I suppose one of the benefits of abolishing your standing army is having all that extra money to spend on public services. One of the most prominent beneficiaries is Costa Rica’s health service, so much so that a quick Google for “medical tourism Costa Rica” will show how attractive the standard of healthcare here is…

Over the mountains we go, heading westwards to the Pacific coast and the resort town of Jaco Beach. There are a string of resorts on the Pacific, and apart from the wide beaches and the lively bar scene, the big draw is their proximity to the magical rainforests and their unique diversity of fauna and…

The isthmus of Central America, sitting slap bang over the meeting point of tectonic plates, is essentially a volcanic mountain range and San José is rather prettily surrounded by a few of them. Some might say they’re the capital’s redeeming feature, given the lack of an outstanding city centre or picturesque old town. One pleasant…

Round objects. Round, stone spheres. Perfectly circular, mysterious and monumental, very, very round. As round as the moon, as circular as an argument, going round in circles. So stony, so…round. No-one is quite sure why they were created, but there they were, large stone spheres carved about fifteen hundred years ago in the south of…