Yesterday began with our first monkey sighting – actually 12 of them – in the tree above us during our morning yoga session. We have been hearing them in the morning from our room – (a surprisingly odd sound, more similar to a growling bear than I was expecting) – but hadn’t seen any before that moment. Cute, of course, especially the mom and baby!

Another fun day of surfing. The boys were catching wave after wave and gained a ton of confidence. The afternoon was reserved for our first “non-vacation” moments – a serious scrub down in the shower to remove the salt/sand/chlorine build up from the previous couple of days, reading and writing, and a break from the sun and water.

We went to yoga at the school at 5:15 with Valerie, who has been warming us up and stretching us out in the morning, and hanging with Abby during surfing. It was excellent. The five of us rolled out mats on the open air porch in the center of the school. There were four additional students for the hour long class. We were all pretty tired, but I was excited to take my first class in almost two weeks. The kids followed along the best they could, but never interrupted or asked to leave. I think they knew that it was important to me, or at least respected the situation just enough to keep it together for the hour. Ben did his crow, Abby her wheel, Jacob mostly watched. Matt participated on and off throughout the class. I was excited that it was a hatha vinyasa class and was very similar to what I am used to practicing. She taught the class in equal parts Spanish, English and Sanskrit and the natural heat and humidity gave me the nice sweat I pay for at heated studios at home. Everyone was maxed out at 6:30 when we headed for dinner and everyone desperately wanted to crawl into bed.

This morning was the “crash” I have been prepped for since we arrived. The adrenaline finally wore off, the exhaustion set in and the kids were grumpy and irritable this morning. We had to drag them to breakfast, break up a lot of arguments, talk through a number of tears, and find some waning patience of our own.

Luckily, we had a day off from surfing and instead went to a new beach to play and snorkel. We packed lunches, drove with Frank and his wife to Basilito, about 25 minutes away. Within five minutes of our arrival, Frank spotted a scorpion and a sting ray and warned us of both. After that we saw small fish, a lot of seashells and beautiful scenery.

Off to dinner now. And early bed for all.