Alissa found the experience exhilarating and eagerly crossed rope bridges and scampered up towering trunks to zip Spider Man-like across a ravine 75 feet below. I persevered, but so timidly I caused a treetop traffic jam.

Nonetheless, afterward we both rewarded ourselves with lattes and lunch at the nearby Four Seasons Resort, Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica's hottest new luxury destination. The property, open since January, has been drawing deep-pocketed eco-adventurers and work-weary urbanites alike.

Located along the northwest coast of Guanacaste Province, and best reached through the airport in Liberia, the 165-room, five-star resort boasts two beaches, a 16,000-square-foot spa, four pools, a complimentary kids program and a golf course.

With its brown and green earth tones and roofs flared like butterfly wings, the property brings the Four Seasons standard of luxury -- coconut and vanilla body wash anyone? -- to a monkey-filled tropical forest and beaches where Ridley turtles lay eggs in the sand. From our balcony, we watched iguanas fat as house cats sun themselves on rocks.

The hotel is the first major lodging of the Peninsula Papagayo project, a scheme that once threatened to plunk down a Cancun-size development of 18,000 rooms on these pristine shores. All that's been scaled back and the new tourist destination now plans to keep 70 percent of the approximately 2,000 acres natural while eventually offering 7,200 rooms at various properties.

Backpackers and naturalists have always been drawn to Costa Rica's numerous national parks, refuges and reserves. These harbor more than 850 species of birds -- more than in all of North America -- and hundreds of species of mammals and reptiles.

Being here you see the inspiration for all those theme park jungle rides in which macaws and other creatures pop out at you through twisting vines and monkeys chatter overhead. It's all reality here.

The Four Seasons offers several soft adventure tours through local operators, the closest of which is the canopy tour ($50 per person), just 15 minutes away. Although the other trips require a drive of 1 1/2 to 2 hours each way, they're worth it for the wildlife you encounter and the natural wonders you see.

We reached Cañas, the put-in point for a float trip along the Corobici River as birds flocked to their evening roosts. Gliding past stands of bamboo, mango, spiny cedar and panama trees, we spotted boat-billed egrets, tiger herons, wood storks and scores of white cattle egrets hovering like angels above the banks.

The guide maneuvered us close enough to a Guanacaste tree to reveal that a row of black bumps was really a line of long-nosed bats and he also pointed out that a gnarled, half-submerged log was actually a crocodile snout.

The next day we left at 7 a.m. to hike the foothills of Rincon de la Vieja volcano. The shady, winding trails, far from the cone, took us by ficus trees as thick as VW Beetles, past hanging vines, ferns and philodendron plants as big as elephant ears.

We saw leaf-cutter ants march with military precision, carrying bits of broken green on their backs and we watched a beak-heavy toucan careen onto a tree branch. Other spurs on the trail looped us in front of bubbling mud pots and alongside fumaroles belching sulfur.

Tired but happy, we returned to the Four Seasons to rejuvenate with soaks in a hot tub and soothing massages.

If you go
For more information on this and other tours in Costa Rica, please write or call our travel desk.

Telephone: 506 258 4896
Email: [email protected]