Ok, I had a wonderful weekend.It included music, massages, active volcanoes, pizza, churches, cinema, robbery and also the incident where I wanted to punch a German in the face.

Oh yeah!This entry is gonna be good!

Friday -

Ok, so Friday after school I went shopping in San Pedro Mall.It's a great big mall conveniently placed about 5 minutes walk from the school.I went to go buy my headset so I can talk on Skype with my friends back in England and the US.If anyone wants to add me on it download Skype (its free) and search for my name, my nick name is princess.saggersrather fitting I feel.

Anyway, I bought my headset, bought a card reader, got some photos printed up for Diana as she was leaving that weekend and I also purchased two more Spanish kids books for her as she expressed such a love for the ones I had previously bought.

I had planned to meet Somto, a girl in my class at the school at 6.30.However I didn't realise the school closed at 5 and it gets dark at 6 and you are NEVER to be out alone in the dark, its pretty much suicide, or so I'm told.So, there I was waiting outside the school, in the dark, on my own. Real Smart.

Presuming every passing stranger was a rape artist, I was beginning to get the jidders however the gates opened to the school and the caretaker let me wait inside behind the bars, oh yeah did I mention?Every house here has bars around the house EVERY house and building.That's just how it is apparently.

Somto arrived a little after half past, thank god as I was dreading trying to find a taxi but we made our way to the bus's without getting murdered and hopped onto a bus to take us into the main city section and eventually found the venue for the Jazz Festival.

The festival was held in a big grand concert hall, loads of seats in lines pointing towards the stage on a slope and the balconies with lights shining down upon the packed crowd filling the seats below.

We paid a measly $5 for our near enough front row seats and watched for 3 hours three bands play a selection of world jazz including a jazz violin, which I had never heard before, very cool. No jazz flutes I'm afraid though ;) The three bands were from all over, one being from Costa Rica, the second a band from the famous music school in America, Berkeley, and the third from Germany.The German band were the only band with a singer and it was the first time I had heard German vocals in a jazz band before and I'll be honest when she sang in actual German it was such an ugly sound, for me anyway, it was very harsh sounding and I had always envisaged jazz to be smooth however most of the time she sang in sounds and it was amazing.I remember one part where they were doing a weird song, that was using all kinds of weird noises and instruments and then all of a sudden the whole band of 6 players stopped and went into a 6 part beautiful harmony for about 10 seconds and then went straight back into the weird stuff again.It was brilliant.

After the show Somto and I parted, got taxis and made our way home. I got home around 11.30 and went straight to bed as I had to get up at 6.30 the next day to go see this volcano.

Saturday -

So I got up at 6.30 grabbed my things and made my way to the bus stop for 7 and grabbed a bus that took me to school again, about 20 minutes away.I met Milena at the gate to the house, (Milena is one of the niece's of Cecila's that I got friends with last weekend at the party)I was surprised to see her as it was so damn early. We got chatting (in Spanish of course!)and she said she had work , which sucked, and so we got the bus together into town.

I made my way to school to meet three other girls there from my school also venturing on the same trip as me to the Arenal Volcano.They were speaking German and I hadn't really talked with many people at the school so I plugged my headphones in and started to write some lyrics.

The private tour bus picked us up around 7 and for 45 minutes to na hour we went round picking other people up for the trip at different locations, but it was all on the way so it didn't matter much. We ended up with 5 Mexicans, 6 Germans and a few others I dunno.

The first stop off was a little souvenir place where there were thousands of flowers everywhere and exotic trees growing in the gardens such as banana trees and weird exotic plants where I managed to capture a picture of a beautiful butterfly sitting on the flower.

Many of the flowers I hadn't seen before, and spent a long time looking around the gardens.After half an hour we got back into the bus and sped off towards the volcano that was about 2 hours away.During that time I stared out the window and tried to capture the scenery that was changing with every mile we drove.We had to drive up into the mountains through what they called the 'cloud forest'.This area was pretty desolate in comparison, people lived here but it was unbelievably cloudy and grey however a lots of luscious greenery growing everywhere. Hundreds of thick evergreen trees, and fields and forests lay in front of me that whizzed past as I tried to take it all in.

