Page 2 of 30 | Text and photos by Michael Jacobi with additional photos by Andrew M. Smith
SPECIES LIST [the 14 species found by the team in 13 days]
• Aphonopelma burica Valerio, 1980
• Aphonopelma seemanni (F. O. P.-Cambridge, 1897)
• Aphonopelma xanthochromum (Valerio, 1980)
• Brachypelma albopilosum Valerio, 1980
• Brachypelma fossorium Valerio, 1980
• Lasiodora icecu (Valerio, 1980)
• Megaphobema mesomelas (O. P.-Cambridge, 1892)
• Psalmopoeus reduncus (Karsch, 1880)
• Sericopelma immensum Valerio, 1980
• Sericopelma melanotarsum Valerio, 1980
• Sericopelma upala Valerio, 1980
• Sphaerobothria hoffmanni Karsch, 1879
• Unidentified - juvenile Sericopelma [poss. immensum or generala]
• Unidentified - Stichoplastoris sp.
DAY ONE | Tuesday 5 December 2006 | Atlanta, Georgia USA
This tale begins with a Starbucks venti no-whip mocha in the international terminal of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. After a thirty minute skip from Nashville, Tennessee, I now have an almost three hour wait for the big bird that will transport me to San José, Costa Rica. I suppose there shouldn't be any urgency to indulge in an espresso drink before heading to a country renowned for its coffee, but it is seven in the morning and I went without sleep last night. Terrarium after terrarium of spiders and geckos begged for my last-minute attention, and I finally decided, somewhere around 2 a.m., that it would be wise to pack something for the trip.
I am already one day behind. An error while booking my flight resulted in the three Brits I will meet in Costa Rica waiting for me and readying our rented car and provisions in my absence. I am not 300 miles from home as I write this and I am already causing problems.
The three men who arrived in Costa Rica yesterday to begin our fifteen-day adventure are veteran travelers to exotic locales. I am truly honored to be part of their team. Led by renowned tarantula researcher and arachnohistorian Andrew M. Smith, our party will transverse and transect Costa Rica in search of big, hairy spiders and much more. My two other mates are brothers Paul and Mark Carpenter. I am the sole American.
COSTA RICAN GEOGRAPHY & FAUNA
Juan Santamaria International lies in Alajuela, just northwest of the capital city of San José, which sits roughly in the middle of Costa Rica in a valley surrounded by the Central Highlands. Approximately 180 miles wide and 250 miles from northwest to southeast, Costa Rica is comprised of six regions encompassing seven provinces. In addition to the Central Highlands, the terrain includes the ranching country of Guanacaste in the northwest, the Cordillera de Tilarán mountain range of the Northern Region, the beaches and bays of the Central Pacific and Nicoya, the humid tropics of the Southern Region, and the Caribbean Lowlands.
Costa Rica translates as "rich coast" and 1290 km [802 mi] of coastline, along both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, certainly makes this beautiful country deserving of its name. Costa RicaÍs natural diversity is incomparable—the almost 900 species of birds, over 200 species each of mammals and reptiles, some 170 amphibians, and more than 350,000 types of insects live among 10,000 plants, all in a country slightly smaller than the state of West Virginia. Nestled between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south, and lying about 10 degrees north of the equator, Costa Rica is the second southernmost country in Central America.