Hi Folks,

Wow, it has been too long since me last postcard. Similar to traveling in South America, I spent no more than two days in any one place, and the one place I did the internet cost $6 an hour. Since I have far too much to write I am going to do this by country. That way you can just skip through and read individual countries if you want.. I will be writing about Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Mexico.

When I last wrote I was heading to San Jose to meet up with the rest of the new group. Up to that stage it was just myself, Kit and Dawna (our tour leader). In San Jose we also met Ben, or Rob as I kept calling him. I could never remember his name and knew it was one of those little ones! After a while he responded to it as well. I could be harsh and say that I only remember names that I need to but he was an okay guy.

While in San Jose some of us went to see The Da Vinci Code. Although it was one of the few movies that I had seen after I had read the book I felt very let down by the film and Hollywood was playing politics a lot in parts. I won?t ruin it for you as it is not a bad film on its own just not up to par with the film. I used to hate when people said that as if they were more cultured for having read the book first, but I suppose nothing can make up for your imagination.

From San Jose we left for La Fortuna to see the Arnel Volcano. It is an active volcano that goes off every night and the views of the lava spurting into the night sky with the cloads of dust looked amazing ? in the postcards! The views of a great big bloody cloud that covered it from our view was not so impressive. So to make up for it we went to a hot springs. The hot springs were more like "Vegas does not springs". There was about 10 different pools each one hotter than the last and it was spread out over a large resort with plenty of tropical trees planted to give that real nature feel. It was kinds nice but very touristy. Not to sound like a wingy old man. There was some really cool waterfalls in La Fortuna. We went swimming in one that had a rope swing into the pool that was made from three waterfalls. When you swang out you were about 7/8 metres off the water. Luckily it was really deep and so no major injuries. When we went down there was a load of local kids there and some of the older guys were trying desperately to show off in front of the girls.

The other really cool thing we did was white water rafting. It was a grade 3 with grade 4 rapids in parts. It was totally cool. I am sure you have looked at the pictures when I put them up so long ago. I managed to stay in but one of the girls fell out a few times. Admittidly, the guide kept trying to drop her out after the first time. There are some great pics of her falling out.

From La Fortuna we headed further into the mountains to Monteverde. We were there for the cloud forest. There was all the usual hikes to do but since my accident from canyoning in Venezuela my ankle is not up too much. So instead I went on a zip line tour through the canopy. It was great fun and far more professional than the time I went in Chile. At the end of it there was a Tarzan Swing, it is swing off of a high platform that swing you into the canopy and it good fun. After that I went on a walk through the same cloud forest on a trail with loads of really long bridges that gave great views of the whole area. We saw some really cool stuff and it was nice to walk around in the cool of the clouds.

Costa Rica was the most expensive country I visited in Central America and was very much set up for the American visitor. The food by the Caribbean was totally amazing and I tried to get the recipe of a few things but am still waiting on the chef to email me. I am getting the feeling that it is one of his secrets his does not want to give out.

Well that was Costa Rica. As you can see we just wizzed through it but I saw and did some great things. Now I am going to take you over the border to Nicaragua.

Until next time, Em.