Heading to Costa Rica? Here is a simple activity you can add to your itinerary:
Night Hike
In our humble opinion, the night hike is one of the easiest and most delightful activities to add to your trip, and one of the most often overlooked.
The night hike is simply what it sounds like – you go hiking at night, but it also becomes a treasure hunt as you find creatures both small and larger, sleeping and awake with your flashlight. You are not just walking through nature, but you are discovering and looking at the world in a different and unique way.
This is something that everyone enjoys as both young and old delight in the discoveries that are made. The hike can become a treasured memory of exploration.
Fortunately Costa Rica gets dark around 5 or 6 pm year round, so you don’t even have to stay up late to go on the hike. If you’ve had a day packed with adventure or an early morning activity, you can still squeeze this in and get enough shut eye to be prepared or recovered – whichever your case may be.
Guide or No Guide?
The first thing you are going to want to do is decide – do you want to go on a guided hike – or do you want to try and make discoveries on your own?
What are you looking for and what are your goals?
You will definitely see more with a guide. They will take you to the best spots. They will show you where to look for them and where different creatures like to live, hide, and sleep. They will keep you in safe area. They also take a little bit of pre planning – you will need to schedule your hike in advance.
If you have children, I would recommend getting a guide to go with you. You will see a lot more – and that will keep the kids engaged, excited, and interested. They will also keep an eye on the group as some are peering in bushes and tress looking for their next find and make sure everyone is exploring safely. This can be helpful as adults and children alike are wandering around in the dark trying to discover the coolest thing for the group.
If you want to go on a real hike – and not just a walk around your lodgings, I would also recommend a guide. You are in the rainforest, and heading out on your own into an unknown area in the dark, is not the wisest plan for tourists. Pay for a guide to take you to known spots, so you don’t come face to face to a dangerous animal in the jungle and find yourself in a life threatening situation.
However, if you have not planned ahead and made a reservation with a guide, you are finished with all the days activities, and you are not sleepy – That doesn’t mean that you are out of luck.
You can wander around your lodgings to see what you can discover. You of course will need to have made the forethought to throw in a flashlight into your luggage. (Lucky for you! You read this blog and did toss one in ‘just in case’) Or to have your cell phone charged so you can use its flashlight. (make sure you bring a buddy because someone will need to use their phone for a light, and someone else will need to use their phone for the picture!). If you have one of these two – you’re ready to go out and explore!
Again, you are going to stay near buildings and paths. This is not the time to head out into the jungle. Especially if you are at everyone’s favorite Jungle Camp. Do not go off the paths there. Do not wander away from the camp without the guides. The camp and paths are extremely safe, but heading outside of that area at night without a guide is not wise. So stay on the main lodging path after dark and you will have a great time.
Feel free to check out the bushes and trees along the path or road. Shine your flashlight into the trees. You are going to look for glowing or reflection or movement. The sleeping animals are harder to spot as they are not moving, so don’t rush past things but take time to slowly grid the tree with your light.
Look in the center of the bushes along the path – especially if they are near water. It’s a comfy secure place for lots of tiny creatures that are hiding. Again, the key is to go slow and scan. Multiple people help. One will see something that another one passes by and vice versa. Look for anything glowing or reflecting light. Those are likely eyes.
Don’t neglect the bases of trees or the underside of branches and leaves. Carefully lift a leaf to see under it better. Check corners and you might be rewarded with different types of frogs, some sleeping birds or insects like a dragonfly, lizard, or even a snake. Truthfully we didn’t want to find anything larger and delighted in the small discoveries that were completely unnoticed during the day.
I don’t head off into the jungle without a guide, but I always pack a flashlight for some nighttime exploration in the paths around my hotel or room. It’s a whole new world as many are asleep, but so many are also now awake. Happy hunting and exploring!
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