School For Young Blood

By Parker

It was at 4 am that I got up. I heard “red, red, red, red”. I did not know what it was. So I went downstairs to check in. I felt really scared so I checked in with my mom. She said it was just a frog. I explained it sounded like a robot and fire alarm. She said, climb into my bed and cuddle with me until 5 am.

At 5 am, I went to go look for frogs in the pool. But I noticed I didn’t have my headlamp so I went up to get it. And I came back down, looked for frogs, but there was none. So, I played with my sister, and it was very fun.

We both looked for frog eggs in the pool. There were more than 29, I thought. Then we went swimming with our boogie boards in the pool. We stayed in the shade because mom said don’t go in the sun, because we would get a sunburn.

Then mom and dad got us out of the pool to drive to a beach where they said we might be able to catch a wave on our boogie boards. We saw white faced capuchins on the way there. They are a monkey and if you show your teeth it is a sign of disrespect and they will grit their teeth back at you. And that is a sign of bad luck.

Me and my sissy were playing in the car. We got out when we got to the beach. I went into the water and jumped the waves with my mom. And once we did that, I got out my boogie board, I boogied the waves. I got drenched and sandy, I had to wash off.

When we got home, they were cleaning out the pool and before they cleaned we saw baby tadpoles and I caught some and they are still out. They are so cute. They were really tricky to catch.

After that, I took a nap in the hammock. I napped for 30 minutes actually. When I got up, me and my sister went to play with stuffies. Then we went down to the beach to see the turtles be released.

First, we went in this little thing that was protecting so the birds couldn’t get in. After we went in, we got to a spot where we started digging. We were trying to dig for baby turtles and the eggs that they came from. We dug them up, we found two baby sea turtles that had hatched but hadn’t been able to get out to be released. They were adorable.

After we saw them, we brought the eggs and separated them into ones that were already cracked and ones that weren’t cracked. We cracked ones that weren’t already cracked and some had this yolk stuff that meant they hadn’t been fertilized. The other baby sea turtles didn’t have the time, and they were still in the shell, and they were already dead.

Then, we got to release the baby turtles. After we released the turtles, I was playing in the waves and a big wave came to get me and I got drenched and very sandy. Then we went to an oasis to wash me off. It was cool and warm at the same time.

Then we saw the sunset. It was boring for us. We went back to the house, had dinner, typed up our blog, and that is where we are now.

By Taylor

In the early morning, thunder and lightening were at my window, and the waves sounded like a hurricane when they reached the shore. There was a sound like an alarm that kept saying “red, red, red.” I learned later that it was a frog. It had laid a ton of eggs in the swimming pool. Ugh!

We had a really nice breakfast, then my sister and I took our boogie boards into the pool. We stayed there for an hour playing, but then we had to drain out the pool, and we found tadpoles! Then we got ready to go to the town and the beach. There were a few river crossings. When we were driving along, we saw monkeys right beside the road. They were white faced capuchins.

Then we drove to the beach. At first I was scared of the waves. Then Dude (my grandfather) helped me learn that the roller waves are not so bad and you can just glide over the top. The water was so warm it wasn’t relaxing. It was as warm as a tub after it has been sitting for 10 minutes. The bottom was sandy and comfortable. The top of the water was the blue you see as a crayon in a coloring set.

We went to town and got some groceries, then we drove home. I saw a squirrel monkey on the side of the road. We have now seen all four types of monkeys in Costa Rica.

When we got home, we had a delicious lunch and a siesta. Then we went down to the beach to help release some green sea turtles. First we went into a cool little shelter that had netting all around it. There was sand inside with turtle eggs buried inside. Our guide came to a particular spot and started digging the sand up. He found two baby sea turtles and a lot of unhatched eggs. Then we went outside to a particular spot and we separated the loose shells from the untracked eggs. We counted both, I don’t know why. Then we had to crack open the uncracked eggs. My sister didn’t like this process. A lot of the eggs were just yoke. But three of them were going to hatch. One was in stage one, one was in stage three, and one was in stage four. Stages are how much growth the turtle had inside the egg.

