random thoughts – Day 1,658 – (Tuesday) – wild life

Friendly gang of croati.

The jungle wildlife sightings so far have been limited to capybara, the biggest rodent in the world; the white nose coati with a ringed tail like a raccoon; bats; and iguanas of various sizes. There are koi in the fish pond outside one of the restaurants, and lots of birds.

One member of our travel group saw a monkey in the tree directly outside his room, and I hope to see one before the week is done. There are stories of sightings of snakes and some gigantic spiders, but I won’t be sad if I miss seeing either of those.

This morning’s breakfast was at an open-air restaurant where we got to watch some of the local birds in action. As soon as a table was vacated by humans, the birds landed to check for portable scraps. One even made off with a packet of sugar snatched from a caddy that sat next to a coffee cup on an otherwise empty table.

The beach was breezy with bigger waves than Monday, and the water felt warmer than the breezy air. There are lots of almost clear fish with a stripe that seem to like corn flakes. It tickles when they swim past and brush my legs.

Croati scoping out the lunch buffet.

During our lunch in the open-air beach restaurant, one of the coati entertained from the thatched roof. It walked down the sloped roof to a beam and snuggled in a corner for a nap. Later, it made its way confidently across a beam, pausing directly above the spot where the hot dogs and hamburgers sat in the covered steam trays on the hot side of the buffet. The occupants of our table were transfixed, which caused other people to look at what we were looking at, and soon a bunch of us were waiting to see what would happen when someone raised the lid of one of the trays. Would the coati launch itself down for a snack? Anything seemed possible. We’d already been entertained on Monday by a carybara walking on the beach with a sandwich roll in its mouth.

The suspense was extinguished when a very official supervisor type worker with an earpiece arrived. He marched over to where the croati stood on the rafter and looked at it. It seemed they may have been previously acquainted because the critter looked at the worker and immediately scrambled up the thatched ceiling and disappeared though an opening along a beam.