Wednesday 12th May
The Wheels on the Bus!

We were all up early and after a delicious breakfast of granola, yoghurt, banana and honey we set off to catch our bus to the border. Catching the bus around 6am meant we were left standing for the hours ride as the bus was fully packed out with locals heading off to their days work. Our bags had been thrown up on top of the chicken bus as is customary on this form of transport so it was not great to see the heavens open shortly after we had departed and it was therefore no great surprise to arrive at our destination to find soaking wet bags.
Once at our destination we had the last of our border crossings to master. Before setting off on the trail we had been warned that border crossings could be both time-consuming, problematic and potentially dangerous but up until this point we had faced no major issues and I am pleased to report that the Nicaragua-Costa Rica crossing was no different as we had a smooth passing.
Once in Costa Rica we caught the 2hr bus to Liberia where we had a short wait before catching the bus to our next destination. This journey was also meant to last a couple of hours but unfortunately due to a car crash our journey time was nearly doubled and we arrived at our stop 15 minutes after the last bus that left for Monte Verde which is where we had hoped to finish our day of travelling. So it was early afternoon and we found ourselves stuck in a small town with little to do, so after checking into a hostel I decided to make the most of my time and caught up on my blog writing.

Thursday 13th May
Flying like Tarzan!

We caught the first bus to Monte Verde which had us arriving for just before midday. Having settled into our hostel we took a quick trip to the supermarket to grab some supplies as we had a kitchen to use at the hostel where we then made lunch. That afternoon we then went to experience Monte Verde's greatest attraction, the zip-line canopy tour. Monte Verde is set in a beautiful mountainous region amidst rolling forests with a great abundance of wildlife and the canopy tours are the best way to explore them.
Having been given our orientation and practiced on a really cool freefall rope swing we began our tour of the forest. We had to climb up to around 30ft up into the tree canopy where we then transferred from tree to tree via the zip-lines which were an exhilarating ride. As well as the zip lines we also had to repel down from one of the high trees which included a 30ft unexpected free drop and we then climbed back up the inside of a strangler tree which was really cool. Called the strangler tree because it produces figs/fruit that are then eaten by birds who then defecate on the tops of other trees. The strangler trees then begin to grow on top of the other trees and then work their way down to the ground where they root and eventually take over the existing tree. This suffocates the original tree causing it to die before it then decomposes and then leaves a hollow centre which can then be climbed up. So we had a lot of fun on our tour which was led by a local who had great English and also took lots of cool photos and videos for us.
After our canopy tour we returned to the hostel where we ate dinner and also met a group of Americans who were celebrating their graduation from college.

Friday 14th May
Super Sloth!

Today proved a fairly uneventful day with a good lie-in. We woke up to make the most of the free breakfast offered by the hostel and then spent some time exploring the town of Monte Verde. We explored both the town itself and out into some of the forests where we actually got to see a sloth along with a baby sloth. Sloths are notoriously slow movers as they clamber from branch to branch high up in the canopy and they can spend days up in the canopy before visiting the forest floor. After spending part of the day exploring the rest of the day was spent catching up on my blog writing.

Saturday 15th May
The Last Supper!

After grabbing breakfast we caught the 6.30a.m. bus to San Jose, the nations capital city. This was a 4.5 hour journey and on arrival we checked into our hostel which is often used by Frontier for its volunteers and had great facilities including free internet, kitchen etc. At the hostel we met Mark, a previous volunteer on the Frontier Costa Rica Project that we would be going to ourselves in a few days time. He was back to visit for a few days after having had a great experience on the project and he came with plenty of fun stories.
That afternoon we spent exploring the city, which like most Central American cities didn't really have a huge amount to offer but it was interesting to explore the city centre and feel the hustle and bustle of the city life.
That evening we relaxed in the hostel, before heading out for our last meal as a trail group and then returned to the hostel.

Sunday 16th May

Sunday morning saw us once again up early in order to catch yet another bus. Having said our goodbyes to Paul and Izzie who wouldn't be joining us for the rest of the trip we headed to the bus station where we set off for our 7.5 hour trip down to the south-west region of Costa Rica. It was a beautiful journey through some stunning mountain passes and brought us to our destination in the middle of the afternoon. On arrival in Puerto Jiminez we sorted out our hostel before heading to the launderette to get all my clothes sorted. By this stage I had gone through just about all my clothes and therefore had a huge bag of washing to get sorted so it was nice to return later on to find it all beautifully folded and smelling fragrant. Unfortunately that wouldn't last too long with my trip into the jungle. Puerto Jiminez is a very small town that is mainly popular due to its location close to the Corcovado National Park. Having sorted out our laundry we headed to a local bar to grab some food and ended up watching a world cup qualifier between South Africa and Thailand. Following this Mark, Andy and myself had a quick explore around the town. We then had a really relaxed and enjoyable evening and headed back for what would be our last nights sleep in a proper bed for quite some time as the next morning we would be making our trip into the jungle…..