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Playa Samara and Playa Flamingo

2/25/2016

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Last week we spent four nights in Playa Samara.  Mom finally had her wish of air-conditioning throughout the house granted.  Another major bonus was a large pool that had a deep end.  Apparently Playa Samara is in a drought so we had to be careful using the water.  The overall climate was dry, even all the creek beds were dried up.  Three of the days we had full schoolwork.  The second afternoon Dad and I went out fishing on the rocks.  About ten locals, eight men and two women, were there fishing with hand lines.  They had only caught two small grouper which was very surprising to me.  Another thing I found a little strange was that they were keeping everything that they caught, including needle fish which don't have much meat!  It did not take Dad long to reel in a small grouper.  He gave it to the locals and they were very happy about it.  Not long after, I caught a much larger grouper that had florescent green spots on it.  The locals were cheering me on as I brought it in and walked it over to them.  Dad caught another one almost exactly the same as his last and so did I.  We also gave these to the locals.  We left having made good friends and a successful fishing night!

Another one of the days Dad and I went kayak fishing.  Kayak fishing here isn't that easy because the good fishing is up against the rocks where the waves break.  Several times a wave came out of nowhere and we had to immediately set our poles down and paddle straight toward it so that it wouldn't knock us over.  Dad did manage to catch two small grouper and a small snapper.   I caught another one of the green groupers.

On Monday we moved houses again to Playa Flamingo.  The house is up on a hill and has a cool infinity pool overlooking a spectacular view.  This house also has air-conditioning throughout and is new.  We are here for seven nights.  There is a turtle night tour we might do where you get to see endangered leather-back turtle laying eggs on the beach.
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Ficus Tree

2/19/2016

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Tuesday we moved on to Monteverde!  The landscape changed drastically as soon as we drove higher up in the mountains.  Clouds constantly pass through the town which causes a mist/light rain.  It is much cooler with a strong breeze that keeps the bugs down.  The house we stayed in was on the outskirts of town and had some huge trees around it.  The house itself was small and basic, but it reminded me of a cozy Rocky Mountain home with lots of windows.
The owner of the house, Melvin, showed us around the region the next day.  First we went to a huge, massive ficus tree.  Ficus trees are unique because they find a large suitable host tree and grow up and around it.  They don't feed on it in any way, but rather use it for support.  Eventually the host tree dies because the ficus canopy becomes so large it blocks all the sunlight.  Slowly, the host tree rots away leaving a large, empty space and also provides lots of nutrients in the ground for the ficus.  The ficus tree that we visited was special because the tunnel in the middle, where the host tree used to be, was so large that almost anybody could climb up in it.  Mom, Dad and I climbed all the way to the top, which is over 50 meters according to Melvin!  At the top of the tree we had a view of the whole town too!
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After the ficus tree we drove down into a neighboring valley to Melvin's family's farm.  It used to be a dairy farm, but now it is an ecological farm with sugar cane, banana and plantain trees and a lot of hiking trails.  Before the hike Melvin's sister made us pizza and we watched birds fly to and fro around a homemade bird feeder.  The bird feeder was neat because it was a small dead tree with banana pieces all over it.  We counted over 18 species of birds, including an emerald toucanet which is really hard to find because they blend in with the forest so well.  We then went hiking for several hours and found several fresh puma tracks from the night before!  Even though we choose not to go into the Monteverde Reserve with all the tourists, we had more fun doing what we did!
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Ranco El Rio

2/15/2016

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We graduated from our Spanish school on Thursday!  Friday morning we went horseback riding to the Nauyaca Waterfall.  The horses were not the best and fought among themselves the whole way there and back.  Thankfully I was the lucky person on a horse that kicks other horses which meant that I could not be kicked myself!  The waterfall had two sections to it.  The top one was at least twice as big as the bottom cascade but had no pool below only rocks.  The lower section had a huge, deep pool with several good jumping spots.  Another cool thing was that there were a lot of different fish and some of them were sizable.  The waterfall seemed like it belonged in a movie set because it was stunning!

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Saturday we packed up and left at 10 AM.  Three hours later we arrived at a condo that Dad had rented for us for one a night.  We arrived at a large security guard booth.  Then drove 8 Km down a windy road and passed another security guard check point, drove 2 Km more  down the road and passed the final security guard checkpoint.  All this just to get to the condo.  They definitely are not taking any chances at this place!  

Along the road to the condo, there were a bunch of different neighborhoods each with a security guard checkpoint.  There were 2 beaches, a hotel,
 mini golf course, several restaurants, and a pools.  Behind our condo there were several huge trees with a drop-off to the ocean.  A pair of scarlet macaws were flying around the trees and giving us a show.
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Sunday morning we were back on the road by 10 AM.  We drove three hours north to a place close to the cloud forest.  Our destination was a house on a little farm next to a river.  The landscape changed drastically on the way there.  It went from jungle to dry hills to sparsely forested jungle.

