I recently found myself in Agumbe, a place where it rains like it holds a personal grudge against you, leeches treat you like a buffet, and yet… you don’t want to leave.

I was invited as a naturalist to guide a group of around 15–20 people who had signed up for what I assume they thought would be a “peaceful nature retreat.” What they got instead was a full-on rainforest experience - mud, mystery, and mild chaos included.

Mornings were calm(ish). We went on nature walks looking for birds and plants, pretending we were in a serene documentary. Evenings and nights, however, were a different story.

That’s when we went frog hunting.

Agumbe is packed with endemic amphibians, and we found plenty - tiny ones, colorful ones, and ones that made you question how something so small survives in such a dramatic ecosystem. Snakes? None. Frogs? Everywhere.

And rain? Constant.

We were permanently dressed in ponchos, slightly damp, and slowly accepting that leeches were now part of the team. At one point, I had a particularly aggressive leech encounter. Not ideal - but also, weirdly, part of the full Agumbe package.