Alajuela, Saturday

Fri 20th 2054 Someone is playing (recorded) music mildly annoyingly elsewhere in accom. We just had a weird but sort of cool vaguely salsa-ish (really not sure how to describe it) version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".

Bed.

2059 Actually TLST only just finished. I rembered what I was going to say - I was tempted to get some beers at supermarket and have one or two here (in kitchen, maybe) but I decided against it. As it happened the supermarket didn't seem to sell alcohol anyway. (I had seen other places I could have bought beer if I'd wanted. Not saying I won't, but probably as well to have a day or two off when there's no pressing "reason" to drink.)

I also just realised actually the 10 day Claro plan would have worked out at 1k less over 30 days than the 30 day plan. And might have had 1GB extra over the 30 days. Not getting up to check the leaflet! :-) But in any case, 1k not end of world, and having to top up every 10 days would get tedious and I'd be more likely to have a crisis of some kind and then realise I'd forgotten to top up. Plus swings and roundabouts having 5GB over 30 days vs 2GB every 10 days, in terms of being able to "smooth out" variations in need vs being able to use more and know you get a fresh allowance soon.

Sat 21st 0929 Woke up about 6am ish IIRC, went back to sleep and finally woke up a bit after 8 without being able to get back to sleep, been sort of lying in bed eading since then and intermittently making vague lazy forays into the guide book.

Looking at guide book map, my confusion re street numbering arises because there's an odd/even distinction to both calles and avenidas based on which side of the centre you are.

Vague plan for today is to go to nearby Feria market mentioned in accom booklet but not RG, maybe treat myself to an empanada or something, then perhaps go over to the two adjacent bus stations near the centre to scope out buses to Grecia and perhaps visit the museum Juan Santamarca (sp, from memory).

I am wondering - not that the accom guidebook makes out it is a hotbed of crime or anything - if I avoid taking my phone and/or camera to the market in case of pickpockets. This is entirely paranoia on my part but I might do it.

I might also pop back to accom briefly during the day as it's all fairly close, eg to have some of that cold pop from the fridge and/or to pick up camera/phone again if I do leave them behind when I go to the market.

Looked at weather forecast earlier and it might piss it down tomorrow afternoon, and a bit on Monday. Not sure. Nothing I can do and if I do get soaked I won't be that far from home etc.

Guide book says Poas volcano park is open daily and makes no mention of this reservation business. Then again, owner here probably knows and after all that Canadian woman *had* been on some site and registered, so there must be something to it.  I haven't looked on the web yet and despite this apparently having mildly "must do" status I probably won't. If it's true it *is* only doable on Saturdays and the weather turns after 10am I have already missed it. I am oddly not that bothered about it - maybe, despite really liking that kind of thing, because I am thinking there might well be other such opportunities during the trip. Also it is highly likely I will be back here at the end of the trip, or could be without any great pain, given how close it is to the airport, although if you really can only do the volcano on a Saturday that doesn't fit well with me flying out on IIRC Thursday. But if I am desperate it wouldn't be too hard to do the tour from San Jose if I am there, or to come to Alajuela for a couple of nights just to do the tour from here.

Worst comes to worst, I don't think it's a deathbed regret item, and if (not impossible) I do return to Costa Rica it would (Saturday stuff permitting, though even if true that may not be the case in even a year's time, given no guidebook of any vintage seems to mention it) be easy enough to go see it as first thing after arriving.

Right shoulder is hurting BTW. It was hurting a bit before I left UK and I suspect I just knocked or strained it a bit, but I hope it clears up. At least it's not my left arm so I'm not left with nagging doubts it's a legacy of breaking it.

As there are no windows in room and I just have bedside light on, it feels vaguely night time even though I'm certain it's sunny out. I kind of don't want to but I should probably start prepping (eg stashing cash I got yesterday, which I didn't do last night) to go out. No rush, but maybe be good to aim to be leaving here in an hour or so.

Accom book suggests getting empanada arreglada. Luckily I just Googled it and it's "slathered in condiments". Fuck that. I might chance ordering an empanada of some other type but got a nasty feeling it might be slathered in condiments anyway. Still, they are probably cheap enough I can just chuck the bugger away and write it off to experience.

