Glass Frogs (Amanda)

Glass Frogs live in Costa Rica. They are usually a lime green colour with a see-through belly, but some are completely see-through. You can see their organs through their bodies if you flip them upside down. They are about 3 to 7.5 cm (1.2 to 3 in) long. The frogs lay their eggs on leaves that hang over moving water, so that when the eggs hatch the tadpoles fall into the river. They sometimes protect their eggs until the eggs hatch. On the other hand, Glass Frogs have been known to eat their young. Some of the different kinds of Glass Frogs that live in Costa Rica are the Fleischmann’s Glass Frog, the Powdered Glass Frog and the Bare-hearted Glass Frog.

We love birds...

One of our big reasons for going to Costa Rica is that we love birds, and there are probably more kinds of birds in Costa Rica than almost anywhere else on the earth.  With the help of a local guide, we hope to see many kinds of birds in a variety of habitats.

We are also excited to spend some time with our son-in-law and two grand-kids!  Some of the activities they have chosen sound a little scary - like zip lining through the top of the forest.  That should be fun, but I bet we'll be going too fast to get a good look at the birds.  On the other hand, we might zip right by one, which would be very cool!

Fer-de-lance (Amanda)

The Fer-de-lance is a snake that lives in Costa Rica. It is a highly venomous snake that is usually between 4-7 feet long. It is a light beige or brown colour and has distinct triangle shapes on its back. It has long fangs and a high venom production. It is the most poisonous snake in all of Central America. Some people even call it the three step snake, because if the bite is bad the bitten person only makes it about that far. It lives in quite a few parts of Costa Rica, but it especially likes banana farms because of all the mice. The Fer-de-lance eats mice and other small rodents when it's young and eats bigger mammals when it's older. The really big snakes sometimes eat small birds. When it is annoyed, the Fer-de-lance vibrates its tale and then sometimes strikes. Mother snakes give birth to live young instead of eggs, and can give birth to any number between 10-80 young.

Super Happy to Go (Ben)

I am super happy to go to Costa Rica because I will get to go on zip lines, learn Spanish, go to a volcano, try out the new way of not wiping but washing your bum when finished on the toilet (yes I know it’s weird), and try new foods. But that’s not the half of it. I'll also get to go to the rain forest and see toucans, scarlet macaws, and maybe even a quetzal. I’ll get to go to the Gold Museum in San José. Did I mention that the volcano I’m visiting will be active (Ya I know freaky right?)? I hope to get a picture while I’m there.

See you at San José
Ben

Excited To Go (Amanda)

I'm excited to go to Costa Rica because:

-It is a whole new country
-It's full of cool plants and animals
-It has different cultures then us to learn about
-People there usually speak Spanish
-It has rain forests, volcanoes and parks to explore
-It's warmer there then it is here in Vancouver
-We get to go see where they grow coco beans to make chocolate
-We get to try Costa Rican food
-We get to go zip lining

We are going on a tour that takes us to see some of these things, but I am especially excited about going zip lining because I've never been zip lining before, and I'm curious to see up in the trees. I'm also exited to go see one of the active volcanoes. I've been trying to learn a bit of Spanish but it's pretty hard. I'm excited to see some of the plants and animals and I'm especially excited to see the different birds. There are some creepy things there in Costa Rica, like this snake called the lance-de-fer which is very, VERY poisonous so I hope we never see one. We are going to be staying in San Jose which is the capital of Costa Rica.