Rain Forests

I am sitting outside our vacation rental in the jungle of southern Pacific Costa Rica and thinking about rain forests.  I live in a rain forest, but northern and cool.  This tropical rain forest has many similarities to my temperate rain forest, but everything  seems to be magnified by at least ten. It's the driest month of the year here so the cicadas are deafening, like summer crickets on steroids. The forest has a palpable presence, a huge organism, mysterious and overbearing. The eerie sound of the howler monkeys floats through the dense growth. It is the stuff of stories and legends, primitive and foreign.

The forest is warm and moist and so very fertile. Life seems to spring from this perfect set of conditions in endless variety. The insects and birds, the flowers, animals and vegetation: all are so flamboyant compared to those in the muted and foggy forests of the Pacific Northwest. I have been here before and I will visit again. Feeling this intensity around me is invigorating and at the same time humbling.
I think I could get used to the forest here if I spent enough time to become comfortable with the plants and animals, cycles and risks.  But today I admit to a healthy caution and respect for the unknowns out my front door.