Strolled round to catch the 9am public bus up to Volcan Poas (2704m). Even though the volcano has a reputation of getting covered in cloud by 10am, the bus still stopped at a local restaurant during the what-would've-been a 1.5hr trip, meaning we didn't get there to 11am!! But we got there & started walking towards the main crater, when a fiery-throated hummingbird stopped us in our tracks, hovering about 1m from our faces, before flitting rapidly off. That f...

I thought we'd walk to the bus stop this morning, completely forgetting quite how far it was. D'oh! As a result we were dripping in sweat & dying by halfway. However a break with a 'rude' BK breakfast (yes, more Western food!) enabled us to crack on & catch the bus the whole 40mins down the road to Alajuela. Unfortunately, when we got there, none of the taxi drivers knew where our hostel (Casa Tago) was. So we had to wander the streets until we found an I...

We strolled up the road & caught the 9am public bus up to Volcan Irazu (3432m). Unfortunately on the journey up there, the cloud cover starting coming in & by the time we arrived at the top, the views on both sides were blocked by cloud. This was a real pain, as our main reason for going up this volcano was the fact that on a clear day you can see both the Pacific & Caribbean seas. But we took a stroll across to the secondary & main craters, which...

After all our safaris in Africa, we decided against the 6am tour into the National Park & instead headed off back to the mainland through the shallow waters with a captain that didn't seem to be as good as the one on the way out. A bus to Cariari & then another to San Jose (2.5 hours) & we checked into Aldea Hostel owned by a real friendly Swiss guy. We had to be up reasonably early in the morning, so had an anti-social evening with a takeaway & e...

After reading up yesterday, I decided our best bet wasn't to go from Moin (as the boat ride would've cost us a small fortune!) but instead go from Cariari. So we caught an early bus from Puerto Limon to Guapiles (2 hours), then onto Cariari (1 hour) & then after a couple of hours wait, the 3pm bus to the 'ferry' port (1 hour). The last leg was a little odd, with the bus driver stopping outside a couple of houses along the bumpy road, where the people came out...