We woke up this morning and had time to eat breakfast. Don had the Bacon Egg Burger that I had a few days ago and I just had a bagel. Then we had to walk to meet our guide at 745. We met him about 10 minutes away at a dock on the lagoon side. His name was Evaristo.

It took about an hour to reach Monkey River Town. On the way Evar pointed out many different types of birds. He was an expert at spotting them out. He was also an expert boater. We raced through the mangroves at high speeds. Sometimes we had to turn off the engine of the boat to hear if another boat was coming towards us through the mangroves. It was a little scary for me at first but he maneuvered the boat so freely.

Once we got to Monkey River Evar told us to go to Alice’s Restaurant and place our order otherwise it would not be ready for later. The village looked very small. The restaurant looked like someone’s house. We told the lady there that we were with Evar and wanted to place our lunch order she said “okay, I have rice beans with chicken and plantain.” And so that is what we ordered haha.

Then we got back into the boat to go down Monkey River slowly to try to see some wildlife. The first monkeys we saw were in a tree by an abandoned house. They were kind of far but you could see them. We saw several types of birds and their weird nests that they make. Then we saw a big iguana up high in a tree. How Evar spotted it, I have no idea. The guy was good. He pointed out a small crocodile just chilling in front of some tall grass. It was probably about 4 feet long.

Then we got off the boat for a walk in the jungle. We layered on the bug spray! Almost immediately we saw a big land crab. It was walking around a tree.

I was being careful where I stepped because who knows what is on the ground in the jungle. Evar warned us watch out for ants because they could be crawling on you and you might not notice until it was too late. I saw a big black spider crawl over Evar’s shoe and I told him. The spider was just sitting in some plants and I was trying to show him but he couldn’t see it. Finally he saw it and told me it was small. It was not small! This is when he learned I was afraid of spiders. He told me I should be afraid of snakes instead.

Then we came upon a family of monkeys high in the trees. They were pretty easy to spot though. Evar said he was going to scare another tour group coming at us so he got out his machete and started banging it against a tree. When he did this the monkeys started howling and screaming. They were called howler monkeys. The howling they did was so loud and so intense. It was awesome. I think we got some good video of this.

We saw a lot of cool plant life also. One of the coolest parts was the bamboo. At one point there was just bamboo towering over us.

Evar was always leading and at one point he started backing up and saying whoa whoa. He had walked into a big spider web with a big spider!! It was freaky. He said that this kind of spider makes a very strong web and he didn’t even break it.

Then we got back on the boat and continued down the river. We didn’t really get any bites in the jungle, which was cool. The rest of the trip we saw mostly birds.

Then we went back for lunch. I was so hungry and the food was really good.

Then we got back on the boat to go back to Maya Beach. But first we were going to look for manatees. Evar knew right where to go. Right when he stopped the boat we saw a manatee pop his head up for a breath. Another tour boat pulled up for a look at the manatees but they didn’t stay long and I think they missed a lot. We stuck around and saw manatees poking their noses up for air. It was very cool.

When we got back to our dock we saw a giant iguana. We saw everything on the tour that was listed except for dolphins.

On our walk home we made a detour to go to the grocery store. I got a Dr Pepper and we got some sunblock. We walked the beach home. Don was hoping the fins we had lost had washed up. When we got back we showered and then decided to take the bikes to Bonefish Grille. It was about 1.5 miles away. The bikes were good. Riding on mine made me want to get a new bike.

The Bonefish Grille is in the Singing Sands Resort. Right when we got there I got bit by a mosquito. We got bit here more than we did in the jungle! The restaurant was very dark and made you feel like you were in the jungle. It was really cool looking.

The waiter was really nice and we had some really good drinks. The restaurant was like an Asian Thai fusion. I had a spicy pork sandwich and Don had a Korean beef bbq sandwich. The food was really good and it was a really cool atmosphere. The only problem was there were a lot of mosquitoes and bugs that were biting us. The pool looked awesome and the resort itself looked really nice too. I picked up a brochure for the place and found out they have glass bottom kayaks!! That would be so cool. Then we came back and went to bed.