Saturday, July 6, 2002

Got up early enough, uneventfully today as Mark also got up. On our way to our buffet breakfast we followed the call of the howler monkeys and found them on the roof of the lobby and watched them as they made their way through the trees and back into the forest.  Three types of monkeys down, one to go! After breakfast we went to get braids put in Genevieve’s hair.  I was amazed, she satrelatively still and the woman was so good she never made an error. Once Genevieve had acquired the appropriate “I went on a tropical vacation” look, we were off to the Curu wildlife refuge.  Mark was getting pretty sick of hikes and was feeling pretty lazy, and truth be told so was I, but I doubted my ability to keep Genevieve happy if we stayed at the hotel all day so I insisted that we go.  I was also hoping to see more wildlife because I knew this was our last chance.

Boy were we glad we went!  The road there was smooth sailing (it’s all paved courtesy of Barceló Playa Tambor), and the path very smooth and flat (stroller, not backpack, oh what a difference that makes in how much I enjoy a hike).  We saw so much there!  Hermit crabs again, this time really large golf-ball sized ones that were almost scary looking they were so big. And a mangrove forest at low tide, and a lagoon with another kind of crab, and phantom crabs running in and out of the water like shore birds, and birds, and lizards, in particular the green spiny lizard, and forest crabs and some other kind of land crab that hung out in huge numbers near coconut trees.  The walk was very pleasant, it wasn’t too hot, and when we reached the end of the road there was a short hilly walk to a nice mirador (lookout).  Along that path the jungle was very lush and you could tell if you just were patient and waited something cool would come along.  On my way back down the hill I startled one of the forest crabs to the point that it lost it’s footing and tumbled down the hill in it’s effort to escape.  Poor crab.

On the drive back this spider (?) monkey stood up and watched our car drive by.  I didn’t think this was normal behavior (it’s not) but I suppose they could have rescued the monkey from the pet trade or something.  Clearly someone had trained it at one point.

We got back to the hotel and went to the pool in time for towels this time…except they had run out of towels!  Mark looked at the woman and said “you mean you don’t have a towel for every guest of the hotel?” The answer of course was no.  Whatever.    An uneventful dinner, and off to bed.

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