Hasta luego, Costa Rica!

Perfect Guanacaste tree on the drive to the airport

Flying over the Poas volcano

The Ribbinks surprised us by decorating our house when we got home :)

Today is our last day of our whole trip! In the morning Francisco and his wife came and picked us up and drove us to San Jose because that's where we're catching our flight. It took the whole day to get there but it was really  because Francisco had wifi in his car! On the drive we crossed so many bridges and every time there were all these families and Ticos playing in the river and celebrating the New Year. The next morning we got up to catch our flight to Miami which took three hours to get there and then we had another flight to Seattle which took seven hours and we stayed overnight in the same Super 8 hotel that we stayed in at the start of the trip. Then we had a flight to Vancouver which took an hour and then a flight home to Kelowna which took an hour. Nana Mary came and picked us up in her car and when we arrived at our house out neighbors had decorated it! My favorite parts of the trip were: working at the Jaguar Rescue Center, going to camp in Barcelona, meeting a bunch of new people, going to Altea and staying at this super fancy hotel and messing around in the spa, the Gracia festival and our neighborhood in Barcelona, going to the Barcelona vs Rio Madrid soccer match, riding horses up to the waterfall in Monteverde, saving the baby turtle's life in Tortuguero and many more things! I'm sad and happy that our trip is over at the same time. Thank you to everyone who read my blog and I hope you enjoyed reading it! Hasta luego Spain and Costa Rica! 

Happy New Year!

The main road to the village of Santa Marta

DJ did my hair for the celebration

New Year's sparklers

Today is New Year's Eve!!! In the morning, Auntie Aimee, Uncle Jeff and Lenox got packed up and drove off to Liberia to fly home. I'm going to miss them so much! When they left, Dad, Tobin and I walked down to the mini grocery store in Santa Marta. Walking up our big steep hill was so tiring and I wished we could've just driven up it but we don't have a car anymore! Then we swam in the pool until Angus, Dawson and DJ arrived. They are going to be celebrating New Year's with us! When they came Tobin, Dawson and I made a video (it won't be on the blog though because it accidentally got deleted!). For dinner that night we ordered pizza from Pepperoni's which was really yummy! Also since it was New Year's we made these headpiece things for everybody to wear with flowers and leaves from the jungle! Then we lit off the rest of the fireworks and sparklers. I didn't make it until midnight (I made it until 11) even though I jumped in the pool a million times to help me wake up! I can't believe tomorrow's 2013! ¡Feliz año nuevo!

Baby turtles

Mass hatching at Ostional

Baby turtles everywhere!

Later that afternoon at Playa Guiones...more turtles!

Lenox and I join the crowd

Golden rays

Last beach sunset

Turtle eggs in sauce, anyone?

 Today we got up super early and went back one last time to Ostional beach to see if we could find any baby turtles. When we got there we saw a lot of cars and a tour bus so we thought we were in luck. When we got down to the beach we saw a lot of people walking around so we followed them and finally saw a little turtle making its way to the sea. Then all of a sudden a huge nest starting hatching and all these turtles starting coming out of the sand. There were so many, I was afraid I might step on one! All of us had been waiting so long to see them and we finally did today! I was mad because there were some little kids touching the baby turtles which is illegal and can kill them >:(! But it was still an amazing experience. After we came home and watched over Lenox while Auntie Aimee and Uncle Jeff went zip-lining. We walked around the town and went to Playa Guiones. When we got to the beach there was a humongous crowd of people and it turned out there was another nest of turtles hatching, but this time there were only like 4! Also we made a sand castle and watched the sunset which was beautiful. Then Auntie Aimee and Uncle Jeff came back and the parents all went for dinner while Tobin and I watched Lenox. All you have to do is show her hockey then she'll calm down and go to sleep. When the parents came home we went to bed. 

Marching to the sea

A trip on the Rio Nosara

Leading the group up the river

The first picture looks so nice and innocent, but trust me, I took a ton!

Getting crazy with the melon

Mom got into it too!

