Capuchin Monkeys

We were playing at the beach and some monkeys came in some trees and some people had Ritz crackers and the monkeys stole the Ritz. And one got the whole bag of Ritz crackers. They were cuties! They were black and their heads were all white. Do you know why? You should know why. Because they’re also called white-faced monkeys. No wonder they have a white face.

The Sloth

We were walking to the beach in Manuel Antonio National Park and there were tons of guides walking. One person showed us a bat, but it wasn’t hanging upside down. It was sitting on a tree trunk. And then they said that there was a sloth down low, and we could see it good. We even could see it with the binoculars. It was the Three-Toed Sloth – not the Two-Toed but the Three-Toed. And its back was like a pattern, a line with dots on each side. It was black and brownish and a little bit greenish. This is a picture of it moving from one trunk to another.

The Squirrel Monkeys

We were playing in the pool right after the family Olympics and Holly spotted rustling leaves. And then she saw the monkeys! Dad threw a banana at them and it fell down the hill. And one monkey jumped down and tried to get it, and we think he got it. They went on our roof. They went on the bamboo palm trees. They are small and like cuties! They look like the capuchins (or white-faced monkeys) but they’re mostly white and reddish-brownish. The squeaking noise on the videos is the sound the monkeys make.

The Kayaking Trip

We were at Iguana Lodge and we were going to do a kayaking trip. We had a cool car going there. There was a little puny half-car in front, and then in the back a little bit of green covering but it was outside mostly with rubberish benches. When we were going we saw the bird that I really wanted to see. A ROSEATE SPOONBILL!!! At least three of them. They were in a swampy area with some cattle egrets I think. And the roseate spoonbills are the only pink birds in Costa Rica.

So when we got there, we introduced ourselves and met Adriana, our guide. Then we had to sign papers to know what we should do. I was with Dad in one kayak, Mom and Grace were in the other kayak, and Adriana was in her own kayak. Our kayak was blue. My paddle was yellow.

We started our kayak kind of in the ocean, and then we got to a river where there might be crocodiles, but not ferocious ones. We learned about mangrove trees, we even felt the seed - it's like a mouth and has a curly thing like a tongue in it -- it's like a clam with a tongue. There is white mangrove, two kinds of red mangrove and we think black mangrove.

The first animal we saw was the Ctenosaur or Black Iguana. In Spanish it's called Garrobo. Then we kept kayaking till we got to a little sandy place. A crocodile had been lying there before we got there. We knew because of the mark it made in the sand. And we saw a sandpiper there. And up above us we saw frigate birds and one brown pelican flying with them.

We kept on kayaking. Then we saw more mangroves and then we saw three white birds with an orange beak -- they were White Ibises. They were up in a mangrove tree. But then they flew away. We kept on kayaking. Then we got to a mangrove branch and a bird was climbing up it. It was a Green Heron, but it doesn't look so green. Then we kept on kayaking. We saw more mangroves and then Adriana said we should look for the Great Kiskadee because she heard it. So we looked and we saw one a little bit more on. Then we kept on kayaking for a little bit and a little bit more. We got kind of deep in the forest. She said that there were monkeys ahead and I thought they were Howler Monkeys, but they weren't. They were White-Faced Monkeys or called Capuchins. We saw a mama capuchin with a baby and lots of just usual white-faced monkeys.

Then we got a little out of the thick forest -- more sun came in and there were less trees. And she said that there was a snake. I could hardly even find it. It looked like a fruit sitting up in the tree. I saw it, but I just thought it was a fruit or a twisted up branch. It was a Tree Boa. But it was sleeping -- at least I'm pretty sure it was sleeping.

Then we went a little bit farther and then we turned around. And we went back. Adriana said that there was a crocodile. Mama saw a tiny bit of the tail. We just saw the ripples. They're very shy. It kind of freaked us because it went under where we were kayaking. It was an American Crocodile. Not one of the weird kind of Caimans. And then we kept on going and we saw lots of roots. She said that there was a lizard. It was all brown. Adriana knew that it was a lizard because it had a spiky back and a tail and a head. It was a Jesus Christ Lizard -- also called a Basilisk. But we didn't see it run on water -- only Dad did -- really fast. I thought that it could stand on water too, but it can't. Because it runs really fast.

And then we kept on going to where the sand and sand piper was, and there was a little path to where the ocean started and we got a tiny break. And I had a granola bar, and Grace did too. And Adriana laughed a lot. We pulled the kayaks over to the ocean. Then she said that everybody got one wave. When we got our wave, it wasn't such a good wave, so when we got in I was sitting in a bath tub in the kayak. We kept on going to where there was a big line of birds -- big birds, medium birds and small birds. There were Willets, Whimbrels and Sand Pipers. It was really hard to kayak on the ocean. Dad's back started to hurt. The waves were big and the wind was strong. And when he said that his back was hurting, I said that he should keep paddling, because that's how we could get to the end faster. But he still took a little rest. He said that he didn't want to do that.


When we got back to where we started, Adriana had a coconut with her, but we didn't eat any of it. There was a little storage place in her kayak where she pulled out a pineapple. And then she pulled out a knife. She said that it was just like pulling out a rabbit. So we had a refreshing snack of pineapple and I had a granola bar too. And that was our kayak adventure. And then we walked back to where the taxi dropped us off and it took a little while for the cab to get there and then we rode back to Iguana Lodge.

The End.

What we thought was a monkey

We are on the Osa Peninsula. Mommy and Daddy saw something from our porch. They thought it was a monkey, then they thought it was a raccoon. Then I saw it and thought it was a bird. Mommy went to get the naturalist. He said what it was -- a Laughing Falcon eating a snake. The snake hanging down confused Mommy and Daddy. They thought it was a long tail. The falcon has black and white stripes on its tail. It looks like it has a mask with black around its eyes. I want to see it again.

