Monkeys, parrots and iguanas - oh my!

Room check was conducted at 9pm sharp last evening and we were pleased to find that the boys had settled in to bed and were all reading (!!!) but none of the girls. ??)  At breakfast they were sharing stories of the various animal sightings and noises overhead during the night.  And there was the howler monkey that had come down and taken the sugar packets which evidently was quite a sight.  A few morning pictures from around the lodge.  You can see we are really roughing it!

After breakfast we waited out a tropical rainstorm and at that moment students understood that we truly DON'T know what a rainy day is in Seattle.  Here in Tortuguero the annual rainfall is 33 FEET!  We spent 60 minutes on a canal tour looking at bats, a sloth, spiders, lizards, macaws, iguanas and spider monkeys.  The spider monkeys put on quite a show for the kids with their acrobatics between the trees.

We moved the school visit to the local town because today Friday is the final day of school before they head out on break for 2 weeks.  (The school year here is February through December.). We arrived at school to find the students (5th thru 8th grade) challenging our group to a soccer match.  Within 30 minutes we were down by 3-10.  The locals played barefoot, while our kids were split some barefoot others not.  The combination of mud and sand leaves a picture that speaks for itself.  We called the game when one of our players (the same boy who had scored our 3 goals) kicked the ball thru the souvenir shop window next door.  The school will have the ball returned later today after we reimburse the store for their loss.  The funniest part of this is that as the window shattered the Ticos scattered as they feared being blamed.

After lunch it was back to the village.  We did a small yet meaningful service project of garbage pick up on the beach.  Students (and chaperones) spread out in 2's to bag garbage items that were strewn along the beach.  After our beach cleaning students had free time in town which consists of about two blocks of stores and homes nestled along the black sand.  A few pictures of that outing follow.

Our fearless guide Jorge!

Tomorrow we are headed to the home stays.  Blog updates at that time will be less regular.  Don't forget to tune in Sunday to the Costa Rica match vs. Greece.  The soccer fever is everywhere and students will surely experience this like never before.