The water of the warm Pacific washes over tortuously pocked lava rock, leaving little pools in the hot sun when the tide goes out. These pockets are coated with nerite snail eggs, which look and feel exactly like sesame seeds glued to the inside of a bowl. The nerites, when they hatch, fill each rocky crevass. The surfaces of dry rock are encrusted with the miniscule bodies of dead(?) nerites, which didn´t make it to the dank cracks in time, and they make a sickening crunch underfoot once you notice what they are. Nerites live up to a year. When they die, hermit crabs of all ages (up to a certain point, of course) occupy their abandoned shells.

I have discovered that Hannah, the baby whom I occassionally tend in exchange for all this undeserved luxury, is not only a sweet-natured child, but is also my ticket to popularity among the Costa Ricans. They just LOVE babies! So I´ve been able to practice my Spanish with more frequency when I have one strapped to me.