After leaving the wet and soggy lands of Monteverde, we headed by shuttle bus down the mountain eventually emerging from the clouds and back to civilisation. After a good 3 or 4 hours we arrived in the captial San Jose. Now we have seen a fair amount of Central American capital cities but this one is rather grim. I´am sure it has its nice parts but it was to us very dull, drab, chaotic and a bit edgy. Anyway our time in San Jose consisted of a long drive though...

So here we are in the very wet town of Santa Elena (Monteverde) in Northern Costa Rica. About 1400m above sea level. It has rained non-stop since we have been here, the locals tell us that is have been constantly raining for over a week, and that is normal for October. Well timed visit from us! However it is also nice to get out of the intense heat we have been experiencing on our travels, and travelling in the wet season of Costa Rica is very beautiful with th...

Our loyal readers are probably getting a bit bored of details of our bus journeys, but the latest deserves a special mention. We set off for the Costa Rican border very early in the morning. After struggling though some crowds of 'helpers' (although only for a fee), we negotiated the Nicaraguan side successfully, but got a little confused when entering Costa Rica. We saw a massive banner for a restaurant, signs for buses and cash machines, but no immigration... ...

Nicaragua, The largest country in Central America, a terrible history of violence and corruption, 70% of the population under the age of 30 and an emerging but very young tourist industry. This country deserved to be visited to see it for ourselves. We travelled from the northern highlands, down to to the colonial towns in the centre, the pacific coast and the largest lake in Central America. A mix of super hot days that gradually got wetter as we went south. An...

A very wet journey from Granada to Rivas, then a very expenisve (and as we discovered later, rip off!) taxi to the port village of San Jorge. We hopped onto a rather run down ferry for the hour crossing to Isla De Ometepe. This means 'two hills' in the local language, however they are not actually hills but two seperate volcanos that emerged out of Lake Nicaragua, the lake itself is the largest volcanic lake in the world. The volcanos are called Concepción (16...