Venado Caves and Cano Negro questions
 

Venado Caves looks like a fun and interesting adventure and I'm thinking about taking my 10 year old daughter. Can anyone tell me more about their experience? I'm not afraid of getting dirty, but how tight is a tight squeeze? I'm slightly claustrophobic, although I have handled similar situations (kayaking through hongs and walking through underground tombs) for a short time period (less than 2 hours at a time). How long is this tour?

Also, I see Cano Negro offers an afternoon tour now from Noon to 7:00. Can anyone offer pro's and con's on the wildlife spotting during this time? They say less tourists and spotting nocturnal animals. But, what time will it be dark (late May) and does it make sense to look for animals in the dark from a boat? Or, would we be better off going for the normal day tour?

Thanks!

The Venado Caverns is the the one and only activity I've done in Costa Rica that I really didn't like. (I think I've done about everything at this stage.) I'm claustrophobic too, so I'm not a good judge. The people I went with enjoyed it though. I remember the tour was about four hours, but that included the driving time from La Fortuna, about 45 minutes each way.

On a noon-7 p.m. tour to Caño Negro you're still going to be at the refuge mostly during daylight hours. It gets dark between 5:30 and 6 p.m. year round. Driving time between Caño Negro and La Fortuna is about 90 minutes, so I assume that's included in the tour time. Torward the end of the afternoon, close to the time you leave, it will start to look "twilighty" and there will be a different mix of animals you might see at that time. But the bulk of your time up there is still going to be during the brightest, hottest time of day. (It gets HOT up there.) If it were me, I'd take the morning tour.

Another consideration of the afternoon
tour is the greater possibility of rain during the rainy season.

My kids (then 10 and 13) and husband loved the Caves. It isn't really that tight but it is dirty - lots of slogging through water and ducking under and clambering over rocks. I tend to be slightly clautrophobic as well and I was OK.

There's a choice between routes and we chose the easier route.

Thanks all...I guess I'm leaning toward the morning excursion for Cano Negro.

The caves still sound fun to me! But I don't know, I'm kind of a try everything kind of gal :)