San José – Tamarindo

We arrived in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, after being awake for 22 hours – because of the time difference. San José is largely unremarkable and pretty much just a stop before you get out. We did manage to get out to a Butterfly Farm – which bred and sold butterflies for export.

We decided to go to Tamarindo and gorgeous beach on the Pacific coast first. It's pretty developed and a hit with the Americans. Most of the people here are surfers as Costa Rica is renowned for having some of the best surf in the world. So there's dreads, weed and stinky surfers.

Today was my birthday so we decided to do a mangrove boat trip. We got the whole boat to ourselves and saw plenty of Costa Rican wildlife. First there's so many birds that I can't name, crocodiles and iguanas. Our guide stopped the boat and we wandered into the jungle and looked up into the trees and saw howler monkeys lying in the trees. They all seemed to be having a siesta.

Costa Rica's pretty amazing so far – everyone is really friendly (the country doesn't even have an army), the scenery is amazing and there's loads to do and see.

For the rest of the photos see my Flickr page