Wednesday 9 January

After breakfast it was down to the harbour for a trip on a catamaran. There were quite a few folk on the jetty. We admired the four masted sailing cruise type ship and the construction of the new marina. Luckily our party of nine got a boat to ourselves with just 2 others on board. In no time we were off and headed for a beach in the Manuel Antonio park. The skipper said that it was time for a swim, but not to go ashore to the National Park. Most of us just barely had time to jump in the water when the skipper announced that dolphins had been spotted and that we were off. We did manage to see dolphins but they were rather tricky to photograph, so no photos (sorry). But you could try here

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Not our boat.

But this

After that it was a spot of snorkeling, the fish were spectacular lots of bright yellow ones. But we didn’t have an underwater camera, so no pictures (sorry). We had some salt biscuits which they were very keen on. Elsewhere we had strict instructions not to feed the wildlife (more on that later) but we guess that feeding fish isn’t a problem. Once we had surfaced we set sail (literally sailing albeit quite sedately at around 2-3 knots). Lunch on board was white marlin which we enjoyed while cruising along with a beer or 2.

It all ended too soon and we went back to the hotel to await our next adventure. We sat by the pool for a while and this little fellow kept coming around to see what we doing by his pool. He's a 'Great Kiskadee'.

Around 2pm we were picked up for the surfing lesson. Paul photographed while Dan, Tanya, Sal, Dana and Wendy were taught the rudiments of surfing. Initially on dry land to get the right poise (particularly important in surfing).

Er, this isn't it

Nor this

All too soon it was on to the water. All made valiant efforts and all made a stand. It was exhausting just watching from the beach.

This almost it..

When we got back to the hotel and making our way back to our rooms Wendy heard Dana shouting. Wondering what could be the issue we dashed around to find that we were being invaded by… monkeys. There were around 20 or so of them. It was almost sunset and they were extremely difficult to photograph, they didn’t stay still for very long and when they moved they moved fast.