Having left Arenal, we headed to Monteverde or commonly known as the cloud forest. When we got there, you could see why. It was permantly shrouded in mist. The hostel was connected with the hostel we stayed in Areanal but it didnt have a pool and air conditioning but it was half the price. As gabs didnt have much time left and wanted to do some more surfing, we decided that we would do monteverde in a day and leave the following morning for as far as we could figure out from the lonely liar, there were two main things to do. So we paid at the hostel desk who seemed to act as a tour guide for the ziplining. We were collected at the hostel and driven to the place. From there, we were kitted out in some highly unflattering harnesses, so it probably wasnt the best idea to wear my rugby shorts!! The security briefing was short and sweet and soon we were marched off to the first platform. The idead is that you sit in this harness and they clip you into the metal cable overhead. We were told that all siplingin tours nowadays have complex and idiot proof braking systems. Well, that clearly wasnt the case! the method of braking that we use was a glove with a well worn leather pad. To stop, you simply pull hard on the cable and the friction will bring you to a stop. The first to go was a stick thin 12 year old girl. She didnt have the strength to stop her self and therefore smashed hard into the 'new improved' pulley system to stop you at the end, ie a man clotheslining her at the end! Well, that knocked her confidence and the cable was only 50ms long, a 15th of the longest one. Anyway, it didnt look to hard so we made it to the next platform and the next cable was 500ms long and you couldnt see the end because of the cloud! He said only brake at the very end. Well thats exactly what I did. However, they failed to take into the british sense of stupidity and that i weigh 100 kilos and the cable was wet! So I didnt see the end, to it was too late and it was also to late to slow down, the man at the end was less than impressed when i smashed into him, nearly knocking off the platform down to the bottom! From then on i was almost too careful. On the longest cable they said again only brake at the very end. I didnt trust them, so, i started braking way too early. I came to a stop about two thirds of the way, another 200ms to crawl my way to the end, much to the amusement of the staff! The final was a rope swing. Usually they seem fairly tame but this one wasnt. The man at the top was also obsessed with Gabs 'package', as they put it. It seemed fairly strange, but gabs seemed proud! Anyway, you jump off this platform, and then theres a 3m drop before the tension of the rope kicks in. When it did, let me tell you, the was some serious groaning from the men! It didnt help when my momentum caried me on to smack into the tree you can see in the sillouette shot! It was fun, to say the least. The same opinion wasnt shared by the little girl, who was s*** scared every cable she went on...well, i suppose shes braver than some 16 year old girls i know!!;)

In the evening, we signed up for the night tour. On the brouchure, they had sloths, tarantulas and various cool animals. It was dark, so torches were used. The first animals we saw were pigeons. So he talked about them for a while, i reminded me of the guides strange obsession with peacocks in Sri Lanka! Its a shame that Harriet wasnt there, as it was prime touch a stick on your ankle and hiss time! Dam, well i had to settle with the two american girls, who more than satisfied the absence of harriet. We did see a snake though, which was cool. No sloths though, maybe they had a late night the night before and were tired!! It was pretty cool though being in the rain forest in the pitch black.

The next morning, we left for tamarindo with three guys we met in Bocas del Toro. One English, one Dannish and one Dutch. We got to the Pan American Highway and we told that it shouldnt be too long before the direct bus for tamarindo would come. 20 mins later, it came, then left without stopping. So we eventually gave into the persistant taxi driver and we bartered him down to $14 dollars each to tamarindo, a 3 hour drive! There were five of us plus the driver made five. When the car was one of those silly little suzuki 4x4s, so four on the back seat, five large bags in the boot was a bit of a squeeze to say the least, for the other, i however managed to blag the front seat so was fairly comfy to say the least!

We had booked a hostel in monteverde fot tamarindo, but for some obscure reason, they dont advertise it, only in the chain of hostels. So when we got there, even the taxi drivers didnt know where it was. So we spent an hour looking for it. We had already paid so i was quite annoying when we gave up and checked into the same hostel as we stayed before. Walking around in the drenching rain, i didnt wear my poncho as it didnt work. So it probably wasnt any surprise when then next morning i woke up with a huge headache a really sore throat. the girl in the room had been ill so i thought i had what she had. So i when to the pharmacy and got the drugs she was prescribed. They didnt work and i spent the next three days drenching my bed in sweat, because i didnt want to pay the $70 doctors fee. The headaches and fever eventually went but the cough got worse. So i went surfing, which in hindsight probably wasnt the best idea. The next morning, the cough was really bad. Gabs was going to stay till the last minute then head back to San Jose to fly back. I didnt really want to go all they way to san jose, then come back again. So I decided to leave the next morning for Nicaragua with two English guys from Enfield who we met in tamarindo. We said our goodbyes but missed the bus so we came back and said our hellos. Then resaid our goodbyes and this, time caught the bus and we were on our way to Nicaragua and our first stop was Isla Ometepe, twin Volanoes in the Middle of Lago Nicaragua.