¡Hola! The border crossing into Panama at Sixaola was quite neat - an old iron railway bridge across the Rio Sixaola, which had been crudely pedestrianised with planks of wood nailed to the tracks, separated the two countries and made for a memorable walk.Things on the other side of the border were predictably hectic, but we managed to get on a local bus and headed to Almirante to catch a boat to Bocas del Toro. Bocas consists of a group of pristine islands ...

¡Hola! So after that amazing flight from Drake Bay we stopped for a quick lunch with Colleen in San Jose, said our goodbyes, and caught a bus to the Caribbean coast.Colleen gave us this cool dice game as a goodbye present; it´s called Farkle and it's kind of like poker, but with dice. Anyway, we headed to a place called Cahuita, which had been highly recommended to us by lots of people but was a bit disappointing really.It´s the sort of town where you coul...

¡Hola!Whilst in Drake Bay we popped into a little hut by the beach which was the office of Fundacion Corcovado, which runs conservation projects on the Peninsula de Osa, to enquire as to any local volunteer opportunities. We were in luck as there was a long-established marine turtle conservation project on the next beach, the other side of the Rio Drake. We initially went for a tentative 4-day stay, but in the end we worked there for over two weeks and it was by...

¡Hola! After a quick stop-over in San Jose, and in a major digression from our original rough plan for Costa Rica, we headed to the Pacific coast to the wonderful Penisula de Osa, to a place called Drake Bay (named after good old Francis - little trouble-maker that he was). Drake Bay, or to be precise Agujitas, is perched on the edge of the massive Parque Nacional Corcovado, but it may as well be in the park considering the wildlife living in the bay. Corcovado...

¡Hola! We headed to La Fortuna for one night to witness the (often) spectacular Volcan Arenal - Costa Rica´s most active volcano.In the wet season the volcano is shrouded in cloud and the chances of seeing any lava or rocks flying out of it are slim.But, amazingly, the cloud dispersed for long enough that night for us to make out the orange glow of lava coming out of the crater.Annoying, we forgot our tripod, which would have permitted some excellent photos, b...