Well hello everyone and welcome to my last update for Costa Rica. I am actually cheating a bit as I have just arrived home but I thought it would be nice to finish off this blog so I can return to it whenever I need the memories of all the cool stuff I've done.

Monteverde: This was fantastic. Monteverde is a little cooler than the rest of CR as it is quite high up and therefore there are lots of 'cloud forests' which makes it a pretty atmospheric place to be. It was nice to be cooler for a bit as I had been overheating a tad in the rest of the Country. Monteverde was beautiful and we spent time exploring the cloud forests and seeing more wildlife on a canopy walk on suspended bridges. This was quite something, especially when we reached a massive hollow tree and the guide asked us to climb it (from the inside) to join the next bridge. This was quite fun but a bit nervewracking for the person behind as there were no safety wires or anything and we climbed a good 20 metres up.

The next challenge (and I had been dreading it since day 1!) was the ziplining which consisted of 15 wires stretching across the forest, some of them reaching more than 130ft and over 1km in length. Many of you will know that I am not a natural at big heights (which seems crazy considering I have jumped out of a plane at 12,000ft) so I was not first in line for the ziplining. I challenged myself to attempt the first two wires and see how I got on. Who would have thought that even though my heart was in my mouth I actually enjoyed it and even took on the Superman line (which is optional) at the end. This is where they suspend you like Superman and then send you out over a massive valley making you feel like you are really flying. Now although it was terrifying and you had no way of slowing down or stopping I actually really enjoyed it and was on a bit of a high when I jumped off at the end (although I think it was the altitude!).

In the evening we went to a rainforest ranch for a massive BBQ and some traditional dancing. This was lots of fun, especially when the locals got us to demonstrate (cue a very bad imitation of their traditional moves by a group of drunken travellers - not pretty but entertaining). We stayed in a lovely little hotel surrounded by wildlife which was cool and we had humbingbirds and butterflys hovering on the flowers right outside our door.

Then we moved on to the Pacific coast to a small town called Quepos. There were lots of options for trips at this place but as soon as we got there and realised that there was a fantastic series of roof pools (and given it was about 40 degrees) we opted for the mass chill out, swimming and reading. I think we deserved it as we had done so much during the holiday and I definately feel we had our share of adventure. It was nice spending the final time with Fanny before we had to travel back to San Jose for our transfer to fly home.

On the way to San Jose we stopped at a hillside restaurant to watch the sun set before we travelled back to the city. The food wasn't great but the atmosphere of the group made it. Things were pretty quiet on the way back as I think we all realised the trip was coming to an end. I will really miss the people on my tour. They were all so different yet it just worked and I got the opportunity to meet some really cool people who I am sure I will keep in touch with.

The flight back was nice as we found out that five of us were on the same plane. I sat with Fanny and we had another chance to recap about the holiday and think about all the things we had done in just over two weeks. It was definately worth going to Costa Rica and I would recommend it to anyone. Just be careful though not to lean on any trees as you genuinely never know what might be on the other side waiting for you!