The hot springs actually turned out better than expected but we had a good dinner and a relatively early night. Today we drove to Monteverde a very touristy but beautiful area of cloud forest. We actually saw the Arenal volcano from the Arenal lake which we crossed by boat. We then went for a two hour horseback riding trek up hill and down dale through coffee plantations and muddy, rutted paths. I felt sorry for the horses but they behaved very well and got us back safely.
We had an early breakfast and were taking part in a nature walk by 8.30am. Unfortunately the weather was rainy and very cloudy so we didn’t see much but our new ponchos were very useful! The St Helena reserve cloud forest is very dense and has a huge variety of trees and plants. We didn’t see the quetzel bird but we did see an orange breasted tanager and some hummingbirds and flycatchers.
After a short drive to another location we booked in for the canopy tour which involved 15 zip lines of varying lengths and speeds. It was quite scary but great fun – especially the longest one. On one zip line we travelled through complete cloud which was very strange; but the platform loomed out of the mist and we all landed safely! Iain also had a go on the Tarzan swing which looked alarmingly high but Ann respected her aging joints and her fear and took pictures! The swing involved jumping off a high platform (attached to the rope with the zip line harness) and swinging back and forth over cleared jungle until the guides unceremoniously grabbed you by the legs and caught you behind a buffer made of tyres. This all took a couple of hours plus so we then had a well earned lunch and went for a walk on the aerial walkways which gave us great views of the cloud forest but suffered, as the morning walk had done, from the weather and lack of wildlife.
We drove to Quepos today through some more spectacular countryside, especially for the first half of the journey. This was on dirt roads winding through the hills until we reached a rest stop where we saw a load of crocodiles in the river. (Fed by the nearby restaurant we guessed). Having arrived very hot and sticky (in contrast to the last few days when we have been using our fleeces!) we plunged into the pool and then had lunch. I then chilled by the pool and read a book whilst Iain went with some of the others to the beach to swim and surf! We're off to dinner now so I'll close and Iain can edit later! Love to all Ann and Iain

We got to San Jose without difficulty before 9am and were fortunate to find the hotel had a room for us even though we were so early. As we felt quite wiped out with our early start we decided to just find the laundry and relax afterwards. After a false start we eventually found it but they were too busy to do our washing for the next day so I washed some through at the hotel in the hopes that they would dry in the next two days. We are finding the currency changes difficult to get our heads round - with 800 colones to £1 one can soon become a millionaire! After having a very good lasagne at a nearby restaurant we read and slept until dinner time which we had at the hotel. An early night was called for...
Wednesday after breakfast we walked for about 40 minutes to the downtown area. The pedestrianised street was very reminiscent of Manchester's Market Street! The weather was cloudy so we were not too hot and we had a pleasant drink, read and snack in a pavement cafe before visiting the National Museum. We spent an interesting few hours studying pre-Columbian artefacts (very impressive gold ornaments) and learning some of Costa Rica’s history from the Spanish conquest to the present day. If anyone knows what the large round stone balls found around Costa Rica are, you need to let them know. These 'bolas' are found in all sizes from tennis ball sized to massive 6 foot diameter spheres. I wondered if they were similar to Krishna's Butterball we saw in Rajasthan.
We met up with Chad (our tour guide) and most of the rest of the group at 6pm for the tour briefing before going to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner. We are a group of 15 and we are the eldest and the only ones from the UK. The others are twenties/thirties apart from one older woman and come from Canada and the States. So far Costa Rica seems far more westernised and more affluent than Mexico or Guatemala but San Jose has little to recommend it apart from the museum.
After an early start of 7am we drove for four plus hours to Fortuna near the Arenal volcano. It was so rainy and cloudy that nothing can be seen of the volcano and the rafting we were going to do in the afternoon was cancelled. Instead after a hurried sandwich we ventured out on canyoneering down the ‘Last Canyon’. We hurriedly bought some very cheap watershoes which we were very happy with as they were very non-slip. At 1pm after a short ride in a coach and then pick-up trucks, we were kitted out with harnesses and started down the canyon, walking through variable quantities of water to the first rappel down a 25 foot waterfall. This was followed shortly by a 140 foot free rappel which I enjoyed much more. The tricky bits were walking and scrambling through the stream on the uneven rocky bottom! Another waterfall where Ann ended up lying on her back, laughing and unable to move, was eventually safely negotiated and then the final free rappel down more than 200 feet...great fun! The canyon was quite spectacular and we ended back at the start for a drink and some food before returning to our hotel rather later than expected at 6.30pm. We went out again at 8pm for dinner and we shared a starter of deep fried cassava (yucca) and a pasta dish with salmon and capers (much better than the starter!). When we got back to our room we found we had given house room to an enormous beetle (?or cockroach) which Iain spent ten minutes catching before we could throw it outside!
Today we decided not to go rafting but to have a gentler trip driving to the north near the Nicaraguan border and going up the Cano Negra by boat for two to three hours. It was dry but cloudy and we saw many monkeys, white faced capuchins, spider monkeys and howlers as well as cayman, iguanas and many varieties of birds.
Our guide was excellent and a fount of information on all things Costa Rican. We were correct with our original surmise re the increased affluence of Costa Rica compared with Mexico and Guatemala. There is free education (and health care) to 18 years (school being compulsory to 15yrs) and free health care to over 65s and pregnant women as well. There is a 98% literacy level and a life expectancy of 85 years. We passed many plantations of cassava (yucca), oranges, sugar cane and bananas. Unfortunately many areas of Costa Rica are suffering the ills of monoculture and spraying with insecticides. Tomorrow we go by van, boat and horseback to Monteverde and hopefully will spot the volcano on the way - the cloud cover has been so thick that we've not seen a hint of it!
We have just heard that our trip to Easter Island should be okay, so that's good news. Love to all Ann and Iain

