Costa Rica (aka America Rica)

2 chicken busses, a crazy queue, a 1km walk between borders, a refusal to enter the country, another local bus ride, then a 4x4 taxi journey into a cloud forest saw our departure from Nicaragua and entry into Costa Rica and our first stop, Monteverde.

Monteverde, the home to a bunch of adventure sports. High on the list for us was the Canopy Adventure tour, which is a morning of flying through trees and across valleys on Zip Lines. The highlight of this being the amazing 'Superman' zipline, a 1km long, 180 metre high cable that runs from ridge to ridge above the jungle filled valley. The morning we went up was cloudy, and we were in the clouds, so when we were strapped into the Superman line, we were pushed into a total white out, then around half way along the clouds cleared and revealed how high and fast we were flying, which was one hell of a buzz. Easily the best $40 i've spent in a while.

Next stop, La Fortuna, after a 2 hour jeep ride across country, then a 45 min boat trip, then another Jeep ride, this place was awful, boring and full of American college kids. We left first thing the next morning to San Jose, the Capital of Costa Rica.

We rolled in to San Jose the day before the World Cup final, found a good Hostel and got a feel for the place. As with pretty much the rest of Costa Rica, there wasn't really much of an identity as much of the place is trying to be, or is, very Americanised. We hung out here, watched the Spanish beat the Dutch, then headed South for the Carribean Coast and a little beach town called Puerto Viejo, near the Panama border.

So, next stop Panama, although we're currntly holed up in Puerto Viejo awaiting word on if we can cross the border tomorrow as there has been a few days of trouble surrounding the Bocas Bananna Co in Panama and their industrial action against pay and conditions - which in true Central American style has got a little out of control.