The Taste of Ocean Water

            I got up well before Luke and Anna this morning, having slept overnight in the loft, so I hung out for a while downstairs by myself before Scott came back inside a little while later. Apparently he had been up since around 5:00 and had gone outside so as to not wake anyone up. That house is certainly not the most conducive to quietness!

 He made some coffee for the both of us and then we quietly took our cups outside and sat overlooking Samara while we awaited Luke and Anna’s arousal.  It was really cool getting to talk to him about his life and what had made him decide to change careers to massage therapy so late in life.  He’s done a ton of traveling in his past as well and he told me numerous stories about his times abroad and the children he has sponsored over the years.

Gorgeous view of Samara

Luke and Anna finally got up around 9:00 and we had a pretty simple breakfast of fruit and leftovers.  Church service was to start around 10:00 so as to not be late Scott offered to drive Luke and me into town.  We met up with Mom and Dad at the hotel shortly thereafter and walked the two minutes down the road to the church. We made it just as they were finishing the first song. Success!

The church service was really cool and I really like the pastor.  He talked a lot on the story of David and Goliath and put the story into a perspective that I hadn’t really thought of before.  We got to meet a couple of people after the service that Luke and Anna have befriended in their time here and then we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel for the car.  We made our way up to Luke and Anna’s temporary house and got there just as Arden finally fell asleep for a nap.  Impeccable timing I must say. While we waited for Arden to wake up, Dad and Luke took a birding, sightseeing tour around the neighborhood, Mom worked on some reading and Bible study stuff, and I entertained myself watching a line of ants traverse the cracks of the patio. 

One of the six or so Coatis that were roaming around beside the house

When Arden finally did wake up, we packed us all in the car and headed off for the beach.  The plan was to meet some of Luke and Anna’s friends from church at Barra Gona beach and Luke had gotten fairly detailed instructions on how to get to the out of the way beach. Apparently it’s supposed to have super clear water at any tide and be great for snorkeling and spear fishing. While following the direction, we came upon a fairly nice sized river that crossed the road and apparently it was pretty low and not as full as normal.

Fording the River

We looked at the car (i.e. glorified skateboard), looked at the water level, then shrugged our shoulders and said “Alight! Let’s see what happens!” There have been few time that I can honestly say that I was proud of the “Gutless Wonder” but by golly that was one of them.  That little car came chugging through the river with water almost covering the tires and never once went astray. It came chugging out the other side, happy as could be (if a car could be happy) and we all hopped back in without so much as a delay in the world.

We followed the rest of the direction to a T, came up behind a line of pared cars, parked at the end and got out to organize out stuff (well, the babies) for an afternoon on the beach.  Only then did we realize that we were still only at Buena Vista beach and not at far as Barra Gona beach (apparently the person who gave us the instructions had miscounted one turn). But we decided to just stay where we were since we were already ready to go.

This baby LOVES water!

I still want to go to Barra Gona beach, but I am honestly super glad we stayed because that was one fun afternoon! We played in the waves with baby, went body surfing on some pretty big waves, splashed each other, dived, hung out on the beach… It was fun.  Relaxing and really fun.  Aside from the multiple nosefulls of ocean water I got… That was not fun.  Kind of burns as it goes down your throat, leaves a nasty taste in your mouth and a slight twist in your stomach...  Let me tell you that water is anything but pleasant… other than that though, everything was great!

Dad catching a nice wave

It started to get a little on the darker side when the sun fell behind the big rock outcropping of the cove on its way to the horizon so we decided to pack up and head out before we lost the daylight we needed to find our way out of the unfamiliar twists and turns. The river crossing was uneventful again (Yay!) and almost a little bit better for the horrified looks we got from some Ticos (natives Costa Ricans) who were sitting on the river bank across the way.  I really think they were just in awe of the feat they had just seen. 

