Costa Rica Agro-Tours

Costa Rica Agro-Tours

The Tropical and Sustainable Agriculture Program

Inn at Coyote Mountain

Agro-Tours -- Tropical Agriculture Learning Vacations

All of the following terms can be modified in length and intensity, or combined with one another or with culinary arts programs with the Tropical Creole Cooking School. Tours are for groups of 6 or more persons and usually involve at least two nights' accommodation with meals. Those interested in organizaing an AgroTour should contact us by e-mail. We are also happy to work with travel agencies or tour companies.

Orchid Tour including Orchid Cultivation

Combining both orchid safaris around central Costa Rica and the Cerro Coyote preserve with time spent learning about orchid cultivation techniques, this tour will be of intrerest to any orchid enthusiast or naturalist. Orchids are the largest family of plants on earth, and represent the most reprodutively advanced and specialized plant group. The tour will visit at least three different orchid habitats including cloud forest and montane, seasonally dry forest. Led by Vaughn Perret and local guides.

Organics and Sustainability in Tropical Agriculture

Combine a stay at the Inn at Coyote Mountain with learning about organic and sustainable agriculture, including visits to the Inn's diverse gardens and orchards, comparison of temperate and tropical climate agriculture, composting, how to identify practical cultivation strategies in different ecosystems, multi-cropping, and the feasability of such practices. This tour usually includes a visit to EARTH, a tropical agriculture university in Guapiles, in the hotter and more humid zone of the country.

The Inn's coffee tour delves into practices of coffee cultivation, visits to local fincas and processing facilities, harvest (December-late January), as well as sustainable and organic options. This tour can be combined with coffee tastings, home roasting, and cooking with coffee.

Tropical Fruits and Vegetables

Learn about the different fruits and vegetables that grow well in the tropics, as well as their culinary characteristics and uses.

Instructors include local farmers and plant specialists as well as Vaughn Perret and Charles Leary, two directors of Cerro Coyote, S.A.

Perret and Leary, after succesful academic careers, operated Chicory Farm in Mount Hermon, Louisiana, where they became acquainted with sub-tropical agriculture. Chicory Farm was certified organic by the State of Louisiana and encompassed livestock, cheese production, market gardens, wild foods harvesting, and edible mushroom cultivation. The farm sold products through the farmer's markets in Baton Rouge and New Orleans as well as to local and national restaurants and food stores. Their activities drew the attention of the New York Times, among many others. The farm earned two research grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and won the national Tibbetts Award from the Small Business Adminstration. Subsequently, Perret and Leary established small agricultural operations in Nova Scotia, Spain, and at the Inn at Coyote Mountain in Costa Rica, where they have been creating gardens, orchards, and sustainable systems since 2000. Also accomplished chefs, they are co-authors of The Trout Point Lodge Cookbook: Creole Cuisine from New Orleans to Nova Scotia (Random House), which has received critical acclaim. They have also written on agricultural topics for a variety of publications, from Stockman Grass Farmer to Dairy Goat Journal.

Hotels of Costa Rica: Inn at Coyote Mountain

Owned & Operated by Pacific Avenue, Ltd./Pacific Avenue, S.A.
info@cerrocoyote.com local phone: 8 383 0544 (not for reservations or information)

Reservation & Hotel Information Requests, Call our Sister Propery, Trout Point Lodge: 1-902-482-8360

Toll-free fax: +1 (800) 980-0713