Romantic Nights and Raccoons

Not words usually uttered in the same sentence, "romantic nights and raccoons."  At least not words I'd ever thought I would use to describe an evening at a high end resort in a tropical paradise, but there we were.  Our second night in Costa Rica and we have just had a beautiful, relaxing day together, young and in love.  Well, at least young at heart and in love.  We chose a more secluded, quiet restaurant to have dinner at to really just have a romantic evening to top off our perfect day.  Peruvian cuisine in an open air pavilion near the sea.

We were enjoying a glass of wine to start our meal when we noticed a cat sauntering from one table to another begging for food.  We thought this a little odd, but also oddly endearing.  Not far from us was a couple enjoying a special evening in a private dining area closer to the water with curtains tied to the four edges of the canopy, flowing in the breeze.  Candle light on their table, champagne chilling on ice and three raccoons standing in a row on their hind legs begging for food.  Now and again, one of the vermin would boldly approach the table and wave his little paw demanding a morsel.  The poor couple who probably paid good money for the private meal tried to ignore their uninvited guests, but it was hard to do, with all the other diners laughing amusingly at their predicament.

The couple finished their meal and slunk away embarrassed by their poor luck and the raccoons disappeared into the woods.  But not to be deterred in their efforts to ruin a romantic evening for yet another couple the trio set their sites on us.  We finished our meal returned to our room, etc., etc., and fell asleep.  At two in the morning we heard a terrible racket outside our front door.  We had heard that monkeys come on the property at times, so we quickly ran out our front door to see if monkeys were greeting us.  No, the trio of raccoons were having a coon brawl in the bushes.  They saw us and started running in our direction.  I screamed and we hightailed it back to our room and locked the deadbolt, because everyone knows raccoons know how to pick locks but they can't get those deadbolts open.

When we got back in our room we noticed the full moon shining right over our patio.  Romantic, right?  Not quite.  We were too scared to open our patio door.