Cool underwater shot of Dad swimming in the ocean

             Dinner was fish tacos (amazing Luke creation as usual) and while they were being made we were graced by the presence of no less than six Coati’s as they frolicked through the woods and around the back yard of the house. Those things are just so funny and definitely have a personality of their own! Certainly another animal I could just sit and watch for hours.

My favorite song from church this morning

Low Tides and Ice Cream Cones

We had a super laid back day today. We slept in super late and honestly didn't do a ton. We knew we probably weren’t going to hear from Luke until after 10:00 since they really wanted some time to themselves, so I didn't even get up until about 8:30 and then took my time getting ready. By 10:00, we still hadn't heard from Luke and we figured he might have just wanted to spend more time with Anna since it was her day off, so the three of us decided to take a stroll down to the beach. 

The exposed rock reef at super low tide.

It was another super low tide today so we spend quite a bit of time just walking the tide pools and seeing what we could see. The majority was just the little grayish brown fishes that swam in small schools but I also saw one little electric blue fish and a small sea slug.

Slug!

After a while when we had walked quite a ways down the exposed rock reef, mom and dad decided to try hiking over to Buena Vista, the next beach over, and finding a way up and into the mountains. I wasn't really up for another super strenuous hike, my legs were still super sore from yesterday! So I decided to head back to the hotel on my own while they continued on.

About half an hour later Dad called saying they were coming back, Buena Vista turned out to be a little farther than they had thought, so when they caught up to me a while later and we walked down the rest of the beach and back to the hotel together.

Samara Beach

Dad and I continued to just hang out, waiting for Luke's call, and Mom decided to head into town to inquire about various tour options. Luke called my phone a while later, around 1:30, saying he was on his way down from their temporary house to their old apartment to clean up the place and hand in the keys. Arden had apparently been really difficult all morning and had been super unhappy and grumpy since waking up. Anna had decide to just stay at home for the day with the unhappy baby and sent Luke down to clean up the old place on his own since they needed to be completely out by the first of the month. 

I had really been wanting to try some ice cream at this one shop Luke always raves about so I ended up walking into town on my own and meeting Luke at "The Monkey." After getting our "banana y naranja" ice cream cones I walked the rest of the way to Luke’s house with him and helped him sweep and clean the place.  While we were cleaning, Anna texted Luke with the idea that since Arden had been in such a bad mood and it likely wouldn’t be the best day to have a lot of people around, we could just give Mom and Dad the evening to themselves and I could spent the night over at Luke and Anna's place in the loft.

Luke liked the idea and after calling and talking to Mom she liked it too. So off to Luke's house it was, after stopping for a few groceries at the Iguana Verde, and getting attacked by licks from a rather friendly little puppy. 

View of some of Samara

On the long driveway, Luke and I heard this rustling coming from the bank to our right and looked up to find a Coati scampering up the hillside. I remember seeing a ton of them last time I was in Coast Rica about 14 years ago but this was the first one I had seen this trip! A little further along the driveway we came across a howler monkey with a baby on her back just sitting right on the side if the road. We got pretty close before she cut if the road and scurried off into the woods.

Pool time with Luke and Arden

We heard Arden screeching before we even reached the house and she was in a rather feisty mood to be sure. It was still fun though getting to hang out with just the four of us. We went for a swim in the little pool out front, we stalked an interesting sounding and rather large looking bird that decided to meander around the trees next to the house, and we ended the afternoon with Luke crafted piña coladas on the patio while we watched the sunset.

Just as we were finishing up and getting ready to head inside to make dinner, the guy who is lending us the house, Scott, drove up the driveway, returning a little early from a trip he had taken to another part of Coast Rica. He is a classmate of Anna's in the massage school and it was fun getting to know him while we cooked and ate a dinner of chicken and rice tacos. While we were cleaning up after dinner we heard this rustling and scratching coming from one of the side doors and we looked out to see and family of raccoon's! They hung around for quite a while, scampering around the house, and we even opened up the door and let Arden get a good look at them. It was the first time she had ever seen a raccoon I think and maybe the first time they had ever seen a tiny human. When she tried to crawl out to them they thought she was the weirdest thing and they backed up slowly and stiffly before turning and running back off into the night.

