Costa Rica Day 2

Breakfast buffet includes:

• cereals
• local fruits, including mango, pineapple, watermelon, papaya
• juices, including "banana milkshake" which is what we'd call a smoothie
• oatmeal--not sure why you'd want oatmeal in a place where it's 90°, but they had it
• several varieties of breads, croissants, etc
• eggs
• casado, which is black beans and rice
• queso fritos, three inch discs of fried cheese
• tortillas
• "sausages" which were actually hot dogs
• pancakes

The dining area is all open air. A magpie jay flies from perch to perch, looking for an unguarded table; I'm pretty sure he filches one of my "sausages" while my back is turned. 

Back to the room, where we happen to run into our housekeeper. As might be expected, she is a Christian, and she and Diana have a prayerfest. After that, it's a busy schedule: walk on the beach, swim in the ocean, come back and take a nap. On the way to the gift shop we meet Jorge, who took care of all our reservation questions, and we give him the Virginia Beach shirt we brought for him. Jorge is one of those people who smiles all the time.

Lunch for me is cucumber gazpacho with yogurt and shrimp.

We take a kayak out to El Capitan, the islet at the mouth of the bay. Much of the landward side is covered with white shells; the seaward side is all rough volcanic rock. There are hundreds of hermit crabs; we see clumps of a dozen or more, mobbing one mango. We also see a pelagic sea snake, washed up onto the rocks. It's probably dead, but we don't poke it, just in case. After that we go snorkeling. There aren't a lot of fish, and those we see are mostly of the "large minnow" type, brown and red; however, we do see one with yellow and black stripes, possibly a damselfish. 

We paddle the kayak back before 6pm, as that's about the time it gets dark. At the front of the hotel, we see the monkey bridge across the road; we see a troop of about a dozen, including adults carrying babies, come across, jump from one tree to the next, then onto the hotel's tiled roof and out of sight. Walking to dinner, we spot an iguana in one of the trees next to the pool, and a woodpecker, and there are geckos on the pillars of the dining area.

Dinner is ostensibly spaghetti bolognese although it doesn't have any detectable tomato sauce; I suspect they put beef stroganoff over spaghetti noodles.  Dessert is copa Danemark, which is ice cream and brown sugar, topped by whipped cream.

After dinner, Diana goes to sleep; I go to the front desk and see four raccoons in the lobby. They have a couple of dog dishes set aside from them.