The first full day at costa verde - a hotel complex with sea views and 3 restaurants including one - el avion - with an ex-US airplane as the main bar - wings and all! We didn't do much today, but we took a wander down the hill - a kilometre or so - to the beach to join all the other gringos! Normal beach behaviour for us - I sat down and didn't move for 2 hours in case I got sand anywhere. Suzanne read a book, Finn and Derry swam, body surfed, Siena sat and observed. We bought a couple of towels, and were fascinated by the beach sellers especially the one who had a huge block of ice he'd scrape then put it in a cup and add various flavours and sauces - kind of slushy I guess but a more manual version. Anyway we stayed on the beach for a couple of hours - when the sun shines here it's really hot, but then before too long the clouds come over and rain starts to fall - the beach didn't clear very much, the rain isn't unpleasant, being warm and 'soft' - if there is such a thing. Once we'd managed to extricate the youngest 2 from the water, we nipped into the market area for a lunch and souvenir hunt. Of course now we regret not buying the small and really cheap trinkets from Ecuador and Peru where we'd haggle over 20p and think we'd done well. Here we're in US playground so everything is priced accordingly. I reckon the second half of the trip will be the expensive half. Still, the pound is looking good against the dollar so the apple store might get raided in LA!

Costa Rica is a place where it's hard to gauge the culture - so much of it is geared around the (mostly) US tourist. There's no shortage of things to do - adrenalin, nature, kids it's all here but having just spent our time in places with massive culture and history, especially Peru, this feels so much like just holiday. Of course there is a culture, and it's a relaxed one, with no conflict, smiles and a keen eye on ecological activity, but there's no real history to be seen other than the impact of US plantations of teak, bananas, and other crops throughout the countryside.

I digress...On our return to the hotel up the hill (only one kilometre, but plenty of complaints from the unfit team of junior lintons) we all dived straight into the pool and messed around for the next hour or more, before braving the rain and driving to the supermarket to get breakfasts and general provisions - it's nice to have our own kitchen where we can enjoy some control over what we eat! Big news everyone stayed awake for the meal at the pizza restaurant!

The next day was kayaking day in the mangroves. Breakfast on the balcony where we saw a few monkeys in the trees, then more pool-based chilling, where the kids perfected their silly dives. Derry's superman dive was truly something to behold! Watch out leamington club gala in September! If only because you'll get very wet!

The kayaking trip meant a pick up, 10 minutes into town where we paid, 25 minutes trip to the launch (including a crossing of the 'omygod' bridge...aptly named, made of iron and over 100 years old!) site with our very enthusiastic guides (everyone has a lovely sense of humour here, and English is spoken widely because of the tourists! - don't think we'll be learning much new Spanish.) They provided lunch with the black beans which I'm starting to get addicted to, even though they don't taste of much. Then it was onto the water, Siena and Suzanne in a double and everyone else in a single. Good for Suzanne, she was driven everywhere!

The mangroves are a strange place - we've seen them before in Australia years ago - very quiet, still, spooky and slightly unnerving. The roots are crawling with crabs of different varieties, and the shapes made by the roots, rotting vegetation and leaves make you think there are animals and crocs everywhere. We saw some great animal life - a large troup of monkeys including one which was climbing down after my hat or camera, an ant eater (mid sized, Finn will clarify the correct name), a sloth asleep holding a baby, two snakes, jesus christ lizard (yep, you got it, actually a plumed basilisk but with its walking on water ability.....). the only thing we didn't spot was a Cayman croc, there's something weird about how the guides can always spot the animals, just lumps in the trees most of the time; I reckon they have some kind of deal going with the animals, they must be in on it somewhere to always be in the spot where the tour goes!

To say we all enjoyed it might be overstating. On balance everyone had a good time, but Finn suffered from 'perceived' insect biting then kayaked right into an upturned root, Derry fell in and got tired so had a pull on a rope from the guide, and Siena managed to steer right into the thorn bushes. Still we have fond memories of the animals, and I still love the eeriness of the mangrove. Not sure if I'd do it on my own though.

