The chickens had been delivered to Kevin's parents on Thursday. On Friday morning Kevin went to work in Hucknall and Joan dropped off Jenson and the meezers to their respective lodgings.

We had a taxi booked to Gatwick as we're returning overnight so would not be safe to drive and heaven knows what the trains will be like on New Year's Eve.

We used Tesco vouchers to pay for our stay at the Gatwick Hilton. The Canon Christmas corporate bash was on and the hotel atrium was full of noise. Our room was down what seemed like an endless corridor reminiscent of The Shining. Dinner was a pleasant surprise - goat's cheese with beets and caviar looking spheres which turned out to be balsamic pearls which exploded in your mouth.

An early start next day saw us clear baggage and security in less than 20 minutes, and then have to wait for 2 and a half hours to board. Not complaining though!

Our plane was a BA 777 and it's wings had to be de-iced ahead of take off. It flew direct to San Jose. The flight was about 11 hours and we landed slightly early. In contrast to Chile and Iceland, what strikes you first is the lushness. There was also a downpour when we landed.

We bought a SIM card and caught a cab to Hotel Exe San Jose Centro which is right in the middle of town. We couldn't work out who had right of way and the roads were poorly signed. The ride cost 16,000 Colones - about £22.

The hotel was a fairly standard business type and we had a spacious room with teeth chattering air con. We were now in a zombie state but were trying to stay awake to ward off jetlag.

We went out for dinner but the streets were bouncing with a heavy downpour. Not wanting to get lost or go far or drown, we dropped in to a Pizza Hut close by. It just seemed an easy thing to do.

The service was somewhat erratic. We asked for two pizza and initially got one with our respective toppings on each half. They did not do bottles of wine - only by the glass - and they seemed to run out of this. Tragedy!! Then another half and half pizza came as we were ready to leave. Paying was a mammoth task but they slightly undercharged us. We took this as compensation for the service.

Back at the hotel we had stayed awake 22.5 hours and were fading fast so we went to sleep.