It’s our second day in Santa Elena, and after a fairly relaxed day yesterday we faced a busy walking day ahead, with an early trail at the Sendero Tranquilo Reserve followed by a night walk at the Bosque Eterno De Los Ninos.

We were extraordinarily lucky with the sightings today; we were on a mission to catch sight of the white-faced capuchin monkeys and within half an hour of walking we could hear trees rustling overhead. At first we couldn’t see anything, but when half-eaten fruit, twigs and other missiles start falling around us it wasn’t difficult to track them back to the source. When we finally caught sight of the culprits, we discovered about four or five capuchins of various ages clambering through the treetops, eating and generally mucking around.

Another two hours of hiking along medium to hard going terrain proved less fruitful, uncovering only a handful of insects (not including ones of the biting kind) and a small emerald toucanette hiding in the trees - not exactly a smorgasbord of fauna for our troubles but it’s always a gamble.

I was exhausted after our 6km trek (not far I know, but plenty of steep inclines make up the exertion factor), but as it was on our way back to the lodge we dropped into Butterfly Garden, an attraction featuring three themed “habitats” and an exhibition which lived up to its name. We had a few hours to rest in the afternoon, leading up to our “Twilight Walk” at Bosque Eterno De Los Ninos (or Children’s Eternal Forest).

We arrived at the reserve at 6pm, and although initially we couldn’t figure out what was going on (which seems to be a continuing trend for our time here) we soon split off into a small group lead by an English speaking guide. Unpredictable as they are, one of the exciting things about night hikes is getting to see creatures that you wouldn’t during the day, and even some sleeping - having never seen a bird asleep before, it’s amazing to see them wrapped up in their wings like a self contained blanket. And it’s always good fun to see fireflies out and about, like tiny flying lightbulbs.

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Personally, the great thing about night tours is the sheer amount of focus you get on small creatures just by shining a flashlight on them; it can be a little difficult to see things under your nose in the jungle by daylight, but in the darkness all you see is what’s under your torch. And there’s always the added excitement that you may come a cropper by something venomous lurking out there in the black…