We arrived in Montezuma, a beautiful beach town, on June 11th. We decided to stay at a much nicer, more secure hotel, hoping for better luck. That night, we slept much sounder due to the security guard at the front desk. We awoke the next morning blotchy, red and itchy. Apparently some evil mosquitos also resided in our hotel. And these are no normal mosquitos--our bites were enormous and have been itching for 6 days.
Our first full day, we went to the beach in the morning, and hiked to a beautiful waterfall in the afternoon. We had a wonderful relaxing day--all we had hoped for. Montezuma is a two street town right on the ocean. Palm trees face the clear blue waters of the Pacific. There are cool tropical birds and monkeys in the trees. We will post pictures later, once we can develop the disposable cameras we had to buy after our nice, expensive digital cameras were stolen.
The next day, we went to the nearby Cabo Blanco nature reserve. When Rachel and Benjie had been here, they had seen dozens of monkey, so our hopes for monkey sitings were high. During our 6 mile hike, it rained non-stop, and we saw zero monkeys. We did see a deer--we were thoroughly unimpressed. Later that day we returned to Montezuma and enjoyed an afternoon on the beach.
That night it thunderstormed. We sat on our hotel's porch in hammocks watching the lightening and listening to the thunder.
The following day we went to the beach in the morning. It was awesome!!! The sky was clear, the waves were gentle, and we planned on coming back for the afternoon. We were finally feeling relaxed and comfortable. . . We got out of the water and returned to our clothes, to find our backpack gone. We found it in the trees behind the beach with most of our belongings, sans our cash and rachel's mp3 player. Perhaps the traveling gods hate us?? We then had to spend the rest of the afternoon traveling to a nearby bank to ensure we had enough money to get through our trip and leave the country.
The next day we returned to Cabo Blanco to give the monkeys a second try. This time, we saw at least two huge tribes of white-faced monkeys, including mommies carrying tiny babies. We wanted to take them home. We also saw coaties and an iguana. Success!
The next day we took a snorkeling trip to Isla Tortuga. The boat ride was fun, and we saw lots of fish in the morning snorkeling session. We were then boated to the island, where we were to eat lunch and spend the next three hours. Though our "all-inclusive" trip cost $35, it did not include use of the bathroom on the Island. We paid $1 per use, which included Elana getting yelled out by the bathroom monitor for flushing her toilet paper. Old habits die hard. Thank goodness we didn't need to sit in the $7 chairs.
The afternoon snorkeling session lasted approximately 3 minutes, as the water was rough and murky, and it was impossible to see any fish.
For our last day in Montezuma, we relaxed at the beach, where luckily, none of our stuff was stolen! We are off to dinner and a movie, our nightly activity.
Overall, it has certainly been an adventure, although not necessarily the kind we anticipated. This is one trip we will truly remember forever.
Recap of Montezuma
June 18, 2007