Costa Rica ca ca ca ca!! So we crossed over the border into the lush land of the Rich Coast. Had an entertaining time getting to Monteverde passing through a town where the local pastimes seem to be getting drunk and getting in fights. Lovely few moments waiting for the bus hoping that the man with the broken bottle didn't venture any closer. And it was in the Cloud Forests of Monteverde that we met up with Tanja and Simon who had already spent a week surfing and monkey spotting on the Pacific Coast.

There's a reason it's called the Cloud Forest. It's up in the clouds. Just as in the Rain Forest, it rains a lot. Still, we were a bit bemused that it was quite so cold, wet and er cloudy. Not good for the tans. But being up in the clouds did make exploring the tree canopy that much cooler, especially as our chosen form of exploration transport was a zipline...

It's touted as being one of the original forms of ecotourism, using all those buzz words like sustainable and environmentally friendly. Well rubbish to that, it's just a load of tourists strapped into very tight harnesses screaming their way above the trees. Wicked. Tanja was not looking forward to dangling from a metal clasp way up above the ground declaring, 'I hate you all' as she took off on her first flight. But by the end she couldn't stop grinning as she wizzed down the last run, 1km long! Felt so bizarre wizzing miles (well metres) above the trees with only thick cloud around you, not knowing when you were going to reach the other side. Definitely worth losing a few days tanning for.