Then we went back and dug up another nest. This time there were no baby turtles, only cracked eggs and whole eggs. We went to the same spot, and separated the cracked eggs and the uncracked eggs. There were three uncracked eggs. Two were as small as pills. And one only had a turtle at stage five inside. We counted them all again.

We took the baby turtles and each person got to put one out and watch it race to the surf. They were so cute. Then Parker was playing in a wave, and boom, she went under. She was OK, but pretty sandy. We washed off in the oasis on the beach and headed home. My parents decided to stop and watch the sunset.

Finally we went up, and when we got to the top, Parker and I were out of breath and wanted water. We asked Grace for some water, and she gave it to us. We had a delicious dinner, and fell asleep.

By Parker

After breakfast, we had to pack a lunch for the tour. We were going to see dolphins and other things. We drove out to the dock. It felt very crowded. Not like shoulders are bumping crowded, but eventually, we got on our boat and saw the other family there. There was a mom, there was a brother, and there was a little girl named Taiga. It was a nice name.

Once we got on board, me and Taiga were talking on the top deck. She told me that her dad had died when she was 6, three years ago. Her dad died from diabetes. He had it for one day and then died in the night. I thought it was a really sad story. I was barely crying by then. She told me her favorite color, her favorite animal. Her favorite animal was dolphins. And then, we saw a dolphin pod! I was already on the deck so I took the most famous spot. Then we saw the dolphins swimming under our boat, around our boat, and then they were gone.

Two minutes later, they were back. Swimming and jumping all around us. Twenty minutes later, we got off the boat to see the animal sanctuary. The people said you can take pictures and stuff, blah blah blah like that. Then they let us in to see the Scarlett Macaws. The keeper fed them grapes. They didn’t come out of their hiding. They had three eggs. One was not going to survive they thought.

So we went to the next animal. Then we saw the cute, little, adorable Tayra. It was so cute that I could barely resist myself. I wanted to feed it, so they let us feed it raw meat. The story of the Tayra was… I totally forgot by now. Anyway, after the Tayra, we went to see the Kinkajous. It was very tired, so it didn’t want to eat the food. But there was another one who was awake and she ate the cantaloupe beautifully.

After that, we went to see the parrots. The parrots said “there’s a monkey in the kitchen, help, help!” It was very weird. Then we went to see the Ocelot. It was sleeping at first. It was so cute. But then it woke up and started making this weird sound. They said it was because their mate was ready to be released back into the wild. But she was not. And she let off the smell that let him know that she was ready to make babies with him. She was really excited. When she saw that he wasn’t there, she started getting angry and anxious.

After that, we went to see the Peccary. It was weird. It looked a lot like a pig. It went “snort” mostly. After them, we went to see the white faced capuchins. You couldn’t show your teeth, it was a sign of aggression. After we saw the capuchins, we went to see the last thing — a sloth, which I hated because they didn’t really do anything.

Then we went back to our boat. Which went to take us snorkeling. Everybody went to snorkel, but Taylor and Dude. I got bored of snorkeling, so I stopped. I went to play with Taylor and Dude. Taiga joined us. We played and played until we got tired. We got back on the boat and ate a snack. Then we sailed back to the dock and got out, got in our car, and drived and drived and drived back to our house.

It was pouring rain, so we took a shower in the rain. Then I went upstairs and water was leaking into our bedroom. Dude and mama cleaned it up. Then we went downstairs and typed up on our blog.

By Taylor

Most of the morning we played games while grown ups went on hikes. We had breakfast. We got in the pool. It was too cold for me, so I got out. Parker was lonely so she got out. My dad and my mom went out to the beach. Me and my sister and my grandparents stayed here. We played a new game and me and my sister played it again. We came over and cuddled with Dude, then we went out to play in the hammocks.

