In September of last year we were visited by a good friend from New Orleans, Delaney Toups. He is preparing to move to Costa Rica to run a resort on Drake Bay. It’s in the middle of nowhere. And when I say it’s in the middle of nowhere, I mean nowhere! It’s just you – and you out there! Talk about a feeling of isolation. It took us 6 hours to drive to Sierpe and then an hour and a half by boat to get to this remote area of the Osa Peninsula. But it was worth it!

If you have ever seen any National Geographic or Discovery Channel specials on the deep jungle, chances are it was filmed in Drake Bay. According to National Geographic, that area is the most biologically diverse in the entire world. And it is gorgeous!

We saw the most amazing animals ever: toucans, macaws, parakeets, different varieties of monkeys, and of course lots of bugs. But probably some of the most amazing things I were the sounds. They are like anything I have ever heard before. They are not frightening, but rather soothing and tropical.

By far the funniest thing that happened to us on our probably 3-day adventure in this particular section of the peninsula was when we were out hiking in the jungle and we came upon a monkey. Then we realized there was another monkey. And yet another. All of a sudden there were something like 12 of them. It was very exciting, so I took out my camera to grab a shot. But then mama monkey appeared and got very upset! She started to lunge at me and we all got pretty frightened! The leader of our group made a big sound and mama moved away slightly. Then we all made a run for it, but mama pursued. I was in the back and had to keep looking behind me to see how closely she was tracking us. It really was funny! You can see from the picture that she meant business!