!

Have you been to Costa Rica before?

Talk to you later x

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