On Assignment: Monteverde

A sunset panoramic view from just outside of Monteverde, Costa Rica, looking out towards the Pacific Ocean. Click on the image for a (much) larger version.

As excited as I was to head down to Costa Rica this week to work on a pair of stories for The New York Times, the thrill did not register until our van left the even pavement of the Pan-American Highway and started its steep, winding ascent up to Monteverde. As is often the case, not until I'm on the ground and engaged are most of my trips anything but logistical puzzles nagging to be solved. And when I'm already really busy, as 2008 has been thus far at JLPFL headquarters, its all I can do to stay focused on each day and job without looking ahead.

My planning for a week-long travel job like this starts with simple assumptions and then backing them up with worst-case scenarios options. Even though my first assignment to hike through the Children's Eternal Rainforest with a group of CEOs, successful and environmentally conscious business leaders mostly in their 40's and 50's, was likely to be pretty tame, I didn't want to chance it. And so thank god for the single Boy Scouts meeting that I attended as a kid. I basically went overboard on preparation and bought a ton of gear (new photo bag (Crumpler's Whickey and Cox), hiking pants, socks, moisture wicking shirts, under shirts, and boxers, time-release DEET, mosquito net, permetherin treatment for net and clothes, malarone, etc.), as well as get a few vaccinations, as per instructions by the trip organizers, NYT, and CDC. So after all of the buying and re-buying (hiking shit is always sized weirdly) and shots I really wasn't that jazzed about the gig. But that all changed with the first night's sunset seen above.

Monteverde is purposefully hard to get to to help keep the tourism industry at bay at the door of one of the too few cloud forests left in Central America. All of the roads leading to it are dirt and studded with holes and rocks with very little encouragement (road signs) along the way. But once you arrive you find a nice little village that has grown to benefit from the eco-tourism revolution, and we arrived to a great lodge and an amazingly warm dinner with the group and local representatives of the Bosque Eterno de los Niños. It was immediately clear that all of the CEOs, environmentalists, and support staff were all just really amazing people to be around. It also started to become clear that the hike was not going to be a stroll through the forest.

I prefer to pack light and had especially gone out of my way on this assignment to make sure that everything I was carrying on my back was needed. But even then I had to ensure I would be able to carry out my job as a professional; so there was no getting a heavy pack. Ultimately the Whickey (which I chose because it doesn't look like a photo bag, has adequate storage but a smallish profile, and because you can screen off equipment from clothes or a laptop.

And so officially, as I woke up with the sun to set out, here is what I had in the bag: rain jacket, 4 extra pairs of lightweight hiking socks, 2 extra dri-fit t-shirts and underwear, camping towel, assorted drugs and DEET, 8 energy bars, pocket knife, Leatherman, thin nylon rope, mosquito net, passport, notepad, 2 pens, 1 Sharpie, deodorant, toothpaste & toothbrush, Jimi wallet & cash, 1Ds Mark II, 5d, 6 batteries (3 each), 28/1.8, 50/1.2, 100/2, case w/ four 4GB CF cards, backup 2 GB SD card, lens wipe, HyperDrive 120GB backup drive w/ charger, 4 extra rechargeable AA's, LED headlamp, 3 extra AAA's, Shure headphones, iPod shuffle, iPhone (off the whole time), a large silica gel pack, and a wooden walking stick that was given to us just before leaving (which ended up being priceless).

It became clear halfway into our first day that the hike was not going to be tame... at all. But it was beautiful and fun and as we stopped for lunch next to a small shack along a river I was feeling good. Later that day my body began to revolt that I'm such a lazy ass who spends countless hours in front of a computer, and not at all in shape. I began burning way too many calories and growing less hungry all of the time. Muscles were cramping up badly despite lots of stretching and my pace slowed over the 15 km we covered on day 1. Arriving to the refuge we would sleep at that night a half hour before sunset, and just after nearly stepping onto an extremely poisonous snake, I was exhausted (all but 2 of us non-locals were, and several people didn't get in until well after dark) and began to get worried about the following day's hike.

