hey little bat!

Both of us woke at 6:30. Nick saw the two baby monkeys that have a shelter near our room. (I, unfortunately was occupado in the bathroom.) Apparently some guests found the two baby monkeys wandering the hotel grounds a few months ago. The babies didn't have a family, so the hotel built a shelter that they could return to whenever they want. (There are also 2 resident cats and like 20 raccoons.) We had breakfast, went back to the room, then went to the beach. It was high tide. We sat on lounge chairs and read our books then went in the water. Nick mentioned that he wanted to learn to surf. We played table tennis very badly then went back to the room to shower and check out. Because we still had some time before our flight, we left our luggage with the front desk. It started raining... We checked our email again then walked to town in our rainjackets to buy the swim trunks and gifts. The walk back was nasty and muddy. Nick slipped and fell and got all muddy. Again, Rafters (hi...

We slept quite late - 7:30 for me! Loads of birds singing around sunrise! We noticed some possible monkey activity in the trees outside of our room but didn't actually see any. Lots of birds and squirrels around the restaurant at breakfast. Again, yummy. A Variegated Squirrel ... White-Throated Magpie-Jay ... After breakfast we checked our email in the large, open area by the office, then came back to our room and took showers. It was overcast but no rain yet. We decided to walk to town then go to the beach. The walk to town was 10 minutes down a dusty road. Once there, it was very touristy and not cheap. We found some nice jewelry, some neat things for gifts, flip flops, and swim trunks that we said we'd come back for. However, when we went back to the store for the swim trunks, they were closed. So we walked back to the hotel and had our leftovers. We spent a bit of time at the beach in the water, then read, then showered. And then, it started POURING! That was...

The 25 minute twin engine plane ride to San José was pretty smooth, as was takeoff and landing. I expected a lot worse. This was my first plane ride in such a small plane. (There's no direct flight from Quepos to Tamarindo, our next destination, so we had to go to San José first.) Costa Rica has two domestic airlines, Nature Air (twin engine fleet) and Sansa Regional (single engine fleet). Our flights were all with Nature Air, for no particular reason though - both are supposed to be good; both are carbon neutral airlines. Turns out for Nature Air flights, you can have one piece of luggage that weighs 30 lbs and another small carry-on that can weigh 10 lbs. We had been told it was 25 lbs total for each person. However, this was only for Sansa flights. [You might want to double-check that this hasn't changed.] Gorgeous views! * * * We're now waiting for the flight to Tamarindo . This one is 50 minutes long. Tamarindo was our second beach destination, still alon...