Travel date: July 3, 2024

Adventure Day! I was talked into kayaking through the mangroves today with a naturalist guide. Sometimes, I cannot believe the shit I agree to while on vacation.

Rest of our group had a fun beach day.

But before kayaking: We learned all about how to harvest “palm dates”, which are used to make palm oil, an important export for Costa Rica. This is an incredibly dangerous job. If one of those date palm clusters land on you, it’s curtains. I would not last 2 minutes on this job. Nothing but respect for the people who do this.

This is the holicanas plant. It’s one of the most beautiful plants I have ever seen. The red leaves are hollow, and frogs hang out in them at night to bathe and drink water. Maybe not in that order.

The beautiful fuchsia colored flower is called torch ginger. Get this: it’s edible. Tastes like? Yep, ginger.

Kayaking through the mangroves was actually very peaceful. I did not worry more than 6 or 7 dozen times that a giant mangrove boa constrictor would fall into my kayak. I would like it to be known that I got into and out of the kayak without ending up in the river.

We hit the monkey jackpot! Entire families of white face capuchin monkeys literally followed us through the mangroves. Check the pic of the baby monkey on mama’s back. One of them almost peed directly on Anna from a branch above her kayak, but Ken was able to push her kayak out of the blast zone.

Saw a family of turtles (in my mind, they were a family) and a little lizard that looked like they were singing. Adorable.

Saw 0 crocodiles and 0 snakes. I realize they were there. But I was super OK with not having an up close and personal experience. Was not especially thrilled with Ken’s aggressive paddling on our way back. Too much kayak rocking. And nothing good can possibly be happening under that murky brown water.

Sidebar: Costa Rica Doritos are NOT the same as American Doritos. These guys are and laced with cilantro. Must it be *everywhere*??

Cece and Anna caught and adopted two baby geckos: Meet Pickle Josh and Carrot Bob.

Cigar night on the patio. I actually love the smell of cigars. But I do not love mosquitoes, so stayed inside.

Critter count: 8 macaws , 12 geckos , 5 iguanas , 4 turtles , 11 crabs , 63 monkeys . So many birds. Mosquito madness continues.

Salud!