Best Bits: The Night Tour With Tracie "The Bug Lady"

In an attempt to knock out two birds with one stone, I am going to discuss my brief encounter with Costa Rica while also beginning what I hope will be a long series on my favorite parts of travel from all over the world.  The "Best Bits" series will highlight my favorite restaurants, accommodations, museums, tours, buildings, coffee shops, etc etc from my various travels.

Tracie and Gian not only find the smallest, neatest creatures
(like this glass frog), but they also helpfully
arrange picture-taking and closer looks.

For this installment, I'd like to talk about the part of my Costa Rican trip that I've been ranting and raving about ever since I experienced it.  But it's also the part of my trip that everyone probably overlooks as something I found awesome, but they might not enjoy.  'Bugs and snakes and other creepy crawlies late at night in Costa Rica?  No thanks,' is probably what you're thinking.  But no!  The Night Tour with Tracie "The Bug Lady" is seriously one of the most unmissable and under-priced tours I have ever heard of.

Every night in Drake Bay, Costa Rica - an area on the Osa Peninsula, hours to the southwest of the capital and center of the country - Tracie and Gianfranco team up to show you a side of Costa Rica that would otherwise require a botany degree and years of patience to discover.  You gather together as a group of maybe a dozen tour-goers after the sun goes down, where they provide you with headlamps, and the tour immediately begins as they start showing you the unseen life all around you.  Within minutes we had already seen several sleeping, seemingly-invisible lizards and iguanas and Gian walked us down an embankment to see a gigantic, dirt-colored Smoky Jungle frog.

A tailless whip scorpion on Tracie's hand.

Over the course of the 2 1/2 hour tour, I doubt we walked more than a mile, but the night was packed with neat discoveries and up-close looks at animals we never would have even heard of otherwise.  Tailless whip scorpions, a blunt-headed snake, trapdoor spiders, the cordyceps fungus, a Bolivian White-lipped frog, Heliconia butterflies, a Pygmy rain frog, a burrowing tarantula.  Everything we encountered was accompanied by an explanation of where they are normally found and how rare or common each creature is, as well as random tidbits that could be known only by researchers who are clearly passionate about the area and their work, and who have been doing this for years.  As one tour guide discusses our latest discovery (say, Tracie explaining how the molting tailless whip scorpion we saw was probably going to get eaten that night since he didn't hide himself very well), the other was off finding something new, so there was practically no downtime between creature encounters.  They also knew which creatures were perfectly safe to handle, so we all got to pass around the blunt-headed snake and feel how strong he was as he lifted himself from hand to hand (not to mention the tailless whip scorpion that some brave tour-goers had placed on their cheeks for some daring photo shoots).

And the best part, which explains why I can remember all of these names?  They take notes throughout the night so you don't have to, and will email you a list of everything we saw plus more details on the night and how to learn more about each creature.

Every night is different, of course, which meant we wished we had gone both nights we were in Drake Bay instead of just one.  We got the impression that our night wasn't particularly spectacular, but we spent the whole time enraptured and amused, so I doubt there is every a truly dull night.

Drake Bay at sunset.

On the practical side of things, getting down to Drake Bay isn't the easiest thing, but it's well worth it.  There are bus rides from the capital, San Jose, to Palmar Norte, just north of the Osa Peninsula, fairly frequently.  We took the early morning (4am...) bus to Palmar, from which you taxi down to Sierpe, from which you take an hour and a half boat ride down the Rio Sierpe to the Pacific Ocean and Drake Bay.  But the trouble is all worth it: the Corcovado National Park is pristine and full of animals you can't find elsewhere in Costa Rica (or anywhere else in the world, in the case of the Baird's tapir), not to mention the views are spectacular.  There are plenty of small hostels, bungalows and villas to stay at, but no real hotels: Drake Bay is not built up at all, and I don't believe there's a building higher than 2 stories.  So my advice?  Go soon, before the magic is gone, and before Tracie and Gian retire!

This tour is well worth it for anyone interested in wildlife, even those who are a bit leery of creepy crawlies.  Our tour was about half young people, in the area for adventure traveling, and half older Americans, in the area for scuba diving and leisure.  The tour is family-friendly, engaging, educational, unlike anything you could do anywhere else.  And did I mention it was only $35?

Anyway, now you know my favorite highlight from my week in Costa Rica last month.  Let me know if you'd like to see a "Best Bits" highlight of a specific place or type of attraction, or if you have any questions about Costa Rica!  And expect a post about my pre-China packing list in the coming days, as I drag my bags out of the closet and start packing for a year abroad.