So Sunday we travelled back to Antigua via Chichicastenegro and its Sunday market. Hugely crowded with locals and very colourful - managed a few good photos. They were selling everything from pigs and chickens to textiles, pots and pans and a huge range of fruit and vegetables, some quite unknown to us! We had a lazy afternoon and then a final dinner before saying goodbye to Rick and Kat. We met up with Mike and Julie at breakfast and said goodbye to them before walking up to an observation point on the hill overlooking Antigua with wonderful views of the town with the volcano towering up behind. We found a charming little restaurant with a courtyard garden to have our lunch and am now catching up with the internet and reading before dinner and an early night. Our shuttle to the airport collects us at 3.30am! We have no idea what internet access is like in Costa Rica but will be in touch when we can...love to all Ann and Iain

Well we had a three hours very interesting drive through the hilly countryside of Guatemala with the countrysiide varying from semi arid to fertile green fields of vegetables (this area produces much of the vegetables for all Guatemala and elsewhere), deep ravines, pine forests and high hills. They have very winding roads with amazing hairpin bends! Panajachel is a small town on the edge of Lake Atitlan...quite back-packerish but interesting all the same. Today (Saturday) we did an all day excursion by boat visiting various other lakeside Mayan villages, wandering through colourful markets, visiting a place where they process the local coffee beans and a women's textile co-operative where they use natural vegetable dyes and weave all sorts of cloths. The coffee beans are brought in from the neighbouring co-operative organic farms and put through a process to remove the outer part of the berry, leaving the kernel which is then washed and dried in the sun for ten days before being bagged and exported. The outer fruit is then composted for fertilising the coffee bushes. Very labour intensive and eco friendly. The three villages we visited are much less touristy than Panajachel and reminded us of the Greek Islands (as they were). Today we also heard about the 8.8 earthquake in Chile - dreadful! Hopefully by the time we fly to Santiago airport en route to Easter Island the airport will be open again. Anyway we're back to Antigua (in Guatemala not the island - Alan) tomorrow. Lots of love to all Ann and Iain

Ann spent half an hour writing the last blog entry only to lose internet connection when she tried to post it...but when she looked today it had saved a draft so at least it wasn't wasted although it was only posted today. After a seven hour drive across the scenic hills of Guatemala and our driver getting lost in a very poorly signposted Guatemala City we arrived in Antigua, a beautiful quiet little town up in the hills south west of the city. Luckily the police we had to keep stopping and asking for directions all seemed very friendly. We are staying in what was an old colonial house, now turned hotel and what it lacks in amentities it makes up for in atmosphere! We had one of the most exquisite meals ever last night in another old, partially ruined and partially restored monastery originally built in the 1500s. An amazing place with great background music and candles and the most fantatsic food....at a very resonable price. We are having our final dinner there on Sunday. Today we wandered around the town, bought some jade pendants, looked around the markets and generally relaxed. Tomorrow we go to Panajachel on a lake which sounds great, for two nights before returning here to Antigua. We get on very well with Kat, Mike and Julie and will be sorry to leave them. Anyway - that's all for now...lots of love Ann and Iain

