Well I have been here a week now, and you couldn't get a bigger change from my hotel in Mexico. I am volunteering at Proyecto Asis, a wildlife sanctuary about an hour from La Fortuna. I am at a homestay with a local Costa Rican family, they are very friendly but speak no english!! I have my own room, and have now got used to the cold showers as they have no hot water. I have all my meals prepared by Carmen, who is the Mum in the house. They eat a lot of rice and beans - it is the staple in Costa Rica. The meat seems to be mainly pork in various guises, and the fruit and vegetables are grown by the family on their land behind the house. They grow yukka which when cooked looks and tastes similar to potato, oranges, papaya, guava, bananas and other local things that I don't know the name of yet.

At Proyecto Asis I am having spanish lessons every morning, so I am gradually picking up what people are saying. The spanish apps on my ipod are a source of fascination for Carmen and her family, and have been really helpful for me : ) . In the afternoons I, along with other volunteers, help to clean out the animal cages and then feed the animals. There are monkeys, parrotts, peccaries, and many more. Yesterday was pretty funny as 2 spider monkeys managed to escape as their cage was not closed properly. 6 of us volunteers had to get into the parrott cage (it's very big!) to protect ourselves, as the monkeys can be very agressive to strangers if they are free. We were in there for an hour, so we knew how trhe animals felt being locked up!

I will write more next week and get some good photos of the animals, and just for you Jas you will be happy to hear that it has been torrential rain for the last few days plus the cold showers etc ; )