DRAKE BAY, Osa Peninsula – Before entering the towering strands of primary rainforest, Dale Morris instructed us to place our flashlights next to our ears and look for shimmering objects in the grass. A thousand lights blinked back at me. “Pick out the biggest one and take a closer look,” he said. It was a spider. Actually, it was thousands of them. “They’re wolf spiders and they’re everywhere, but they won’t bite,” the guide explained. Then he took a close-up photo and offered us a more intimate look at the insect.
Morris is a professional writer, photographer, conservationist, and naturalist guide. He and his wife, Sasha Gilmore, have worked on conservation projects around the globe during the past 11 years. He’s been a scientific and research coordinator for many projects, including an insect-based project in Santa Rosa National Park, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, which he calls “one of the greatest outdoor laboratories on earth.” He has the know-how.
He also has the eyes. Morris, with help from his wife, can spot a stick insect in a pile of twigs on the forest floor. Guided by a contagious enthusiasm for the subject, Morris takes participants on two-hour hikes through the dark rainforest.
“Ever since I was an embryo, I was interested in insects. When other kids were watching Spiderman, I was watching spiders,” he joked.
While on the tour, he spotted and nabbed a praying mantis, a frog with hallucinogenic properties, another with chemical irritants in its skin, a knob-headed snake, and many other tiny creatures. He’s brimming with information, from why Drake Bay doesn’t have any mosquitoes (you’ll have to take the tour to find out) to the fact that you’re more likely to die from a falling coconut than a snakebite. Morris has a point: nature is fun and exciting, and not as daunting as you might think.
He runs his tour out of Aguila de Osa Inn, an elegant eco-lodge located in Drake Bay, at the northern edge of Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula in southwestern Costa Rica.
Why run this tour in an area as remote as Drake? “This forest is wonderful,” the British national said. “It’s a wet tropical forest that never shuts down. The dry forest is incredibly seasonal and shuts down six months out of the year. There are no insects. Here you get lots of activity year-round. You’re always going to find stuff here. Plus, this is an incredibly complex place, and you never know what you’re going to find. We get something new every time.
“Corcovado is just down the path, and it’s one of our favorite places on earth. Tourism is developing here, but in a way I’d like to see it move; people are here to experience nature, not to play golf and drink cocktails on beaches. We’ve got a beautiful area, great biodiversity, and a captive audience.”
At the end of the tour, guests stop at Aguila de Osa Inn for water and cold drinks, sharing their experiences. Lauria Asperas Valeyer, from France, summed up our group’s feeling. “(This tour) is like reliving things you’ve seen on wildlife programs as a child,” she said. “Except this is real life.
