Humpbacks, Snorkeling and Curious Capuchins

Our day today was too amazing even for words. While taking a lovely boat ride on the way to snorkeling at Punta Adella we were blessed with a whale spotting. Two humpback whales, a mother and her calf were swimming approximately 30 feet from our boat. We left the Morgan Lodge around 7:15 am. The water was like glass, spanning as far as the eye could see. A local, working at the Lodge, who has lived here his entire life has yet to spot these amazing mammals. It was truly a gift. Then we saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins playing in the water in front of us.
After a brief stop at Gulfito we headed out to Tortuga Reef, stopping to check out some sea caves on the beach, cool off in the water and be amazed by the acrobatic jumps of our classmates. We stopped for snorkeling along the coastline. As I jumped into the clear water, my first sight was of a sting ray residing on the bottom of the sea. We saw parrotfish, chancho surgeonfish, panamic sergeant major, a spiny lobster, scallop shell oysters, and many others. There was even the occasional jellyfish encounter. After swimming with the fishes we headed back to Morgan’s for a swim back to shore. There was a moment of excitement as we swam in, when the equipment canoe was washed back out in the tide. Andrew got a hand on it and we safely got it out of the tides reach. We spent the rest of the day at Morgan’s.
A relaxing evening on the beach was interrupted by visitors…Capuchins. They came to check out our monkey feeder experiment. Sadly, none of the monkeys managed to learn the association between pulling the pencils and getting the banana inside. They did try some new methods of getting the banana out, pulling off the top where we reset the feeder and trying to drop the feeder.
One group of students decided to enjoy some genuine Tico music and dancing and headed into town for a quick visit. Everyone had a good time and slept soundly. We hope its enough to get us through our 6 mile beach hike. At this stage of our trip everyone is very healthy with only a fes minor bug bites and sore spots.
We truly appreciate everyone especially the parents, professors, and great support of the Morgan brothers, Gary, Greg, Randy , Tracy and the lodge staff Jackie and Manuel. We are truly blessed to be on this incredible journey. of discovery