First Impressions of our House by Sam

This is my favourite photo I've taken so far! A white-throated magpie jay staring at me.

At our new home, there are awesome and strange features, amazing creatures (like hermit crabs the size of a baseball), and crashing waves to be heard all the time. In the next few paragraphs, I will tell you all about these.

There are lots of amazing features at our new home, including a tower with awesome views of the ocean and sunset, the green hills and the jungle all around us. There are huge sliding doors and windows, to provide views of the animals and ocean, and breezes can blow in to keep everything cool.  The house is pretty open concept, with a big open area with a sliding panel instead of a front door.  There's also a small pool, in which you can relax and splash around (actually it's more like a giant bathtub outside, just regular water.) 

Whip scorpion on a mattress in our tool shed.

At our new home, I noticed a few features that need to be fixed.  One of them is the hole of terror. When you are going up the stairs, if you slip and fall, you will plummet into the hole, at which point you will have a collision with the staircase below.  Second, some of the tower's windows are at floor level and are hinged at the top, opening outward. This may not sound nearly as scary, but if you trip and fall, you go flying out the window and onto the garage roof.  Last, the windows in my room need to stay closed, because they are really big and there is nothing to prevent you from falling out! Some of the drawers and doors don't close properly. In case you are starting to be very worried, don't! We have made a list and Dad is very good at making things fixed and safe.

I haven't got a great shot yet, but this is a howler. They sound like monsters!!

There are lots of amazing animals around the house, but some of the most awesome are:

• A troop of howler monkeys swinging in the trees, one carrying a baby on her back
• Geckos on the ceiling and walls
• Gigantic 6 inch red grasshoppers on the windows
• A 9-banded armadillo in the backyard
• A whip scorpion in the shed, which actually looked more like a spider
• A flock of white-throated magpie jays, perched on the deck watching us eat breakfast
• A parakeet nesting in a palm tree and parrots
• A couple of black vultures, circling over the treetops
• Bats darting through the evening air

We need a plant field guide to name all the ones around our house. This one I know is a bird of paradise.

I look forward to exploring the surrounding forest and discovering new trees, plants, and animals.  We plan to cut a path down the hill to the ocean, but I'm a little bit scared of what might be living there! But I'm glad to be in Nosara.