Guess what - on our return we all hit the pool again, Finn and Derry playing with new found friends & twins Parker and Dawson (yep!) and Siena with Mauritia. One thing which is constant wherever we travel is that there's no reserve when you meet other people - there's no time to lose so straight away everyone asks about each others' travels and short friendships are made very quickly. So we have met many (mostly American) families doing their 9 day Costa Rica break, all of whom are friendly, and all of whom we've exchanged experiences, opinions, advice and plans with. It's a warm feeling!

Tonight was the turn of Rico Tico's restaurant in the Si Como no hotel complex ('sure, why not?') where hungry folk devoured all. All that swimming makes the younger 2 tired, but they still wake up at 5 something every morning and that's one of the biggest sources of frustration for the whole holiday. Particularly when Derry falls asleep in the evening over her meal. Thought we'd have a solution by now but not yet!

It means the evenings are quite weird too. After the kids have crashed, around 9 by the time Siena sleeps, there's little to do - too many bugs to sit outside, we're not too happy about leaving them alone -the bar isn't that appealing anyway - so we tend to read, pootle around, get a haircut in my case and skim through lots of rubbish tv channels before we crash ourselves fairly early. Costa Rica starts early, and if it's not Derry waking us, the mopeds and trucks soon will.

Day 4 at Costa Verde means an early start - not only do we need to change rooms, but we have an appointment with a white water raft at 7.30 so its breakfast on the balcony again, shout at some kids because they're not moving fast enough (or in some cases not at all) and make it to reception. We had the delight of seeing an ant eater from our balcony this morning just calmly walking down the tree. Warms the soul!

The white water rafting was a blast. No pictures yet - we have a CD awaiting us in reception which hopefully has a shot or two of us in full flight - the safety briefing had us all wondering what we had let ourselves in for - could the kids manage it, they're definitely going to fall out of the boat - but once under way there were massive smiles, whoops, cries of joy as we all got totally soaked and immersed ourselves - yes, literally - in the river. Fantastic adrenalin experience for us all - everyone paddled, leant in under instruction and rode the rapids and calms alike under the expert guidance of Minah (?) - who I secretly reckon was doing all the work, we just thought we were paddling hard!

All the kids had a great time, and were saddened when the second half of the ride, after the pineapple and cookie snack was on the wider aspect of the river and with very few peaks and troughs. They all want to repeat that one !

Thankfully no one fell out, we all had a blast and met some more nice co-thrill seekers! I know we get up tight about the kids, often having arguments, niggles, fights, but we also receive many many complements about them and their behaviour - the guide today, for example, said that our kids were great because they listened and did what they were asked - and they are all confident outgoing children - who will happily start a conversation with a stranger about their experiences. Might sound a bit weird if you're reading this at home but here and travelling there are no such fears about being open, trusting and interactive. Mind you I still keep the wallet well safe!. Anyway, point is, the kids are growing up and if nothing else, this will give them renewed confidence about their interaction with other, different, people.

We were - naturally - soaked through after this excursion, so it seemed only natural for the younger 2 to spend the next 4 hours back at the hotel pool while the older 3 of us approached the day with a little more serenity, heads in books, laptops and drinking coffee!

We weren't so impressed with our new room - smaller than the first but with an unfeasibly wide bed, fit for 3 of us! - the view was more public (both in and out!) and not as well laid out. But hey ho, we can handle it for a couple of days. Might make packing slightly easier at the end

Our evening this time was spent in the El Avion restaurant complete with 1950s plane - unfortunately we didn't get a good look at it, and will return with camera when Derry isn't asleep AGAIN, but it's certainly a funky, innovative and unique approach to a bar and restaurant. The dumb waiter is a setcion of fuselage!

We read this evening of Leamington's success at getting into the Junior league final, so brilliant news, well done any swimmers reading, and it's given Finn and Siena some added incentive to be selected for the final team - which means some tough training when we all get back in the water. We're going to need a lot!