We were sad to leave sweatshirt weather behind.  After a three hour drive we arrived at our destination, Samara.  Casa Pacifica was a nice house with a pool and was a short walk to the beach.  However, it did not have a nice view but that was ok because we finally had air conditioning in the entire house!

During the days we did schoolwork, swam and went to the beach.  Our first morning there we heard all sorts of weird noises on the roof.  Mom went to investigate and we found out the answer -- large lizards that are similar to iguanas!  They were climbing and sliding on the metal roof.  The scraping and screeching noises from their claws hurt our ear drums!

On the second night Dad, Mom and I went out for dinner.  As we were leaving our driveway Dad said, "Oh bleep!  The brakes just went out!"  We almost ran over the security guard.  It was a good thing it happened there and not the day before driving down from Monteverde!

We still went out for dinner thanks to our friend Victor.  A mariachi band serenaded us.  I was trying very hard not to laugh!

We left Rancho El Rio where it was very dry.  Traveling on a curvy, bumpy, dusty gravel road to Monteverde took a long time even though it wasn't that far away.

When we first got out of the car we yelled, "Oh man it is cold!  We need sweatshirts!"  I thought Costa Rica was a place where you wore a swimsuit every day.  Not in Monteverde!  It was a nice surprise.

After we got settled into the house we decided we would grab some lunch, visit the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens, and go on a chocolate tour.

The butterfly gardens also had a creepy crawlers section.  Inside there was a giant cockroach named Timmy.  Our guide told us how they have a bad reputation for being dirty and gross.  Actually they have a cute face if you turn them over to look and they are quite clean.  She even put Timmy in her mouth to prove it!  My favorite was the stick insect.  They are so well camouflaged they look exactly like a stick.  They asked me to release a newly formed blue morpho butterfly into the butterfly garden.  I learned that you can touch a butterfly's wings as long as you do it carefully.

The chocolate "tour" was actually learning all about the history of cocoa beans and different ways to make chocolate.  While roasting cocoa beans, he told us different facts such as how beans were used for money by the Mayans 3500 years ago.  The aroma of the roasting beans smelled like brownies cooking!  However, when they were finished they didn't taste like brownies.  He put them through a homemade blower machine to knock the papery shells off.  Next he ground them up and kept grinding until they became liquid.  He mixed this with hot milk, sugar and vanilla.  It was pretty good.  Finally, he talked a bunch about tempering and crystallization.  It was boring and I didn't understand most of it because I was busy thinking about eating the chocolate!

On Wednesday Melvin, our guide, took us to his family's farm.  It is called an Ecología Finca which means it is an ecological preserve.  They work to keep the wildlife and their habitats happy and healthy.  Melvin's sister has a pizza restaurant there and they have a place to feed the birds.  So many birds came to eat off banana pieces.  I now have my favorite bird of Costa Rica it is called the blue crowned mot mot.  Zelmira is also a painter.  She was working on handmade cards and books.  I was touched when she gave me a toucan card she had painted. We went on a long hike.  Along one section we saw puma tracks from the night before.  Melvin was very excited about the prints, "¡Muy increíble!"

Later that day we stopped by the Hummingbird Gallery.  It is a store and cafe with many feeders outside.  Hundreds of humming birds were zipping all around.  It was a feeding frenzy!  There were so many different colors and sizes of birds.  It was a great experience!

The next afternoon I saw that there was a monkey in our kitchen.  We startled each other!  A bunch more monkeys came.  We gave them a ton of bananas and several came into the house to grab one.  It was really cool and funny!

​We sure have done a lot this last week!  Our time at Casa Ramone was over and we moved to our next rental home called Portocito Point.  It is very close by but it is a different kind of house.  The other was fancy and modern.  This one is older but the sunset is a million dollar view.  There is no air conditioning in the main living space but it all opens up to the outside.  We have 20 tent making bats that live in the front courtyard and fly around every night.  Sometimes one or two come through the house!  We also have Ralph and Maude who are black headed vultures.  They look so funny.  Ralph and I are buddies because I give him scraps every morning.  He hangs out on the patio waiting for me.