Friday 29th and Saturday 30th Friday comes and it's time to chill, the Parador is a fabulous hotel, perched high on the cliff side overlooking the Ocean with is the most perfect blue. We chill by the pool, slapping plenty of factor 30 on as the sun off the water is intense. We chat to a crowd of Americans who have left the deep snow storms of New Jersey to escape to this blissfully warm water. We bob up and down in hot bath waters and chat of weather thous...

Thursday, 28th January 2016So today is a happy birthday to my eldest sister Geraldine. Hoping she has a great day, but I doubt if she will be a blog reader. Once more, we have to be up at the crack of dawn because we have our final wildlife tour of this entire trip. We rush breakfast not to be late as every single tour guide or driver has been totally and utterly punctual. Joshua our latest guide is waiting on the dot of 8.30 to whisk us to the minibus where our...

 Wednesday 27th January 2016 Another day and another part of Costa Rica to see. We've already seen the Caribbean coast and the rainforest in Tortuguero, We've had time in the central area of Arenal and Monteverde both quite close but very different in temperature and climate. So today we are going to be driven the 190 km (120 miles) to a completely different area of the country. The very warm and quite humid region on the southern Pacific shore known as...

 Tuesday, 26th January 2016 Today we again get kitted up as we are visiting Monteverde cloud forest reserve and dead on time, as per usual, our guide arrives to take us the 15 minutes to the park entrance. Graybing introduces himself to us and is a small round smiley faced Tico. He, like Donald has a tripod and Telescope and gives us binoculars for our use during the 3 hour trip. We hope to see various mammals, but within 5 minutes of entering the park, he is w...

 Monday 25th January 2016 So we must leave Arenal and its rain, our transport arrives to take us by road the 10 minutes to the boat jetty on Lake Arenal. This lake was formed after the terrible volcanic eruption in 1968 and has been a source of hydro-electric power as well as a fantastic facility for boating, kayaking, wildlife and the like for tourists and residents. A remarkable turnaround after the devastating tragedy that killed 87 and wiped out 2 villages....