Ok, so finally a suitable photo, that actually is the cloud forest. It´s beautiful, so lovely.

Arrived in Monteverde yesterday after a short ferry trip across Lake Arenal in the grey, rainy morning. We rocked up to Rancho Makena, where we all jumped on horses and did a 2 hour horse trek through the cloud forest - absolutely beautiful, despite my horse being the most temperamental little b***** ever. ´Dynamite´was not an appropriate name for what was truly the laziest horse in the world. After the horse ride we got back into the vans, and continued by ´road´(ie dirt track) up to Monteverde town. The town is beautiful, really cute and small but the scenery is breathtaking. I spent the afternoon wandering around town with some of the other girls from the tour, and made it a priority to stop by the shop which sells the cheeses and ice creams made by the local Quaker community - those guys sure know their dairy. In the evening we all headed to a local seafood restaurant, where I ate chicken, unsurprisingly.

Next morning we all got up super early (6.30am, brutal) and headed up into the cloudforest proper by van. The whole atmosphere of the place is completely different; it´s cloudy (obviously) and misty even when a few km below in the town of Monteverde it´s incredibly sunny, and is much colder. Too cold for mosquitos, thankfully, as my legs have definitely been taking a battering of late. We had a 3 hour guided hike through the cloud forest, which was breathtaking. The scenery itself is mind-blowing enough (it literally looks like the jungle, stupid as that may sound), but we also saw some amazing wildlife - we saw orange-kneed tarantulas (a little too close for my liking), a pit viper, an emerald toucanette, and the national bird of Guatemala (which I can´t remember the name of but which is quite rare and incredibly beautiful). All in all a fantastic hike. After, I returned to town with a couple of guys, while the majority of the group went on to do ziplining. After a salady lunch and some more ice cream (obviously), we´re all completely tired so planning a pretty low-key night - early dinner somewhere nice but not too expensive followed by a girly night in. Still haven´t eaten the national dish of Casado (literally means marriage, because that´s what you eat all the time when you´re married...), which is a mix of rice, beans, fried plantain, salad, veg, and either meat or avocado. So maybe that´ll be tonight, who knows.

Tomorrow we head to Quepos, a beach town on the edge of the Manuel Antonio National Park, so the itinerary should be a bit more relaxed - we´re all invisaging lying on perfect beaches and doing pretty much nothing except a bit of surfing. I could do with a relaxing time before flying to Peru for some high altitude trekking - assuming the Inca Trail is open by then. Fingers crossed!