Hola amigos! This is the last blog update, you will get from me - at least from this trip! I am now in Monteverde, Costa Rica, and I have a bus to San José, the capital of Costa Rica, later today and my flight leaves at 9.30 am tomorrow. I feel sad that I am going home; especially because I have made friends that I don't want to say good bye to. But on the other hand, I am looking forward to go back to Denmark, my amazing friends whop I miss a lot, the Danish food and of course my family and my precious dog, Leica. :) I also think that I have come to a point where I don't appreciate the experiences as much as before so the timing is pretty good.

Last time I wrote, I was in León and on my way to Isla Ometepe in Lago Nicaragua. Isla Ometepe is one of Nicaragua's most famous sites. It is basically this island in a giant lake. The special thing about this Ometepe is the two volcanoes, Vólcan Maderas and Vólcan Concepción, which make this place one of the most beautiful places I have been to. Especially Concepción is beautiful. It is really one of the most perfectly shaped stratovolcanoes I have ever seen. Take a look yourself; the pic is from our beautifully located hostel:

I tought about hiking to the top of Concepción but I chose only to hike the easier Maderas since you see much more nature and animal life there in comparison to dry Concepción. That is because Concepción is active and Maderas is not. And I must say, it was a great hike! Not as challenging as San Pedro in Guatemala but we saw many things such as howler monkeys howling at each other, a cool turkey-like bird, petroglyphs and of course the great views over the Island and to the other Volcano. And getting to the top was rewarded with a cold swim in Maderas' crater lake.

Now, before I went to Ometepe I said my good byes to Rob and Chrissie from South Africa, who I believe I mentioned last time. But things turned out that they couldn't go where they wanted so they ended up joining me for Ometepe the same day. I have now been traveling continously with these two amazing human beings since Utila, Honduras, and I feel sad that my adventures with them are coming to an end here in Costa Rica. But I am sure that we will get many more thus they have told me much about South Africa. Now I really want to go there; the sooner the better!

Back to Ometepe, because many more things happened there. We were staying at this great hostel where we practically lived around howler monkeys, massive beedles, a great number of colorful birds, coaties and a racoon in a leash that tried to attack me once. Very laid-back place. I used my evenings getting my ass kicked in different card games, enjoying the beautiful sunsets behind Concepción a when the electricity sometimes went off at night, it felt like Karma´s reward to us when tousands of fire flies lit up the dark to create a wonderful star picture on Earth. In the day we also climbed coconut trees and used the machete that Rob bought in León to make our own awesome coco drinks. Ometepe was a great experience!

From Ometepe we went directly to Costa Rica to go to the cloud forest of Monteverde. But we didn't get the without problems. When we got off in Sardinal to switch buses for Monteverde, we witnessed every backpacker's worst nightmare: Chrissie's backpack was missing! Luckily we got it back without a scratch an hour later with the next bus; someone had taken the backpack off in a wrong place but the bus company had been aware of it and sent it with the next bus. So it all ended just fine.

In Monteverde we immidietly felt that we were in Costa Rica - in our wallets! It was really something different using more money to go on a half-day tour in Costa Rica than the money we had used for three days accomadation, hiking, food and drinking in Nicaragua. Yes, when traveling on a budget, Costa Rica is very expensive. But since it was my last destination I decided not to be cheap so I have done lots of things. I went on a nature tour on hanging bridges in the trees of the cloud forest where we saw lots of cool things like Guatemala's national bird, the quetzal, and these two owls: The same day I went ziplining (canopy) where I got to fly like a super man through the cloud forest and try Monteverde's infamous tarzan swing: The next day I dedicated totally to wildlife and animals when I went with Rob and Chrissie to see a collection of butterflies and frogs of Costa Rica. Here is a bunch of the beautiful creatures I saw: And of course the most famous frog of Costa Rica and one of the symbols of Pura Vida: The red-eyed tree frog! That same night I went on a night tour which was absolutely amazing! I expected to see animal life since animals are more active at night but the amount I saw in two hours was just ridicolous. Among many kinds of animals I saw two kinds of racoons that that looked more like a rat and a monkey, two snakes, a scorpion, a tree porcupine etc. And of course this little beauty that sleeps about 18 hours a day and keep to the tree tops: This smoth had a baby and was hanging about 2,5 mts from the ground - that was probably the best 20 dollars I spent in Costa Rica!

Sadly time has run out for me. I wanted to see all of the other cool things that Costa Rica have to offer. The beaches, the rainforests, the diverse animal life. But I reckon I must save that for another time. Travels are almost over and Denmark awaits me. I am looking forward to see all of you back home - and now it will only be a short while. To all the friends I have met on this trip, I will say thank you for making this trip a memorable one!

That was it for now.

Michael over and out.