"Trust me, I'm right." He drove in silence a moment. "It's beautiful, isn't it? Look at that view. It's beautiful."

"It's okay," Tina said.

Ellen got out a compact and looked at herself in the mirror, pressing under her eyes. She sighed, and put the compact away.

The road began to descend, and Mike Bowman concentrated on driving. Suddenly a small black shape flashed across the road and Tina shrieked, "Look! Look!" Then it was gone, into the jungle.

"What was it?" Ellen asked. "A monkey7"

"Maybe a squirrel monkey," Bowman said.

"Can I count it?" Tina said, taking her pencil out, She was keeping a list of all the animals she had seen on her trip, as a project for school.

"I don't know," Mike said doubtfully.

Tina consulted the pictures in the guidebook. "I don't think it was a squirrel monkey," she said. "I think it was just another howler." They had seen several howler monkeys already on their trip,

"Hey," she said, more brightly. "According to this book, 'the beaches of Cabo Blanco are frequented by a variety of wildlife, including howler and white-faced monkeys, three-toed sloths, and coatimundis.' You think we'll see a three-toed sloth, Dad?"

"I bet we do."

"Really?"

"Just look in the mirror."

"Very funny, Dad."

The road sloped downward through the jungle, toward the ocean.

Mike Bowman felt like a hero when they finally reached the beach: a two-mile crescent of white sand, utterly deserted. He parked the Land Rover in the shade of the palm trees that fringed the beach, and got out the box lunches. Ellen changed into her bathing suit, saying, "Honestly, I don't know how I'm going to get this weight off."

"You look great, hon." Actually, he felt that she was too thin, but he had learned not to mention that.

Tina was already running down the beach.

"Don't forget you need your sunscreen," Ellen called.