After a relaxing day in the shady breeze at our hotel, we decided to start a hike into the setting sun to some hot springs near the park. Little did we know that they were two hours away, and there were only three hours of sunlight left.

With nothing but a water bottle, James’s Droid cellphone, and my camera, we trekked up and down innumerable rocky cliffs, forded three streams, climbed to a canopy-level zip-line platform, and evaded a stalking jaguar. When we got to the springs, all we found was a murky puddle, and the sun was setting.

Our journey back got progressively darker, as the trees inched in over our heads. We used Droid to find our way when we lost the trail, blinding the jaguar with my camera’s flash, and saw a bird in one of the trees. Returning victorious, we flopped back in the hammocks and starting planning our next journey.