In the second half of our week in Santa Elena we had 2 more days out: a farm tour and hanging bridges in the cloud forest. First up a trip to El Trapiche Tour. There are quite a few farm tours in and around Santa Elena and Monteverde and making it difficult to choose which […]

From our week in Atenas we set off for a week in Santa Elena, a small town very close to Monteverde. It was a long journey, partly because we got stuck in traffic along the way and partly because of the final stretch of roads. The last few miles there are lots of potholes as […]

After our stay at the condominium our adventure was taking us up into the cloud forests of Monteverde and then on a trip around Lake Arenal. However, we had one more stop to make before beginning that chapter. The journey from Santa Ana all the way to Santa Elena (near to Monteverde) would have been […]

Halfway through our week in San Rafael de Escazu I woke up one night with the room spinning and a severe bout of nausea. When I got up in the morning the same thing repeated: the symptoms seemed to match with BPPV (Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo). So part of the backdrop to that week was […]

We decided to stay a little longer in the city; we were enjoying the ease of getting around, getting ingredients and being able to cook, plus we wanted to visit some more of the areas and attractions. Our next stop was San Rafael de Escazu and it was only after booking that we researched the […]

From the mountains we were heading back into the capital city San Jose. The next few posts are going to be focused on this period in an urban centre, in contrast to the challenges of rural living. We’d arranged to get a lift with our Airbnb host, Roberto who fortunately for us had an extremely […]

I am starting this post with another ‘timestamp’; writing this on the 17th March sat at our house at the foothills of Arenal, the volcano which sits on the South East side of Lake Arenal (the volcano was here first and the lake a later addition but that’s a story for another time). We’ve been […]

Eventually, our stay at Villa Lupita came to an end. Continuing their exceptional hosting Ligia, her husband Luis and Andres asked if they could come by to say farewell on our last day. Once again we had packed up all of our belongings and cleaned up. As we said our farewells (and they gave gifts […]

Things didn’t improve immediately at Villa Lupita. On the Saturday after we’d arrived I set about butchering and cooking the chicken that I’d managed to buy. We had a barbecue by the front patio and plenty of wood so I spent a few hours building up a good bed of hot coals ready to cook […]

Part way through our stay in Manuel Antonio we needed to look for the next stay on our journey. This was to be the beginning of our long and sometimes frustrating relationship with AirBnB! At this point in time we’ve got into a better routine with this after numerous mistakes and a steep learning curve. […]