Pulled into Monteverde by mid morning after our classic backpacker transfer fondly known as the jeep-boat-jeep.....a four hour journey across the misty Lake Arenal and a very bumpy drive up into Costa Rica's famous cloud forest. Found a homely hostel - desite tales of tarantulas hiding out in beds- owned by a super friendly Ronnie and his cute family. And he was a total legend after it turned out that the well dodgy owner of the Lonely Planet recommended hostel i...

A small, touristy town wiith massive Arenal volcano looming over it and rumours of red hot real lava flowing down the sides! On our first day we abandoned plans to hike to the waterfall, plumping instead for the local watering hole just 1 km down the road. Lovely spot, in spite of the somewhat starey starey Costa Rican chavs loitering about, with a deep blue pool and waterfall. The only realistic way in was by tarzan rope followed by a very undignified scrambl...

Another big, sprawling Latin American city with no great charms and a terrible rep for violence, so we only stopped for one day. Wandered around briefly and went for a great Asian meal with everyone followed by beers in the most unatmostpheric Irish pub ever enountered before trotting back past all the lady boys and hookers lurking on the street corners. And our hostel was in the nicer part of town! And as it turns out, it was well de dodgy...the last after w...

Straightforward journey by speedboat, bus and a very sweaty trot across the border and we landed in the little beach town of Puerto Viejo - a ramshackle backpacker haven with rustic bars and restaurants made of driftwood and a lot Bob Marley everywhere! Spent a while checking out hostels with the help of our self appointed hippie (and ever so slighty whiffy) hostel 'guru' before hitting the hut for a slap up fish dinner. Somehow one bottle of Imperial led to ano...

Explored the Old Town, scoffed grub in the famous Coca Cola Cafe, about as untouristy a place gets while still being listed in the lonely planet, and drank in the bar zone. That pretty much sums up our stay in Panama City. Its a funny place with condos and high rises shooting up quicker than a rat up a drainpipe for the hordes of americans piling in by the thousands. Theres probably more to Panama than we discovered, but out hotel room was so nice (air con, ca...