Our last night in La Fortuna wasn't so nice. We all went for a group dinner (except for Michael who was at mass) and there was nowhere for me to sit at the end of the table. Nobody moved up (nice, thanks!) so I ended up in an extra bench tagged onto the end (but clearly not part of the group!). Leanne then realised what had happened and came down to sit with me (nobody apart from Kat had uttered a word to her in any case). We sat there very isolated for the whole dinner (during which some random woman that the tour leader knew appeared and suddenly there was enough room for her to sit down!!) and got up and left without saying anything to anyone. Left a bad taste in our mouths. Anyway, Monday was a lazy morning as we didn't leave until 12.30pm and then finally arrived in San Jose (through rush hour traffic!) at about 7pm.

San Jose - what a dump - I didn't see anything there I liked. We did, however, go to a fab restaurant for dinner - bit on the pricey side but when they have Trapiche Malbec on the menu (yes please!) and the filet mignon comes with 2 huge steaks, how can you resist?! If you're ever unfortunate enough to find yourself in San Jose, look up Café Mundo for possibly one of the best meals (and great service which is hard to come by in these parts!) I've had in 6 months!!!

There was a scary incident on our last night with the group. John and Sarah went past the hotel to get some water and were stopped by a teenage boy with a gun demanding their money. Sarah handed over her bag, at which point John said "F you" and grabbed the bag back. A bit foolish really as you never know what might happen in these parts. The kid then said "F you" back, aimed the gun at John's leg and shot, narrowly missed him and the bullet ricocheted off the ground! Sounds like something out of a movie right?! They went back to the shop they had just been to where some Americans rushed in and said they had just heard gunshots. The shopkeeper then walked then back to near our hotel but wouldn't go all the way as he said it was too dangerous. Oh great, thanks for the information that we were staying in a dodgy area!! Anyway, nobody was hurt although a bit shaken and I just thank my lucky stars it wasn't me!

On Tuesday morning I took myself for a wander, mainly to find a hairdressers but also to see the sights and sounds of the capital city of Costa Rica. No such luck and I failed on both counts. When the rain set in and got even more torrential, I decided to quit and made my way back to the hotel to watch films all afternoon! On Tuesday night we met our new leader and group. For the first time, us girls have been outnumbered. With a male leader and 2 new guys, we are now 5 to 3! It's a small group but I think it will work for the next 2 weeks as we leave Costa Rica and spend some time exploring Panama.

Actually, I haven't told you anything about Costa Rica yet have I? Well, the first thing we noticed was how developed it is compared to the rest of Central America - lots of brand names, well-built homes and shopping malls and fancy SUVs. Costa Rica actually enjoys the highest standard of living in the region. And with that obviously comes cost - everything is roughly UK prices which came as a shock to the system. This is due to a huge influx of expats and people retiring from the US so property and everyday prices have been driven up.

On Wednesday we had a pretty non-eventful journey as we took a bus to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast. It's a sleepy seaside town and reminded me a bit of Caye Caulker as it's full of dreadlocked geezers stoned out of their heads! Had a wander around the 'town' and then dinner followed by drinks in a bar with VERY loud doof doof music. I am definitely getting too old!

On Thursday I had booked 2 dives. The original dive shop I went to looked pretty good and was run by a Brit. Unfortunately today was the only day they weren't going out as they had just received a load of new equipment they needed to sort out. She recommended me to another place though so all seemed good. Got there in the morning and was kitted out with some rather shabby stuff. We went out (not very far at all) and had to roll off the boat (haven't done that since learning!). The visibility was crap and we didn't see much sealife either. I got annoyed as the divemaster kept touching the coral and he was messing around with some other random person that had come along (a local). There was an older French couple diving with me and they also kept touching the coral so I was getting a bit narked (narked irritated rather than narked crazy!)! Anyway, thank goodness I have done a lot of diving lately and my confidence has improved as the divemaster didn't fill me with much confidence. There was no real briefing and it seemed a bit of a tinpot outfit. I think I might even have been more qualified!! Anyway, the next dive was much better. Still not great visibility but at least we saw more stuff including a nurse shark, 2 massive stingrays, lots of lobsters, a giant crab, those aero crab thingies I saw in Cayman, loads of lion fish, a massive tarpon and then this tiny cube thing that looked like a black and orange dice!

Got back to shore a lot later than expected which meant I missed the afternoon trip to the sloth sanctuary - gutted. I had been really excited about going as they take in injured sloths and you can get really close to them and hold them. Booo. I did, however, finally see my first wild sloth which was in the grounds of the dive shop - it chomped on some leaves and then went for a snooze (I think that's pretty much the life of a sloth - with more of the snoozing than anything else!). Never mind, hopefully I'll get another chance to do something similar.

Had a shower when I got back to the hotel and could smell the same burning plastic I had smelled yesterday. Looked up and not only were there exposed electrical wires on the top of the shower head leading to the wall, but one of them was furiously smoking! Yikes! No more showers here methinks!

Rest of the day was lazy with a delicious smoothie and a walk along the beach to watch the sunset (alone - sniff sniff). Looking forward to Panama now - know nothing about it (apart from the canal obviously!) but it looks promising!