Pura Vida Begins

Costa Rica is a wildlife destination I’ve been working on getting to since before the pandemic and Genesis wasn’t going to say no to a trip to the tropics. While it’s a small country with only 19,730 square miles, approximately the size of West Virginia, Costa Rica holds almost 5% of the entire world's biodiversity. It’s a wildlife photographer's playground. With only a week there, I wanted to split up the trip with time in the jungles of the south and time in the cloud forests of the north. We booked an Airbnb on the Osa Peninsula on the southwest coast of the country and a hotel in Monteverde in the north for the second half of the week.

Gear

I overpacked but also somehow underpacked. For cameras I brought 3 bodies: a Nikon D5, D750 and a D7200 as a back-up. For lenses, I brought the whole arsenal. I didn’t want to miss a thing. While I originally went back and forth with not bringing the big 400mm f2.8, I ultimately decided I couldn’t leave it at home. I also brought along the 200-500mm, 70-200mm, 17-50mm, 18-300mm, and the other new addition to the family, my new 105mm macro lens. I also brought of course the usual accoutrements of auxiliary gear: chargers, hardware, Manfrotto 055 carbon fiber tripod, backpacks etc. June is the rainy season so I did a last minute purchase of some Movo rain covers which ended up coming in really handy and they’re only $20. We planned to hike around in the jungle, so we packed boots and rain gear. For our boat trip to Corcovado National Park, we packed dry bags and waterproof phone cases as well.

Some of the trip was planned way in advance and some of it was planned the day before. Hey, life happens. The Airbnb we chose is owned by the same people who run Ficus Tours, so that was kind of a no-brainer. They allow you to fully customize your experience on the peninsula including night hikes and trips to Corcovado National Park, which we definitely wanted to get to. For the northern part of the country we figured we would wing it, which ended up working out really well.

Day One: Travel Day

The flight left out of JFK on Friday the 13th at around 9am with a flight time of 6 hours to San Jose. Easy flight (any flight shorter than 10 hours is now a short flight for me). Once we landed at 1pm local time we immediately had to grab our bags and book it over to the other terminal to grab the domestic flight to Puerto Jimenez at 3pm. The heat and humidity was about what we expected, mid 80s and high humidity. We had a little issue at that gate as every bag we had was well over the weight limit. The flight from San Jose to the peninsula is run by SANSA airlines and only small Cessna single engine turboprop planes are used. With an extra $170 charge for the added weight and fingers crossed that the bags would actually make it on the plane, we waited for the call to board. A small café provided us with some much needed empanadas and cheesy bread. As we were boarding they informed us that our bags were also on board and we breathed a sigh of relief. The plane was tiny and with only 12 people on board was a full flight. Basically the plane was a short bus with wings. The 50-minute flight was cloudy but a smooth ride with the occasional glimpse of the green countryside. In the last 20 minutes of the flight, the clouds broke and the coastline appeared. Huge, muddy meandering rivers cut through the vibrant green landscape and spilled into the aqua blue waves that crashed against the shore. The pilots announced our descent and we flew over Golfo Dulce at an ever decreasing altitude before landing on the tiniest airfield. Only one strip of tarmac, one hangar bay, and that’s it. No terminal. We got off the plane and walked through a gate in the fence and we were out of the “airport.” We then walked a short distance down the hot and humid road to Enterprise Rent-A-Car and picked up our car. We got a small Suzuki 4x4, which was necessary on the dirt and mountainous roads of the area. We headed off to find our first full meal of the day.

We grabbed dinner of chicken and rice at a small restaurant called Los Delfines on the water Afterwards, we drove off to find our Airbnb only a few miles up the road. Our hosts Royer (pronounced Roger) and Flor didn’t really give us an address but we found it easy enough. We arrived just after 6pm and Royer met us at the gate to the driveway and let us in, closing the rolling aluminum-walled gate behind us. Royer happily greeted us and asked us to follow him. The cabin sat maybe 100ft back from the driveway. A small path from the driveway to the cabin took us through a natural garden full of small trees, plants and flowers, and a small pond. Royer had planted the garden himself and was very proud that the wildlife, like frogs and lizards, had been moving in. The cabin was one room with a queen bed and a bunk-bed. It also had a walled-in private area outside that had the shower, toilet and private pool. The kitchen was on the front porch which was covered by a metal roof. Very rustic. The windows were just screens and there was no AC, only a small oscillating fan to keep us cool. Definitely not the Ritz but we planned on spending most of our time exploring.

After getting the grand tour Royer asked us about our plans and we said we wanted to do a night hike and he said “Can you be ready 7?”

“No problem.”

“Do you have boots?”

“Yes.”

“Are they rubber boots?”

“….no?”

“You’re going to want rubber boots. I have spares.”

He brought us two pairs of rubber boots; mine were a little big but I didn’t complain. At just after 7pm, armed with my macro lens and a few other items, we set off on our night tour. It started right there in the garden. Having only known Royer for a short time, I immediately liked him. More than that I was blown away by his knowledge. Royer grew up on the peninsula and has lived there his whole life having guided tours for the last 19 years. In all the noise of the night in the tropics he can discern the different chirps, cheeps, squeaks, and beeps as different species. He can give you the Latin names of the species, mimic them and then find them in the seemingly endless foliage. And he does all of this in the dark. We found maybe a dozen species of frogs, insects and lizards just in the garden in front of the cabin. We then got in the car and drove a short distance to a gravel road and set off on foot along the road in the long grasses that border a patch of jungle. We found all manner of frogs, mating wandering spiders, a vesper tree rat and further up the road we saw a kinkajou way high up in the trees feeding on fruit. At this point of the night it began to rain lightly at first and steadily increased in intensity. Royer took this time to grab an umbrella and push off into the void, following a trail into the jungle. We had brought rain coats but the cooling rain felt nice at first and we decided to follow Royer without them. The jungle is dark at night. A new level of dark that gives you a primal fear.

Rosenberg’s gladiator tree frog (hypsiboas rosenbergi)

We followed Royer along the trail and began to regret more and more not bringing our rain jackets. We ended up on a small, shallow, slow-moving river. Royer pointed out a large spider on a branch overhanging the water and informed us that it was a Brazilian Wandering spider, a highly venomous spider that can paralyze a human being. He then turned around nonchalantly and marched through the water into the night. Ok Royer, thanks, but no thanks, we’ll avoid walking past that. We cut around on land to another spot on the river and got in. We then walked a short ways where Royer asked us to wait while he looked for a species of glass frog that he had heard. The skies opened up while we watched his flashlight grow dimmer as he walked up the river. The last-minute purchase of the rain cover for the camera was clutch.

Granular glass frog (cochranella ganulosa)

He found the frog and showed us where it was. We covered the leaf and kind of ourselves with the umbrella and grabbed some pictures. At one point the frog jumped onto the camera! Royer gently put him back on the leaf. Completely soaked, tired from traveling, and a little overwhelmed by being in the dark jungles with a stranger we found on the internet, we decided to call it for the night. Royer got us back to the car and back to the cabin in once piece and we put a plan together for a half day tour the following day with an early 6am start time. We took showers and tried our best to dry off, set our alarms for 5am and went to sleep.

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