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I went on the most amazing guided walk last night. Monteverde is not a cloud forest for nothing, the rain can be torrential and it is every day at least once, normally more than that. So I went through the forest in the dark, with a guide called Sergio, he has lived in MOnteverde all his life and seemed to know every little nook and cranny of the forest and made it all seem perfectly safe. Even when he was joking to the man from LA in our group that the jaguars always eat the last person in the line! So the rain was pounding all around us, but I was okay because I had my waterproof poncho and my hiking boots. There was lightning striking all around us it was so dramatic! There was a wonderful moment when he made us all turn off our torches and we stood there for ages in the dark listening to the sounds and he said "this is how it is being an animal in the forest". So we saw nectar eating bats, a hole made by a tarantuala (he said it was there last night but must have been eaten), walking sticks (big green stick insects), loads of crickets. Then the most exciting part.....a snake eating a lizard!!!!! my first ever view of a snake in the wild! in the costa rican rainforest at night eating a lizard! how exciting is that???!! this is what i came all this way for! and it was particularly exciting because these snakes live in trees and rarely come to the ground so we were very lucky to see it. We stood for ages watching this snake eating a lizard. No photos, I didn't even bother trying in the dark and with all the rain.
Looks like the bird project has folded....my big reason for coming to Costa Rica! maybe just the catalyst though....all the emails are bouncing back and the website has gone down. So I was wondering about that...then today, i visited a wonderful butterfly garden. I chatted to these two english girls who are volunteering, they leave next week and said that they are looking for volunteers! so it is free and they provide all food and lodging. I stayed there about 5 hours chatting with them and met the biologist, Zac, a really nice man from Utah and he said they'd love to have me there! So you give guided walks and look after the plants and he is an insect specialist so imagine how much i will learn about insects from him. There are two tica girls too so i'll get to speak spanish too! so that all feels like a very exciting possibility. I have the email and he said they will expect me in 3 weeks after my spanish school otherwise contact him to let him know I can't do it. So maybe I shouldn't feel so bad about the birds.....after birds my big love is butterflies, so maybe it happened like that for a reason? well let's see what happens.....

Typical me. It's 1am and i have to be up at 6am to get my flight to Costa Rica. I had all these big plans to write on here and download photos or upload them whatever the terms are. But here I am still packing my bag after faffing around all day.....
Oh well, I'm still feeling good. It's to be expected, it's what I do most of the time I go anywhere. At least Andrew is driving me to the airport and will make sure I don't faff to the point of missing my flight.
He's so lovely and such a wonderful, inspirational friend and I'm going to miss him loads. Got used to this LA lifestyle. Definitely won't leave it 5 years to come back.
I have so much to write and so many photos to share but there's just not time. Have to do it in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica tomorrow, I can't believe it.....
LA has given me such confidence though. The fear has turned to solid excitement now. I'm so so intrigued to see what's in store. I've dealt with lots of annoying crazy men on the streets and I've found my way round on buses, and had so much fun here. The beautiful abundant plantlife here has just made me think if a car heavy metropolis like this can be so beautiful what on earth is it going to be like in a tropical land? I'm actually going to find out....I can't quite believe it.
So I wanted to share more but will have to leave it at that as my bag needs to be packed. Costa Rica here I come.......................

Feeling quite tired today. It's quite tricky getting around this carland on public transport. Although the buses are fun and you see some amazing characters on them. There is a massive class divide here, which is really represented on the buses. Every journey takes quite a lot of planning.

Went to the Natural History Museum yesterday, and spent hours looking at all the amazing things. They have one of the world's largest ever quartz crystal balls. I looked into it but couldn't see my future. I also liked the meteorite from Mars which landed in LA county in 1999.

At night we went out downtown (in Andrew's car, which means you can go to areas that are no-go for someone like me on foot, like a voyeur). Downtown turns into a complete shanty town at night (parts of it are by day too). There are hundreds of tents on the streets and people just lying on the paths. By day you see lots of people pushing trolleys full of plastic bottles they have collected. I think you get money from the recycling plant. You also see a lot of people with limbs missing sleeping rough (often with US flags on their wheelchairs if they have them), and people holding up signs explaining in great detail about an operation they need to have. It will be interesting comparing Costa Rica, "a third world country" (apparently), to this.

Well here I am sitting in LA, drinking some Costa Rican beer. Been here a week now. I'd like to add a photo but the mouse on this computer has mysteriously vanished and I'm having to do it MS DOS stylee, so think I'll wait to add a photo. September 11th today. I was going to go and see an anti-war play at a theatre but it looks as if it's only on at the weekend. I went for a nice walk around this amazing park called Elysian Park today. When I got back to Andrew's I watched some of the news and saw that Arnold Schwarzenegger was in there at the same time as me doing some propaganda stuff. Thanks goodness I didn't bump into him.
Instead I saw some amazing birds of prey circling over my head, maybe they were some kind of kites? I'm not sure.
The other night me and Andrew were sat watching the sun go down and there was a hummingbird only an arm's length from us. That was definitely my hilight of the trip so far. It was a magical moment.
We went to the Salvadorean area too and it was just as I imagine Central America to be. Lots of street vendors selling cut up mango and watermelon and a real buzz in the air.
LA is a land of contrasts......

The flight to LA went by really quick. It was good except for feeling a little bit stuck between two people and not wanting to keep asking them to get up. Watched 'Secuestro Express' but the plane landed before I saw the end. Got here to Andrew at the hospital because a C02 bottle had stuck to his hand. eek, it was all blistered like frost bite. He's okay though. Got a good prescription.....We sat outside and ate a nice dinner, and walked around smelling all the herbs in their garden. And i got to have a steam bath! Such unbelievable luxury.