Night had descended on San José, and as the breeze picked up I reached for my fleece. During the seven days in Jaco the daytime temperature had barely strayed below the 35C mark, stifling and baking under the Pacific sun. San José gets the tropical sun too, but surrounded by mountains the winds seem to…

Out of San José we go, heading west across the Central Highlands to the Pacific coast, driving over spectacular ravines and down winding stretches hugging the hillsides, while storied green volcanic hills shimmer around us under the stifling blue sky. Did I say “driving”? I meant “crawling”, always – always – crawling; the road is…

You probably picked up from my last San José post last year that it was pretty much somewhere you visit once and that’s it. I certainly wasn’t expecting to go back there the following year, or ever again to be honest, but then stuff happened of course, and I felt I had to come back.…

It is 1857, Central America, and William Walker is a disappointed man. He had plans, he had visions, but his dreams were crumbling. A talented man, was our William, doctor, lawyer, writer, but it was in that part of his CV that reads “mercenary” where his ambitions really lay. And like a few other US…