Nocturnal Costa RIca

Cost Rica is home to more than 500,000 species of wildlife, which equals 4% of species in the world. This is quite impressive, considering that Costa Rica is only about the size of West Virginia. 
60% of these species are nocturnal, so if you want to see these amazing creatures, you must take a walk on the dark side.

In the village of Monteverde, I met 3 other backpackers. We all wanted to do a night hike, so our hostel set us up with a tour for that same night. 
A van picked us up and transported us about 20 minutes into the exotic rainforest.

We meet our tour guide, a knowledgeable local lady. She gave all of us a flashlight to scout out the critters, along with her.

She warns us to watch our step and off we go, slinking through the night. 
The first species we see are bats. She made us turn off all our lights so they would fly closer. I felt the wind from one of their bat wings on my hair and screamed. My travel mates acted all coy, ain't no bats gonna bother them. 
Yea, maybe I am a little high strung and jumpy, but hey, gotta be on your toes out here!
On high alert, we move along. Soon we hear a mating call. Following the sound, we point our lights into the trees and there it is.... an OWL!! It was as cute as a button. I just love owls. 

I remember hearing the "whoo, whooo" from owls when I would play night games as a child in Minnesota. 

Venturing further into the night, our guide shouts out "Oop, be careful, we have leaf cutter ants here!"
A small army of ants had made a 2 lane highway across our path. The ants proudly paraded their pieces of leaf like a flag. 

They were the night shift workers. I wonder if, with more years of service, they'll be able to get a day shift position. 
We followed them to their house and discover an ant hill bigger than an SUV. She said there were millions of ants living in this mound. And only 1 queen ant. She's the boss. 

We stumble upon a stunning black and orange tarantula and my neck itches for the rest of the hike. 

As we traipse through the forest, we hear an eclectic mix of noises, from animals that I've never seen in this life. Costa Rica has hundreds of species that are endemic to this area. I feel so fortunate for seeing only a pinch of them.

Our guide stops suddenly and shines her flashlight into a tree. We all peer into the trunk and see a scared possum, as still as a statue. 

His long hairless tail drapes off the branch as his beady eyes stare into our inquisitive lights. 

There are 20 different venemous snakes in Costa Rica. We were lucky enough to run into one that night. I was actually the one who spotted it. Kuddos to me. 

Everyone had a watchful eye on it, especially this nervous Nelly. Anti-venom was just a 15 minute ride away.....

So many amazing things go on in the rainforests of Costa Rica as we're getting our zzzz's. There were so many insects we saw also. Such a unique experience. I give it 5 stars.