A great morning on the river

Today we went kayaking on the Rio Nosara. When we got there I decided to do stand-up paddle boarding instead because there weren't enough kayaks and also, it's a lot of fun! We went with three other people and a guide all along the river. It was so shallow because of the earthquake that happened in September. When the earthquake happened it shook the ground and changed the reef. Not only is the water more shallow in some places, the surfing and snorkeling have been affected too. When we were going up the river it got so shallow that my paddle kept scraping the ground! Halfway through our trip we stopped at this little bank on the river and had some watermelon and water. We were looking for crocodiles, but only saw their tracks. Looks like we missed them only by an hour or so! The guide asked me to take some pictures with his camera so I took a whole photo shoot of Dad just eating watermelon! After we went to Cafe de Paris for lunch and swam in the pool. They have the best mango smoothies there! Then we went to the Harmony Hotel to check out their pools. But since we weren't registered guests they kicked us out! So we went home and just hung out at our own pool. For dinner we also just had it at our house and after we went to bed.

Army ants and scorpions...it's a jungle out there!

Some of the army ants outside

Scorpion covered in scorpion babies!

Getting ready to dive

I won the diving game!

Ostional beach

Today I woke up to millions of army ants everywhere outside! You couldn't even see the ground everywhere it was just ants. They were here because they were cleaning the jungle on their way to the ocean. Any time they came across a bug, they would sweep it up and carry it away. They were kind of interesting to watch and after about an hour they were all gone. But because they came it disrupted all the scorpions which made them come everywhere in our backyard! We found seven scorpions all crawling around. Some of them also had babies on their back and it looked so disgusting!!! After we got all the scorpions gone and the ants left we played coin dive in the pool. It's where you put a bunch of coins in the pool and then dive and see now many you can grab in one minute. I always win! Later on we tried again to see the turtles hatching at Ostional beach. Unfortunately no turtles came! For dinner we were going to go to this one restaurant but it was closed. Then we went to this other restaurant but all the people there were mean and didn't talk to us (actually the restaurant was at a weird hippie retreat where everyone has to take a vow of silence). We ended up going to this very nice restaurant at the top of the mountain where I got these really yummy noodle things called spaetzle. When we got home I went to bed. 

Nosara Beach Hotel

Nosara Beach Hotel

Strange mural

Inside the hotel

View from the back

Working on the movie with Mom

Today we went to this scary run-down hotel to film a horror movie trailer! The walls were rotting and paint was chipping off of them, the pool was there but had no water in it, everything was old and crumbling down and in the kitchen there was food that was gross and moldy! It was perfect for our movie! The main plot in the movie is that there's a scary hotel on an isolated beach and a family (me, Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Jeff, Tobin, Auntie Aimee and Lenox) go there and there's something in the hotel that's turning all the children into mad demon kids! When we were filming the movie all of a sudden we heard a bunch of loud barking and two big scary dogs came out and chased us around the house! Following them there was this old man who got mad at us and kicked us out of the hotel! So we left and went down to the beach for a little bit and filmed the rest of our movie there. Then we got home and the grownups went to a restaurant while I watched over Lenox and Tobin. Lenox was screaming when they left but all I had to do was show her a video of hockey and then she stopped crying. When the grownups got home we all went to bed.

Nosara Beach Hotel

Fireworks

Hanging out with Lenox at the beach

Meeting up with the other Woodworths

Today we went back to Playa Avellanas to meet up with Dad's cousin, Angus and his wife, DJ and my second cousin, Dawson who are also in Costa Rica at this time! At the beach we went surfing again with Mauricio! I got a lot surf rash and the end of the board jabbed in my stomach but it was still fun and Mauricio was awesome! Also we went back to eat at Lola's restaurant and saw the giant pig. Lenox totally loves that pig! Since it takes over an hour to drive to the beach and back half of the day we were driving. When we got home we had some dinner and afterwards we let off some humongous fireworks in the jungle. They were like the fireworks you pay to see! They were humongous and lit up the whole sky! Afterwards we went to bed.

Rumble in the jungle