Villa Decary Tilaran

... on board he had droped some gringos off in managua for a flight and was now returning to san jose empty so we paid him a couple bucks and he took us to a town called cana which was as close as he could drop us to our city. Tilaran So now i am in tilaran as the last bus to la furtuna (i think thats wher im going tomorrow) left at noon so stayed in town and will catch an onward bus first thing in the morning. Thus far theres a big ...

... one light bulb and a small window looking out on some half finished construction - par for the course. The next morning I went on a tour of the cloud forest and a zip line canopy tour, and in the bus I met 3 Canadians, a couple and a friend of the girl, who I hung out with the rest of the day. The tour was uneventful (boring), we had a couple of animal sightings but not a lot. The zip line tour actually had little to ...

... shades, and army boots) this was a little bit intimidating, but apparently they were checking that people had´nt travelled up from Columbia, in which case they would do a full body and bag search, I was glad I didn't have any Columbian stamps in my passport! At San Jose, we got a 5 1/2 hour bus to the town of Santa Elena in Monteverde. The only way here is via 2 hours of rough dirt track, as the townspeople don't want a proper road ...

... because we couldnt get in to any hostels and nowhere was open. We got a hostel later on and went to check out the cloudforest with this English bloke we met, Santa Elena was really touristy and full of people on holidays, americans and central americans, particulcarloy families on a weeks spring holiday and stuff, we hadnt really seen this anywhere else but Costa Rica is fgar more accepted as a holiday destination i think than most central american ...

... had got him the required entry stamp to Costa Rica (with a 24 hour limit to get out of the country) which is when we met him. He told us he´ll be writing a book about his experiences...will definitely be keeping my eye´s open for that one! Thinking that was probably going to be the most eventful thing to happen to us that day, I was sorely mistaken when we arrived at the bus station. We were the only two gringo´s there, which two suspect looking characters had picked up immediately ...

... then unpaved gravel moonscape for another 15 miles! We are driving a Daihatsu Terios 4x4 vehicle. I think Daihatsu in Costa Rica means "Pray you don´t break an axle..." There were giant craters that we were bouncing around in but we made it! It took us about 2 hours to go 15 miles over those roads. Eventually Dave started to get used to it and then we were flying through the craters like a ...

... the busses are that will head south. Gee, the book, as we´ve come to refer to the Lonely Planet guide, has neglected to mention it´s about a three kilometer hike uphill to the bus. As we make our way, in the blazing 85 degree sun, we see a bus approach, and can hear "Liberia, Liberia, Liberia, solamente" and we crazy run the last 50 meters to hop on, just in the nick of time. 90 minutes later, we´re in Liberia ...

... flows, good busy day but it's all dam expensive here, cost $15 from boarder, 30 for the cznopy tour and another 60 or so to get to la fortuna and do the lava thing. However staying at sleepers here in monteverde for 5 is definitely worth recommending, hot showers!!!! Hoping to get a bus to panama tomorrow.

... feel without her and we will miss her alot. Maia and I already have plans to drive down and see her sometime soon! Not even done this trip and already planning the next, what else is new?! Also, ask Joel about his um, sunburn! Love to you all, will update on the rafting when we have internet access again!! Love Kirsten Hola, as u just read above i have FRIED myself somehow and i dont know how it has happened... i think that i have been trying to ...

... Uli and I had signed up for a trip to Los Chiles on the Nicaraguan border, for a wildlife viewing river trip in Caño Negro. We did see some sloths, iguanas, caimans, three species of monkey (Howler, White Faced Capuchin and Spider) as well as a bunch of migratory and indigenous birds. We were however a bit disappointed, mainly due to the hordes of tourists, the set lunches and built-in souvenir shop stops. Nothing for us true adventure travelers, he he.