Not an easy entry into this country! Exiting Nicaragua and walking 15 minutes to the Costa Rica customs was another experience to add to the book. Making way through the wet muddy roads from the on / off torrential rain shared with b-double trucks and homelessness accompanying us. What an introduction to what is supposed to be a more developed nation. Sadly, there was a multi fatality car crash at 4am that closed the freeway that was to lead us to Monteverde so found ourselves camped out in a local cafe on the border for a couple of hours before the 5hr bus ride to the mountainous Monteverde.

An activity full place, the Codger began by signing up to a ‘hanging bridges’ nature hike. This is the perfect example of ‘expectations v reality’. Google images showed the ‘hanging bridges’ as these treetop high swinging bridges in an ominous setting. It looks like a fantastic experience. The reality was, low to mid tree height short metal bridges with a guide who was obsessed with trees. You know when someone tells you not to laugh in a serious situation but you can’t stop? It was that with this guide for the entire two hours over the two kilometre walk… yep, 1km/h speed. The positive was some of the animals seen along the way including a green tree snake and a hummingbird.

A much better an experience was horse riding among the Costa Rican mountainside, with the sun setting over the coffee plantations. There isn’t too much more to tell that photos don’t…