Los Animales del Bosque Tropical Húmedo

¡Hola mis amigos!

One of my favorite things about Costa Rica is that there are so many different animals to see. One weekend we took a trip to a small town called Uvita, which is on the Pacific coast. Here is our first look at the Pacific Ocean as we drove to Uvita:

Because we are so much closer to the equator, the water here is very warm, and my kids swam in the ocean all day long. There are also many small rivers that run from the tall mountains straight down to the ocean, and we did some exploring there — including wading across a pretty deep one! This river is shallow right now, but later it will have enough water pushed back into it from the ocean to allow the boat to float back into town:

In addition to enjoying a day at the beach, we also took a hike through the rainforest with a guide. He pointed out many animals along the way — ones that we might not even have noticed without the guide's help. Because it was so rainy in the rainforest, I couldn't take my own pictures of all the animals we saw. Instead, I found some photos on the internet of all the cool creatures we met on our hike. I used those pictures to make a video for you:

If you would like to check your understanding of the Spanish video, or just want to learn more about each animal, click HERE to read more about them in English. 

The last thing we did in Uvita was hike up to a waterfall:

This waterfall has a cool, clear pool among the rocks. Some people climb up and use the waterfall as a natural waterside, but we just jumped in off of the rocks: 

It was a cool, refreshing swim!

I hope you are having a great summer vacation and getting to do some swimming of your own!

El Dinero de Costa Rica

¡Hola amigos!

El dinero de Costa Rica es muy diferente. Tiene muchos colores diferentes, y también hay personas famosas y animales especiales. Vamos a hablar más del dinero en inglés. Mira:

The bills in Costa Rica are not all the same size. Instead, the bill worth the most money is the longest, and each one down the line that is worth less is a bit shorter. If you were blind, you could still easily figure out how to pay for something at the store by feeling the bills — something that we can't do in the United States. My first picture is missing one of the bills, but I added it below. It belongs between the red and yellow bills in order:

The currency in Costa Rica is called the colón, which is named for the famous explorer Cristóbal Colón (in English, Christopher Columbus). A single colón isn't worth very much money, so the bills are quite large. Here's what each is worth:

anaranjado: 20,000 (veinte mil)

verde: 10,000 (diez mil)

amarillo: 5,000 (cinco mil)

azul: 2,000 (dos mil)

rojo: 1,000 (mil)

It takes about 500 colones to equal $1 of US money. Now that you know that, can you do some matemáticas to figure out how much each bill in the photo is worth in U.S. dollars? (The answers will be at the bottom in small print for you to check your thinking.)

As you can already tell, the money in Costa Rica is very colorful. The backs are more interesting than the fronts, though, because they each have a picture of a different animal native to Costa Rica:

20 mil: el colibrí (hummingbird)

10 mil: el perezoso (sloth)

5 mil: el mono (monkey)

2 mil: el tiburón (shark)

1 mil: el venado (deer)

There are also six different coins in Costa Rica, which are worth less than the paper bills:

These coins are also different sizes--the bigger the coin, the more it's worth. The smallest is worth 5 colones, and from there it goes up to 10, 25, 50, 100, and 500. The front of the coins mostly just have the number, while the backs are all the same:

Do you recognize this symbol? It is sometimes also on Costa Rica's flag.

Remembering that it takes 500 colones to equal $1, can you figure out how much each coin is worth in U.S. dollars (or cents)?

Bonus question: If I had one of each bill and one of each coin from Costa Rica, how many colones would I have? How much would it be worth in U.S. dollars? Post your guesses in the comments, and I'll check back in a few days to see if anyone gets it right!

Answers: 

20,000 = $40

10,000 = $20

5,000 = $10

2,000 = $4

1,000 = $2

500 = $1

100 = 20 cents

50 = 10 cents

25 = 5 cents

10 = 2 cents

5 = 1 cent

You're on your own for the bonus question!

Mi Casa en Costa Rica

¡Hola amigos!

En este momento vivo en Turrialba, Costa Rica. Turrialba es una ciudad pequeña al este de San José:

Mi casa está en el centro de Turrialba, en la Calle 4. Es pequeña y morada. Aquí es un video turístico de mi casa:

También, hay una actividad. Usa marcadores o lápices de color para colorearlo según las direcciones en el papel:

PS — You can click on the activity page above to print it out, then follow the directions to color it in. Remember, try reading the words out loud first if you're having trouble understanding. If you need help with the new words for the rooms of the house, try watching the video again. You can check your work by clicking HERE to see my post for Grades K-2.