Sloth Garden

Jeremy and Charlie, the two-toed sloths

Coari is an escape artist!

Giant iguana at the centre

My dad, the Monkey Man!

Today we went back to the rescue center. My mom and Mia and I worked in the sloth garden and my dad worked with the monkeys. He had to go in to the woods with 13 of them and take them on a picnic!?!?  In the sloth garden there are 9 sloths - 2 that are babies, 2 that are toddlers, one that only has one arm (his other arm got amputated) that doesn’t go outside, a really sick one that has diarrhea that doesn’t go outside, and one older one.  There is a baby three-toed sloth named Coari who always escapes over the fence even though he is a sloth.  There is also an agouti, a kinkajou, and a grisson.  And they’re all babies!  The first thing we do is get all the animals out of their cages.  First we got out all the sloths, then we got out the agouti (a rodent that look like a big rat but cuter) and the kinkajou (a nocturnal animal that is like a bush baby) who is blind. Then last but not least we get the greater grisson (a weasel that also is nocturnal. It is a water baby that has webbed feet). When they were all out we had to feed the sloths their leaves. T hen we would just watch them until the tours came. When the tours came Poldo the grisson got excited and climbed up the fence! But we grabbed him. When the tours left I took Poldo for a walk to calm him down. When the walk was done we put all the animals in their cages and went home had dinner and went to bed.

Garden duty

The road to the rescue center

Feeding the nice deer named Xao

Today we woke up and had another hard day at the Jaguar Rescue Center. In the morning me and my dad raked the whole center! We raked for about 2 hours. Then we stopped for a 20 minute break before we went to rake the driveway. When we were raking we saw a dead snake. When we were done raking we helped out at the Sloth Garden with my mom and Mia. That's where all the sloths and baby animals go in the day so the tourists can see them.  I also got to feed one of the deers, but then the big deer went crazy and started stalking me and trying to attack me!  It was scary!  Then we left and went to the Cameleon Hotel to see Rueben and Melinda and swim in their pool. After the swim we went out to a Italian place and I got pizza. Then we went home and went to bed. 

Jaguar Rescue Center

Me and the woodpecker

Today we woke up early because today we start volunteering for the Jaguar Rescue  Center.  It’s about a 20 minute walk from our house. When we got there we met the main volunteer coordinator and leader named Nadja.  She introduced us to everyone and all the animals.  We got to go on the official tour with all the tourists so we knew how to get around and got to go in the monkey cage and play with the monkeys. Some of the animals there are: three toucans, a baby ocelot (which is like a jaguar),  a margay (also like  a jaguar!), and lots of sloths.  There is also a monkey cage with at least 20 monkeys in it.  They are mostly all howler monkeys but there is one that is a spider monkey.  She is really naughty! There is also a greater grisson (which is like a weasel) and a kinkajou that is blind, two deers, two parrots (one that talks and one named Wizard ), a woodpecker, two porcupines, a squirrel, an alligator, a hawk, an owl, an opossum, lots and lots of snakes, some spiders, and three wild sloths that live in a loft above the monkeys. After our tour we collected banana spiders in empty goat's milk cans and took them off the property. Then we fed the toucans, and then since it had already been 8 hours we went home and played with Heiner! 

Shuttupp!

This puppy's name is Shuttupp!

Playa Chiquita

Aim and...

FIRE!

Qué guay!

            Today we went for a long walk with Melinda and Reuben to rent bikes to go to the beach but we ended up walking past the rental place because it was down a little path and we didn't see it.  When we heard that we had passed it already it was so so hot we decided to stop for smoothies.  At the place there was a dog named Shuttupp!!  After our smoothies we said we should just go to the next beach that we pass.  We went to a beach called Playa Chaquita. There we went snorkeling and saw some really cool fish and found some neat shells.  Then I made up a game where I put four big bamboo sticks in the ground and put a coconut on the end of a stick to try to knock down the bamboo sticks.  After I had played for awhile Reuben and my dad came and played and a little boy from the beach and even my mom tried it!  We also got some pictures with Reuben's underwater camera.  It was cool. Then we walked home to our place in the jungle and played with Heiner for a little bit and then went to bed.

Playa Cocles

Jungle walk to the beach

Playing with the coconuts

Reuben helped me cut open this rotten one.  EW!

