Deserted beaches surrounded by dense green rain forest, squawking mawcaw parrots waking us up early in the morning, miles and miles of surfing shorelines, and exploring the Monteverde cloud forest from below and above. We are not ashamed to admit that we love Costa Rica!

Within miles of the Nicaraguan/Costa Rican border we realised we were back in civilization. Burger Kings, McDonald's, ATM's and supermarkets were everywhere we looked, everyone spoke English and everything seemed easy. We both breathed a sigh of relief. We have met other hardened travellers on our journey that spurn Costa Rica for this very reason. Too much development and gringos, it's like your back in the US. We loved it for this very reason! Well maybe not the gringo part, but it was nice not having to struggle through a game of charades to get directions and although we're not usually into fast-food burger chains we couldn't resist the lure of the mighty Whopper when we came across the familiar Burger King sign in the first town we entered. Everything we'd been craving was available, albeit at a price.
　
Our first point of call was a small town called Tamarindo in the Guanacaste region, which is on the north end of the Pacific coastline. A little more than 30 years ago Tamarindo was home to 21 families but after the success of the movie 'Endless Summer II' it has now transformed into southern California. Touristy is a little of an understatement when trying to describe this surfing village, here there is more surf shops than Malibu with price tags to match. Despite this we couldn't help but feel at home in the 'Pura Vida' lifestyle. 'Pure life', as the Costa Ricans say.

Big Wave and Bull Riding
　
Whilst in Tamarindo, Shay spent the next week getting to grips with her surfboard in the fun beach break and Ollie fulfilled his dream to surf his namesake break, Ollie's Point, on an epic day. Our camper has really started to pay for itself here in Costa Rica; with accommodation, and pretty much everything else being almost as high as the western world, we have been taking advantage of the free beach parking areas, best view in town for absolutely nothing. Wanting to explore more of the area we engaged the 4X4 and took to some of the more primitive roads complete with river crossings, which were just south of Tamarindo. In Avellena, a more tranquil beach, we set up camp in the parking lot for a few days and enjoyed the free use of a beach shower... quite a luxury!
　
Before setting off on this adventure we both were keen to experience a rodeo and we finally got our chance in Guanacaste. The 25th of July marks their national day, the day the state of Guanacaste became part of Costa Rica (it had belonged to Nicaragua). In this cowboy region, they celebrate with ear busting music, plenty of booze and bucking bulls… all at the same time! Needless to say, the rodeo in the town of Brasilito was quite an experience! Chaos is another word that came to mind as we watched the drunk locals stumbling around the ring, their bravado increased by the liquor. As the night wore on and the crowd got drunker, more and more followed suit until there was quite a crowd trying to dodge the crazed bull. Some legless bloke decided to lie down in the middle of the action, can of grog in hand, seemingly oblivious to the raging bull charging within inches to his head. The bull-riders seemed even drunker; I guess the one for courage had become many. The funniest moment (although not so funny for the poor bloke involved), was when an injured cowboy was picked up and stuffed through a little window with the hospital red cross painted underneath it. After the rodeo spectacle the Mexican's were well greased for a big night ahead; we were keen to get a bit of thigh slapping going in the barn dance but unfortunately one couple in the shuttle bus wanted to go home. Ho hum.
　
Monteverde Cool
　
We were ready for a change in scenery and temperature! Monteverde is a national nature reserve up in the Costa Rican mountains which is covered in dense cloud forest and crawling with wildlife. The temperature was down at Norwegian summer range so actually having to dig out the duvet in the camper was a huge, welcome bonus. We set up camp in the local schools parking lot and was thrashed by strong winds and rain which are common to this area year round.

The area of Monteverde was first settled by farmers and loggers in the 1930's and later became populated by North American Quakers in 1951. When the Quakers first arrived they agreed to preserve a third of their property to protect the watershed above Monteverde; it is now known as one of the countries most eminent reserves.
　
You could spend a week taking in all the sights and activities that this area has to offer but a week we did not have so we decided to do the two things that appealed to us the most. By the end of our first day we had booked on a canopy tour with Adventura, one of the many adventure tourism outfits in the area, and a night time jungle walk, which had been highly recommended to us by other travellers.
　
We were a little worried about the zip lining when we awoke to gale force winds the next morning. The Adventura canopy tour required us to attach ourselves to cables with pulleys and a harness and fly above and between the beautiful cloud forest. Some of the cables were up to 90 metres above the ground and so the wind would definitely be an added bonus to the thrill; like it or not! Our first mission at Adventura was to get dressed up in some pretty serious looking equipment and listen intently to the instructions. The guides then got us into the swing of things with a few warm-up cables to get the hang of it. We were soon onto the larger cables, the longest being 750 meters long and 90 meters above the ground; the howling winds were threatening to spin you around if you took your mind off the job for a second so concentration and guts were in order, so much so we don't recall taking in the spectacular scenery!
　
Our next challenge was the Tarzan swing, which is just that, a small free-fall and into a fun swing overlooking the forest below. After a few more lines we were on to the final and scariest challenge, the 'Superman' cable. All that was required from us was to enjoy the view but that was definitely easier said than done. We were secured to the 1 kilometre cable by two pulleys on our backs and launched 'superman' style, high above the forest. It was a little unnerving seeing a tiny black dot racing along the ground and then realising that was your shadow! After what seemed like ages, you would finally see the other side and the guides waiting to get you down. It was good to be back on terra firma! Ollie, wanting to get his moneys worth, managed to get stuck nearly at the halfway point due to the strong winds and a dodgy pulley, so he had to hang suspended, 90 meters up in the air while the guides came to his rescue and hauled him back up.
　
After a lot of rainy nights we were extremely lucky that it decided to hold off for our evening jungle walk. Our enthusiastic guide, who obviously loves his job as everything was "totally amazing" and "exciting" took us on a informative stroll around the airily dark jungle and showed us some amazing things. This guy was amazing in himself; he spotted animals camouflaged or hidden in the dark bushes when most would have walked right on by. We managed to see a tarantula, a sleeping Toucan, some huge stick insects, crickets and butterflies which must have been on steroids, a poisonous viper taking a nap in the branches of a tree above our heads, raccoons, opossums and our personal favourite, the two toed sloth. Apparently jaguars and big cats have been sighted in these parts in the past but you have to be extremely lucky (or unlucky?) to catch a glimpse of one of those.

We awoke early the next day, before the school buses started surrounding us in the parking lot, and started our long windy drive back down to the coast. Our plan was to catch the opening of the World Surfing Games being held in Jaco, the surfing capital of Costa Rica.