Tarantula in the street!

I captured this picture while absently walking along a dirt road in a cloud forest in Monteverde, Costa Rica on April 9, 2005, on our way to the famed Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde. Having just blurted out "Tarantula in the street!" as the only indication for my actions, I bolted for the surprisingly fast (and upon arrival surprisingly huge) spider. Crawling around a ditch in the dirt on my belly to get this shot I realized just how creepy these things really are and how the wee spiders we have back in Atlantic Canada (of which I used to have a much stronger aversion) are of no comparison. Looking back, this was also around the time I developed the particular habit of dumping my shoes out before putting them on in the morning. Something about scorpians and tarantulas needing a place to sleep at night, I think. Once again my Olympus C770UZ came in handy. f/3.2, 1/100, ISO 64.