Costa Rica time!

Sorry it's taken so long, blog fatigue has been setting in (along with everything else fatigue).

I think many people must have had similar negative experiences on arriving in San Jose. We came to Costa Rica with an image in our heads of a beautiful place but the capital does really disappoint. It's grey, run down, a bit scary and the first day we got there it rained for 5 hours (ok so it is the rainy season but that's too far).

Needless to say we were eager to escape to nicer pastures and so headed up to La Fortuna which is the town at the foot of Volcan Arenal. We wanted to relax after lots of travelling and it was just the right place for it. It was hot (oh yeah SJ was colder than expected as well) and our nice hostel had a pool and hammocks. The volcano wasn't smoking unfortunately but there were plenty of other things to do. We went and saw the craters which the last eruption had caused as well as walking through the jungle. The main reason we were here was for the hot springs, one whole day was spent at this beautiful hot spring resort with lots of pools of differing temperatures as well as a jacuzzi and slides. It was pure relaxation. Not too expensive either.

From there we headed on to Monteverde and the cloud forest. Here we saw some incredible animals in the national park and really enjoyed walking on the virtually empty trails. We also did a canopy tour; swinging through the trees on zip lines as well as a Superman (basically lying down like superman) and a Tarzan Swing (crazy freefall and then swing) - definitely a highlight, Go Ape should be ashamed.

We headed down via several hot buses to Manuel Antonio, a quite touristy area with beaches and a national park (so many national parks in CR.) We were in another lovely hostel (have been really lucky) with a pool that was really appreciated. We had some more days of relaxation and interspersed with hiking in the national park and of course more animals, monkeys, iguanas and birds. The park was special as it had some nice wilderness beaches, once you'd escaped the crowds of american tour groups.

Then it was Corcovado and more hot hiking in the jungle, I thought we were supposed to be relaxing? We did have a lovely cabin. This was my pick of a place to go and it was well worth it despite being hard to get to and quite expensive. The boat there was definitely a transport highlight; very bumpy waves, a rain storm and a crocodile, flanked at all times by rolling rainforest hills and beaches. We saw lots of monkeys, tapirs, birds, coatis and puma footprints!

Finally we headed properly to the beach, over the border into Panama (crossing was horrible) and Bocas del Toro, idyllic Caribbean islands! We spent about a week going to various beaches on a couple of the islands, saw dolphins and swam with starfish! As well as a bit of partying. So we basically gave ourselves a week to get a tan, will let you judge the results...

To end our trip we headed up to Tortuguero to see some turtles, truly majestic animals and so big! Today our last proper day travelling was spent white water rafting through dramatic scenery and having great fun, very fitting. Then flying out of here tomorrow, Tuesday 10th. Unfortunately we don't arrive home until Thursday 12th with 18 hours in JFK airport but hey trying not to think about that...

So it's all over. Feels so weird and unreal to be going home tomorrow after just getting used to travelling and everythoing that goes with that - the dorms, hostels, buses and general responsibility of looking after ourselves completely for 4 months! It's been utterly incredible, many experiences that I'll never forget and I'm sure it has changed me, (albeit subtly, don't worry guys I'm not some hippy traveller!), us, for the better!

Couldn't have shared it with a better person, despite plenty of silly arguments - we needed to take out frustration somehow - we complimented each other really well and having the experiences together made them so much nicer!

Pretty impossible to sum up the whole 4 months of adventure so will just say this, travel, if you can, it will have a huge impact on your life, can't wait for the next trip!

Pura vida!