October 31, 2002 - Costa Rica Tours Press Release: RPCV owned Tour Company announces Black Culture Tour of Caribbean Costa Rica and Panama

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2002: 10 October 2002 Peace Corps Headlines: October 31, 2002 - Costa Rica Tours Press Release: RPCV owned Tour Company announces Black Culture Tour of Caribbean Costa Rica and Panama

By Admin1 (admin) on Thursday, October 31, 2002 - 8:13 pm: Edit Post

RPCV owned Tour Company announces Black Culture Tour of Caribbean Costa Rica and Panama





Read and comment on this Press Release from RPCV owned Costa Rica Tours on the Black Culture of the Caribbean Costa Rica and Panama that they are organizing for later this year at:

Subj: Black Culture Tour to Caribbean Costa Rica*

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.



Subj: Black Culture Tour to Caribbean Costa Rica
Date: 10/31/2002 3:57:49 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Crtlimited
To: Peacecorpsnews

Peace Corps OnLine

We would appreciate if you can help us, as you have in the past, get the word out to the Peace Corps community about our Black Culture Tour to Caribbean Costa Rica. Pride Magazine, Charlotte's only African-American magazine, and Costa Rica Tours, Ltd. hope that this cross-cultural exchange will also contribute to the social and economic development of the Limon Province. This is the hope also of Costa Rica's President, Dr. Abel Pacheco, who grow up in the Limon Province and has made Limon's development a priority objective in his new administration. When he heard about what we were doing, President Pacheco asked to meet with our group on our tour August 28-September 3, 2003. Passengers who register prior to December 31, 2002 will receive a $100 Early Bird Discount.

Thank you.
Sandra Feldman, Owner
Costa Rica Tours, Ltd.
(704) 541-8680
Charlotte, NC
RPCV/Costa Rica (65-67)


COSTA RICA TOURS, LTD.
Charlotte, NC, Washington, DC and Iowa
CRTLimited@aol.com and (704) 541-8680
and
PRIDE MAGAZINE
(Charlotte's African-American Magazine)
Charlotte, NC

announce our
BLACK CULTURE TOUR TO CARIBBEAN COSTA RICA
August 28 - September 3, 2003

Deposits received prior to December 31, 2002 get a $100 Early Bird Discount


You may know that Costa Rica is the #1 destination worldwide for nature travel. But, do you know you can combine a nature tour with an educational journey into the black culture of Costa Rica's small but influential minority population? Present day Afro-Caribbean culture in Costa Rica dates back to the 1870s when workers from the Caribbean islands came to Costa Rica to build the railroad and to work on the emerging banana plantations. You will meet with black government, education and business leaders in the capital city of San Jose and participate in Black Culture Day in Puerto Limon. You will explore the "Costa Rican Amazon" of Tortuguero on the northern Caribbean coast, and relax at the beach and hike in the rainforest along the southern Caribbean coast.

DAY ONE: Fly to Costa Rica, arriving in early afternoon. Relax at the hotel's pool and Jacuzzi or visit the many art galleries at El Pueblo Center, only one block from the hotel. In the evening, you will meet with the Afro-Costa Rican Society and enjoy entertainment by gospel and calypso groups.

DAY TWO: You transfer to Tortuguero by motorcoach and boat. People come from around the world for sport fishing here (optional). In the evening your naturalist guide will lead you on a Turtle Nesting Tour. This is the best month of the year to witness this awesome sight.

DAY THREE: You rise early to catch the awakening of nature on your guided boat tour through the canals of Tortuguero National Park. You will see a variety of wildlife including crocodiles along the riverbank. Afterwards, you transfer to Puerto Limon, the provincial capital and ethnic melting pot of Jamaican, Chinese, European and indigenous cultures. We will attend a welcoming dinner hosted by two local black organizations.

DAY FOUR: Today is Black Culture Day, which has been celebrated internationally since the 1920s by the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) created by Marcus Garvey. You can start the day by attending Sunday church services (in English). You will have a guided tour of Liberty Hall, the office of a steamship company (Black Star Line) operated by the UNIA and visited frequently by Garvey. Liberty Hall was declared a National Heritage Site in 1987. In the afternoon, you participate in the Black Culture Day Parade. In the evening, you will dance to the music of local and international bands from throughout the Caribbean Islands.

DAY FIVE: You transfer to the southern Caribbean coast near the Panama border where you will relax at the beautiful beach of Punta Una and enjoy the nightlife of Puerto Viejo. Your unique lodge is right in the heart of a rainforest in the Gandoca Manzanillo National Park.

DAY SIX: Today you rise early to take a rainforest hike with your naturalist guide and a Bribri Indian guide. You will visit a Bribri family and learn about their life in the sparsely populated Talamanca Mountains. You next transfer to San Jose with a stop at Moravia, center of Costa Rican crafts. There are many interesting crafts to buy, including hand-carved leather rockers that can be packed to carry home with you.

DAY SEVEN: Transfer to the airport for your departure to the United States.

COST: $1895 per person in double occupancy. Includes roundtrip airfare*, hotels and tax, 15 meals, all entrance fees to itinerary activities, airport porter tips and exit fee, ground transportation, and services of a full-time Costa Rican naturalist guide and tour escort. Price does not include tips for in-country guides and driver.

*Tour Package includes discount RT airfare from Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, New York and Washington, DC. Call for airfare price from other departure cities. Our discount price is based on seat availability through our wholesaler. When seats at this lowest discount category are sold out, we will obtain the next level of seats available which will add corresponding cost.

A $250 deposit will reserve your space. All passengers registering prior to December 31, 2002, will receive a $100 Early Bird Discount off the tour package.

COSTA RICA TOURS, LTD. (CRT), founded in 1998, specializes only in Costa Rica and Panama. More than just vacation trips, our tours are "educational adventures" designed to further an understanding of the process of development in these two countries. CRT offers a variety of tour packages to the distinct regions of Costa Rica, and a Panama package which includes a full transit (eight-hours) of the Panama Canal. We also customize tours to combine locations from our various packages. You can see more information about CRT by clicking now on our website address below:
www.mindspring.com/~crtlimited

The open-enrollment Black Culture Tour to Caribbean Costa Rica in August 2003 is sponsored by PRIDE Magazine, Charlotte, North Carolina's only African-American magazine. Established in 1993, the publication began as a part of The Charlotte Observer newspaper. It was purchased by publisher Dee Dixon in January 2002. Thirty-thousand (30,000) copies of this popular lifestyles magazine are distributed quarterly and contain knowledge and information designed to promote black culture in a positive way. Pride Magazine also produces two major events each year: the Pride Awards which honor outstanding achievement in the African-American community; and the Pride Sunset Jazz Series of five free concerts in the park in the summer.

RA-MAR Caribbean and Eclipse Tours are our in-country tour operators. The owner of RA-MAR Caribbean, Ramiro Crawford, will team with a naturalist as our full-time guides. Ramiro has worked for 20 years as a specialist in international development projects and professional exchange programs. He is an agricultural economist and has completed postgraduate studies in community development in the United Kingdom, China and Sweden. Through his efforts, Liberty Hall was declared a National Historic Landmark by the Costa Rican government. He serves as an international board member of the Washington, DC-based Partners of the Americas, whose mission is to promote economic and social development projects by linking 46 states in the United States with countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Eclipse Tours, the leading provider of day tours from San Jose, will handle all administrative arrangements for our tour.

This tour can be customized for groups throughout the year




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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; What RPCVs are doing; COS - Costa Rica; COS - Panama

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