Early Awakening

This morning, at about five o'clock, I was woken up by this really strange noise. It was an incredibly loud grumble coming from right outside the house. As it turns out, that loud noise was a male howler monkey, declaring and protecting his territory. At first I was a little bit scared about what the noise was, but later it was pretty funny. I went back to sleep after that, and woke up to go have an amazing breakfast with fresh fruit, juice, and smoothies. We had dinner on the moonlit beach that night, and when it became dark, my brothers and I and a couple of friends watched as new hatchling sea turtles crawled to the ocean. The turtles were tiny, only about three inches long, but they moved faster than I expected them to. But because it was so light where we were eating, they were crawling the wrong way! Turtles find the ocean by the light of the moon, and they thought the fired torches on the beach were the moon! A couple of people had flashlights, and they were able to guide the turtles back into the ocean. It was an incredible experience. We saw so much wildlife today, and I'm sure there is so much more to see. One of my favorite parts of Costa Rica so far are the people. They are so kind and generous, and are willing to help whenever. I was surprised by the amount of people that speak English. They all understand what I'm saying very well. It is so much easier to communicate when two people speak the same language. I have even picked up a couple worlds in Spanish myself, although a man told me that Costa Ricans speak a different version of Spanish than people from Spain and Mexico. It is a lot more of a relaxed language in Costa Rica, just like the people. At noon, you will drive by a village and all the people will be out sitting on their porches drinking cold drinks and relaxing in the heat.    Buenas Noches Everyone!

There are howler monkeys right on the beach of the hotel.