After a freezing cold shower and change into clean socks and underwear I felt better and made pictures of our group eating dinner and setting up mosquito nets by headlamp. No other pictures were possible because there was no electricity, and I couldn't afford the weight or size of a flash in my pack. I was disappointed in what I had been able to shoot the first day because I had to focus so much on my own energy and hiking but even if I had been in perfect shape the group was so spread out over the mountains that many of the shots I hoped for just never happened. So it goes on these kind of assignments.

The next day began at dawn and I was shaky, sore, and tight. I had been careful about my feet the day before and was in much better blister shape than many others. I wanted to get out on the trail ASAP and try to take it slow and easy. In the morning there was a presentation of donations to the Monteverde Conservation League by Whole Foods and New Chapter to help preserve and expand the Children's Eternal Rainforest for generations to come, which was followed by the hard news that the day's hike was going to be just as long as the first day. We set out and I began to find my stride but early on realized that my water bottle had been jarred out of my back somewhere in the first hour (potential disaster). Luckily someone else had a small extra bottle, but it meant that I was going to have to refill using stream or river water the entire day (personally I didn't mind, but I don't want to endanger getting sick while on assignment).

Luckily the hardest part of the last half of the hike was in the first 3 hours as we climbed up steeply to the ridge line. The images still came very slowly (mostly because the rainforest has almost not open parts to see any scale or volume) but I was feeling better and stronger. The hike ended for me at an incredibly beautiful lake 2 hours before sunset and my small group swam and laid out in the grass. I was honestly just too tired to raise a camera to photograph the others. After waiting for some additional hikers we made our way to the Luna Nuevos Extractos de Costa Rica organic spice farm where the fast group was waiting with a warm welcome, hot shower, great food, beer, and a hot tub. I turned in shortly after dinner and was dead to the world until we (awesome guy and stud reporter Andrew Martin and I) had to wake up very early to travel south and meet up with Starbucks for our second assignment in Costa Rica on farmer education.

It was a great and beautiful and exhausting experience. Photographically I was just too drained to think as clearly as normal, though I think that I got what we needed and more. The experience was far more personally rewarding though and I had a ton of time to think about the important things in my life and ways I want to live and be known. I'm now all the more in awe of the adventure photographers out there who shoot incredible images on much, much more rigorous treks in more extreme locations. I'd have to get in shape and train for years to get to that level where I could perform as a professional while enduring the mental and physical strain.

Now at the San Jose airport waiting for my return flight after 2 days visiting farms around the country that Starbucks works with to become more sustainable and higher quality I'm feeling about 90% better. Two nights of staying in plush Marriott beds does a lot of good, as does the light hiking around that we did on the farms, easing out my sore legs. The coffee farms were also beautiful but we sort of missed the right time of year to be here (due to last year's rainfall the harvest came early this year). Yesterday afternoon we stood on a dirt road overlooking a valley of coffee named for the two grandmothers of the Vargas family who owns them. Hawks circled overhead in the late day sun that stretched across the trees and sky towards the Pacific. I made a portrait of Carlos Rodriguez, who is the director of Starbucks agronomy department, and have satisfied myself was ready to come home. Many, many thanks to all of my new amazing friends from the hike and farms.

« Go to previous entry | Home | Go to next entry »

Comments (2)

Hi John,

My girlfriend and I were in Costa Rica last year for vacation. Beautiful country. Beautiful people. Although we landed in San Jose, we had no desire to stay in a city and so the following morning rented a car and drove 4.5 hours to Miguel Antonio on the Pacific coast. Incredibly beautiful drive up and over the mountains. Beautiful vista winding through small towns and farming regions.

While there, speaking to the locals and other vacationers, we learned of Costa Rica's take on eco-tourism and it's effort to maintain the beauty of the land. Being from a Caribbean island myself, I know very well the negative impact tourism can have.

Interesting work that you are doing. I suppose if you had followed the "don't get on the plane" philosophy you would have not taken the assignment (?). From your last two assignment posts it seems that they were both personally and professionally rewarding and would have been difficult to pass up.

Best to you,
Sherman

I can't believe you guys ran into a Fer-de-Lance snake (and even bitten - even if it was only a rubber boot). That's a very dangerous snake. That encounter could easily have turned deadly. I'm surprised, because I didn't think the snakes would be that common (I know they are aggressive).

- Fabian

© 2006-2008 John Loomis. All Rights Reserved.