Chillin' with the locals

Karate Kid

What is that?!?!

Starfish on my head

Rasta takes on Messi

Today we woke up and we went downstairs and met the people living in our basement.  There was a little boy about to turn five named Heinard and his mom named Maili.  There is a dad named Carlos too, but he was away. We played cars and he was really into some car called Francesco?!?!  Then after playing for two hours we left for the beach.  We walked down our jungle road and when we got to the beach the water was flat and felt as warm as a pool.  It was so nice! When I closed my eyes I thought I was in a pool except for….the millions of live sand dollars pricking my feet! After playing on the beach and collecting some coconuts we saw our friends from yesterday who drove with us in the car - Melinda and Reuben – coming to the beach.  Then we all played in the water and my dad would look underwater to see if he could see any shells and I would look underwater with the mask and then my dad said there was something between his legs and it was a humongous live starfish!!  We picked it up and even put it on our heads to feel its little legs!!  Then we said goodbye to our friends and went home to eat some pasta and then went to sleep.

Caribbean, mon!

With Cynthy at the pool

This river's name is Dirty River

Can you see the toucan?

Today we woke up early again and then went out to the pool.  At the pool we saw our friend Cynthy who lives here in Costa Rica.  We met her on our first day here walking in the gardens.  Today she brought a little present for us – a red ball and a thing to identify different birds.  We played with the ball in the pool for a long time.  Then it was time to pack up, eat lunch and go! We met our driver, Francisco, and two other passengers from Texas, Melinda and Reuben.  They were really nice.  On the way to the Caribbean coast Francisco told us all about the area and stopped the van a couple of times to show us toucans and these strange plants that close up when you touch them.  When we got to Cocles it was already dark and our house was really scary.  When I went to bed there were all these weird noises! I had a hard time falling asleep!

Rare coffee frog

Jungle pool

Frog

Frog pond

Today we woke up really early (because of the 8 hour time difference and because everyone seems to get up really early!) and went to the breakfast.  At the breakfast they had everything you could imagine including pancakes and hashbrowns.  While we were walking around the gardens today we met a black cat that looked more like a panther that really wanted attention.  After we went into the pool we explored the gardens some more.  In the afternoon it rained again so we got caught up on blogs in the hotel room and tried to get over our jet lag.  Once it was dark (by 5:30!) my dad and I got an umbrella and a flashlight and went to the garden pond to try and find an almost extinct coffee frog that they have a hiding place for at our hotel.  We couldn’t find it and it was raining but then all of a sudden we flashed our light right on him and he was staring right at us half in the water and half out of the water.  He actually looked like the color of coffee!  That night we were still feeling tired so we went to bed early.        

Woo hoo! We're here!

Wow!  What a crazy garden!

Strange flower

Chihuahua puppy...he's so cute!

Having fun in the pool

First wildlife sighting

Best LEGO set ever

Today we woke up very early and walked all through the gardens at the Hotel Bougainvillea.  They were really cool and had lots and lots of different plants.  After the gardens we went to the pool and there was a girl there with a really little Chihuahua puppy that was only three months old and ran really funny because it was so small and young.  After the pool a thunderstorm came and my dad and I started working on my Lord of the Rings lego set.  After, me and Mia went outside into the gardens and got soaking wet in the rain.  That night we ate some food in the room and went to bed early because of the jet lag.

A long day of flying

Miami airport

Today we woke up early and went on our airplane.  The first one was ten whole hours non-stop from Barcelona to Miami!  We watched Men in Black 3 and Man on a Ledge on the plane.  They were good movies! We had to wait four hours until our second plane, which took three hours to get to San Jose, Costa Rica.  Then some people from our hotel met us and took us to our hotel. Even though it was nine at night in Costa Rica we went straight to bed after just saying hello because it was five o'clock in the morning in Spain and we were so tired from traveling and jet lag!!!    

Ciao Barcelona!

So sad to say goodbye to Barcelona

So today me and my mom and Mia went shopping for stuff for Costa Rica while my dad did his last conference.  When we were shopping we passed our old house in our old neighborhood and passed lots of things we’d seen before and were starting to get a bit sad because we didn’t know when we’d ever seen them again.  After we got back my parents went out to a rock concert at the Opera house (which I thought was kinda weird) and me and Mia made some movies. When my mom and dad got home we went to bed. 

