Our last full day in La Fortuna. The view of Vn Arenal was clear when we first awoke but as usual, it pretty soon clouded over. It's been a very restful few days. When you plan a holiday, it's sometimes difficult to know what places are like. In Chile, something that seems close can be a half day's drive away on bad roads. Here in La Fortuna, all the sights are less than a fifteen minute drive away so we have spread what could be done in a couple of days, maybe three, into a whole week.

Though there's been lots of restaurants in La Fortuna town, we have prefered to stay at home rather than take a taxi. In fact, we haven't looked around the town and mostlikely won't now. The buses to town are few and far between.

So we spent the morning in the garden, watching the birds squabble on the bird table and clouds roll across the volcano's slopes. Kevin is reading Stevn King's The Stand - over 1,000 pages. Joan finished rereading a biography of Robert Fitzroy by Peter Nicholls.

Mid-afternoon we headed out to La Catarata de la Fortuna, a picture perfect cascade on the slopes of Arenal's twin, dormant volcano Cerro Chato. The signs warned you there were over 500 steps down - which means 500 steps back up! There were occasional signs with words of wisdom from Guru Sloth.

The waterfall plunged into a foaming pool and some brave souls splashed in the water downstream. It was very cold.

Back up the gorge, there were strange sounds coming from the canopy - but we didn't see what was making them. There was also an orchid trail with orchids grafted on to trees but most were not in bloom.

As we crossed a bridge we saw two huge birds, the size of turkeys but the light was already fading and the flash didn't penetrate into the branches they were roosting on.

So back home and a dinner of mozzarella and aubergine schnitzels with wedges and french beans. We ate outside in the darkness watching the fireflies flit around the garden and the leafcutter ants stealing leaves from a jar of coriander leaves we have put on the table.