We opted for a huge change in scenery and temperature and headed from sea level up into the mountainous forest at over 3200m. It was stunning being amongst the clouds as the road wiggled up and over passes. We were hoping to spend 2 nights at Dantica Lodge on the edge of Parque National Los Quetzales and see lots of wildlife, especially birds. We immediately loved the place with its floor to ceiling windows overlooking the forest. It was also much colder but the lodge had goose down duvets and hot water bottles.









Unfortunately the altitude at 2800m was not having a good effect on John, Steve's Dad. He tried to put a brave face on it and he did last through the night but it was clear that he was feeling unwell. Luckily there is an immediate cure for altitude sickness, you just have to go down. Unfortunately it meant we had to cut our stay short at Dantica to go back to San Jose. John immediately began feeling better and he and Jean were able to enjoy their last two days with us in Costa Rica before they headed south to Buenos Aires to start their cruise back to their home in Spain. With having some extra time to kill in San Jose we took advantage of the shopping facilities on offer as well as having some more excellent food at the Steakhouse adjoining the hotel. It was wonderful to see Jean and John and had a great week with them.



The truck was due it's annual service while we were in San Jose. So after dropping Steve's parents off at the airport we took the truck to the only authorised MAN service centre in Costa Rica. The garage were very helpful and even through they usually only service MAN buses, as there are no MAN trucks here, they agreed to do the service and rotate the wheels. As they did not have the filters that needed changing they used the spare set we had brought from England and have ordered another replacement set from Germany which we will pick up later.

We then headed south to Dominical a picturesque beach in a small village which is popular with surfers and has free camping all along the beach under palm trees. We spent the weekend there with our friends Erika and Michel (from www.duchiesgoglobal.com) and Petra who will hopefully be shipping with us to South America.