This entry comes from the foothills of Volcan Arenal famed for being the most consistently active volcano in the world - 43 years of continuous lava flows and eruptions - until 6 months ago that is! There is no lava or even steam so we have to content ourselves with the view and the volcano heated hot springs nearby.

The night hike/snake hunt was good fun but, lucky for the wife, snake free. As well as plenty of other nocturnal creepy crawlies we did get to see an Orange-kneed tarantula though, me from up close, Rhian from about 35 metres (a distance covered in about 2.4 seconds-she's quicker than she looks!).

Following a gentile trip to a cheese factory (where we learned a bit about a little town in England where the world's oldest cheese comes from...) we decided Team Hiles needed to get a bit more 'Extreme' so booked ourselves on an adrenaline-filled zip line/forest canopy tour.

It was a little more 'extreme' than we had realised including 3 x 500m plus lines across the valley where, when we had to do a tandem, i was accused (outrageously) of being "too heavy and you're making us go too fast". A 30m rappel/sheer rope drop to the valley floor and a 100ft tarzan swing (see video, ignore unmanly squeal but note shaky camerawoman hands) was followed by the the climax - a 1km long Superman zipline in 45 seconds. You will see from Rhian's pic how we are set up so i'm sure you get the idea as we fly across the 180m deep valley face down.

We drew the line at the bungee jump and let the 'kids' enjoy themselves as we watched from the safety of the observation deck.

We then moved from Monteverde to La Fortuna (by the volcano) via a jeep/boat/jeep transfer the first part of which was a 800m descent on entirely stone track - how a town exists at the top we'll never understand.

Despite the lack of lava we had a great hike to a 70m waterfall where you can swim beneath the ultimate power shower and took advantage of the luxurious hot springs there are around here. This was also the scene of my greatest victory of the trip so far (at the least the reaction suggested so...) a trip to the bar where i returned with a G&T for the doc. I just wish I could be sure she would have the same look on her face if she hadn't seen me for a month....

Took a trip to a wildlife sanctuary today to see poison dart frogs and tonight we are going out for dinner to celebrate making our first month still on speaking terms.