COSTA RICA - PURA VIDA!

So, we've now been in Nicaragua for almost a week and have finally been able to hook up our laptop in the Bearded Monkey hostel here in Granada on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. Hoping to update pics & words for Nicaragua very soon, but thought we'd sum up our Costa Rican experience first...

It all started with one big night in Costa Rica Backpackers hostel in San Jose, which involved fire throwing, a crazy Icelandic long-term traveller called Nimbus (who had lost his 4 front teeth in a scuffle and severely burnt his feet after walking through a fire), and some live music jamming with a guitarist from Alaska and lots of international DIY percussion and Cuban rum. San Jose seems to be a transit stop for travellers so many interesting stories were exchanged. 

From there we headed up to La Fortuna to do the obligatory night hike to see the molten lava of Arenal Volcano. We also went horse-back riding through the rainforest and swam in the cold waterfall pools. However, the big highlight was meeting Brian 'The Dude' Lebowski, who we ended up travelling with for the rest of our time in Costa Rica. The three of us moved onto Monteverde up in the cloud forest, where we tackled the Extremo Canopy Tour. This involved flying through and way above the forest canopy on about 15 zip lines (the longest was 850m) - an amazing experience (here we briefly met Nate 'The Pothead Who Doesn't Smoke Pot' Jones & Joshua Eagle Bows (JEB), the travelling violinist, both who we bumped into again later on). 

From up in the mountains, we took the long, hot and sweaty trip across to the lazy beach town of Montezuma, where we ended up staying for a week because we loved it so much. Here we hooked up again with Nate & also JEB (who we travelled to Nicaragua with). Lots of mooching about, drinking Imperial beers & Iguana Coladas, hanging out with the monkeys, swimming and snorkelling and sitting around campfires on the beach, talking about nothing. A truly beautiful place - thanks for the recommendation Dave!

Although more expensive and more touristy than the rest of Central America (so we are told, but coming from the UK that doesn't count for much), you cannot ignore the beautiful, lush landscapes, gorgeous beaches and stunning wildlife of Costa Rica... we met some great people and made the most of the pura vida lifestyle so we can't recommend it enough. Oh, and a footnote for Simon - the Ticas (women) are gorgeous!