Day 28 - Joy to the World

The sun decided to come back out and play. This was to be a good day. Sun shining, no rain. Low tide was at 10:03. We attempted to make our way to the island for some snorkeling around 8am. That was the plan, but it was not executed as such. We did leave the house around 9am though and had a wonderful stroll along the beach. We made it to Cemetery Island a little bit before low tide. Anna had not walked around the whole island yet, so the kids and I went on to snorkeling while Anna head off exploring.

Crab of some kind ready to come out of its hole. When you enlarge the image you can truly appreciate its looks.

The must have footwear for Costa Rica are keens or similar. Since the weather can change on a dime, getting your feet wet is going to happen. Having good footwear can either ruin a moment or cause problems. Having said that, earlier as we were walking to the beach I noticed both of the ladies were wearing flip flops. I commented to both of them that they should have put on their keens. “You do not want to go snorkeling with your flip flops or barefoot out on the reef”, I said. I think only some of the palm trees heard me. The rocks are slippery and there are all kinds of things in the water that can stick you.

Tiny weird looking shrimp. Will have to try and find out what kind it is.

Thirty minutes into snorkeling Olivia fell in the water after she slipped on one of the rocks, breaking a flip flop. She scrapped her knee a bit, but was fine. After the incident Olivia and Anna decided to start walking back, so we agreed to meet back at the bakery for lunch.

Sea Slug. It was approximately 8 inches long. Pretty fascinating creature.

Thomas has the eyes of a hawk. He noticed everything and is able to spot things no longer visible by my eyes. We managed to see quite a few cool creatures. Some we were not able to get a picture of, but some we were. One was a tiny little shrimp with really long legs and two small funky looking pinchers. Almost looked like a spider. We also managed to see quite a few tropical fish, several sea slugs, and several other crustaceans. We let about 40 minutes pass since the girls had left and decided to join them at the bakery.

Each one of the shells is a hermit crab. The patch of shells was in constant motion.

Packed our stuff and walked over to the bakery only to find it was closed. The girls were not there either. More than likely they went home, so of we went. The gates were still locked at our place when we arrived, so we thought that they may have gone over to Sam and Jen’s place. We unlocked the gates dropped off all the snorkeling gear, grabbed some new shoes for Olivia and off we went. When we arrived at Jen and Sam’s place, there was no hide or hair of them. Puzzled, Thomas and I thought maybe they were waiting at one of the other restaurants closer near the bakery. Thomas did not want to walk there again, but for the sake of chivalry he agreed. We hit two of the other sodas and the Super David. No sign of them anywhere. Only one place left we thought. Let’s head back to the house and call Hotel Caleja. Corolla answered the phone and after I introduced myself, she sweetly said, “They are here.”

Waiting for scraps from one of the fisherman near Cemetery Island.

Twenty minutes later we were sitting at Hotel Caleja and having a cerveza. I was glad to find they were okay. We spent the rest of the late afternoon and evening there. We ended up leaving around 8:30pm. On the way, guess what happened? Anna's flip flops broke. 

On the way to Cemetery Island. This was tied up at least 400 yards off the beach and it was a tiny dingy.