After a while, we got bored of it, so we played the card game “Five Crowns”. Our mom and dad got back. They had found macaw feathers and turtle eggs on their walk at the beach. We had lunch, it was delicious. Then it was siesta time.

First we learned a new game called Hanabi. It was fun. Then me and Parker got bored. Really bored. My sister went swimming…again! We watched her until Babe came back. She brought news that people invited her to a turtle release. A turtle release is where they release the turtles onto the sand and they waddle out into the water.

We started driving to it, and then there was a river in the middle of the road. We drove right through it. We couldn’t find out where the turtle release was happening. Until we came to this soccer place to ask for help. Then we saw tons and tons of leaf cutter ants in rows on the ground.

And up in the trees, monkeys! Tons of them! We watched them for a lot, but then we heard deep rumbling noise. It went on, but we walked and found a girl who played against my dad in a soccer game, named Rachel. She was very fun and told us the deep grumbling noise was the howler monkeys.

She invited to text us so we could go to another turtle release. She thinks the eggs are leatherback turtles. They haven’t hatched here for 10 years! Then we went back to the car. We drove for a while and then we stopped. There were howler monkeys right over the top of our car. We watched them for a while and then we went to the house where we were staying. It was dinner time when we came back.

We ate dinner and we went upstairs to brush our teeth and everything. We came back down and wrote this blog.

By Parker

After breakfast today, we played “Five Crowns” for three rounds. After we got bored of playing that game, we played “Oregon Trail” card game. It’s where you die and stay alive, but there are cards that say “snake bite — you die.” After we got bored of that, we went in the pool. After that, we got very bored and were asking our grandparents to play Oregon Trail with us. No one died. My name was Rambling Rose. Taylor’s name was Kasha. Mom’s name was Break Apart Girl. That’s a funny name, isn’t it? Well, anyway…

After the card game, we went in the pool again. I was still in my bathing suit, from when we last went in the pool. Then we played more card games and more and more. Until it was lunch time. Before lunch, mom and dad had gone on a walk in the beach and found Macaw feathers. I put them on my walking stick. They looked pretty.

Anyway, we had lunch then. After lunch, we played “Hanabi” — it was very fun. While mom and dad took naps we played with cute, new stuffy owl dolls. They were adorable. Then I went in the pool AGAIN.

Babe and dad got back from their hike at the beach and they had news to share. There were turtle eggs hatching and going to be released into the ocean in 20 minutes. We had to get there fast, but we didn’t know where to go, so we had to get help. We weren’t going to make it. So we went to this place and we saw monkeys in the trees. Mom said there were lots of ants so she put me on her back.

Then, we heard howler monkeys and we went to talk to a person who dad played soccer with. Her name was Rachel. I thought it was a pretty name. We saw a trail of leaf cutter ants. Then we went back to the car. On the drive back, we saw howler monkeys, and we heard them first. They made a terrible screeching sound like a backwards burp. We call them the BB monkeys.

Then we drove back and had dinner. Then we went up stairs, got ready, put our PJs on, and came downstairs to write our blog. And that’s where we are now.

By Parker

First, I woke up. I felt drowsy. It was 5 AM. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t. Macaws were screaming outside and it felt warm. Me and my sister were going to play, and eventually we decided to play. Our game was romantic, scary, and a little bit sad. After that, we went downstairs seeing that we could have breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, toast and a bit of bacon. I liked the toast most.

Then we got ready for our hike to the beach with the waterfall. But Juan, our guide, said there was a boa constrictor in his trash can. So we walked over and looked in his trash can. The boa was making a hissing sound. After we saw the snake, which was creepy to me and I didn’t want to touch it at all, I went to go on the hike.
We walked down the path, which was long, exhausting and weird. I was talking with Taylor, we were talking about our fears. My fear was hermit crabs. Once we got down to the beach, I saw a hermit crab and I picked it up and named it Kermit and dropped him in my hat. I thought that Kermit would feel very hot in the hat so I put my hand over him. But after a while, I got tired and let him go. But then, I saw TONS of hermit crabs and picked up exactly 20. They were crawling in my hat.

