Hey everyone!

So it is my last day away....I leave tomorrow for the UK!!!
I am currently in Alajuela just outside of San Jose (which is a dump!)
We are treating ourselves to a nice hotel for our last 2 nights..we have nice beds and a swimming pool - its lush lol

So Costa Rica has been fun...we arrived in San Jose and was not impressed....you need to get out as qucikly as possible lol So we headed to Santa Elena near Monteverde, which is in the hills in the rainforest!
We stayed in a nice B&B, had our own room which was a treat! Here we went to a sugar cane and coffee tour and also a canopy tour through the rainforest. This is when you have a harness and you are attached to zip lines and you go flying along on cables in the forest..was so much fun! Except for the tarzan swing...which had a bungy feel to it as you jumped off a high platform lol

After Monteverde we headed to La Fortuna...where there is an active volcano...Arnel.
We stayed at a really nice backpackers and had a walk around the town and at 3pm we did a tour which included a walk around the rainforest to a waterfall, then we went to a view point to try to see the lava flowing...as it was comng up for nighttime....but we had a really cloudy day so we only saw bits of lava rocks occasionaly come rolling down through the clouds!

We then headed to some hot springs where we had a buffet dinner and we could then sit in the pools - there were 25 to choose from and 3 water slides! SO Beth, a german guy we met (so funny!) and myself had fun on the slides...havent been on them since I was like 12!
Was a fun day!

Next we moved back to San Jose to head straight back out (literally 15mins in city!) to head to the Carribean side of Costa Rica to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca...right near Panama.
It was so peaceful - we stayed in a hotel again our own room lol
Our first day we hired bikes and cycled 6km along the road to a area of beach called Puerto Uva...was so pretty. Spent time lying on the beach and swimming in ocean and eventually headed back to town stopping for lunch and looking in a few shops!

The next day.it rained..but unlike Mexico we didnt drink to help the day pass lol
We went out anyway for an amazing breakfast - and then had a little walka round town, by the afternoon the rain stopped and we had dinner and an easy evening ready to move on back to San Jose again the next day to head to our nice hotel!

We arrived back in San Jose and once agin got out within 30mins! We headed to Alajuela which is only 14km outside of San Jose to our nice resort...Hotel Martino Spa and Resort. Its really nice....a little dated but we have double beds...a tv..own bathroom..swimming pool..it doesnt sound liek much but after living in hostels and share houses..and whatever else this is amazing lol

So i am here - the end of the one year journey...tomorrow I leave San Jose at 11:45 to Miami and fly tomorrow night Miami to Heathrow and come the morning of the 29th..I am in the UK!! Unsure of how I will feel though....I will write once more with those feelings!

But been amazing..met some great people and I have seen so many awesome things!
I think I will try to travel more in the future and encourage others to give it a go lol

Wil write once i am back in UK

Sarah xxx