Breakfast was included as part of the deal at Cabinas Eddy and everyone seemed to be ready and waiting for it at 7am. We thought we were early at 7:15 but we soon realised that everything was made to order so it was best to get your order in quick - we'll know better tomorrow morning. We had some fresh fruit and coffee while waiting for our "mains". The wait wasn't actually too long when you have unlimited Costa Rican coffee on tap and it was worth the while. Normally when food is included at a hostel, it is prepared for the masses and dished out like school dinners but this was more like cafe quality, a very pleasant surprise.

We had booked transport to take us to Santa Elena Reserve, which is a cloud forest and as the name suggests, it's almost always in the clouds. The place is very moist with a fine mist everywhere but it ensures that everything is very green. In addition to the many birds, there are spider monkeys and sloths in the forest.

As we were waiting in the queue to pay our entrance, a hummingbird came right up to David almost as if it was examining what was in his ear. The wind and noise from the flapping wings startled David at first but he held his nerve in front of the crowd until it flew off.

They had 4 trails of varying length between 1.5 and 5km and we decided to make a route out of the 3 shortest ones. The Youth Trail, which took us up to the highest point in the reserve, was incredibly thick forest or perhaps it was an illusion. It seemed that every tree and branch was covered in a thick coating of a wispy moss like growth making everything look twice as thick as it actually was. There was a lookout tower at 1700m but all you could see was the cloud and a little bit of the tree tops.

As we changed trails to Del Bajo and Encantado, and started descending into a valley, the forest became less dense but no less impressive. There was constant bird calls and chatter in the air but it was very difficult to see any of the birds. In amongst all the greens and browns of the forest, there were occasional bursts of colour from orchids and some other bright flowers. There were a lot of butterflies and dragonflies constantly flitting around us. At one point in the walk we spotted a hummingbird up ahead, but that was about it apart from a few common looking birds coming to check us out for a second or two.

Our walk took us back to the start just as the rain and thunder started. It was quite surreal to watch, the cloud thickened and began to move faster up the hill from the valley. The droplets of moisture in the air just seemed to grow bigger until they changed to raindrops and full on downpour. We were in the shelter at this point so it was fascinating to watch instead of scrambling to get out of it.

David was happy that we arrived back in the hostel just in time to watch Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid battle out the Champions League Cup Final. It was still raining heavily so David settled down with a few beers to watch what turned out to be a great game - three extra time goals for Real confirming their worthiness as winners despite being behind for most of the game.