Once we got to a little oasis, mom, dad, and Juan jumped in and got drenched. I stuck my feet in. The water was coldish-warm and it was very very hot outside. We did a lot of walking, we came to a little stream that Juan said to walk up (in Spanish). It sounded weird. My feet felt so good in the little stream. Once we did some walking, we saw a monkey up in a tree near the waterfall.

Then, dude accidentally tripped, but not all the way, like stubbed toe tripped. We kept on walking until we came to this part where we had to walk up. Juan went up first to help us up. I didn’t trip at all. Juan carried me over the hard parts. And then, I was absolutely astonished once we got to the waterfall. First, my mom did it. She took a shower in the waterfall. Then, Juan did. Then Babe, then dad. I was a little bit nervous so I stuck my foot in it. So I held mom’s hand when i went in, it felt cold, a bit warm, and it felt like hail a lot. I went in the waterfall five times. It felt good on the walk back.

Once we hiked up to our house I was terribly hot. I immediately got on my bathing suit and jumped in the pool. It felt refreshing and nice on your feet. I threw a rock into the pool. It made a kerplunk. Then I dived in after it, catching it in mid-fall, three times. Then I got out. I was now ready, and I dried off for lunch. For lunch, we had chicken, tortillas, and avocado. I had my tortilla with butter. It tasted sweet, but not too sweet.

After lunch it was quiet time. Me and my sissy went out to play. It was hot on the walk out. The stones to walk out to where we were going to play were hot. We ran. But the place was too hot where we were going to play. We played in a different place. It was cool and in the shade.

After a long time of playing, we got tired and asked Dad if we could go in the swimming pool. He said, “all right” and we went in. Once I did a lot of swimming, Dude came in and taught me how to swim a little bit. He said, put half of your head under water with your eyes closed, then the other side. But after that, he taught me that after you go underwater, he taught me to come up and blow out of your mouth and nose and you won’t get water in them. That was a good lesson for the day.

Then my mom said we had to go in for showers. We cooperated. The shower felt warm on my skin. It almost felt like it tingling almost. Then we went to have dinner with our friends. They spoke Spanish. I couldn’t know what they were saying. So I just listened anyways.

After dinner, I sat on the couch to type my blog with my mother. And that’s where I am now. If you want to know more, I’ll tell you tomorrow what we’re doing. Goodbye.

By Taylor

Today was a big day. In the morning our guide, Juan, who lives here invited us on a tour to a water fall. Our guide showed us to a trash can, when we looked inside it, there was a Boa Constrictor that made a sound like “hiiiiiii”, a hissing sound.

We first went down to the sand and there was one oasis, and oasis is a giant puddle of water on the beach. We walked, and walked, and walked. It was so hot, the sun was beating down and it was hard. Then we came to another oasis. My parents and the guide jumped in and started swimming with their clothes on. I just dipped my feet.

We hiked on, and on, it was so hot. We just walked and walked until we came to another oasis. Then the guide told us to go behind the oasis down to the stream. I walked in the stream and most of the others too. Then we saw a spider monkey up in the trees. We walked through the river until we came to the water fall. We climbed up rocks so we could get to the middle of the waterfall. The rocks were slippery, it was kind of hard, but we did it. Then we took showers in the waterfall, all but me. We played in there for a while then we went down to the beach again. The hot sun beat down on us again. We had to wear shoes, or the hot sand would burn our feet.

We came to the second oasis that we had been to. Then this time everybody jumped in with their clothes on and started swimming, except for my dad who was off at the other point when we started swimming.