Let's Go Cave Diving!

            We got a late start this morning as we had planned to meet up with Luke around 10:00 so he could hand Arden off to Anna before we started today’s shenanigans. None of us slept in super long though so while we were waiting for Luke, Mom and I took Dad and hiked up the trail and to the lookout that we rode the horses to yesterday.  It was another extremely low tide today so a lot of the rock reef was showing today as well.  During the hike we got to see a nice sized family of Howler Monkeys, lots of butterflies, and a couple of small lizards.  I am beginning to see now that the Howler Monkeys are simply EVERYWHERE! You are almost guaranteed to see them most days you go out.  Hey, I’m not complaining! Though, if you didn't know what they were and the sound they make I definitely wouldn't want to have a family of those outside my tent at night, that’s for sure.  They sound anything but inviting…

            We met up with Luke right at 10:00 and shortly afterwards we were on our way to Barra Honda.  Luke really wanted to go there to see the caves, being a geologist and all, and we heard it was supposed to be cooler up there as well.  Sign me up!

The mountain we hiked to get to the cave at the top.

            We got there right around 11:30, good thing too because anytime after 12:00 and you couldn't get a guide which was required.  Our guides name was José and he was a really cool guy.  Didn't speak a lick of English, but caught on pretty fast that we liked photography and wildlife and went out of his way to show us what he could during the several mile hike up to the cave.  He would walk along the path all silent for quite some time and all of a sudden would burst out in bird call and sometimes I couldn't tell if it was a bird or him! 99% of the time he would get that particular bird to answer back and he would go along calling it for a while until we got too far away.

One of the many butterflies we saw on the hike.

            There was this one time that he suddenly stopped, dropped all the gear, and trekked off into the woods, telling us to wait on the path.  A short time later he motioned us to where he was and when we get there he point up into a tree.  Apparently he knew where this one nocturnal bird, a Potoo he called it, roosted during the day and had found it to show to us. Mom and Dad kept saying that another term for its variety, if you will, was a “goat sucker.” Don’t ask me why…

The Potoo

            We also saw a number of iguanas, other lizards, and tons of butterflies and Howler monkeys along the way.  I even got to see a little vine snake! I never would have seen it if it hadn’t have moved off the trail but it blended in so well with the tree branches I had a hard time telling which was stick and which was snake!

            When we finally got to the caves there were two other guides stationed there that helped us get our harnesses on and hooked up to the rope.  Apparently years ago people used to repel down into the cave but now they are a bit more sophisticated and have a ladder.  Well… more like several stuck together.  A really sturdy little thing but I can tell you hands down it was something that would never fly in the states. But that’s honestly what made it so cool, nothing in the cave but the cave itself.

            Once we got down to the cave floor, we did a bit of carefully walking over rickety and sometimes slippery rocks and can I just tell you it was really cool! I can’t really even describe it so these pictures will have to do…

           

            There was another little ladder down into a deeper part of the cave and that for sure would never have been ok in the U.S.! Just a little bit precarious there… but it was totally worth it and the cave was super cool! I can tell you Luke was having a hay day down in there. 

            After the cave and the walk back down, we said our goodbyes to José, tipped him for his awesome guiding skills, and started on our two or so hour drive back to Samara.  Luke and Anna are currently in the process of moving from their apartment to a temporary living situation at a friend’s house before they finally move into their new apartment on the 5^th. When we got back into Samara, we made a quick stop at the hotel to pick up dinner stuffs and then drove down to pick up Anna and the beebs as well as a bunch of their stuff to begin the moving out process.

