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!