Born December 24th, 1960 in Mexico City, Mexico to a Peruvian-U.S. father and a Costa Rican mother. As a family they also lived in Los Angeles, California where his parents had met.

Traveled to Costa Rica in 1970 . He completed high school in a ‘Spanish speaking’ all boys Catholic school called Salesian Don Bosco in San Jose. He was interested at that time in pursuing higher education in the U.S.A. After applying to several universities He was admitted and received a California State scholarship to attend the University of California at Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.). During his college years he applied for the U.S. Air Force Academy and received a Congressional Nomination for acceptance from Congressman Julian Dixon-28th District. He did not meet all of their requirements but he did continue as an Air Force cadet at U.C.L.A. and went to two week field training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas in 1981. Eventually he became disillusioned with the military and withdrew from their program altogether.

In 1982 he returned to Costa Rica with the equivalent of an Associate of Arts degree in Spanish Literature and Linguistics and work experience as a Library Assistant. Although he started working as an Assistant Librarian at Lincoln High School, he also started teaching English as a second language (TESL) at night in Lincoln Junior College.

By 1984 he had a chance to start working in the ‘hospitality’ business. Thanks to the insistence of a good friend, he started working as a guide with shore excursions or groups of U.S. tourists descending from the Royal Cruise and the Royal Viking Lines in Puerto Caldera. David Reid, president of Calypso Tours, hired him and trained him as guide, assistant bartender, luncheon buffet chef, second mate, and man-of-all-hats on board the 55foot yacht ‘the Calypso’ by 1985. This was probably the best schooling he could receive in the fields of hospitality, catering, and public relations. he spent five years working on board and still does an occasional tour for them on a freelance basis. Whilst he worked he continued his education in tourism. He was interviewed and received a scholarship to study in the Costa Rica Ministry of Tourism’s one-year course for professional guides in 1985. It was his Natural History professor, Dr. Rolando Mendoza (co-author of National Parks of Costa Rica book-1981), who inspired him to increase his knowledge in Tropical Field Biology. He took additional Costa Rican Natural History courses at the University of Costa Rica School of Biology (Eco-tourism guide diploma 1991) and through the Costa Rican National Museum & Tikal Tours (a.k.a. Costa Rica Eco-adventures), a pioneer of Costa Rican ecotourism.

His love and passion for nature was given an even bigger boost once he was hired in 1991 as the first nature based cruise director of Costa Rica and ‘naturalist guide’ on board the 175 foot M/V Temptress based out of Puntarenas. His work included leading natural history and adventure tours on both land and sea. In 1993 Mr. Grant becomes a certified NAUI Scuba instructor and leads customers on underwater adventures throughout Costa Rica’s Pacific coastal national parks, islands, reserves and marine sanctuaries and in Belize’s coastal cays, reefs and atolls. Mr. Grant has worked as cruise director in 1995 on the SPV Star Clipper based out of Barbados, West Indies. He was in charge of all information, programs, tour management and tour sales to 10 different destinations throughout the Windward Islands including: Barbados, Tobago, Grenada, Tobago Cay, Carriacou, Bequia, St. Vincent, St Lucia, Martinique and Dominica. He also worked four seasons throughout Mexico, Belize and Guatemala with a land based camping-adventure company as trek leader from 1998- 2001; concentrating on the Yucatan Peninsula, Chiapas and the ‘Ruta Maya’.

Federico Grant Esquivel has been a Costa Rican Ministry of Tourism licensed guide for over 20 years. Today he works as a professional freelance ecotourism guide & consultant with several tour operators, small eco-lodges and on a private basis.

Presently he will be working from Spring until Fall 2008 with Tauck World Discovery as a cruise director on board the European Riverboats(http://www.tauck.com).

He enjoys digital photography and sharing his photos with his groups and clients thanks to his IMAC Macintosh and the great iphoto application software that is provided by Apple Computers! Contact him at: cr_ecoguide@yahoo.com.