A giant iguana we saw during our hike in Barra Honda

            The drive up to their friends house was a little interesting, straight up in places with a number of sharp, 180 turns.  I was pretty proud of the “Gutless Wonder” for making it up that way! Luke has also given it another description that might almost be a little better… a glorified skateboard… But I guess the fantastic gas mileage has to count for something!

            We had a great dinner with Luke and Anna, as always, and we even got to top of the evening by seeing some cool wildlife! While I was walking around outside when dinner was being made, I heard some rustling in the woods and getting my flashlight out, what should I see but an armadillo!! That was cool. I was super excited about that one and spent quite a bit of time watching it snuffle around in the leaves.

The best picture I got of the Armadillo with the pitch blackness and my phones flash

            A while later after we had finished dinner Anna suddenly pointed out the glass door to the front porch and there was a Costa Rican raccoon walking across the porch!  Pretty similar to the ones in the states aside from being a little skinnier, longer, and with shorter hair, but cool none the less!

¡Vamos a Montar un Caballo!

            We got an early start this morning as Mom and I had booked for ourselves a several hour horseback ride that took off in the early morning. We had a quick breakfast of fruit, said our goodbyes to Dad who was going to spend the morning with Luke and Arden, and walked down to the end of the road where the beach begins and waited until the horses showed up shortly thereafter.

            There were about 4 other people that rode in a group with us and we found out later that two of them were from South Carolina and two were from Virginia. Our guide, who spoke “pequito” (very little) Spanish, matched us with a horse using I’m not sure what scale.  Size maybe? Mom got a pinto horse named, you guessed it, Pinto, and I got a smaller grey horse named Andres which is Spanish for Andrew.  Yep Dad, you just got replaced by a horse for the day J.

Mom and I on Andres and Pinto

            Our guide took us down to the far end of the beach, turned us off onto one of the roads that we followed for a short ways, and then cut up and into the forest.  I guess I should say, we led him because there were three of us experienced riders that tended to consistently take the lead.  Whenever we got to a crossroads we would usually just look back and our guide would just motion us in the right direction. There was me and Mom of course, but the third was a man named Oscar who had apparently been riding horses for many, many years.  We got to hear some pretty cool stories from him about breaking horses, camping out on horseback, horses that he had owned over the year… A real, full blown cowboy for ya.

Our guide (actually up in front for a change!) followed by Oscar on Flecka and Mom on Pinto

            The horse that he rode was a rather fiery little grey named Flecka who ALWAYS just wanted to go, go, go! On several occasions the three of us let the horses go and galloped them up a hill or across a short stretch for a ways.  I’m not sure what exactly our guide thought of all of this since we couldn't really understand anything he said, but he seemed to be ok with it and figured out pretty quickly that we knew what we were doing.

            The tour was about three hours or so and we got to see some really cool scenery.  We stopped off at several lookout points along the way. One in particular that looked out over Samara beach was amazing! The tide today was extremely low and a good amount of the rock reef was jutting out of the water.  A bit more than normal I am told. We rode all the way to Buena Visa Beach the next beach over and then headed back towards Samara.

The view of the far end of Samara Beach

            My hind end is probably going to be so sore tomorrow after that ride as the saddles were far from comfortable, but I had a really fantastic little horse so it was well worth it.  He reminded me a lot of Toby (my horse) actually.  He was fairly calm and level headed, and yet had a lot of get up and go when I asked him for it.  A little jiggy and excitable here and there but all around a horse that I would definitely request again if we decide to go on another ride.

Andres after and awesome ride

            When we got back to the hotel I gave Dad and Luke a call to let them know we were back and then Mom and I just hung out for about an hour or so.  Mom did some reading and got to get some stuff done, and I finally got to check out one of those hammocks! A bike vendor showed up some time in the afternoon selling little meat and cheese turnovers and Mom and I bought several for me and the boys for when they got back

            Dad and Luke showed up a while later laden with one fish from their endeavor into the ocean and pocketfuls of rocks and shells. That’s what you get when you put a Geologist and a Biologist together! Luke, Mom, and I took a short trek around town to get some food shopping done so we could get started on making an early dinner. I got to see some more monkeys when we made a stopover at Luke’s house! Several of them had babies with them! That was cool.