When we arrived we found a river next to the house and went swimming in it.  We also arranged for the farm hand to take us around with him in the morning and feed the animals
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We met Jose at 7 AM and the first thing he showed us was how to milk a cow.  Then we fed some pigs and sheep.  A ten minute walk down a trail led us to a herd of water buffalo which were very intimidating.  
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We walked back to the house, ate a quick breakfast, then walked down another trail to the community Sustainability Center.  The Sustainability Center is a place where the locals go to learn things like how to farm organically, process sugar cane and to do many other activities.  It is an important part of this small community because it is the main place where they all get together.  At the center they had a large house and a barnyard.  There were ducks, geese, chickens, turkeys, pigs, sheep, an emu, a five week old baby donkey (with parents), and they even had a tame coati!  This place has been a big surprise! ​​
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Sailfish Fishing

2/8/2016

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Monday through Friday we went to Spanish school as usual and the only thing out of the ordinary that happened was that Dad and I learned the basics of surfing Thursday afternoon.  Dominical is known as one of the best surfing places in Costa Rica and attracts people from all over.  Dad had arranged for an instructor to meet us at Playa Dominical.  He had us spend the first twenty minutes practicing how to stand up correctly on the board in the sand.  Then we swam out about 100 yards with our boards and rode the whitewater in.  The first time Dad fell off and I managed to stay on.  We did this for about an hour.

Saturday morning Dad and I were in the car by 6:15.  We had an all day fishing trip ahead of us!  Our boat, called the First Row, met us at Quepos Marina and after an hour boat ride we were out to sea.  When we got to the spot our captain picked we found it was quite crowded.  I counted over twenty boats in this one area!  It turns out that when the boats first go out, they go to where the fish were last caught the day before.  

The first mate managed to set 8 lines out in less than ten minutes and not long after we had a bite.  I let Dad go first to show me how it's done.  It took him ten minutes to bring it in and when it jumped we found out it was a sailfish.  The fish was about 90 inches and looked to be 80 pounds.
An hour went by and Dad was starting to worry that he would be the only one to catch a fish when we finally hooked onto another one.  As soon as the fish realized it was hooked it jumped four times.  It took me about 7 minutes to bring it in.  It was another sailfish except much bigger!  Our guide guessed it to be 105 inches and 100 pounds.  This one we tagged before letting go.  At this point the boats had spread out.  In about forty five minutes we hooked onto another two and Dad let me have them both.  We used our second and last tag on one of them.
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We went about another two hours without any action when we ran into a feeding frenzy.  There were about 200 birds, 100 dolphins, and our guide said there were yellowfin tuna under it all.  We spent another two hours trying to hook onto a tuna without success but the dolphins made quite a show for us.  They were doing flips non stop!  It was my favorite part of the day for sure.  Dad was next in line for a fish but we only had bites and no takers.  Later when we got back to the dock we gave the tag information to the local fishing shop so they could enter it into the system.  Next time the fish is caught we will be notified how much it has grown and how far its traveled.  We ended up catching more fish than most the other boats.  Overall, I loved it!
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Vacation

2/4/2016

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Our weekend started on Friday, but we didn't get to sleep in.  We were all in the car by 9:00 AM since we had planned a 3 day vacation in Drake Bay.  We drove an hour and a half to Sierpe then took a very small and cramped ferry another hour to Drake Bay.

Drake Bay is on a small peninsula called the the Osa Peninsula which is home to 50% of all species in Costa Rica.  We went to Corcovado National Park which is the most biodiverse place on the planet according to National Geographic.  Our guide told us the peninsula has almost twice as many species of trees than the whole United States and Canada combined.  Dad had found us a cabin in a small lodge that had an amazing view.

As soon as we unpacked we went on a canopy tour that was down the road.  The canopy tour was zip lining through the jungle canopy.  Sometimes we were closer to the floor and sometimes we were up really high.  The longest zip line was 400 meters.  You control your own speed by using a leather glove and pressing down on the line to break.  Not something you would find in the US!  On several of the zip lines Kylie didn't make it all the way across because she is so light.  One of the guides had to go get her!

Saturday morning we went horseback riding then dismounted and hicked down to Rio Claro which is in the middle of the jungle.  Next, we floated down the river in life jackets.  Ian was our guide.  He pointed out lots of cool things like the walking palm that looks like it has twenty legs.  He was extremely knowledgeable with just about anything in the jungle.  I brought my snorkel mask along so I could look in the river.  There was a plethora of different species of fish big and small.  After the hike and a horseback ride back we stopped and had lunch at a local's rustic house in the jungle.  Doña Maria prepared the meal for us.  It was a full day!
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Ian talked us into doing a night tour with him.  We decided that we would go even though we had to get up really early the next morning.  We walked along in a creek finding different species of frogs, snakes, and insects.  We were also lucky enough to see two kinkajous which are small nocturnal animals that look like a cross between a cat and a monkey.

Sunday morning we all got up at 5:15 AM because we were going into Corcovado Park.  A thirty minute boat ride took us to the small outpost that is the entrance of the park.  We hiked for four hours and were fortunate enough to see a tapir which is really rare in Costa Rica.  A tapir looks like a jumbo sized pig and an anteater were combined into one creature.  We made our way back home by 4:00 PM because we had Spanish class the next morning.
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    I'm 15 years old.  I like to fish, play soccer, poker and paintball.

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