Back to Barcelona

Cool bull

Ciao Arturo!

Today we drove for an hour to get back to Barcelona.  When we got back we went to a hotel with a spa and a pool so we were happy.  It turns out it was the wrong Hotel Constanza so we had to move to the right one!  We then walked around and ate at a square where we had some really good food like French fries and eggs and we saw a really cool bull statue.  After that we went to Marsella and Arturo’s house for one last time.  At their house we had fun.  Then we went home and rested because we were really tired from our road trip down south but we played some games while my Dad went out to a rock concert. 

Port Aventura

My mom getting into the Halloween spirit

Trying not to get eaten alive by zombies

It's my head on a platter!

I was too small to ride the Shambhala roller coaster :(

Today we went to Porta Aventura. It is one of the biggest amusement parks in all of Europe and just like Disneyland.  When we got there we walked around and there were scary people with gore and blood on their faces.  Ew! First we went on a cool log ride where you sit in a log but it was a tube and it would go down rapids really fast and you would get covered in water.  Then after that Mia went on the spinny ride but I didn't because spinny rides make me feel sick so my dad and I did bumper cars and we bumped every single person there!  After that we went on the Stampedia roller coaster.  It was the first big roller coaster I've ever been on and we had to wait over an hour to get on it!  We were racing the blue team, but we couldn't control anything so clearly it wasn't a real race.  We went on it and it felt really weird because it was my first one and I didn't know what was happening. After we walked to the biggest roller coaster in Europe called Shambhala (inspired by the Himalayas).  Unfortunately, Mia and I both measured to see if we were big enough but I wasn't and I was super sad.  While Mia and my dad went on it, me and my mom went to a big playground and I played on the slides.  Mia and my dad said the roller coaster was really fun and scary.  After we went into a Temple of Fire where on almost every corner a zombie would scare you. It was super scary!  Then we all waited to see a show where a dude in a weird Indian costume would say stuff and real fire would shoot out from everywhere (even the walls) and after he left a huge fire shot from everywhere and some weird zombies shot up on sticks from the ground. After a few more rides we walked around more and then came back to the hotel after a really fun day.        

Roman ruins

One last swim at Bencassim

LOL! Peñiscola!

With my mom

Lunch at the wharf

The wharf at Peñiscola

Roman amphitheater in Tarragona

Today we left our hotel and drove to a town called...Peñiscola!?  We stayed there a couple of hours and saw a huge castle with a view and went to an outside seafood place right on the wharf that was really good.  After Peñiscola we had another two hour drive to a hotel in Tarragona. In Tarragona when we first walked in just by chance The Lord of the Rings was playing on the hotel TV so we decided to watch the rest!  Also in Tarragona we walked a long time to see the Roman ruins and I put my hand on the rocks so I can say I touched BC (Before Christ) J. We also saw part of the circuit where they used to do Chariot races. I liked it because I can say to people I touched BC (because I live in British Columbia) but I will mean something from the time BC.  After that we went to a square and I saw some kids playing soccer but for the first time in Spain they wouldn't let me play!  After the square we went to another place where they were having a festival that was packed with people celebrating. It had tons of stalls and we got some stuff including some cotton candy that our family all ate.  I also got a mood ring and my sister got a unicorn made out of clay and the family also got some roasted chestnuts wrapped in newspaper to split.  After the festival we went home and went to bed.

Biking by the sea

On the bike path to Oropesa

I found a cool and sparkly crystal down this path

Looooong tunnel

At the beach at Oropesa

By the way I am writing this post in a place you would never guess.  I am writing it (with my Dad’s supervision) in…. a sauna!!  I like the sound the rocks make when I spray the water but I better hurry up and write this blog cause it is getting kinda hot.   So...today in the morning we went down to the beach and played some more soccer.  Then we rented some bikes and did a 6 km ride (each way) to a town called Oropesa.  On the bike ride there was lots of tunnels and archways and stone structures and it was right near the ocean.  On the way back I thought I should ride the whole 6 km without stopping and I did it!  But then I had to wait for everyone to catch up to me.  After this bike ride we went home and watched some X-Factor and went to bed.