Watch These 5 Documentaries Before Visiting Costa Rica

If you’re anything like us, after booking your dream trip, you’re doing nonstop research to get yourself excited for your trip!

Some of the best ways of doing this are looking at photos and watching videos and documentaries about the destination – in your case, Costa Rica.

We’ve compiled our list of the top five documentaries you must watch before visiting Costa Rica.

You’ll notice that these five documentaries vary in what they were created to show. We want this to be a holistic list that shows the whole story – one that shows our beautiful and magical Costa Rica from every angle.

The Goose with the Golden Eggs

This is one of our all-time favorite Costa Rica documentaries here at Bodhi Surf + Yoga…and we bet the name caught your attention!

It’s produced by the Center For Responsible Travel, or CREST.

The Goose with the Golden Eggs is inarguably one of the most important Costa Rica documentaries that exists. Actually, when I first came to Bodhi Surf + Yoga as an intern, co-founder, and owner, Travis sat me down in his house and had me watch this documentary!

It exhibits some of the jaw-droppingly magical nature and beauty of Costa Rica and shares facts and statistics about the country’s booming tourism industry.

But what’s most important about this Costa Rica documentary is that it shares both sides of the story – the benefits of the tourism industry and the damage it can have on communities and marine habitats.

“The Goose with the Golden Eggs” refers to Costa Rica’s rich forests and marine ecosystems.

In the documentary, tour guide Edwin Villareal explains, “If we have the forest and all of the animals, we’ll keep receiving people that come to visit us. But if we cut the forest, the animals will leave, and no one will return to visit.”

This Costa Rica documentary juxtaposes large-scale beachside resorts and smaller-scale sustainable coastal tourism models (like us!) with the idea of protecting the goose with the golden eggs.

Entangled in Costa Rica

This Costa Rica documentary was filmed and produced by Innoceana – a global marine conservation nonprofit.

In Costa Rica, Innoceana dedicates its efforts to preserving the ocean for future generations. This involves empowering and educating coastal communities giving local youth marine conservation education opportunities.

Actually, our 2022 Smile While You Paddle Surf-A-Thon raised over USD $16,000 for Innoceana’s Junior Blue Warrior program. Check out our video to see how the Surf-A-Thon went!

This Costa Rica documentary also showcases some of Costa Rica’s rich wildlife. Within just the first two minutes of the video, you can already see:

• A tree frog
• A Tapir
• A Lizard
• White-faced monkeys
• Sloths
• A Howler monkey
• A toucan
• Capuchin monkeys

The main storyline behind “Entangled in Costa Rica” is based on Innoceana’s encounter with a humpback whale entangled in a large fishing net. The documentary shows the team’s efforts to save the whale while along the way, teaching viewers the importance of the ocean and marine ecosystems.

We’ve added “Entangled in Costa Rica” to this list of Costa Rica documentaries because of its honesty and transparency. It shows Costa Rica in all its beauty, which gets you excited for your trip but also reinforces the importance of being responsible travelers.

It reminds us as travelers that we’re only visitors here and must leave it clean for those that live here – i.e., humpback whales!

Innoceana even offers marine conservation diving experiences. Very worth considering as you’re planning your visit.

Untamed Costa Rica — Watch it here

Untamed Costa Rica 

This National Geographic Costa Rica documentary is for animal lovers!

If you’re going to Costa Rica, you’re expecting to see some animals, right?

Here, it is hard to go a few days without spotting some wildlife – like sloths, scarlet macaws, and dolphins. This is an outstanding Costa Rica documentary to excite you about what you might see here during your trip.

“Untamed Costa Rica” is a short docu-series exploring some of Costa Rica’s most diverse and iconic animals and wildlife while taking viewers on a virtual trip through different parts of the country.

The series includes six episodes, each between five and six minutes in length. 

You could even watch the entire thing in one go while dreaming about your trip to Costa Rica during your lunch break (we know that’s what we’d do)!

While watching “Untamed Costa Rica,” be prepared to travel through the ocean, jungles, and mountains of beautiful Costa Rica.

Watch the Costa Rica documentary series here on National Geographic.

The Spectacular Wildlife Of Costa Rica

This is another fantastic Costa Rica documentary for nature and animal lovers.

“The Spectacular Wildlife Of Costa Rica” takes us on a journey through the entire country – from top to bottom. 

If you haven’t entirely decided yet which part of the country you’d like to visit, this documentary might give you a few ideas. You can consult your trusted friends here at Bodhi Surf + Yoga and check out our blog on the top places to visit. 

And speaking of nature, “The Spectacular Wildlife Of Costa Rica” exhibits some of the country’s most impressive natural wonders on and off the typical tourist track.

Viewers can virtually behold some of Costa Rica’s most breathtaking waterfalls, volcanos, coastlines, mountains, and rainforests and get excited about the various animal species that can be seen here.

The documentary even illustrates the connection that exists between nature and surf + yoga (which happen to be two of our favorite things!).

The Bodhi Wave 

Before you ask – yes, this is our documentary. 

We couldn’t write a blog about Costa Rica documentaries without including the best of them all (we’re kidding)!

One thing that’s undoubtedly important for Costa Rica is that its visitors practice being responsible travelers. “What is a responsible traveler?” you may be thinking. You’ll have to watch the Bodhi Wave documentary to find out.

“The Bodhi Wave” tells the story of how Bodhi Surf + Yoga came about, what we do, our business philosophies, and how we use surfing as a force for good.

We created this documentary to express and share that businesses don’t have to follow the traditional business model of just making money. We advocate that businesses can and should act as tools that enact positive change in the world.

“The Bodhi Wave” shows that our way of enacting positive change in the world is through YOU, our guests! We link positive guest experiences with pro-environmental behavior change – i.e., being a responsible traveler

The documentary shows our journey as a small, family-operated business in Costa Rica, helping people fall in love with the ocean. We’re an example of a business that facilitates pro-environmental behavior change in people through falling in love with nature.

Aside from this (and some incredible ocean and surfing shots), “The Bodhi Wave” illustrates surfing as a metaphor. 

Surfing is 70% paddling, 20% falling off, and 10% riding waves. That sounds awfully difficult, doesn’t it? A lot of work for such a seemingly small reward? Well, life is like that sometimes.

But we always say that if we can learn to “smile while you paddle,” we’ll get through the complex parts of life and enjoy the reward!

The most powerful lesson viewers can get from this documentary is that we can harness the power of nature – daily to make our lives better. 

Surfing is the simple act of harnessing the power of the ocean through riding a wave – and it makes us feel so free. We can all harness the power of nature, in one way or another, every day of our lives to have this same feeling!

Access the Full Costa Rica documentary “The Bodhi Wave” here.

Enough Homework, Come on Down here!

We’d be stoked to have you down here enjoying paradise with us.

If you haven’t pulled the trigger on finalizing your trip here after watching these five Costa Rica documentaries, nothing will!

We hope you’ve been encouraged to visit this magical country and do it responsibly.

If you want to learn more about responsible travel in Costa Rica, please visit our Bodhi Surf + Yoga Travel Hub.