On arrival in San Juan Del Sur we suffered the misfortune of our first choice hostel being full. Instead we headed for Hospedaje Elizabeth. Inside the owner showed us a room which came complete with 3 beds (a double and two singles), a bathroom, cable TV and a kitchen. We couldn't believe our luck as we were at the point where cooking some homemade food sounded like a really good option. Unfortunately the cost of the room was a little over our budget at $25 per night. We managed to make a deal on $20 a night if we stayed a minimum 5 nights. We shook on the deal and with great excitement set about trying to find a supermarket to buy some food. We grabbed some cereal, milk and orange juice for breakfast and decided to do a proper shop the next day. When we went to put our milk in the fridge we discovered it wasn't plugged in and that the cord was indeed padlocked to the fridge so it couldn't be plugged in. We put our stuff in the communal fridge for a temporary measure and headed off to watch the sunset at the Iguana bar. After the sunset we wandered up the strip to another little bar called The Pier which had a small bonfire on the beach surrounded by deck chairs and hammocks. That night for dinner we went to a highly recommended pizza restaurant. The food was good and reasonably priced which was made even better by the fact we could take home our leftovers. The following morning we had a breakfast and went out to book our learn to surf lessons for the next day. After our busy morning we decided we could have reheated pizza for lunch. We got back very excited only to discover that the counter top toaster oven didn't work, neither did the hob. After all the bartering over prices it was evident that the kitchen was more for show than use. Slightly disappointed we ate our cold pizza and headed off to one of the surrounding beaches called Remanso where we would be learning to surf the next day. We had a swim, jumped over a few waves and gained the confidence that we would both be 'riding waves' the next day. Our lesson the next day started at 11am when they drove us to Remanso again. The lesson began with the indignity of having to paddle and the jump up on to the board - on dry land. Once we were trusted to go in to the water our individual instructors took us a small distance out and would shout at us to paddle when a wave was approaching. The first wave came and such was the excitements that Sue and I forgot all about our dry land lesson and just lay on our stomachs as the wave took us all the way to the shore. After a reminder about the importance that standing has on surfing we tried again. This time I managed to fall off having got about three quarters of an inch up off my board. My instructor told me to get back on my board and paddle back out to him every time after every failed attempt. With arms burning after about 20 minutes of an hour lesson I looked over to see how Sue was doing. Whilst she was no better at standing up her instructor was not quite the sadist that mine was and let her walk back out after each try. After a few more tries I got slightly better and by the end of the hour I had successfully stood up about 5 times. Surfing wasn't our forte but later that afternoon we had another go without any more success. We drove back in time to use the internet and check our messages before again heading out for restaurant prepared food. Over the next couple of days we took things fairly easy by spending our days on the beach relaxing and reading our books in the shade of the bars with a beer by our side. In no time at all we had spent all five nights San Juan Del Sur and it was again time for us to move on to pastures new. The travel day we had ahead of us was from Nicaragua to Costa Rica. Having become more comfortable with the travel process we decided to keep costs down further by using public buses rather than an international coach company. We got a taxi to the Pan-American Highway from San Juan where we caught a bus to the border. We crossed the border by foot in to Costa Rica where we caught another bus, after a couple of hours on this bus the driver pulled over at the side of the road on route to San Jose so we could catch a taxi in Puntarenas. In Puntarenas we then had to catch a boat over to Parquera over on the Nicoya peninsula. From Parquera it was another two hours on a bus to Montezuma. A fairly long days' travel we were rather tired but on arrival we were overjoyed with our decision to come. We had a 4pm lunch before heading back to the room where I felt the need to catch up on some sleep. After a sleep we wandered back in to town where we had a couple of drinks over looking one of the beaches before having a late dinner then an early night. The following morning we were up early enough to wander in to town and get our first real impression of our surroundings. Montezuma offers plenty of tours for backpackers including island hopping snorkelling trips, zip-lining and hikes. We had done plenty of the types of tours on offer before so we decided to go independently to a water fall which should take us around 45 minutes walking each way. The walk was full of excitement both there and back as we had to clamber over rocks which were dotted in the river as well as cling to some of the steep edges that banked the river. The waterfall was well worth the walk and we hung around for about an hour, Sue went in for a swim and we both read our books for a little while. We headed back in to town to a vegetarian cafe we had spotted where Sue had the whole menu to chose from for a change and I settle for a falafel burger (at least it had burger in the name). The afternoon was consumed with walking between transport operators trying to work out how on earth we were going to get to David in Panama in one day. I'll update you on all the trials and tribulations of that journey soon. Hope all is well.

John