I left Montezuma by speedboat! Just over an hour across the bay with our luggage splash proofed in bin bags - very classy. Then an included transfer to Quepos in an open pickup truck (our bags are out of the bin bags by then, so obviously they don't plan for it raining whilst on dry land... ). Checked in to hostel, private room shared bathroom and a pool, fab. Well, fab apart from the burping, farting Italian gentleman who was smoking outside his roo...

I went for the cheap travel option, the 6am bus to the port of Puntarenas to catch a ferry to Paquera. 3 hour journey for £1.50. Arrived at 9.30 and spent a nice few hours killing time until the 1pm ferry with Liz and Pascal, 2 English teacher Brits. Having started the morning in the mountains with jumper and waterproof , I was now in shorts as the coast was boiling. One ferry and another 2 hours standing on a hot bus and I was at Montezuma, a quite little beach...

Having had 2 1/2 weeks of being looked after I now have another couple of weeks in Costa Rica on my own. Quite randomly I picked Monteverde as my first stop. After a 4 hour minibus trip on roads that quite honestly I would probably not attempt to drive on in the uk (Road is a very loose term here - dirt track with potholes is probably more accurate) I arrived at Pension Santa Elena hostel. I had treated myself to a private room with bathroom and breakfast for $20...

Even in Costa Rica I can't escape my IT roots! Having already spent a few hours reviewing the project's website, I was then needed for some switch cabling troubleshooting, and then an error in Outlook which I had to try to translate to english before fixing. Hmmm I might keep my occupation to myself from now on. My last few days at the project were good fun if a little wet. Point to note when cleaning animal cages near a river, when its raining AND when using a ...

Various animal stories to tell this week. Last Sunday I went into La Fortuna, the nearest 'tourist'town to where I am staying. Hannah, a new volunteer from Sweden had suggested that we go on a horse riding trek near the volcano.Yep - I thought, I have been on a couple of nice scenic touristy plods on previous holidays, that would be great. We arrived at the stables and after signing a rather scarily (is that a word?) translated disclaimer which seemed to mention ...