We left the mountains of Monteverde and headed to the Pacific coast and the Manuel Antonio National park. The early 6am bus (which was the last bus of the day!), the 7 hour journey and the return to the heat just about finished us off so the rest of the day unfortunately had little merit. Thankfullly the national park the next day more than made up for it. The next morning we caught the 20 minute bus to the Manuel Antonio National park and found out why it is ...

The slightly crazy Nicaraguan border and the 2+ hour wait at a Costa Rican road junction was definitely worth it to get to Monteverde. The last bus ride of 38km took us on an 1.5 hour trip steadily uphill along windy roads with beautiful views across the country. We arrived into rain and cold and found our cosy hostel which was more like a chalet. We went out for some dinner and quickly discovered that Costa Rica really is as expensive as everyone has been tel...

We left Ometepe on the ferry (24th July) and headed back to the mainland. The return journey was on a car ferry which felt like luxury compared to the boat we arrived on. We then got two buses to San Juan del Sur, which is a beach town near the Costa Rica boarder. The town is famed for surfing and partying but we were here to see turtles come ashore and lay their eggs. Unfortunately it is still early in the season so when we tried to book a tour we were told that...

Our next destination in Nicaragua was Ometepe island in the middle of the largest lake in Nicaragua, Lake Nicaragua. We could have got a four hour ferry straight from Granada but decided to go the other way so we could get there earlier and avoid too much seasickness (I'd read the crossing could be pretty rough). So we got the bus south and met an Austrian couple who also happen to speak fluent Spanish. They negotiated a good taxi rate to the ferry dock however t...

We managed to finally leave León, via a luxury air-conditioned shuttle bus (commonly refered to as a tourist shuttle) which we took for the benefit of Simon as he wasn't sure if he'd be well enough to negotiate the local buses. We had to get a taxi the last part to Laguna Apoyo which we had been recommended by a couple we met at the hostel in León. We stayed for two nights in a hostel/resort place right on the laguna (an old volcano crater) where we continued ...