March 1st 2014. Just returned from a fabulous three weeks in Costa Rica with my wife Mary. We travelled to five different lodges: El Silencio, Arenal Nayara, Hotel Borinquen, Dantica Lodge, Lapa Rios. All were of the highest quality, the rooms palatial, the food fantastic, and the staff polite, efficient and extremely helpful. Nothing was too much trouble. I can recommend this country as a great place for a break. I shall be going back at the first opportunity.

We went with a list of ‘must see’ wildlife. Toucans, Scarlet Macaws, Humming Birds, Tanagers, Kingfishers, Woodpeckers, Motmots, Jacamars, Iguanas, Armadillos, Tree frogs, Howler Monkeys, Spider Monkeys, Coatis, Caiman, bats. On and on. We saw them all. On a three hour boat trip on Caño Negro we saw more wildlife than on a three week cruise up the Amazon.

Top of my list was the Quetzal. I’ve known about this fabulous bird since my schooldays. That was why we choose to spend three days at Dantica Lodge. We got up at 4.45am and were on the road at 5.50am with our brilliant guide Carlos. Dashing up and down the valley we, and about thirty other ‘twitchers’, were lucky enough to catch a ten minute sighting.