Monkeys with babies!

The plan for the evening was to eat dinner at 6:00 and leave the hotel by 6:30 and drive to Playa Camaronal where apparently the turtles are supposed to come ashore after sunset. We made good time with dinner and headed out right on time before we realized half way there that we didn’t have as much gas in the car as we would have wanted. Gas stations in Costa Rica are nothing like the states in that they are quite rare.

Despite the fact we still haven’t put any gas in the car since we left San Jose and have since done a bit of driving around (in other words, great gas mileage!), Mom was still a little nervous about being stuck out in the middle of nowhere with the baby in toe.  When the low gas light came on that was the end of it and we decided to turn the car around.  Honestly though, that was totally ok and totally worth it in my eyes because I got to see a lesser anteater! Also called the collared anteater. I didn’t get to see it for very long since it was just in passing as we drove by, but still cool none the less!

We’ll do turtles another night when we actually have a safe amount of gas in the car.  Certainly not worth it, especially when we have Arden to think about!

Communication is Key

            We decided to change things up a bit this morning and instead of having Luke bike up to meet us, we drove down to his house to meet him. Arden was just waking up when we got there so it was perfect timing!

            We took off from there almost right away and made our way to that out of the way road we had found the day before which took us to the far end of Samara beach. We sat on the beach for a little while and had a breakfast consisting of lots of local fruit and some hard boiled eggs. After that we left dad with Arden this time and Luke, Mom, and I headed off down the point with our snorkel gear to find a good launching spot. 

            I had decided to borrow dad’s snorkel mask this time because mine had really hurt the bone on the underside of my nose while snorkeling yesterday and dad’s mask was made of rubber while mine was made of plastic. Turns out the thing had hardly any seal on my face and after several nose-fulls of water within a 2 minute time span, I decide it wasn’t a good idea to try and spend the next several hours swimming in it. I swam the short distance back to shore, shouted back “I’m going to go get mine” and headed quickly off back over the rocks and down the beach. 

I waved a quick hello to dad and Arden, explained the situation, and headed back off to the point with my own snorkel in toe.  By the time I got my flippers and mask on and had launched myself back into the water, I found that Mom and Luke were no longer in sight. Thinking I would just swim out a little ways and find them just over that next wave, I soon found out that my phobia of murky water was a little worse than I had thought. I must have spent the first 10 minutes hyperventilating and trying to get myself calmed down, and suddenly finding myself directly on top of a sting ray at one point definitely didn’t help.

It finally became evident to me that I probably wasn’t going to find them from the water, the waves rising up in either direction to block my view, so I aimed myself in the direction of Isla Chora and prayed that my legs and mind would hold out since it was shorter by this time to swim to the island instead of back to the mainland.

A good 10 minutes later of swimming against the currant I was stumbling out of the water and onto the rocky beach of Isla Chora, tripping over my flippers the whole way, and who should I find coming out of the water a little ways down the beach but Mom and Luke. Despite having left the launch off point a good 5 minutes after them, I had still beaten them to the beach. I must say, I was not the happiest at being left but apparently they hadn’t understood that I was coming back.  They just thought I had called it quits and gone back to hang out with Dad for the day. Oh communication! 

I cannot tell you how glad I was to finally reach that island!

            Mom and I sat on the beach for a little while to give my legs a little rest and Luke headed back out to the water to see if he could spear something.  Mom and I followed suit shortly thereafter and went out to swim the reef. 

            Apparently not much of the reef surrounding the area is alive anymore as much of it died after the huge earthquake in 2006. It was still cool to see what we did but I wonder what it looked like when it was alive!  The water was a little murkier than I would have liked as well, but by this time the tide was coming in and bringing a bunch of the murk with it.

