Monkeys, jellyfish and a pig

Monkeys
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On our way to Montezuma, we came across a random corner of a road after a bridge that had several cool looking trees that were crawling with howler monkeys and another type of smaller monkey.  They were so loud that we actually heard them from our car and pulled a u-turn before we ended up seeing them.  We stopped and took a bunch of pictures, impressed with our first real encounter with the wildlife.

The pavement quickly abandoned us and we spent a good while trekking along a winding, slightly bumpy dirt road through the mountains and the rain and cloud forest.  The roads actually weren't that bad, I guess, since we passed two oil trucks along the way.

Finally hit town, got a hotel and grabbed some food at ____soda_____ , where the fish casado, veggie soup, and seafood spaghetti were really good (they love Italian in Costa Rica, particularly in Montezuma).  After a couple mojitos, it was time for bed.

The next morning we had breakfast of "beaten of fruits" (a lost-in-translation way of saying fruit smoothies or shakes, which are tasty and really popular everywhere) and headed off to snorkel on Isla Tortuga.

The 40-45 minute boat ride to Tortuga was really scenic, along mostly untouched stretches of beach.  Saw a waterfall and a cool rock formation near the island.  After getting to Tortuga, we snorkled for a bit before and after lunch and saw a ton of fish.  Unfortunately, the jellyfish are really tiny and impossible to see, and Curt got stung by 4, 3 on the face (lip, cheek and eyebrow) and 1 on the hand.  Pretty sexy look!

We went ashore for lunch, checked out the beach and souvenir shop, and sunbathed for a bit.  An adorable tame pig was wandering around the beach area most of the time and would take naps and let people bury it in the sand.

The sky broke open in the afternoon and we got pelted with rain during the vast majority of the boat ride back - lucky it wasn't cold out!  We hung out at our hotel and then went for dinner at ____rest_____ , which was good and had some interesting drinks.

Overall, Montezuma was cool and definitely had the most character of all the places we had been up to that point.  The weather was generally good, though, it did seem like the type of place where it rains off and on throughout the year.