The rainforests around Arenal Volcano are alive with capuchin monkeys and caimans, tanagers and tree frogs.
Theyre at the center of their existences, just as we are at ours.
There are countless overlapping films, streaming at all times.
The country packs 12 ecosystems and half a million species into its 20,000 square miles.
Which makes it the perfect setting to explore the lives of other species, and decenter your own.
Walls of green, designed for neither our comfort nor our sustenance, pressed in from both sides.
The park is named for the volcano at its heart, itself a humbling spectacle.
Arenal is some 7,000 years old and about 5,300 feet high.
Its last major eruption was in 1968; lava flows continued for decades after that.
It no longer spews molten rock, but it still vents steam.
We were staying atNayara Tented Camp, one of three interconnected resorts just outside the park.
As a guest there you feel like you are the center of the world.
We heard one staffer call them controllers because they help keep rodent populations in check.
(Sightings on the property are, we were reassured, rare.)
There are similar night walks as well.
Sleeping in the treetops at Nayara Tented Camp.Credit:Ozzie Hoppe
Our guide for two of our three tours was Luis Andrey Pacheco Vasquez, or Andrey.
(At the busiest times of year, as many as 1,800 people visit a day.)
I have gone on safari in Africa, in search of the Big Five.
From left: Arenal Volcano, as seen from Nayara Tented Camp at dusk; nighttime walks at Nayara reveal creatures like the red-eyed tree frog.Ozzie Hoppe
It felt like being on a treasure hunt with someone who has been studying the clues for years.
Andreys deep knowledge gave us a new appreciation for the intricate intelligence of the natural world.
Again and again he showed us what we were missing.
A howler monkey in the Cañ Negro Wildlife Refuge.Ozzie Hoppe
A violet-headed hummingbird on a nest.
An eye-lash pit viper curled on a leaf.
A gorgeous crested owl, its eyes slowly shutting, in a distant tree.
From left: Boating in Caño Negro; Luis Andrey Pacheco Vásquez, a resident naturalist at Nayara.Ozzie Hoppe
There they would ferment their collective haul with their own excretions, and later consume the resulting fungus.
We boarded a boat, where breakfast was laid out for us, and Andrey began scanning the trees.
Nature, even in miniature, is full of drama.
Ana Emilia Villalobos, another of Nayara’s staff naturalists, spotting wildlife at Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park.Ozzie Hoppe
It was as adrenaline-inducing as any filmed chase scene, but with higher stakes.
(For the iguana, certainly; to be fair, perhaps for the hungry caiman as well.)
When the caiman turned back halfway across and the iguana continued on toward safety, we cheered.
From left: A guest villa at Nayara Springs, one of three Nayara properties in the Arenal region; a great egret at Caño Negro.Ozzie Hoppe
Andrey pointed out a capuchin monkey descending a branch that leaned over the water.
Then again: dip, retreat, suck.
A tail you’ve got the option to live without.
A colorful lizard at Nayara.Ozzie Hoppe
These are the marvelous details of nature, and we gorged on them.
(Its complicated.)
The guides knowledge was impressive, and their enthusiasm infectious.
A great curassow, one of the many bird species you can see at Nayara Tented Camp.Ozzie Hoppe
(Comfortingly, it is also one of the worlds leading developers and exporters of antivenom.)
But Hanzels exuberance at the sight of a rarely seen Costa Rican coral snake was hard to resist.
Most likely a car or truck had roared past, Hanzel said.
From left: Shady pathways wind through the Nayara grounds; each villa at Nayara Springs has its own thermal hot tub.Ozzie Hoppe
The monkeys were demarcating their territory with sound.
This was their film, not ours.
Doubles atNayara Tented Campfrom $1,200.
A caiman at the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge.Ozzie Hoppe