            On the way back to the place we came in, a fair sized turtle rose up off the reef below me and swam off towards deeper ocean.  I followed it for a ways and it was cool to swim along with it for a while before I turned around and headed back to Mom and Luke. 

            After that, Luke and Dad took the fishing tackle and went to do some fishing off the beach and Mom and I hung out in the shade with the beebs. Nothing was caught this time either but can I just say, there are A LOT of pelicans around! They like to hang out in fair sized flocks on the water and it’s really fun to watch them fly up then drop and dive into the water.

She absolutely LOVED emptying that bag of fishing tackle, watching us put it back, and doing it all over again!

             We left the beach well into the afternoon and Luke and I did some hanging out around town while Mom and Dad drove off to Carillo to inquire about some horseback riding tours. We went and got some ice cream from a local bakery, took a stop in the “ICE” store to get a sim card for my phone (only $2 and now I can actually make calls within the country!), and then a bit of strolling around town to look at a bunch of the souvenir shops. I finally found a new pair of sunglasses that I liked since my old ones are just that; old. All scratched up and well loved indeed.

            When Mom and Dad got back, the sun was starting to sink and we headed back to the hotel to make ourselves some dinner.  Anna joined us shortly thereafter from school and we had a nice evening catching up and talking over another awesome, Luke prepared meal.

Finally Feeling the Heat...

Kicking off the morning with a pretty nice bang; this morning while I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom I heard some rustling and odd noises coming from the woods behind me so I looked around and saw none other than a family of Howler Monkeys!! I must say, that was pretty cool.  A short while later we went down to the open courtyard/dining area and what should we see in the trees above us but more monkeys! Apparently there is this one monkey in particular that really likes women and sometimes will come down and jump on your shoulder. I now have another goal for while I am here...

Apparently this one will sometimes jump on the shoulder of some unsuspecting woman.

            Luke biked over and met us around 9:00, a little later than we had originally intended but hey, the baby was actually sleeping so who were we to argue??

            The first place we went we drove out of Samara, not a huge feat to be honest, just out, a quick left turn, and then down ¼ of a mile and there is the end.  Like I said, small town! We went to the fair sized beach of Carillo (the name of both the town and the beach) a little ways out of Samara and can I tell you it was just gorgeous! Not many people around, shockingly blue-green water, and sand littered with these little spiral shaped shells. And I mean they were everywhere! Luke said he really hadn’t seen many on the beach in Samara and that the next beach over is always littered with sand dollars while we didn’t see any on this one. Apparently each little beach tends to have one specific shell it has in abundant quantities in comparison to the others.

           

            We took our time exploring and Luke, Dad and I left mom with Arden on the beach and took off with our snorkels, flippers, and one of the Hawaiian Slings.  We didn't really see much to spear but it was still super cool to swim around the reef and see some of the smaller tropical fish. Luke and I even got to see a couple turtles!

Happy baby on the beach

            The one I saw was a bit bigger than dinner plate sized but apparently Luke saw one that was gigantic! Almost the width of my outstretched arms he said! He had tried to point it out when he saw it but with the murky water and its agile speed in the opposite direction it had soon disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, rearing off the ocean floor.

            After Carillo, we drove back into Samara and found an out of the way access road that took us to the far end of Samara beach.  We then hiked around the point quite a ways to a spot where Luke has done an awful lot of fish the past couple weeks.  We did end up catching one fish, a rock fish, but Arden was getting really unhappy so we decided to call it quits a little early and head back into town.

Gettin' ready to do some fishin'!

            I started getting a pretty bad headache and it wasn’t until I got back to the car that I realized just how much sun I had gotten that day.  Despite having applied sunscreen multiple times, the sun exposure had still managed to turn my back and shoulders a lovely bright red color that gave off a little more heat than I would have liked.  Definitely not the first time I’ve gotten a sun burn and I dare say not the last.  By far not the worst either.  That one would have hands down been in Bryce Canyon, Utah where Dad and I hiked for 6 or so hours in 95 degree weather and I forgot sunscreen…. But that’s another story altogether!

