A long day of buses to get here. Were saying the day before how lovely it was travelling here as you see no other tourists on the buses - that changed on the way to Puerto Viejo! Lots of backpackers here! Town right by the sea. Reminds me of hippy Asian towns like Vang Vieng, but has lots of surfers.

It rained and rained here. We explored the town in macs and pitched our tent on the top floor of a hostel! On the bright side, being stuck in the hostel lead to great socialising!Our second day was sunny, so we were up early and cycling to Manzillo Park. Saw a slouth on the way! Heard a horrible, ´Lord of the Rings´ type noise, so, cautiously, crept up to see the origin and spotted a howler monkey!

We had felt completely save our entire trip in Costa Rica but we realised here that the danger rumouors are very real. Walking back from a bar, a dark figure came running out of the hedge pulling a knife out of his pocket and came between Jon and I. We ran. But, I didn´t know that another man had sneaked up behind me, when I tried to run, he put his hand over my mouth and dragged me to the ground. I was terrified and was fighting for my life, kicking and biting! I know now that they were padding me down to feel for valuables but all they found were two bananas in my pockets! Jon had managed to dodge the guy and was shouting for help so the muggers ran away with no success. A scary experience but we were both fine and they didn´t get anything!