Our Journal

Insects comprise the most diverse group of animals on Earth with about one million described species, more than all other groups of animals together, and estimates of up to 30 million species not described. Thus they represent over 90% of life forms on the planet. Insects are terrestrial Arthropods such as centipedes, millipedes, spiders, scorpions […]

“Finca Luna Nueva was pure bliss in the Costa Rican rain-forest!” Reviewed by daliaratner It’s been my dream to visit Costa Rica for over 20 years and I finally traveled there a few weeks ago with two of my kids (ages 10 & 13). It was the BEST decision ever to spend our entire 10 […]

Surprising invaders greeted us this morning.  From Photo 1 you can see what are known as warrior ants or soldier ants, and they streamed into our office. Their way of life is to move through the rainforest, in columns like the Roman armies. For that reason they are also called legionary ants. You can see them moving […]

“A friendly, peaceful getaway on the jungle’s doorstep” yesterdayReviewed by ericasullivan18 on Trip Advisor As visitors to Costa Rica on a tight schedule, we knew we wanted to focus on one area. I found Luna Nueva first, and it looked like such a great place that I planned our entire trip around it. We rented […]

The spice known by the name of vanilla has historically been obtained from various species of orchids. These species belong to the genus Vanilla, and some of the more common are: V. planifolia, V. Cribbiana, V. insignis, V. odorata, and V. pompona. V. planifolia (Photo 1) is the most cultivated species in the world. All of […]

The Passifloraceae family is a pantropical family of plants. It is represented in all tropical and subtropical climates of the world, with about 530 different species. Within this family there is a genus of about 300 species called Passiflora. They are called passionflower. Today we will talk a little about this genus and its relationship with […]

Ice on Fire, a feature-length documentary from TreeMedia, has been greenlit by HBO.  The production team is traveling from the North Pole to the deserts to mangroves to the rainforest, capturing on film our existential environmental crisis.  The rainforest segment was just filmed at our farm and lodge, and we were thrilled to participate. The […]

We enjoy every type of biodiversity at our rainforest ecolodge, and we especially enjoyed the recent invasion of Shutterbugus americanus, otherwise known as the professional and enthusiastic amateur photographers from Creve Coeur Camera, www.cccamera.com,  in the United States.   Led by owner and photographer Stephen Weiss and his instructors Scott Rovak and Tom Tussey, pictured below, […]