Ciao, Costa Rica!

Beautiful Guanacaste tree

We should be hiking up to that volcano instead of being on this plane!

A great welcome from the neighbours. It's good to be home!

Today we woke up and we hung out with Dawson and Angus and DJ and got everything packed up to go. Francisco, our first driver, came and picked us up around noon and drove us all the way to San Jose and we stayed at the first hotel we went to in Costa Rica, the Bougainvillea. Later, after dinner at the hotel, we went to sleep. But…before we went to sleep my dad decided he would check our flight one last time and when he checked it…our flight had been changed from 2 pm to 8 am!!! So we had to wake up at 5 am, got packed up and left to the airport. We were sad because we were goingto go to Poas Volcano with Francisco in the morning :( When we got to the airport we went through security where they check if you are bringing drugs or weapons and stuff like that. So when my bag went through the security guard looked weird at me and she took out my special horseshoe that fell off the horse I was riding in Monteverde and she grabbed it, shoved it in my face, and said, "NO!!!!!!" and threw it into the garbage. She also grabbed our container with all the shells from our trip starting in Spain, shoved it in our faces and said, "NO!!!!!!" and she threw them into the garbage and started smiling at us. She even saw me crying because she took my special horseshoe and she still just smiled at us. She was mean. Then we got on to the plane, flew to Miami, then flew to Seattle (where it was a shock to our bodies because it was so cold there). Then we stayed at the same Super 8 that we stayed at on our way to Spain. In the morning we flew straight to Vancouver. In Vancouver we went to my great Grandma's house (she died when we were in Spain if you didn’t know L )  to grab some stuff because it would get thrown out. After that we flew to Kelowna and Nana Mary picked us up and drove us  to our house. When we got to our house it was all decorated in balloons and signs saying welcome back and just when we pulled in to our driveway our neighbors, Teagan, Jordan and Karson came running up to our house and we all had a little party at the Ribbinks. I was glad to be back!! Ciao...and thanks for reading my blog! 

Cool fact: I had a great trip J !!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Looking out at the jungle from the balcony. There's monkeys in that tree!

Inviting the jungle into our New Year's celebration

I needed leaves in my hair too!

¡Feliz año nuevo!

More strange jungle bugs!

Today we woke up to a great New Year's Eve. Too bad in the morning Auntie Aimee and Uncle Jeff + Lenox had to leave back to Ithaca. Everybody was so, so sad L We decided to walk down the road to the little village and go to the grocery store. It was a long walk! After a while Dawson, Angus and DJ came to celebrate New Year's with us. When they got to our place Dawson and I played Mario Cart on his DS. That was really fun because I haven't played Mario Cart in six months! We also made a video to Gangnam Style but it got deleted L Later at night we all put leaves on our heads to celebrate New Year's Eve and let off a bunch more little fireworks and sparkles. They weren't as big as the other ones, but they were still fun!  Then we had some pizza and went to bed.

Cool fact: we stayed up till midnight!

Baby turtles!

Mass turtle hatching

Turtle brothers marching to the sea

More baby turtles hatching later on at Playa Guiones

Making a sand tunnel with Lenox

One last beautiful beach sunset

Woo hoo! Baby turtles!

Today we got up early to go to Ostional beach to see if we could finally see the baby turtles hatching. When we got there we saw a lot of people on the beach so we went to where they were and saw...a baby turtle! We finally made it on a day when they were hatching. That was pretty cool, but after about half an hour there were like 50 turtles everywhere! A couple of different nests were hatching at once and the beach was crawling with baby turtles. There were a bunch of big birds flying around trying to eat the babies, but we tried to scare them off. It was really awesome and amazing to see all those baby turtles! When we got home Lenox and I played in a box for a long time until my mom told me she needed the box to pack some of our stuff in and we were going to break it. After that Auntie Aimee and Uncle Jeff went to go zip-lining and we watched over Lenox. When they were gone we went to do some chores around town and then we went to Playa Guiones to watch the sunset. We couldn't believe it when we got there there were more baby turtles hatching! Right on the busy beach! A huge crowd was gathered around them so we watched them too. Then we went home and Mia and I watched over Lenox while the grownups went out for dinner. 

Cool fact: Baby turtles are really cute!

Kayaking the Rio Nosara

Kayaking with my dad

Watermelon time

Dad + Watermelon #1

Dad + Watermelon #2

Dad + Watermelon #3 (and there were even more!!!)

Mom and Auntie Aimee + Watermelon

Today we woke up and went down to a hidden beach and we went kayaking and stand up paddling on the Rio Nosara with our group, three other people and a guide. When we were kayaking we saw lots of birds but no crocs. After about an hour on the river we stopped at a beach and had some huge watermelon. We saw the tracks of the crocs, but they were already gone. After that we went to Café de Paris to go swimming and have lunch. After a lot of swimming we went to the Harmony Hotel to check out their pool and go swimming but after half an hour we got kicked out because we weren’t registered guests. Then we went home, hung out and went to bed.

Cool fact: our guide let me take pictures with his camera and we took like ten different pictures of my dad making weird faces while eating watermelon and our guide sent all of them to everybody on the kayaking tour!

Insect infestation

Beware the army ants!

Baby scorpions will stay on the mother's back until their first molt. Gross!

