Tas and the crab should really be in the tamarindo blog but this will be my final posting for costa rica and i can't sign off without a picture of each of the children 

Harriet in pensive mood - I like to think it's because I will soon be going home but it's more likely she's just finished 'Black Beauty' 

sugar cane, with coffee in the background 

parasitic plants on trees are common but this example is quite extreme! 

paloma, near osori, the 4th region of costa rica i visited in my short holiday, all so different. although they were trying to encourage tourists this farming community were not used to foreigners and there was much excitement when we hired a bike (for me - the others all had bikes strapped to the RV) and later when we stopped for a drink in someone's front room with a 'soda' sign displayed outside. the houses are modest but quite typical, just a couple of rooms and a tin roof 

my last day in costa rica was spent on a magnicent bike ride through the countryside - i almost didn't make it because this bridge was SO SCARY that i was going to go home - it was completely see-through, high above a passionate river, and it was swinging in the wind. i have blanked the crossing out of my mind but i know it involved someone taking my bike across and someone else having to hold my hand! 

Jemima by the fireplace at the lodge - although I was the only one with a room there, all 8 of us (7 after Gill left) would dry off round the fires and have wonderful hot baths - Tas even managed to teach two American bikers how to play pool! 

sweet P 

emerging butterflies 

My body clock is not quite in tune with my current time zone, so I may as well get up and post some more pictures. Gill was due to fly from San Jose on the Monday, and we had to give up the house in Tamarindo on the Sunday, so we decided to go to the Alajuelas area only an hour from the airport and visit another volcano, Poas.

We left Tamarindo at an amazing 6.30am having put all the children in the RV the night before so that we didn�t have to get them all up early. The plan was to stop for breakfast around 9-ish and reach Poas about lunchtime. Take note, anyone planning to visit Costa Rica - getting around is not easy. At 9 we had only just got to the end of the washboard road and into a supermarket to get tequila for Gill to hide in her suitcase. Breakfast was taken on the move. By lunchtime we are still several hours short. The roads are dreadful, especially if you care about the suspension on your vehicle. The main pan-American highway that runs through the centre of Costa Rica is much better than the other roads but even then still has potholes right up to within an hour of San Jose - in a way this is more dangerous because once you relax and build up speed, a pothole can burst a tyre. What I�m trying to say is that the journey took longer than planned! At 4.20 we eventually reached our destination - La Paz waterfall - only to find we were 20 minutes too late to be allowed entry. We decided to come back the next day before taking Gill to the airport.

Plans! The next day turned out to be heavy rain and the last thing Gill wanted was to get soaked before the 24 hour journey home so unfortunately she missed out altogether - La Paz was just wonderful! Butterflies, humming birds, orchids, poisonous frogs and snakes, a �casita antigua� (old house) and lastly the 3 huge waterfalls that attracted people to the area in the first place, all in splendid isolation thanks to the appalling weather (well this is the cloud forest!)
 

garnish art 

gill's last night 

fabulous room at the lodge near La Paz 

hummingbirds 

one of the three waterfalls at La Paz 

looking for orchids 

The chaos that is San Jose 

washboard road (actually this has turned out to be a picture of a dirty windscreen but hey!) 

potholes over a foot deep 

hammocks in the garden 

Am staying in a beautiful place in the cloud forest, but it is raining and it is also raining in my heart after a sad phone call home, wish I was with you
Have posted the Tamarindo blog but will save the rest until I feel more joyful
Everyone has been so sweet

sue cycling to the town centre to buy fresh tuna 

gill being brave after her near-death surfing experience 

ice cold coconuts 

matt in porch with rv in backgroud 

Our last day in Tamarindo, it is so sad to leave what we have come to think of as our home. Our bruises from the surfboards will last long after Gill and I get home and serve as souvenirs of a wonderful few days. Any minus points? It is hot, but shady under the huge trees with a warm breeze. The journey back over the washboard road is one I dread but fore knowledge of it would not have kept me away. We haven't slept that well due to howler monkeys pelting our roof with mangoes for nearly 40 minutes last night, far worse than the daily dawn awakening of the iguanas scooting over our heads. All in all I think this place is pretty near perfect!
There were vultures watching Gill hanging out washing this morning – she thinks they expect at least one monkey to have been permanently silenced after that racket last night!
Last night Sue went off on her bike to get some fresh tuna which she barbecued and served with guacamole, salsa and potato salad, I would have dreamed about it if we had had any sleep!
It's too hot to shop so please everyone don't expect any postcards or tequila although I would be too ashamed to go home without any coffee!

We are here in Costa Rica! After a mammoth 22 hour journey from Mum and Dad's to the Tabacon Springs, including a stop halfway up the mountains to make use of the airline sick bag (sorry Armandes) Gill and I downed a mango cocktail and fell into bed to awake before dawn gazing at the rain forest outside the window. A scarlet macaw was sitting in a bush right by our balcony and Gill had her camera ready, waiting for the light to be good enough to take a picture. In the meantime we amused ourselves by taking pictures of everything else including our first cup of Costa Rican coffee and our enthusiasm was not dimmed by realising with the increasing light that our scarlet macaw was actually a ruffled and lively flower and that the hotel had already pushed our bill through the door!

We spent the day wandering round the hot volcanic springs that gush from the active volcano Arenal – these mineral springs are many and varied and set into the rain forest and you bathe under waterfalls and in river pools with humming birds dancing above your head and the booming every 40 minutes or so of the volcano (which was covered in cloud but still made its presence felt).

Chilled and mellow we boarded the bus for the nightmare 5 hour journey to Tamarindo to meet with Sue and Matt. Because of my bad behaviour the day before I was allowed to sit in the front which gave me a wonderful view of the dirt roads and giant potholes and the final 37km washboard road into Tamarindo itself. Sue and Matt were standing by a surfboard that had been taped with the welcome words 'Juliet + Gill', without which we would still be driving round sick, tired, hungry and longing for our journey to end. Six wonderful relatives had been waiting on the street in the dark wondering where we had got to and when to ring the police. How beautiful they all looked and how pleased we were to see them!

The house is amazing. Matt has strung hammocks up in the garden and you can lie there at the hottest part of the day with the huge white sand beach before you, the shady porch behind you, monkeys and parrots in the trees above your head and a 32ft camper van parked accidentally in the garden of the owner's house next door! The best surf spot in Tamarindo is just outside and there is a French bakery next door. This place is perfect!

Daddy had given me some money before I left with instructions for it to be spent on a treat for us all, a meal or outing. Matt managed to negotiate a substantial discount with the water taxi people (how wonderful it is to speak the local language) and we managed to get 2 trips and a breakfast, all on dad! Our first trip, last night, was to the beach across the estuary to watch the turtles nesting. Our guide warned us that it was the very end of the season and a bright moon to boot and that we could be waiting 3 hours for nothing but we thought it was fun anyway, going to an unlit beach late at night, waiting for turtles. As it was we had just arrived and bought a drink at the little hotel when a radio message came through that a turtle was nesting at the top end of the beach. We were route marched at breakneck speed through soft sand for 2 miles, stopping only to watch a baby turtle emerge from its nest and start to make its way to the sea. Exhausted, we reached the huge leatherback mamma just in time to see the eggs being laid in the hole in the sand, and then watch from a more respectful distance as she tried to camouflage the nest before her return journey to the sea. The 2 mile hike back on this dark moonlit beach was a magical experience and even though the children were worn out they reached the ferry before me!