I spent 1st and 2nd August in Santa Elena-Monteverde which are areas of Costa Rica with cloud forest. An early start saw us take the van-boat-van transport from Arenal to here. It was an hour long boat ride across Lake Arenal with the volcano as its backdrop. The volcano was covered with some cloud, and actually when we left the hotel at 7am it was completely covered and you wouldnt know it was there! Apparently some people come and never get to to see it as it i...

I´m now in the town of La Fortuna, which is next to Volcano Arenal. It is one of the word´s most 10 active volcanoes and is at least 5,400ft tall, but the top third is often cvered in cloud, The cloud has lifted or passed at times and then you can see some smoke coming out of the top as it explodes. It was dormant til 1968 whe it erupted for the first time, causing a lot of damage, and since then it has continued to erupt and daily activity is monitored. The la...

So, it's now Wednesday 28th July, a day before my Central America trip starts! I've had a relaxing few days since the last time I wrote. On Monday morning as planned I went to the Sloth Rescue Centre, which was really interesting. It was about 20 minutes by bus from Cahuita, so once I'd packed my bags and left them with the hotel reception, I went to the bus station with the intention of buying the ticket (in case it got full, stupid idea, they don't get 'full', ...

So today I went for a walk into the Cahuita national Park and I wasn´t disappointed! What a beautiful walk! As it´s a coastal National Park the trail runs mostly between the tropical rain forest and the beach. I was awake stupidly early at 5.30am after a bad night´s sleep as it was so hot so decided to get up and go early. A good idea as it wasn´t quite so hot then. Had breakfast in a cafe and set off on the walk at 7.30. It wasn´t long before I saw my first...

I arrived in San Jose on Tuesday 20th July, after 14 hours flying with 2 changes , in Chicago and Miami. There was no problem with the changes, but I did panic slightly at check in when my American electronic visa didn´t work. After two more tries it worked, but it left me a little stressed and with not much time to spare, despite arriving at the airport in plenty of time! Anyway, I basically got some much needed sleep at my hotel in San Jose, before being pick...