On our third afternoon in Osa, we were hanging out in the open air lounge area of the dining pavilion at our hotel, drinking passion fruit daiquiris with our new dive buddies Garry and Donna. Donna wandered off for a cigarette and to look at some lizards, and after spending a few minutes trying to get interested in the computer talk in which the guys were engaged, I got up, grabbed my wildlife camera, and declared that I was taking a walk.

I wandered vaguely in the direction of the hanging bridge, with the dual goals of (1) getting my steps in, and (2) seeing an animal, any animal would do. I’d made it just to the hanging bridge when there was a commotion above me and a knot of excited German tourists pointed out a monkey in the trees. New mission: get a picture of the monkey.

Harder than it seemed. The little booger was moving fast.

GOTCHA.

I was delighted with my picture and decided to head right back to the dining hall and brag to the guys about my photo conquest. As I walked back in the direction of the lodge, I realized – the monkeys were going the same way.

Yes, I said monkeys – plural. What I originally thought was one monkey turned out to be an entire troop. And they were all thundering across the tin roofs of our hotel’s outbuildings. It was a long line of noisy, exuberant mischief.

Except for this one, who stopped to grab a snack.

Yum, coconuts, delicious. I like young coconuts too, monkey! (He – or she – wasn’t interested in sharing.)

Meanwhile, the rest of the monkeys had made their way to the dining pavilion – where Steve and Garry were still hanging out – and were raiding a huge stash of bananas in the open air kitchen, because of course they were. The entire hotel guest population was streaming out from their languid afternoon hideaways to watch. So much for my monkey picture impressing the guys!

But I couldn’t be mad, because they were so stinking CUTE! I mean – look at that. And as you can see, some of them were MOTHER MONKEYS with BABY MONKEYS RIDING ON THEIR BACKS. Please excuse the all-caps, which really is warranted.

COME ON. I mean… COME ON!

We probably watched for about half an hour as they stampeded around the dining hall roof, leapt from the roof into the trees and back again, stole food from the kitchen and chattered incessantly at one another. Y’all, I’ve seen a lot of cute stuff but this was up there with the very cutest.

Eventually what we took to be a never-ending parade of capuchin monkeys did, in fact, end. And we returned to our passion fruit daiquiris, this time while clustered around my camera exclaiming over the shots I’d gotten of the monkeys and their monkey business. We came to Costa Rica hoping to have adventures and see wildlife, and man, oh man, was Costa Rica delivering.

Next week: more animals! Including some very colorful, some very scary, and some absolutely gigantic.