¡Ningun más monos saltando en la cama!

Saturday, July 21^st

It is five thirty in the freaking morning. What the hell is on my roof? It can’t be construction. It can’t be someone’s suitcase... we’re on the top floor. But the banging won’t quit. What the...?

I rush outside to confront this destroyer of my sleep, but I don’t really think he’s going to understand me. Or any of them for that matter. You see, there are dozens of monkeys hopping across my roof into the trees. I run and get my camera, but you know... the flash. But still! Monkeys on the roof! I serenade Hannah with a rousing round of “No more monkeys jumping on the bed,” but I don’t think she’s so amused. So we go back to bed. :)

Well, despite the early wake up call, we are able to fall back asleep and get a few more hours of shut eye. This is my favorite part of these weekends – sleeping in. Most of our tours have been in the morning, but as there are no tours... sleep! Yay!

After another terrific breakfast, we walk down to the beach. Beth and I have to catch the noon bus back to San Jose, so we pass on the swimming today. Instead I leave my stuff with Beth and walk down to the park. The light is participating with my handicapped camera today, and I get some beautiful photos (including one where I write a grammatically incorrect love note to my friends and have to go and redo it – funny stuff).

Beth and Hannah join me for a bit as we explore the rocks and some particularly quick crabs. Then it’s back up the beach to capture some goodbye shots with my lovely friends. It saddens me to have to leave Hannah and Alicia and Jackie – they have made this trip great fun. But the time must come for every girl to strike out on her own, and I suppose for Beth and I, now is that time.

Well, it would be... if we could find the bus. We wait frantically as the minutes creep closer and closer to noon, until finally we are picked up by an appropriate looking bus. But apparently our bus passed earlier, because the bus we are on sends us on to another bus once it catches up. Don’t worry if that sounds confusing. It is.

I pick up my knitting in the bus, but by now I am getting pretty fed up with this “bufanda.” It’s no bufanda. It’s crap. And I’m tempted to start over. But thanks to a healthy dose of dramamine, this trip isn’t as miserable as it could be.

And then we’re in San Jose. What’s first on the list? Ice cream of course! After the customary trip to Pops, Beth and I catch our respective busses to our houses, planning to meet at the Mas X Menos at 5:15 in the morning.

The rest of the night is a packing nightmare. Did I come with this much stuff? I’m nervous because the bag I’m taking to Jackie surely isn’t under 50 lbs, but I can’t leave anything out of it. So... yeah.

Mis padres come in and offer their going away gifts. I get a magnet (por mi colección) and a pin with a monkey on it. Over a dinner of fried chicken (it’s my papá tica’s birthday so my mamá tica didn’t cook), mi familia asks me about the beach. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Did I see any monkeys? No. I saw nothing. Other than the monkeys on my roof, there was no wildlife. I know that’s odd. Usually the monkeys and iguanas come right out on the beach. But not for us. Apparently that is why mis padres gave me the monkey pin. But I love it anyways.

After typing up some notes of the day and organizing pictures, I pull out my “bufanda” and settle in to more knitting and pearling. Buenas noches San Jose.