Costa Rica Trip, January 2020. Chapter 2.

Monkeys! We headed to Costa Rica to photograph birds, and thought if we happened to see a monkey it would be a bonus. As it turned out, we saw as many monkeys as birds.

The resort we stayed at, La Foresta in Quepos, CR, sat on 70 acres of a private reserve. This is where we saw 95% of the monkeys. We observed three different species: Capuchin (White-Faced), Howler, and Squirrel Monkeys. These were wild animals. They didn’t seem to be afraid of us, but kept their distance and at least one member of the troop was always watching us. There were several juvenile monkeys with the adults.

Capuchin Monkeys: This troop of about 20 was the hardest to photograph as they were back lit and in there pretty deep. Not hard to find, however. They made a ton of racket up in the canopy! The situation really called for a good flash with an extender, but I don’t like to use flash on wildlife. So we didn’t. As a result it was high ISO, and some of these are pretty noisy.

Howler Monkeys: We would wake up to the sound of these larger and more vocal monkeys off in the jungle. Sometimes they came really close to the resort. They were easier to photograph due to the contrast of their dark colors with the jungle background. This troop had about 25 individuals in it.

Squirrel Monkeys: These were smaller animals, and much more elusive. They did not want to be near us at all. If you ask me, they’re a little creepy looking. 🙂