When we progressed out of the clouds we started going down hill and the closer we got the volcano the more Geography I remembered from GCSE time at school.I remember the teacher telling us that volcanic soil is incredibly good for growing and harvesting fruit and vegetables. And no sooner had I thought this then the conductor and tour guide told us to look right and look at the field of pineapples.

Being a complete idiot, I expected to be looking at field of trees with pineapples growing on them.No. To my shock all I saw was a field full of grounded plants with green leaves sticking out of the soil in perfect linear formation. I had no idea pineapples were soil based. I seriously had always imagined pineapples in trees and felt very silly at the realisation.

Oh well.You live and learn!

We carried on and the further down we went the hotter it got and also the environment changed around us, it started getting slightly dryer but still very vegetated.

We reached the restaurant where we were to have lunch and all starving at this point we grabbed the plates and headed for the buffet.

I have to be honest, compared to Cecilia's cooking, it wasn't that great. I was expecting fresh fruit and vegetables however we got pasta, chicken and beans.(they are big on beans over here, and I don't mean the baked beans kind)

I was on the table with the three German girls and we got on well and learnt lots about where we were all from and what our plans were etc.I had booked myself in for a volcanic mud body wrap at the elite spa there as the prices for a full body massage, a full body wrap and facial was a measly $60 (£45)and to me for all that with real volcanic mud in an elite spa was worth it.

I left the ladies at the table and made my way over to the spa.

I was introduced to my masseuse and was asked how strong I wanted the massage and which area on concentrate on. She then took me into a relaxation room with a bed ready to lie on for my massage and real flowers were picked and scattered all over the floor in such a delicate beautiful way. Enya was being played on repeat in the background and with the open windows opened out to the volcanic view I felt very relaxed. Up until the point where she asked me take off all my clothes. Not really knowing what a body wrap involved I was a little shaken at the thought of taking ALL my clothes off.

Thinking I had misunderstood I asked again and she confirmed she wanted every item of clothing off and to wrap a towel around myself. I had not prepared myself for this at all. I presumed I would be able to keep my panties on and my bra, if not my bra my panties at the very least but no, so I took a deep breath and stripped and wrapped the towel round me and lay face down on the plastic covered massage bed and started to panic at to what I was getting myself into.Surely they weren't intending to rub volcanic mud in my dudi dudi bits. I hadn't waxed! I was so not ready for this!.

She returned and loosened the towel around me and lowered it so it was covered me from my bum downwards and start to work on the massage on my shoulders. It. Was. Amazing.The pressure was perfect for what I had asked for and she concentrated on the areas I really wanted.This massage must have gone on for a good half an hour using different types of oils and creams and the smells were hypnotic.

She then started to scrub the black mud into my body.She went all over and I believe went over my bum.Bum, I don't mind, it was the thought of turning over that I had the issues with.

The she asked me turn over. Joy. She held up the towel so she couldn't see anything and I turned over, she then placed the towel over me covering everything and then got two more towels and placed them so I was wearing a boob tube of towel and a nappy of towel.She then took the first towel away which was under both of these and left just the two. Everything was covered and my bits were safe. Thank god.

She covered the rest of me excluding my face in this mud and then took my arms and placed them in a vampire fashion across my chest and then wrapped me up in a tight cocoon using the plastic I had been lying on. And I thought that was just to lie on for clinical reasons!

I felt utterly ridiculous but completely relaxed all the same. I was left for another half hour listening to the voice of Enya and remember the scenes from the Lord of the Rings.

The lady returned to give me my facial and when finished she took the plastic off and led me to a private shower room that had been filled with exotic flowers and fresh towels hanging on the glass.I showered myself washing all the mud off of me, feeling my skin being so smooth and soft.I didn't want to go but we had finished!

I got dressed, gave her her well earned tip and went back into the bus to go meet everyone else who had already been taken to the hot springs.

More to come