Today we got to our next destination, on the outskirts of Manuel Antonio. We arrived at about 5 o’clock and got changed into our swimming gear. This is because it is exactly what mum and dad promised. A house that if you take one step out of the garden you are on the beach. We went for an evening walk/ swim/ paddle with the sun setting. After lots of photos and attempts to get mum and dad to come in we came back for burgers and cookies (dinner).

My favourite adventure was to come the next day when we went white river rafting. We were in a raft with the expert (guide with most experience) as mum and dad had only ever done it thirty years and the other people had done it only a year ago so they went with the less experienced guide. Our guide was very good at scaring my parents when we did washing machine (spinning in a circle down the river), surfing (where you go against the rapids and the whole boat fills up with water and pretending something had gone wrong. He was very a very fun guide, and I would highly recommend that if you come to Manuel Antonio or any part of Costa Rica that you do it.

After about two hours rafting we got off and walked fifty metres to a waterfall. It really hurt if you stood under it for more than five seconds it would sting really badly and you get marks on your back. But me and Hatty had a good splash around. Once we got back to the boats we found that they had turned over a boat and used it as a table for snack. There was delicious pineapple and plain biscuits. Our guide showed us how to attract fish by throwing biscuit into the water and wiggling the wrapper in the water.

One hour later we were sitting in the minibus heading to lunch. I had chicken, beans and rice. Sometime later we arrived back at our house. We were planning to go to the beach, but it absolutely chucked it down. So we stayed inside and mum taught us Yahtzee. Mum won. We had chicken fajitas and played another game of Yahtzee then we went to bed.

The next two days we spent just playing in the sea and on the beach. We did lots of body boarding in the mornings and football, sandcastles and hammocks in the afternoon. On the second morning I got lots  of good waves and runs on the bodyboard and I built a massive sand castle then abruptly destroyed it. It was all very fun apart from when we got attacked by monkeys. Me and Hatty both screamed. There was always a hot spot of sand between the sea and the palm trees that you had to run across. I very nearly burnt my feet on it twice. Each day after lunch we would go to the little store at the end of the road and get ice cream.

The next day after the two days we went to a nature reserve. We didn’t do a tour though because we were a bit toured out and just wanted to have some free time. We were walking through the jungle. We took our swimming gear and got changed after the walk because there was a beach with huge waves that we went in. We saw:

• Sloths
• Lizards
• Squirrel Monkeys
• Iguanas
• Crabs
• Iguanas eating crabs
• Butterflies
• Dragon flys
• Deer

Once back in the car we had our ham sandwiches, pringles, biscuits that we brought with us. We also had chocolate and fizzy drinks that we bought from a shop. That afternoon we went to the beach and went for pizza.

More when we get to monte verde.