Our first stop in Costa Rica was the hilly town of Monteverde, a place known for its many activities in and around the flora and fauna rich "cloud forest'. When we left the island in the morning, we were actually aiming for a beachside town in Nicaragua, mainly due to the fact that we had no idea how to get anywhere else. When we climbed off the ferry and arrived on mainland we bumped into a couple of other "gringos" who were going to attempt to get to Monteverde, where we had picked out as a possible destination. We decided, there and then, to join them and we ended up spending the day on 1 ferry and 1 taxi to the border and then 4 different buses to get to the forest…luckily one of the guys spoke Spanish.

Along with the people we met in our hostel we took a half day trip to do zip lining in the tree tops. Not overly extreme, but a lot of fun, particularly the largest line of 900m length that had us flying over the valley like Superman. The most exciting part was a "Tarzan swing" which involved jumping off a platform and going into freefall for a while before the rope caught and we ended up swinging towards the trees. We also checked out a strangler fig tree that was more like a hollow, climbable lattice, and dodged the random, cranky neighbourhood dogs that deem anyone walking around to be a threat.

Our most memorable experience from the area was, unfortunately, a little less enjoyable. We were attacked by bedbugs both nights and woke up writhing in intense irritation covered in bites. Sonja was a lot more susceptible to a reaction and was absolutely covered in huge red welts.