Hey everyone!!

Wow, its the end of my month across central America, and I can't believe how fast its gone! Most people left early this morning, but we said our tearful goodbyes last night. It's been a great group, and hopefully we will see each other at our reunion soon in London (if its still standing) and Dublin!!

So, back a few days ago in La Fortuna... We got there in the afternoon and booked in for our activities. 5 of us went on an evening hike to the Arenal volcano (just because we hadn't seen enough volcanos). Its very active, so the Costa Rican law won't allow you within a certain perimeter of the volcano. So different from Nicaragua where we stood at the top of Masaya with nothing but a bit of wood to stop us falling in! The hike took us into the rainforest and we saw quite a few animals like a sloth, toucan, monkeys and some cool birds. It was made all the more exciting by our very enthusiastic guide. For someone who lives there and probably sees these animals all the time, he was soo over excited! At the end of the hike we sat down and were given liquid lava, and its pretty strong stuff! Its a kind of rum, and then some purple and red cordial to give it the lava colour. So naturally, the five of us were quite giddy by the time we were dropped off at the hot springs to meet the rest of the group. Swimming in the hot springs at night was so cool. And there were slides in to them.. its like being a kid again! We were all pretty cut up though after the slides. Me and Sabrina went down together and I ended up with burn on my ankle and elbow, ouch!! We had a meal in the hotel after that, which was all included in the tour. A small group of us went to the bar that night, and we got pestered by these 2 american boys. The rest of my team left me to handle them, nightmare, they wouldn't let me have a word in edgeways! We managed to get away, thankfully!

The next day, 4 of us went horse riding to a waterfall. It was so much fun, but I had the slowest horse of the group! He was just so lazy, the guide would hit him on the back and he would gallop for 5 seconds and then go back to his slow crawl! The waterfall was amazing, you couldn't swim too near because the power of the water hitting the waterfall made such a massive current. On the ride back we stopped off at the hut of some indigenous people. They were selling their crafts, and they were so expenisve! So I passed on that! It started to pour down then, so we got drenched, and of course my horse wouldn't move too fast haha!

Yesterday we left La Fortuna, and on the way we were dropped off to go white water rafting. I was absolutly terrified before I went, but it had to be one of the best activities we've done! It was 6 to a boat plus our guide, so we had team GB plus Sabrina as an honourary Brit! We did some practices first, like forward meant paddle forward, high left meant all move to the left side of the boat etc. He came up behind me and pulled me in, just to give us practice of pulling each other out of the water if we fell in (always the one to be picked on!) Was funny though! On the rapids I think we got the most cuts and bruises. None of us fell in, but if we went down a little drop the people at the front would fly back, ouch! I headbutted poor Sarah's knee, so she ended up geting a little egg on it, oops! Our guide would constantly get us to high five with our paddles and say pura vida (meaning Pure life - they always say it in Costa Rica for everything!). He got us to high five so we didn't see the rapid, it was so funny, 5 girls and Guy, so we were the screamers!

We got to San Jose last night and went out for a farewell meal. It was so sad, doesn't feel like everyones going home, just that we'll be getting ready to move on to our next place! But all done, and these 3 days of extreme sports has taken its toll! My stomach and arms are strained from ziplining, I've got cuts and bruises from the slides and the rafting, bruised bum and ankles from horseriding and a very sore back from the rafting yesterday. And the cherry on the cake, I forgot to put suncream on yesterday and I have badly burnt my thighs and knees! But other than that, fantastic trip haha!

Me and Debbie went to a coffee plantation this morning, so I go lots of free coffee samples. It was pretty cool to hear about the history of coffee and what makes good and bad coffee. So I can now tell Costa coffee how to do it! I bought myself a cute little caffatiere (if that's how you spell it). I'm going to let my back recover for a little and the remainder of our group, only 6 of us left, are going to go to the mall tonight for some food and a movie!

I'm going to stay in the hotel tonight, rather than trek across San Jose to the hostel. it'll be easier and safer, especially as I can get a taxi with Debbie, Clare and Eli to the airport in the morning. Debbie was supposed to be doing another week in Costa Rica, the guy at STA sold it to her as an extension of this tour. He must have been a bit of an idiot, because it pretty much just repeats the places we've been! That's really wrong of STA to do that! So obviosuly she doesn't want to repeat all these places, especially because Costa Rica is expensive and we had to pay alot for the activities! So she's going to come to the States with me for a week, yay! She's managed to get the same flight as me, so should be fun! Although its crap for the American economy at the moment, it'll be amazing for us. The exchange rate has dropped so much, like 0.85 to 0.62!!

Everyone take care at home! Cat be extra careful in London, and let me know you get back to Glasvegas safely! I heard Liverpool One has closed, so looks as if Costa Rica is surprisingly the safest place to be right now!

Be Safe! Pura Vida xXx