Since I last wrote I've been up to loads of stuff - Ive been to a roller disco and was almost too scared to get on my feet but after making it 10 feet to a pillar & back a number of times I gave it a go on the proper rink & didn't fall over at all thankfully.

I visited Cahuita & Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast with an Irish girl I met called Sinead & during the couple of hours a day when it wasn't bucketing with rain we visited the national park & saw monkeys (& baby monkeys), a massive basilisk lizard, enormous butterflies, leaf cutting ants, loads of crabs, tiny poison dart frogs & a 2 toed sloth. And this wasn't even on an organised tour, this was just walking (& biking) through the national park. I swam in the caribbean sea & felt smug.

The food on the caribbean coast was great, lots of caribbean influences so quite spicy & lots of coconut milk and lots of fresh fish - I had red snapper rondon which was great. Rondon is the local speciality traditionally made of whatever the chef can 'run down' - ie shove everything you've got into a pot along with some spices & coconut milk & simmer it all till it smells fantastic. The whole atmosphere is quite different from the rest of Costa Rica as there are a lot of caribbean immigrants so lots of reggae & calypso music also.

Another student has arrived in my house, a 19 yr old German girl who thankfully speaks good english as I can't remember any german from schooldays.

So many new faces seem to appear at the dinner table every night & I'm still not sure who is who, & who actually lives in the house & who lives in the other houses nearby. I asked how many grandchildren my hostess has & she has 10.

I went to see Batman on Tuesday night - in english with Spanish subtitles so I guess I could call it educational. And last night I went to the opera at the national theatre in San Jose to see Faust which was OK but very confusing as it was in french with Spanish subtitles which I couldn't see properly as we were up in the gods. I think I dozed through the second act mostly.

Also - after classes at the school I've tried salsa dancing, merengue (very confusing) & made cheese & refried bean empanadas in cookery class.

Today is Thursday so it's the last day of classes this week. On Saturday I'm arranging to go on a tour with a couple of German girls - to Poas volcano, then to visit a coffee farm, some botanical gardens & loads of other things I can't recall at present. I'm hoping to explore San Jose a bit more over the weekend also.