Flor de Mayo

At Río Segundo de Alajuela, three km southeast of Alajuela, Richard and Margot Frisius breed green and scarlet macaws for eventual release into the wild. Their home and breeding center, Flor de Mayo (Apdo. 2306-4050, Alajuela, tel./fax 506/441-2658, richmar@racsa.co.cr, by appointment), features three huge aviaries where pairs of breeding macaws are housed, plus a flyway where they can fly and learn to flock. Dozens of other birds have been welcomed into the Frisiuses’ beautiful home, surrounding a lush botanical garden: the estate was owned and landscaped by the famous botanist and orchid lover Sir Charles Lankaster. The Frisiuses run a nonprofit organization—Amigos de las Aves—and have raised hundreds of scarlet and green macaws. The main breeding and aviaries are on an eight-acre site across the road. Here, adolescent macaws build up muscle and learn to socialize in huge flight cages.

Visitation is strictly by appointment only. Flor de Mayo is hard to find: it’s 600 meters east of the Hampton Inn and 100 meters east of the Hostal II Millennium, where you turn north at the traffic light; go 400 meters to a Y-fork, then 200 meters uphill; Flor de Mayo is on the left.