Monteverde

So next on the list after volcano watching is spending a few days in and around the cloudforest of Monteverde. I leave La Fortuna with Amanda, Emily and Rachel (two Scottish sisters from the dorm) and Miyka (a garrulous Canadian woman in her fifties).

The little town of Monteverde is just as overrun by tourists as La Fortuna but has a much nicer atmosphere and our hostel is cool. Run by a hippie brother and sister combo it´s got an incredibly laidback feel. That evening Amanda and I go on a night time tour of the cloudforest. As most of the animals that live here are nocturnal I'm hoping maybe to see a snake and a frog or two. No such luck and I have to make do with a few bats, a sloth and various types of insects that camoflauge themselves among the foliage, including what our guide very sweetly calls "walking sticks" (stick insects).

On Sunday Amanda and I decide to hang the fact that we are both seriously scared of heights and spend the morning walking through the treetops of the cloudforest on a series of hanging bridges. We do though pick the route that has the sturdiest and the widest bridges! To be fair to myself, only one of the bridges brings on that horrible feeling of panic. It's actually not the one above the trees but the one which feels the most exposed. Above the trees I can sort of persuade myself that they will break my fall! Irrational I know, but then that's what phobias are.

We then spend a few hours walking through the forest at ground level. Once again fear of heights becomes a factor as we fail to make it to the top of a lookout point above the trees. Let me just say though that the tower has steps missing and it sways gently, but alarmingly, in the breeze...

In the afternoon Amanda heads back to San Jose and I go with Miyka to the local frog pond (more of a frog zoo actually) but I do at least see all the bizarre looking species of frogs that I failed to see in the wild the evening before. The next day it's butterflies - the local butterfly garden has an amazing array of winged insects and arachnids. I watch with barely concealed horror as the volunteer who´s showing me round picks up tarantulas, cockroaches, king-size beetles, etc etc.

On Tuesday I leave Monteverde ready to spend a few days lounging on the beach. The pacific coast of Costa Rica is known for its great beaches and even greater surf and I´ve decided to spend my last few days in Costa Rica at a place called Tamarindo or "Tamagringo" as the Lonely Planet describes it. The sheer number of American ex-pats who live here and the throngs of foreigners who come here annually to learn how to surf give the place the feeling of a Florida resort rather than a Latin American town.

Emily and Rachel are heading in the same direction and over the next few days they provide great beach, restaurant and bar company. The weather is pretty average, but despite that I still enjoy it, knowing it's the last beach time I'll get till I hit Brazil. In the evenings we try to find lively bars but despite searching hard we fail every time. Surfers, it seems, all get up at 5am to catch the waves (my hostel is full of them) and therefore they go to bed pretty early too. After a few days I head back to San Jose for the final time to make my way to the next continent on my list.

So that´s my time in country number three over. Costa Rica is a naturalist's dream, at times the setting and the wildlife within it are truly spectacular. However, on the down side, the country is very (north) americanised and parts of it feel completely overrun by tourism. Costa Ricans understandably are all in favour of it as it means an improvement in their standard of living. But it also means the country lacks some of the character that make its neighbouring countries so charming. Interestingly the Guatemalans (and now the Ecuadorians) I´ve talked to about Costa Rica are distinctly negative in their attitude towards this country. It´s just not Latin America apparently, and to be honest, beautiful as the place is, I tend to agree with them.

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