February 21st, 1997 Friday

This was the last night I will be spending at Punta Leona, and I felt a bit moody about leaving this place. I hope I will be able to come back again next year or later in the future. The frequency of travel in the past year was also taking a toll on me. I was dreading the flight on Sunday. It has been a beautiful day, and I sat at the balcony again that night listening to the lapping waves below in the moonlight. I got up today at 7:30AM and left the house by 9:00AM on a hike down to the beach. I didn't feel like spraying myself with insect repellents to fend off mosquitoes again so I put off my hike down to the Punta Leona forest.

I got down to the beach by 9:30, but there was an ominous cloud hanging toward the Center Valley, moving to the coast. The cloud already covered up the sun so I spent the next hour on the tidal pools, looked at trapped critters in their microenvironment. The cloud kept coming, but they also kept dissipating by the time they pass overhead, so eventually, the strong sun burnt off the clouds and I donned my snorkel, mask, and the life jacket under my belly and went snorkeling. I spent about 2 hours out there, coming back in-between the hours. I saw the Moray Eel again, but it's probably a different one since they all look alike to me. I swam out further this time, all the way out to the end of the jetty, probably more than 100 yards. The possibility of encountering a shark or something evil was on my mind the whole time. I wish there were other snorkelers out there with me but nobody else was snorkeling this morning.

I forgot to mention that I saw a huge fish halfway in the jetty, swimming around toward the surface. It was at a different jetty than the one I went out along on, but I kept that fish in mind when I went out. It was either a barracuda or a tuna but since I saw it from the balcony, it was difficult to see exactly what kinda fish I saw. The fish was about 5 to 6 feet long though, compared to some of the people lying on the beach. While snorkeling, I saw at least 5 giant triggers about 3 to 4 feet long. There were at least 3 species, one with a yellowish scale on the bottom. The biggest surprise I got was when I stumbled upon a stingray resting on a sandy bottom. The fish started swimming away so I only saw it for about 30 seconds. I ate lunch at a little restaurant next to the beach and watched a Coti Mundi surprise a family by climbing on the table looking for food - like my cat does at home. I was surprised on how daring it was because the family was still sitting at the table. One guy started feeding him some stuff and his kids joined in for a while. The Coti Mundi ate for like 30 minutes before retiring to a shady area under a palm tree and nodded off.

I got on a shuttle bus afterward and went back to the hotel area. The shuttle bus take people back and forth from the main hotel area to the beach. The woman who rode with me from California said she's been waiting for at least an hour for the bus. We picked up 4 very large Canadian tourists on the way there. I went to the hotel's freshwater pool and swam there a little bit and ordered my new favorite drink - Papaya con Leche. I swam and sunned for about an hour before heading back to the condo - an uphill hike again. On the way, I saw a flock of about 7 yellow-billed Toucans flying over the treetop and squawking, which was very beautiful, but I didn't have my camera. I hung out at the pool within the condo complex for the rest of the afternoon in a shallow water area. The pool was a good-sized pool, except it was deep enough to retain the cold water from the night so the top 1 to 2 feet of the water was warm while the rest of the water was cold. The pump wasn't running so the still water retained the cold even better. The only person I saw up here in the past 2 days was the groundskeeper, and he slept most of the time while I was at the pool. By the time I returned, he was up and watering some plants. I think I finally got sunburned in other areas besides my upper shoulders. My whole body felt a little burn when I scratch it. I guess I'll be able to tell in a week or so to see if I start peeling or not, but I looked like I'm wearing a pair of white shorts when I'm naked. I watched the sunset and fell sleep again. It's probably because I haven't swam this much and tanned to this skin tone since high school.