Around five years ago after I started my camera trapping adventures through I found myself alone, deep in a forest in Guanacaste. After a two-hour hike through a tropical dry forest I slid down an embankment to a large, quickly flowing stream. The surrounding forest was brown and leafless due to the dry season heat but the area around the stream was breezy, shady, and green.
I leapt from the bank and hopped across a series of rounded gray stones until I reached a boulder in the middle of the stream. I shrugged my backpack from my shoulders and took a seat on the cool surface. Just as I thought ‘This couldn’t be more beautiful,’ a group of spider monkeys appeared high in the branches on the opposite side of the stream and began to expertly swing their way to the other side.
My immediate thoughts were, ‘I wish my dad or best friend were here to see this. They would love it just as much as I do.’ As I had more and more opportunities to trek forests and attempt to record their inhabitants throughout Costa Rica, I continued to be presented with incredible experiences.
Sometimes the scenery was the star of the show, fast-flowing rivers, volcano views, or the biggest tree that you can imagine. Other times it’s the excitement of flipping open a camera trap and finding that you recorded something so exciting that you literally have to shout. Most of the time I have been alone for these experiences but sometimes I had someone with me that I could share the moment with and d.