The Black Vulture

We see them flying in circles, they're all black, they're not a dove, not a turkey, not a seagull, not a roseate spoonbill, not a falcon, not a turkey vulture. It is... A BLACK VULTURE!!!! We see them on the beach. These are pictures that we took.

White-winged Dove

We've seen this all the time. A white-winged dove. With white on the wing. With white on the other wing. It calls like a mourning dove, ooh-ooh.

Baby Turtles

In the hatchery there were lots of baby turtles and eggs. Four nests hatched in the hatchery. Little tiny cute baby sea turtles. We had to count them and then put them in a bucket. Then bring them close to the sea, take them out one by one and they crawl to the sea. Cute little dudies. There is a baby turtle in front of me in the picture.

Groups of Brown Pelicans

We see lots of groups of birds flying over the sea. And over where we eat too. Brown Pelicans.

The Hawk Moth

I spotted some hummingbirds sucking the nectar from some yellow flowers. It was right before dusk. They had longy long long tongues. They weren't hummingbirds. They were hawkmoths.

The Walking Stick

Grace spotted a stick. A walking stick, meaning a stick that walked. It's brown. Camouflaged on the wall. It's a buggish insect.

That Turtle

We are at Camaronal. We were doing our job of helping with the turtles. Instead of getting the eggs of some, we saw her lay the eggs. They look like golf balls. And we saw one of the eggs today. It was an Olive Ridley turtle.

PS Does anyone know why the picture looks red?

Buggy, Bug, Bugs

We've seen the leaf-cutter ants, that you will know from my blog, mosquitos, bees, pretty colored beetles, butterflies including blue morpho, moths and things that look like cockroaches or BIG beetles. Mostly we see ants and butterflies. Moths and ants are in our bathroom, and once a big bug. This is a bug we saw walking one night.

Ants Nest

Here is the picture of the nest of the leaf cutter ants that me and Carolyne found.

The lizard that was in the bathroom

When I opened the door of the bathroom (I mean that Mommy opened the door of it) a lizard was up there. It jumped down onto the floor when we opened the door. It almost went on my head. This is what it looked like.

The Big Frog

Mommy spotted a frog. It was really raining. Me and Carolyne closed the doors to the kitchen so the frog would not go in. It jumped into the stream where the turtle lives. We think it was a Marine Frog.

Green Kingfisher in Quebrada Culebra

In Quebrada Culebra (it's this really twisty stream by Dorati Lodge) there's a branch sticking out on the wrong side that we see, and it had a kingfisher. It was a Green Kingfisher but it looked black.

The Little Hermit

We sat at the usual table that we eat at when we eat lunch. Mom saw a hummingbird. It was a Little Hermit, because we looked it up in the book. We had to use their book and it's way bigger, like Nana's. It seemed really small, but not as small as a bee one. It had stripes by its eye -- black and white.

The Black Frog

Me and Carolyne, when we were following the trail of ants, we found a black with green and white and yellow spots on it and it was a frog. It kind of looked like this, but it was on black cement.

Following the Trail of the Leaf Cutter Ants

We saw leaf cutter ants and they climbed up a tree so they can get the leaves. Carolyne and I followed their whole trail to their nest, and it's a really long way. It looks just like a usual old ant hill but it's just so big and it looks like it's made of dirt, and there's a big hole going down into the ground.

Those green spots on the trunk are the leaves the ants are carrying.


P.S. They have their own road.

More about the loud noise

This is a movie of it.

PS -- Our roof is made of tin so it's really loud.

The Pretty Turtle (for Raquel)

(This is also for other people to read, not just Raquel.)
We see it just like the Cinnamon Hummingbird and the Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird in the little stream when we eat or go there to play games.

Rufous-naped Wren

We saw it in a bush. There's a lot of them around and we saw them lots of places too.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Every morning we see the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird but we thought it was the Cinnamon Hummingbird. Now we know. He likes to hang out where we're eating. His beak is red with white & black on the tip.

The Mystery of the Blue Morpho

When we were watching some boys play soccer, we saw a BIG butterfly. We didn't know what it was at first, but then Mommy said that it was a Blue Morpho. And it was. It's brown on the underside but you can only see that when its wings go up. We read that they aren't really blue but the sunlight makes their wings look blue. But we don't know what color they really are. That's the mystery.

Howler Monkey

We came back from town and we were about to go in our casita when we heard a loud kind of piggish noise. Dad went over and he called us over and then we saw the Howler Monkeys. They were really really loud. I think there were 3 or 4 including a baby.

The Loud Noise

We were all asleep and there was a big crash! Mom jumped out of bed because she thought I had fallen out of bed. But I was still sleeping in bed. It was a zapote that fell out of the tree. Or maybe a howler monkey threw it on our casita!?!

Leaf Cutter Ants

We were walking to our casita and before this big bump in the road there was a big group of leaf cutter ants. Some were even carrying leaves. It was dark, but we were walking with flashlights and so we saw them. There were some very big ones. The green things are the pieces of leaves they are carrying. And the blurry brown part underneath is the ant. This is the picture that we took.

Scarlet Macaw

We were at the bus stop and there were tons of trees. I think there were 13 Scarlet Macaws. And also there were Howler Monkeys. Like 6 of them. This is the picture we took.

Cattle Egret

We were driving to our house, and we saw a herd of cows. The cattle egrets were helping scratch their backs. They were very pretty.

Cinnamon Hummingbird

We sit at a table and we usually see a Cinnamon Hummingbird where we eat. It is very pretty.

White Throated Magpie Jay

I saw the White Throated Magpie Jay walking home from the park in Hojancha. It looked like a blue jay when we saw it. It's call is really loud, it sounded like wuoa wuoa wuoa.