            We ended the evening off with some awesome time hanging out with Anna once she got out of class and another fantastic meal cooked my culinarily savvy brother J

Directionality and Howler Monkeys

We got to spend some awesome quality time with the Wilmarths over breakfast this morning getting to talk to them more about their mission and what initially brought them over to Costa Rica in the first place.  It was really cool to hear about their “Goats for God” project which started out as a sort of loan project.  They would give a goat to a local and they would breed it and give the kid to someone else and so on.  They do more of a breed and supply program now.  It was fun to hear about how things had just fallen into place for them and while they had never planned on staying in Costa Rica to begin with, doors were thrust open for them and they have now been living here for almost 30 years.  

Felix enjoying the view of San Jose

As we were sitting there on the deck, we were continually getting buzzed by these little black stingless bees that were going after the fruit juice on the table.  Turns out that if you can find the quickness to catch one of those little buggers, you can shake it around in your closed hands and then let it go and your hand will smell like flowers.  Interesting little bit of Biology there.

            We left the Wilmarth’s well into late morning and made our way back into town the way we had come.  At least we hoped.  One the way in last night I remember we all sat their wide eyed at the end wondering how on God’s green earth we were ever going to backtrack that same path again.  Luckily God knew what was up and at a particularly crucial intersection, one we were afraid we would miss and at one point thought we had, there was a bit of an “accident of interesting circumstances” that forced us (and everyone else) to take the turn that we were supposed to take.  Turns out a particular semi driver had not known the exact height of his substantially tall load and had tried driving under a bunch of fairly low hanging electric wires.  The force of the impact had shattered and crushed the windshield of the semi and cracked and pulled down a massive telephone pole across the road boasting 15 or more other bunches of wires. So we wouldn't have been able to turn wrong even if we had tried with chunks of inactive wire and a telephone pole strewn across the street.  Luckily I don’t think anyone was hurt.

            The next several hours were a good test in directionality and navigation for all of us and after 7 hrs (which should have been about 4) and umpteen wrong turns, backtracks, and u-turns later we finally made it to Samara!

            The hotel we are staying at is simply gorgeous and is a remarkably good deal for the price we paid.  While we were unloading the car and setting up our room, Dad and I kept hear this deep guttural calling noise coming from the woods beside the hotel and initially I wasn't quite sure what it was. A bird maybe? Turns out they are actually Howler monkeys and though I haven’t actually seen one yet, I really really hope that we get a glimpse of one before we go!

Just look at that setting!

            Luke and Anna biked up the road and met us with Arden a little while later and then we walked down the hill to get a look around town.  I haven’t been here long but I already love it here! The town is quite small from what I have seen, I mean really small, and it all seems quite homey and inviting.  It seems like one of those places that is so small that everyone knows everyone and it’s like a town sized family. We were talking to one of the ladies at the hotel and she took one look at Luke and immediately was like “Oh! I've seen you around town! You have a little baby you carry in a pack on your back and you like to go fishing!” Yep, sounds about right!

            Shortly after that we went to a little Mexican restaurant for dinner and Luke ordered a few drinks for us so I could give them a try since technically I am legal drinking age here and will be in the states in about a week and a half.  I think he is determined to find SOMETHING that I like before I leave since my “uncultured” palate doesn't like hardly anything pertaining to alcohol. I think I liked the Mojito the best even though that is A LOT of lime!

            Anna had to head home shortly after dinner to continue her studies (she is here to go to school after all) and the rest of us spent about an hour mulling around town, taking a short trip to the local grocery store, getting a tour of where all the street venders would be during the day, and even a short trek to the beach at the end of the road.

            Luke and I got to talking about the activities tomorrow would bring and I can say that I can’t wait to finally try out my new spear gun!