We had a midday checkout before our afternoon transport to Santa Elena. It was coffee and cakes on the rocking chairs whilst we read up on where else we ought to go in Costa Rica.

La Fortuna and Santa Elena are 25km apart as the crow flies but there is a volcano, the country's largest lake, seven rivers and the Cordillera de Tilaran (a mountain ridge) in between. This has prevented anyone building a direct paved route between the two. There are three options to get between the two places - a bumpy, windy 6 hour bus ride, a 3 hour horseback trip but not in 'green' season or the fastest 'jeep-boat-jeep' option.

We choose the latter option. It wasn't a jeep that picked us up, but it was a rather nice bus. We were taken back along the road we came to La Fortuna on but this time we were dropped at the lake. We carried our bags down to the shore and put them on a small launch which took us across the lake for an hour. The boat began to slow down and head towards shore but we were in the middle of nowhere - it simply went head on into the beach. We were told to take out our bags and get out to wait on the lakeside.

It wasn't long before a bus seemed to appear out of nowhere and drove towards us - this would be our other 'jeep'. In all fairness, it was a 4WD and within a few metres of being in it, we realised that it needed to be. This part of the journey was not on a sealed road and it wound it's way up, down and around this very rugged landscape. It reminded us of the more remote parts of New Zealand, very steep pastureland for cattle with low clouds and a good dose of rain thrown in to make the grass green. We could feel a drop in the temperature too, not so much that we needed a jumper - more that it was a bit more comfortable.

We arrived in Santa Elena but the road remained unsealed until we were literally in the town centre. Apart from the roads, it immediately reminded us of Queenstown. It was a small town in the middle of fantastic scenery and there were adventure tours advertised on every corner.

We passed through the town centre and went down the hill towards Cabinas Eddy. We hadn't booked and were shown a few rooms before we chose a more basic double room on the ground floor. It was simple but clean and very good value for money especially in Costa Rica where prices are about 3 times more than in Nicaragua.

We wandered back into town for some dinner and settled for the Tree House, the restaurant was on the second floor of a building with the seating under a huge, big fig tree. The foliage of the tree was so thick it was hard to tell whether there was any roof or not although it probably didn't need it. The food was pretty good too and Maria was impressed with the Chilean wine.