Still no turtles at Ostional, but I did meet this cool dog

Today we woke up and there were about one million army ants going all around our house in crazy patterns. Our whole porch was black! The reason they come is because they clean the jungle by picking up dead insects on their way from the mountains to the sea. They were there for about an hour and then they were gone! The ants made all the scorpions leave their homes and different bugs too. In the morning we saw three scorpions because of the ants. At noon there were three more scorpions and in the afternoon there were two more, all because of the ants. Two of the scorpions had like 50 babies on their backs and it looked so, so gross I feel like barfing thinking about them while I write this. Around lunch Dad and Uncle Jeff set up a little listening station so they could watch a documentary on Rush. When they were done we drove back to Ostional to see if we could find any turtles because today is the full moon and that’s when the turtles sometimes come. But no turtles today L. But we did see the sunset and a horse and a dog. Then we went to an outdoor restaurant at the top of the mountain and went swimming in their pool and had dinner.

Cool fact: the ants hurt so much and I stepped in a big pile of them and like fifteen bit me. Ouch! 

Boxing Day Fireworks

With my second cousin Dawson at Playa Avellanas

Copa at the beach...a Costa Rican MUST!

Just like the ones on Canada Day

Today we woke up and drove to Playa Avellanas (the same beach we went surfing at) to meet up with my second cousin, Dawson and my dad’s cousin, Angus. Also we were meeting up with DJ, Angus’s wife. At the beach Dawson and I made an aquarium in the rocks and put lots of hermit crabs into it. Later we made a sandcastle with a big tunnel going through it. Soon it was time to go surfing but I didn’t want to go because I wanted to play with Dawson and the waves looked really choppy. So just Mom, Mia, Auntie Aimee, Uncle Jeff, and DJ went. When they finished surfing we said good bye and we drove back to our place. When we got to the casa we decided to do the huge fireworks (like the ones on Canada Day) because we had not done them yet. So we went down the driveway to an open area and we waited for Uncle Jeff to light it and then ran. We looked and all these bullets were shooting out of the box and going in the air and exploding magical colors. It was awesome! I thought we were going to burn the jungle down…but we didn’t!
Cool fact: the fireworks did really look like the ones on Canada Day!

Rumble in the jungle

Feliz Navidad

Stockings with Lenox

Christmas morning

Best. Wrapping. Ever.

The Christmas jammies live on in Costa Rica!!!

Chilling at L'acqua Vida Resort

Feliz Navidad from the Woodworths/Hancocks!

Santa's writing is so messy!

Today I woke up and went straight downstairs to have a glass of water but there was no water in the taps! Merry Christmas?!?!? When everybody was up we opened our Christmas stockings. In my stocking I got lots of candy and a ball that bounces on water. I also got a pair of socks that have Santa and reindeer on them. After everybody opened their stockings we opened our presents from Santa. From Santa I got a big, big, big Lord of the Rings lego set (the part when Merry, Aragon and Frodo get attacked by the dead people that can’t die). It’s super cool! Mia got a new really good hair straightener and Lenox got a little hockey stadium because she loves hockey. After we opened up a lot of presents I showed everybody a movie I made for them and they loved it! Some of the things I got for Christmas were…three Apocalypse dunnys, a book about the stars, a nice pair of pjs, a shirt that says “Tico” on it and a shirt that has a cool design on it. After we opened our presents, Ramon the groundskeeper came and fixed the water for us. The tank had run dry in the night because the toilet’s flusher was leaking! Then we went to the hotel that has good wifi to skype our friends. After we skyped all our family we went to the Lagarta Lodge to see the sunset and then we went home and had a big Christmas dinner. For dinner we had potatoes, spinach, fish and salad. Feliz Navidad!

Cool fact: in the night millions of raccoons came and smashed all our shells and made the porch super messy.

Nosara Beach Hotel

The deserted and spooky Nosara Beach Hotel

Main entrance

Welcome to our POOL. Notice there is no WATER in it!

Back side of hotel

Natural blowhole at Playa Pelada

Last night when we were sleeping there was another little earthquake that shook the whole house. When we woke up we went to Playa Guiones to an old abandoned hotel to make a scary movie. When we got to the hotel we saw a pool with no water that has broken tiles and poo in it. Yuck! There also was a foosball table that had termites on it and the balls were all dirty and broken. Eww! There was also a kitchen and in the kitchen there was a pan filled with stuff that looked like mushy fresh poo. Ahh! No more! Also everything was broken. The whole place was really creepy and weird. After a while the guard dogs came out and tried to attack us but the only person at the hotel (the creepy and weird groundskeeper) stopped them and told us we had to leave. So we left and went down to the beach to finish our movie. Later we went home and watched over Lenox while the parents went out for dinner.

Cool fact: the owner of the hotel is crazy Greek who owns a lot property in Nosara. This is the only place that's haunted though.

Nosara Beach Hotel

Christmas Eve

Jungle golfing

A seriously challenging course

It's feeling a little Christmasy in here!

A whip scorpion in the bathroom

Today we woke up and Mia made pancakes for everybody. Yum! After breakfast we went down to the town and Uncle Jeff and Dad took us mini golfing at Cafe de Paris. A thing about the mini golfing is that the courses are so so so so so so so so so so so hard. Like the first course was as hard as the third last course at Scandia. After we went and got groceries and things for Christmas. When we got home we listened to Christmas songs and I made a star for the top of the tree with some cardboard and crushed up shells and a big stick, and Mia worked on more shell decorations. Then we ordered pizza from Pepperoni’s for dinner. I am looking forward to Christmas tomorrow!  

Cool fact: While we were golfing I guess there was an earthquake, but I didn’t really notice it because I was so focused on the golfing!