It’s a Catholic country so every town has an imposing church.

The hills here are insane! It’s hillier than Cornwall, and the Highlands, and Wales! I very much hope our cycle tomorrow does not include an insane hill….

Very tired when we got to the hotel but needed to eat. Only managed a starter - but the food here looks good.

I just have to remember to speak South American Spanish not the Spanish Spanish I learnt at school. Here they pronounce Gracias as Grassias. In Spain they pronounce it Grathias.

Today was an acclimatation / getting over jet lag easy day.

Woke up to lovely blue skies and tropical flowers. It was warm and pleasant- but luckily not hot.

We were very impressed with the bikes they hired for us. Lovely brand new mountain bikes.

We then drove to Orotina to start our ride towards the sea. It started to get \240warmer.

Kate biked with us while Esteban drove the car.

The tarmac soon finished and the road turned to gravel, which requires a lot more concentration.

A baby iguana ran across the road in front of us while her much larger mother watched from the side.

We passed lots of skinny white cows which apparently are a special breed of cows which like to eat brown grass.

The road got a bit hilly. And the day got hotter. I think it was about 30 degrees now. \240It was quite tough. I struggled a lot and \240was sorry I’d told them I was good at hills 😀 (Sue however fared much better)

We reached the beach and Esteban had a coconut for me to drink - and a cold beer for Sue 💕

There were lots of vultures and scarlet macaws circling high above. Plus some other birds which we couldn’t identify from the helpful bird book Esteban had. 😂

We then drove to a fish restaurant which was great. I had fish in a coconut sauce and Sue had prawns in garlic. The restaurant gave us a tiny fig rice pudding for dessert for free, which was delicious.

Spent the afternoon in our hotel. Sue is as red as a lobster with massive red tan lines whereas \240I’ve barely got any browner 😀

Then had an excellent dinner at the hotel restaurant. Tried a trio of ceviche’s, raw fish marinated in different things. All 3 sauces were so nice we couldn’t decide which was best.

Sue woke up in the night to see a huge spider on the ceiling of our room. I couldn’t see it (I’m pretty blind without my glasses on) so I went back to sleep - but Suel stayed awake the rest of the night. 😀

And San Ramon

We stopped for a break along the way and Esteban, knowing what a sweet tooth I have, bought me a cup of a local hot drink made from sugar cane water. It kind of tastes like hot chocolate without the chocolate. It was very nice - however it seriously upset my tummy 😀

Arriving at La Fortuna we went for a 16 mile ride. We were meant to do a hilly ride but due to my tummy Esteban changed the route so it was flat and tarmac.

La Fortuna is very cool. You could easily spend a week here doing every adrenaline sport.

We went to the most amazing hot springs. They were very different to Rotorua. No smell and no steam rising from the ground. Just beautiful lush flora and fauna.

We saw some monkeys.

The road was gravel, mud and dirt and I found it really tough. But Sue loved it 😀

After our ride we went back to the hot springs, spending a luxurious afternoon in the water and in the restaurant 😊

This is a coati.

We also hiked the lava trail which was incredible because the vegetation hadn’t been effected.

We’ve been here for 3 days, with every viewpoint of Volcano Arenal - and have never once seen it due to cloud 😀

Then we drove to a different volcano for a hike with a proper wildlife guide.

This is my favourite sign 😀

This water should have been bright blue - but it wasn’t today 😀

We saw a sloth through the guide’s Telescope. Sue was so happy.

I also saw a Toucan but I was so excited when I saw it that I squealed and it flew away 😀

And a baby snake.

During the walk we should have seen another 2 volcanos - but they were also totally covered in cloud 😂

Tonight our hotel room has a private hot pool 😊

We went for a lovely cycle ride.

Then we had lunch in a lovely local restaurant. Before coming to our magnificent spa hotel for the afternoon.

There was a very cute monkey in the tree while we were soaking in the pools.

Sunset was amazing.

And we finally got to see a volcano

But unlike Rotorua it was very hot (our first hot day of the trip) and there was lots of wildlife to see.

Sue orders beans at every opportunity 😀

After lunch at Marbella we drove to Nosara. A hippy beach town, full of yoga studios and Pilates and organic food and surf schools. . I found it quite odd.

The car park for the beach was full of quad bikes and golf carts and beach buggies and tuk-tuks. 😀

We fly home tomorrow after an amazing 2 weeks in Costa Rica. Kate and Esteban have been wonderful hosts, and I highly recommend them. (https://aventurascr.com/)

We liked the food - Sue particularly liked the breakfast beans 😂, the scenery, the animals, the jungles, volcanos and beaches and the very friendly people.

Only thing I didn’t like were the roads. I got car sick once because the country is so hilly. And half the roads are unpaved……