Monkey River - Majestic Sea Cows

The conclusion of our Monkey River trip involved chasing down the Antillean manatee. Gentle sea cows are are herbivores and spend most of the day grazing on turtle grass and sea grass in shallow waters. They spend 6-8 hours a day grazing and 12 hours sleeping. I would frickin' love to be a manatee!

Manatees are mammals and must breathe around every 15 minutes. They do not leave the water and love to muck up the silt and hang out in murky waters, so they were especially tricky to spot. That didn't stop our guide though.

He drove us through the mangroves until we found a mama and baby manatee peacefully grazing on sea grass.

Fact: they have the cutest noses ever.

In case this little guy's squidgy, grass-snacking face isn't enough to make you squee with delight over the irrefutable adorableness of the majestic sea cow, here are 18 Facts to Help you Appreciate Manatees.

And because I haven't mentioned them yet, here are a couple other local birds that hung out around our hotel.

- Tropical Mockingbird

- Black-cowled Oriole

 - Cinnamon Hummingbird

Also worthy of note was the infrequent rain storms we had the fun of experiencing. Man, when it rained, it poured! And then it abruptly stopped and returned to being hot and humid.