In the foothills and lowlands of both slopes, Costa Rica’s rainforests harbor thousands of known life forms and yet thousands more to be discovered. They are among the last strongholds of biodiversity on earth. Resonating with the songs of birds at dawn, the rainforest is quiet in the heart of the day, its stillness punctuated by the insect-like call of poison-dart frogs, the rasping of cicadas, or the whistled notes of wrens and antbirds.

The dark, cool interior of a primary rainforest is surprisingly free of entangling vegetation. Only where light manages to filter through the interlocking canopy to the forest floor does vegetation proliferate. Walking in the rainforest is like taking a step back in time. The modern world and all its stress fade into insignificance.