Early start for a quick breakfast (I had a delicious home-made granola with chia and coconut milk) and then meet our driver at 7am to take us to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We had a private guide for the walk around the reserve with whom we saw lots of things and heard lots of birds - nightingale, 'squeaky-door bird (Solitaire), toucanettes and quetzal.

Abi spotted a female Quetzal. The guide was great at showing us everything around on the ground and in the trees and how climate change has affected the area. They used to have only 30 dry days a year and now have 90! 50% of frogs have disappeared with a knock on effect on everything else. I particularly liked the tree ferns, and the tanagers. We also saw a tarantula in its hole.

After the walk around the reserve, we went over to the hummingbird viewing area where they had sugar-water in feeders for the hummingbirds to drink

On the way back we opted to be dropped off in the town of Santa Elena to have a look around and make our own way back to the hotel - it was nice to see, but the walk back was much further than the '15 minutes' we'd been told! We had a juice for lunch and then relaxed for a bit before our trip to the farm we'd booked for the afternoon.

on to Finca Madre Tierra

We started with an early breakfast at 7 with seats right by the front of the restaurant overlooking the volcano watching birds over the water and then headed over to the reception to be picked up at 8:15 for Sky trek.

When we arrived, we put our bags in the lockers and got kitted out with equipment and they gave me a special helmet with a mount for my go-pro so that I could film from there rather than from my chest strap. We were then given the briefing on how to use the equipment and importantly how to brake and were taken up to the stop of the first zip line in the tram.

There were 7 zip lines in all including the longest which was nearly half a mile in length. There were fantastic views from the zip lines overlooking Arenal lake and volcano and it was such a great way to see the area from a different perspective.

After we finished the course we had chips at the restaurant overlooking the volcano and headed back to the hotel for a chilled out afternoon by the pool and finished off the evening in the hotels termales.

on to Monteverde - Hotel Belmar

This morning we had a relaxing morning in the pool enjoying the swim-up bar and the views across to the volcano whose peak kept peeping out from behind the clouds. We got wood-fired pizzas for lunch by the pool overlooking the volcano and watching wildlife by the lake.

We were picked up after lunch by Canoa Aventura for our volcano hike, which took us along the course of the 1968 lava flows to a view point where we had great views of the volcano and across to the Arenal Lake. The lake is man-made and covers the area to the west of the volcano which was destroyed by soot and gases from the eruption and is used to generate hydro-electric power.

Along the hike we saw lots of epiphytes, in particular bromeliads and orchids such as the One-day orchid (Sobralia sp.), the Spanish flag orchid (Epidendrum radicans) and the endemic Arenal Bromeliad (Pitcaimia Funkiae).

We finished the hike in time to watch the sunset over the lake bathing the volcano in a reddish glow before heading to Eco Termales to bathe in volcanic heated springs under the stars.

on to Zip-lining

Originally our plan had been to fly from Tortuguero to La Fortuna but, due to maintenance issues with the plane, the flight was cancelled and there were no others available. Instead, we travelled by land - initially leaving Laguna Lodge on the boat and travelling by coach to Guapilles and then being picked up by Juan Carlos to take us the rest of the way. This meant that we were able to stop off at Tirimbina on the way where we had a guide, Luis, to take us around the reserve.

The tour took us across a hanging bridge into the primary forest and around a circular path through the forest, along which we saw interesting plants and animals.

Some of the highlights were the views into the trees from the hanging bridge, the walking palm with nibbed roots and the closer view of a sloth.

on to Arenal - Volcano Hike

We started the day with an early wake up (not too hard as we weren't adapted to the timezone yet) at 5am for coffee before an early morning boat tour leaving at 5:30 and taking us around the riverbanks and into the park spotting wildlife. The tour started with the local banks just up from the hotel where we started off with an Iguana lounging on a branch of a tree, just a little way up from a Tiger Heron (Tigrisoma fasciatum). José pointed out the different stages of coconuts growing along the side of the river as they go from green with mostly milk to brown with mostly flesh, we then saw a solitary howler monkey or 'mono congo' (Alouatta palliata).

We then headed down into the national park, stopping briefly for José to provide our ticket reference numbers at the ranger's office to confirm we could all enter the park. As we passed through the parks more vibrant canals, we saw a number of birds including herons, cormorants and then noticed all the tour boats gathered in a circle around something in the water. We joined the circle and then realised what they were watching - dolphins! We continued to watch them for a while - could see a group of them with young, but I didn't manage to time it right to capture a photo of them - was amazing seeing them making their way along the river breaching the surface in their group.

After following the dolphins for a while, we then headed back down the river and heard the sounds of a group of Howler Monkeys and then saw them including a mother with a baby on its back swinging through the trees.

After this we went back to the hotel for breakfast and to decide if we went on the next boat tour as well or not - I decided to go whilst the others stayed and enjoyed the hotel pool. It poured with rain whilst on the tour - thankfully I was wearing the provided poncho, but the rain still seemed to get everywhere! I also managed to see some more wildlife and get some better photos.

It was particularly amazing to see a sloth asleep in the tree just across the river from the hotel, and to see a Basilisk in a different colour (as they change colour)

On this tour we went a slightly different route through the park, into some of the smaller waterways and so saw different wildlife - such as the Caiman and the bats

After lunch we had a walking tour around the gardens of the hotel where we saw a surprising number of things just around the hotel grounds. Some of the highlights were the banana flowers, the hanging nests of Montezuma Oropendola birds, the Green Macaws and the Iguana that was relaxing in the bushes metres away from our rooms!

The last adventure of the day was an evening tree-frog hunt in the trees around the swimming pool by torch light. We managed to see two different tree frogs high in the leaves.

on to Tirimbina