Sea Shells and the Man in the Moon

Today was a travel day. I have decided that the best approach is to take the amount of time advertised and double it to come up with the actual travel time for any bus ride. It was not unpleasant, just kind of long. 

Yesterday was a wander, beach, wander, eat day. Montezuma seems designed for precisely that type of activity. 

We finally got to see some sea turtles. 

We were initially planning to go snorkeling but our plans were foiled by poor planning and weird advice, so instead we walked down the beach to find a good sitting spot. 

Some of the beaches were white sand while others were made of shells or colorful stones. We spent a long time gathering pretty sea shells on the sea shore. 

We also saw rocks writhing with crabs. It tapped into a deep part of my brain for recognizing creepiness. 

We found a spot that was populated by a few surfers and took turns letting the waves beat us up a bit. The water was almost, but not quite, too warm to be refreshing. 

On the way back to town a monkey decided to show off for us. The monkeys in Montezuma are very naughty - the hostel kitchen area has regular monkey invasions and they are fond of jumping on the metal roof and making a racket. 

Between the monkeys and the weird raccoon type animals you would think the cats would go crazy. They appeared to take it all in stride. 

We wanted to check out some good seafood and ended up at a place down the beach that usually requires reservations but we lucked into a two party table next to a woman from Texas who was very into the health benefits of Montezuma - apparently it is a "blue zone" with a strangely large number of centarians. She left shortly after we arrived, followed by a couple on a romantic date, so we minded our own business. 

The food was phenomenal.  Some of the best goat cheese ever as an appetizer, plus I had very fresh fish - I could not tell you precisely what kind besides large and tasty. On the way back to the hostel we could see what felt like every star. 

We are now back in San Jose. The weather is cool and the cab driver was singing along to REM on the radio. I have a sun burn on my right arm and one last night in Costa Rica.