Hi everyone Hope you are good. After the rest of Central America, Costa Rica is definately a culture shock - its sooooooooooooo American. Had a fun time in Tamarindo (Pacific coast), chilling on the beach and enjoying the sunshine. Before I set off on my trip I thought I would spend much of my time at the beach, but this is really the first time so far, (as Utila doesn't have a beach, and I was only in Placencia in Belize for one day). Tamarindo was tourist central, but the beach was really amazing (one of the best I've ever seen) and not at all crowded or touristy. I even learnt to surf here, which was fun, but surfing hurts - I was covered in bruises the next day! At least my golden tan covers them up tho'! After Tamarindo, I bused, and hitched (with friends - hi Bonnie and Graham!) to La Fortuna. From here I did a very lame 'hike'to the base of Volcan Arenal where I watched lava flowing from the crater. All the backpackers in the group wanted to stay and watch the lava for longer, but because in Costa Rica you have to do tours to see anything, we were outnumbered by all the tourists wanting to go to the hot springs which were included in our tour. The hot springs were really quite lame, and reminded me of the Tom Cruise film Cocktail - super cheesy,a little bit sleezy and complete with an 1980s vibe! Nice! I next visited Monteverde where I did a sky trek and a sky walk. The sky trek is a series of 10 zip lines over the Monteverde cloud forest. It was really high, and initially it was quite scary, but fun! The skywalk is a series of high suspension bridges through the cloud forest. I saw a couple of Howler monkeys and a few birds that I don't know the name of, but the highlight was the hummingbird garden at the end of the walk. After Monteverde I set off alone to San Jose, Costa Rica's capital, to catch my flight to Peru. Didn't see much of San Jose as the hostel I stayed in had a pool, but overall the main centre of the city looked prettier than any other capital city in Central America. Am now in Lima in Peru, and tomo am off to Ica to do some sand dune boarding (like snowboarding). Can't wait! Will try to upload pics soon, but its not possible at this internet cafe. Miss you all Love Lindsx