The Value of a Nature Guide

We are naturally frugal people. In general, we prefer to bag our own groceries and to carry our own bags at a hotel. When we're looking at a nature hike, we've typically balked at paying a guide to take us on a well-marked trail because, hey... we can do it ourselves!

Now that we've been in Costa Rica for a week, it's clear that the guides absolutely earn their pay (and then some!). On the hikes where we've hired a guide, we've seen dozens of rare Costa Rican wildlife, including eyelash pitvipers, ornate hawk eagles, golden orb spiders, orange kneed tarantulas, rainbow toucans, two-toed sloths, blue morpho butterflies, coati and a multitude of toads. On the hikes where we did not have an official guide, we've seen.... well.... a lot of plants. The guides also typically have binoculars and an uncanny ability to help frame great iPhone shots through their lenses. 

Bottom line: Hire a guide! They have experience and resources that random Californian's can't hope to harness while trekking through a Costa Rican rainforest. In particular, there seems to be a "trail guide code" that's aided by newfangled web apps that tell the guide exactly where to look for rare snakes, birds or plants. When the guide walks past the GPS-marked location, they magically "see" the wild animal/plant and help their group take great pictures. For better-or-worse, this is a tool that's unavailable to anyone that didn't hire a guide. 

The pictures below are examples of what we've seen on the trip that we would not have seen without a guide....