Finally, he came and we were all ready to go on. We walked on the hot sand. I was walking alone for a while until my dad caught up with me. We walked along the tree line and it was much better than being by the waves. It was fun walking with my dad.

Finally we came to the last oasis, 35 steps and we were at the trail to head up to the house. We came in, it was so hot, we decided to jump into the pool. We swam, and swam, and swam. My dad needed to go to soccer, but we still swam. We swam for an hour longer. Then mom told us we had to go in for showers. We did it and then we played a game, 5 crowns. Then it was time for dinner, we had a nice dinner then we went to bed.

By Parker

First I woke up at 3am. We had breakfast of eggs and toast. I barely ate the eggs neither the toast.

Then we went to a cab and it took us to the airport. We met our grandparents, Dude & Babe, at the airport. Then we boarded on our plane and we went to go fly, but…. A windshield wiper wasn’t working so they had to get a new one and it took an hour!

Then we finally got on the plane and flew. Once we came to LA we got on another plane that was going to fly to Costa Rica and we flew to Costa Rica. Once we flew to Costa Rica, we went to an airport where we landed. Then we drove to a hotel. The hotel was roomy and it felt like there was a stink in the air, but it was alright. We got on the elevator and went to our room. Then we put our stuff down got on another bus which was smelling very, very, bad and got to this restaurant. My food came very early was sweet, but a tiny bit sour, but it was alright. But my mom said don’t watch that TV and made me switch seats. Then we got back in the same cab, which smelled, it felt cramped. And I couldn’t wait of start my day tomorrow. I felt very excited. We were going on a puddle jumper to Puerto Jimenez.

We got on the puddle jumper which felt more cramped than the bus. Then we got off the puddle jumper. It was so sandy and hot. Then we drove to the car rental place which had air conditioning and we went off in the very hot weather to go to the grocery store. My dad was back at the car rental place going to get our car. Then he picked us up and we had gotten mixed up because we went to the wrong market. Dad in our new rental car took us to the right grocery store. We bought a loooooot of groceries. Then we got back in the car. I had to sit on mom’s lap. Then we drove, and drove, and drove. We got to our house and we had this yummy lunch. We went down to the beach and I got water in my shoes. Then I came back up from the beach. It felt like a long hike.

After that me and my sister went to play. And then my mom said we had to write a blog and that is what we are doing right now.

By Taylor

We were going to Costa Rica. We had to get up at 3 AM to catch our flight at 5 AM. At least our taxi driver was nice. We were getting on a plane and we’d all boarded and suitcases were on and we started going and we stopped. They had to fix the windshield wipers…seriously! Then, it took seven hours. We finally got to Costa Rica. When we were driving to our hotel, people did not stop for stop signs and it is much different and unsafe driving compared to Portland.

We had to stay in a hotel overnight. In the morning, we took a little plane over to Puerto Jimenez. We got on the plane, it was so wonderful to see. It was like riding over a giant map of the world.

When we went through clouds, it was all white and then we suddenly saw everything again.

When we got to Puerto Jimenez, we went to the little town there and we found a little grocery store, but it wasn’t the real grocery store we needed. So we went to a big grocery store. It was so hot, we were sweating. Then we started driving after we got the things we needed. It was gravel roads, up steep hills, and the road went over giant rivers and the tress are so beautiful. And there are animals all over. It took a 40 minute drive to the house where we are staying. It is surrounded by jungle and we have seen tons of macaws.

Me and my little sister have made a secret hideout and are planning fun games in it. We got our own bedroom up a spiral staircase.

They also have a giant pool and an ocean you could walk to.

At the ocean, there were these giant waves that swept one of my grandmother’s shoes and we found it in a big pond. The waves were so strong, if we got close enough, it could sweep a full grown man away. And I was running when the wave was coming. My mother was scared for me because she thought I wouldn’t make it to shore, but I did, just in time.

It is so great being here. I love it. Bats have been flying through our house with no walls.