Well, Chichen Itza was amazing - a Wembley stadium of ball courts and climbing up several pyramids again - I (Ann) must be getting fitter! There are various theories about the ball game they played; some say the loser was sacrificed, others that the winner died as a sacrifice with honour whilst the losers were just killed - not much fun either way! We then stayed in Cacun on the Caribbean coast for two nights. We thought this was a horrible typical costa del tourist coastal resort with nothing but hotels and no character whatsoever (as Lizzy had warned us). The festivities on the beach nearby, disco music and loud speakers, went on past 5am so sleep was not of the best. However the next morning Rick suggested that we might take the bus down the coast for 35mins or so to Puerto Morelos where we could take a boat out snorkelling. This was fantastic! A lovely little cove and pier with few tourists and boats that took you out to the reef (only 5 minutes from shore) for one and a half hours for 25 USD. The coral reef was the best we've seen yet - wonderful varieties of coral and many fishes. It was very shallow - I was worried about touching the coral as I swam overhead! Iain found an enormous crab, more than a foot across. Apparently we learnt afterwards that this reef stretches right down to Honduras and is the second longest barrier reef in the world. We then had a lovely seafod lunch in a small Mexican restaurant, recommended by our boatman and frequented mainly by locals, before returning to a dip in our hotel pool. The following day we visited Tulum, a Mayan site perched high on the cliffs and very scenic but rather overun with tourists, before arriving at Chetumal, a small seaside town with a quiet hotel (bliss) and an unspoilt waterfront. Yesterday we traversed Belize and arrived in Quatemala (after unfounded rumours of a holdup on the border because of a teachers strike) and made our way to Flores, a picturesque town partly on an island, where we have a lovely view from our balcony over the sea. It is much hotter and more humid here and we both tried out the hotel pool as soon as we arrived! Today, I (Ann) think, was our best day yet - we visited Tikal in the jungle and climbed up two pyramids to see a host of ruins rising up through the canopy, familiar to some from some shots in the Star Wars film. The first was the tallest but Iain says the second had an almost vertical ascent using wooden ladders with seven stages.We also saw a striated woodpecker, spider monkeys and two lots of howler monkeys (the first time Rick had seen these here although he has often heard them). We were able to walk on small trails through the jungle which was much more exciting than the wide tourist routes. Whenwe got back to the hotel we tried to ring home without sucess because of poor internet signal and relaxed by the pool for a couple of hours. We then had another excellent dinner at the same restaurant as we frequented last night - when you find somewhere really good why change?! We are off to Antigua tomorrow; an eight hour drive across Quatemala but will try and phone people when we can and blog if we are too late to ring...we have heard that there was an earthquake on the Mexican/Quatemalan border but we never felt anything. We have also heard that there may be trouble in Mexico City that may affect some of our group going home but we are moving to Costa Rica so it shouldn't affect us. Further to Lizzy’s comments; Ann has written this with additional comments and proof reading by Iain....lots of love to all ..Iain and Ann

Well - at last we not only have internet access but have managed to change our password as I had forgotten the old one! Very frustrating especially as it was all in Spanish which I don't read too well.
We have had a great time so far visiting Mount Alban in Oaxaca where there are ruins from the Zapotec civilisdation 200BC to 700AD before travelling to the Chiapas region where we stayed in San Cristobel. We had a wonderful boat trip down the Sumidero Canyon seeing alligators, vultures, herons and 1,000 metre cliffs plunging down to 800m deep waters...very memorable. I then had a day in the hotel with the runs and feeling somewhat wiped out while Iain went to visit some Mayan villages where they were dancing and playing music for a fiesta. The church was agood example of the integration of old and new religions with statues of the saints etc but no altar or pews and people sitting around on the pine needle strewn floor with candles everywhere (health and safety would have a ball!). Unfortunately he was not allowed to take photographs so I had to make do with some postcards! The next day we visited Palenque, one of the highlights of the tour with vast pyramids rising up out of the jungle..I managed to climb to the top and was rewarded with spectacular views as we listened to the howler monkeys making their music all around. After a night in Palenque at a good hotel we then visited Uxmal on the way to Merida - another interesting Mayan site. I thought I was getting fitter climbing up to the top with no problem until Rick, our guide, pointed out that we were now at sea level which was probably why I was finding it easier! Today 6 of us took a half day trip to visit some sink holes which doesn't sound too exciting but included a ride on a horse drawn truck along 7Km of single track rail formerly used to take the sisal from the plantations. The sink holes are natural water cisterns underground accessed by precarious wooden ladders where one can swim in clear blue warm waters under stalactites and hanging tree roots with daylight filtering through places where the roof has fallen in - amazing. These underground waters (literally thousands of sink holes) provide the whole of the Yucatan peninsula with its water as there are no rivers in the area at all. We visited three very different sites and had some great swimming. When we got back to Merida we had time to see a Dali exhibition where there were 56 paintings by Dali used to illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy...a special treat! I also sampled the Sacrificio Maya - a flaming combination of local schnapps and tequila - very good if you blow the flames out first! Anyway I'm stopping now as it's 10.30pm and time for bed as we have a long day tomorrow visiting Chichen Itza before driving to Cacun. Oh, by the way, we have heard that we won't be able to get to Machu Pichu because of the floods in the area - a great shame but it can't be helped.....love to everyone...Ann and Iain