Alright, the town´s nothing special – a bustling, dirty agricultural centre in the shadow of the Turrialba Volcano - but if you´re a white-water rafter or kayaker, you´ll definitely want to drop your anchor here.

The two nearby rivers here – Rio Reventazon and Rio Pacuare – are Meccas for all manner of adrenal-fuelled watersports, with the Pacuare considered one of the top five white-water rafting rivers on the planet. It´s not just the reliability of the raging rapids here that give Pacuare its reputation – this is one spectacular ride, with the river rushing through canyons flanked by primary rainforest, crashing waterfalls and indigenous reserves.

Back on dry land, Turrialba has plenty to offer sightseers. The scramble (or rough drive) to the summit of the (increasingly active) Turrialba Volcano offers prime craters views for the adventurous few who make it up here.

Plant-lovers and birders will want to head just of Turrialba to CATIE (Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza), http://www.catie.ac.cr one of the world´s premier tropical agricultural research and education centres. Both guided and self-guided tours are offered of its 1000-hectare campus. The Botanic Gardens here – speckled with all manner of exotic tropical species from around the world – offers a few edible goodies, including borogo, starfruit, zapote and passionfruit. Nearly 300 of Costa Rica´s 850 species of birds have been spotted on the CATIE campus, and the central lagoon offers superb opportunities for observing rare waterbirds such as the purple gallinule. A caiman is also said to lurk in this lagoon.
If your interests are indeed far more reptilian, the Parque Viborana, 10km east of Turrialba in a village called Pavones, is one of the best snake parks in the country, with an emphasis on educating the public and rehabiliting rare species. And since Costa Rica is positively slithering with poisonous snakes, it pays to be able to identify the deadly varieties and know how to avoid being bitten before you set out on that intrepid jungle trek.
Slightly further afield on the slopes of the Turrialba Volcano lies the Guayabo National Monument, Costa Rica´s most significant archaeological site. While it´s certainly no Machu Pichu, it´s an oddly peaceful site, the partly-excavated pre-Columbian ruins strewn amid premontane rainforest. This site (which dates back as early as 1000BC) is thought to have at one time been home to as many as 20,000 people and the remains of houses, an impressive aqueduct system, an 8km road and the country´s oldest bridge can still be found here, along with pavements decorated with petroglyphs.
If it´s high time you learnt to speak the local lingo, or just want to brush up on your Espanol, Turrialba has an excellent and reasonably-priced Spanish school. Five kilometres out of town, Spanish By the River http://www.spanishbythesea.com is set in a coffee field with prime volcano views and can also hook students up with volunteer opportunities in the local community.