Beachy Morning and Catamaran Sunset
Since our catamaran trip wasn't leaving until early afternoon, we decided to head to the beach after breakfast at the hotel. Right as we were leaving our room, a group of about 7 white-faced monkeys made their way past us into the trees nearby. One of them was fascinated by an unscrewed lightbulb, and it almost got left behind. One brave monkey went back for the straggler so that they wouldn't be left to travel alone. We were lucky enough to catch a quick picture of one of them with my dad before they scrambled away. We were lucky again and caught the last shuttle of the morning to the beach.
The beach this morning was hot and busy. We were offered several times to purchase a space under an umbrella or canopy, and each time we kindly said no, as we wouldn't be there for long enough to want to sit on the beach rather than swim. Man, did the water feel good. I usually struggle with swimming in water where I can't see my feet, but once I got far enough into the water, the sand was very smooth. A nice gentleman (that spoke English) warned us of a nearby riptide, which I really appreciated. We also watched several parasailers go up, pulled by a small boat, and retrieved by a jet ski. Before too long it was time to catch the bus back to the hotel and get ready for our catamaran tour.
The driver of the shuttle had a couple of stops to make before we got to the marina, and we met a family of 5 that would be on the tour with us. They had a little girl that was cute as a button, and somehow smuggled her blanket into one of her parents' bags. Before long, we had our wristbands at the marina and were headed onto the boat. Shoes and sandals were not allowed (this was my kind of boat!), and we stowed our bags in one of the many little cupboards on the boat. The safety procedures were gone through (in English and Spanish) and we headed out to sea.
Before we had been out for 25 minutes, we came to the spot to look for dolphins, and we saw 4! They told us that sometimes they don't see any, but we were lucky enough to see some. We continued on to view the National Park from the Pacific side, and then into an area where we paused for an hour so that those that wanted to could do some snorkeling. We chose not to do that, but when they opened up the gate on the top level of the boat so that we could jump into the water, Mom and I did it twice! We convinced Dad to do it as well, but we couldn't get him to go on the water slide with us. From the top deck, we got to watch the sunset, which was absolutely stunning from the ocean. The catamaran headed back into the harbor, and from there we headed to the hotel, and also for a short swim in the pool before we turned in for the night.