Costa Rica

So after we left Nicaragua we had a group of 8 of us travelling. Two Australians, two English, two Canadians and me and Cath . Was great cause every hostel westarted going had good kitchens and we cooked up these amazing mealsthat would absolutely stuff us. Everything from Pad Thai to ChickenFajitas, Spaghetti Bolognese and the most amazing Thai Green Curry I´veever eaten. And there was always enough portions to go around plus havesome spare. Costa Rica has the most amazing bakeries ever so thisfilled us up during the day. Lots of Donuts, sweet pastries, Calzonesand pastries stuffed with chicken or cheese or meat. Also the nightlife started getting a lot better. I guess because in Costa Rica thingsare way more expensive the backpackers usually get through it quickenough and don´t do as many activities as in the other countriesleaving a lot more time for drinking and partying. Plus all the hostels have had a party atmosphere as well.

We stopped in a place called Monteverde high up in the hills to dosome zip lining. We had done this already in Nicaragua and it was goodbut I decided to go again since there was so many people going on it.Was unbelievable. So for anyone who isn't familiar with it picture aload of platforms built high up in the trees of the jungle or rainforest. All connected over a few kilometres by metal wires. You thenstrap yourself onto a harness and zip along these. Some of the linesare up to 1km long. Over all there are over 12 or 13 of them i think. Some of them are over 200 metres high so literally your flying acrossthe jungle at this height only connected by a harness at crazy speeds.Its absolutely unreal. There was times we were literally flying through clouds.

From here we were back to the Caribbean coast and Caribbean culture again. Over the last three months we seem to be skipping back and forth. We´l do a Caribbean stop and then skip back to the Pacificand vice versa. The weather has usually been better on the Caribbean side but surf better at Pacific. All along the Caribbean the culturevaries but is African Caribbean in a lot of places and a lot of them speak very Jamaican like. Plus its hard to know whether to speakSpanish or English to people. Half the time its hard enough to understand the English accent! Bob Marley always playing. Peopleoffering smoke everywhere and it smells like its constantly 4:20 all over the streets! The hostel we stayed at here in Puerto Viejo is ahuge party hostel with all sorts of hammocks to sleep on, tents, dormsetc. Loads of different buildings filled with mosaics of broken tiles,marbles etc done in a really nice way. And we got a really good crowd going here. Actually barely even left the hostel. And just spent mostof the days chilling out on hammocks. One night there was a giant partywhere by the end of it all the staff were drunk, all the drink wasdrunk and it was 830 in the morning. I went for a nap in the hammockfor most of the day and when I woke up I couldn't find Cath!! Figuredshe hadn´t gone without saying goodbye. But turned out in a rush shefound out she wouldn´t make it to Panama city in one day couldn´t findme in the hammock tried to change her flight which didn´t work so hadto rush down to Panama to try get the flight. So I woke up not knowinganyone!!! Well the rest of the group had gone on a day trip. So once again when someone I´m travelling with leaves I was feeling lonely forthe day but got through it and spent the day making new friends who have since followed onto Panama!!

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