 David Vaughan was born in
Mississippi but grew up in the Great Southwest—New Mexico and Arizona. The son
of an itinerant school administrator, he graduated from Balboa High, Panama Canal Zone.
While living in Panama he developed his life-long passion for Latin America. He studied Foreign Language Philology at the University of Heidelberg,
Germany for four years during which he traveled extensively in Europe, North Africa, the
Middle East and Asia. He returned to the U.S. to the University of Arizona, Tucson
for a M.A. in English as a Second Language. After two years teaching at the U. of
A., he traveled to the Persian Gulf where he taught English and German at Kuwait
University for a year. After getting kicked out of there he landed in Spain,
teaching at the University of Salamanca for a year. After more traveling he ended up
in Switzerland selling jewelry on the streets for three years (interspersed with frequent
trips to Asia). In fact, La Danta Salvaje was bought in its entirety with Swiss
Francs! Anyway, back in Santa Fe, New Mexico, David and his Israeli ex-wife
bought a Pick-up camper and embarked on a remarkable journey through Mexico and Central
America to Costa Rica and back again (in all he made that trip six times, spending over 18
months in the process). He acquired the reserve in 1989 and in 1991 settled in
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca in the Province of Limon on the Southern Caribbean Coast of
Costa Rica, where he still lives with his fiancé, a renowned sculptor from Louisville,
Kentucky. David’s love of nature and deep interest in other cultures was
nurtured by his extensive traveling. Over the years and especially at the reserve,
he has acquired a great deal of knowledge about the flora and fauna of the rainforest and
his anecdotes will send you into bales of laughter. David works as a free-lance tour leader with different adventure tour outfits leading exciting tours all over Costa Rica. His intimate knowledge of Costa Rica and her people provide him with a wealth of information. He speaks German and Spanish fluently and began leading tours to the reserve in 1995 David likes meeting people and sharing with them the knowledge he
has acquired about La Danta Salvaje, Costa Rica, her people and culture and her incredibly
diverse natural beauty. That along with the political and social stability is why he
decided to settle in Costa Rica. David conducts EarthFoot's Deep Jungle Lodging & Hikes Beside Braulio Carrillo National Park program. |