1647 Been back at accom a few mins. On the whole actually a quietly successful day with actually some moments in which (without being related to women) I could " feel my happiness uncurl" to misappropriate a quote from The Streets. (Stray spaces around double quotes are present because the K1's keyboard app knows better than I do how to punctuate. Yet right now I feel vaguely discombobulated. Meh. Going to try to relax a bit, am probably back at accom for good tonight. Will probably write today up in a bit.

1654 Have been wondering about having a Spanish lesson, but I know from overhearing other people the walls here do very little to block sound and therefore I'd have to assume other people would hear the entire thing. On the other hand, since I don't intend to say anything secret, maybe I shouldn't care.

1756 Have a Spanish lesson in half an hour. Just done some semi-illicit socks/uw washing (2 pairs each) in shared bathroom - this is the downside of shared bathrooms. Not explicitly not permitted, but they have a laundry service (USD5) so implicitly maybe not permitted. Bit of a lightweight wash as couldn't get water to stay in basin despite my "universal" sink plug but I tried to block it up a bit with garments being washed. Will give them the sniff test once they've dried. I really need to wash a pair of tops to go with them but we'll see how that goes; if push comes to shove re-wearing a top isn't so critical. I may pay for a laundry service at new hostel, but here I don't have enough dirty stuff nor really enough time to feel comfortable spending USD5 on laundry service and risking not getting it back before I go.

1949 Had Spanish lesson. I snapped a few photos on phone today (more on this below) and I appear to have 256 photos (a handful of those from before today) totalling 1GB. I think my turning HDR mode on which effectively quadruples the number of photos may have been a bad idea. (Or I need to tell it to not keep the three component images, but that seems a shame. Or I just need to be very selective with HDR and not leave it on as I blat out dozens of shots in the hope some will come out.) l had hoped/expected to get all my photos (in duplicate) on 2x32GB SD cards, and all the photos from eg my Colombia trip would easily fit. Not a big deal but I do need to be careful.

Anyway, let's waffle. To be absolutely clear, I feel broadly OK (perhaps rambling at my Spanish teacher about this sort of stuff also helped ;-) ) but it's been a little bit up and down today.

So I did got over to the Feria. The route took me past a rather rundown looking patch of scrubby land surrounded by barbed wire which I had walked past yesterday, and I might have not gone that way had I not been going to the Feria. I didn't feel too edgy and there were people around and as the road had no buildings on the south side part of the way there were really nice views over the countryside to the mountains. (I didn't take a photo as didn't have camera and although I toyed with getting phone out on way back, I didn't quite feel comfortable.)

The food market was fairly big and I walked round it a couple of times. It was busy but not heaving (plenty of space) so it didn't feel at all intimidating and I'm sure there was no real risk of being pickpocketed. That said I don't think it would have been appropriate to pull out a camera (or my phone) and start snapping - maybe no one would have cared, but maybe they would and I think it would have been a bit crass.

I tried not to zoom round walking insanely quickly and to appreciate being there. There was also a really nice cool breeze at times (and it was all under a big roof) and I found myself half wishing I could buy stuff and cook with it, and then also thinking about making wine with some of it, and I had some vague thoughts of home and opening a bottle of (say) the cherry wine when I get back and I started to feel vaguely cheerful in an odd but nice way.

I had seen Soda Gina (as mentioned in the accom book page about the market) and went over there and had a very nice arroz con pollo and (yay) an undressed salad and some stuff that might have been fried plantain but I'm not sure (but was very nice) and a "jugo de cas" which seemed vaguely familiar but I don't know what "cas" is, but it was very nice anyway.

I then (realising - not for the first time - I had very little to do, and in fact that the big problem of being a tourist is filling the gaping quantities of time on hand) decided I'd stay for a coffee. I in fact stayed for a second coffee and was just vaguely watching the goings on and getting lost in more-or-less pleasant thoughts and feeling very touristy and a bit relaxed. (My right shoulder was hurting and I realised it felt stiff when I turned my head to the right; I must have slept on it badly or something, it still hurts a bit but is much better now as I'm writing this.)

I did wonder if I was "in the way" and maybe this wasn't the sort of place you were meant to hang around in indefinitely, but since there were several tables free I figured I wasn't doing any harm and I was running up a bigger bill and thus giving them money so no one should care. And maybe no one did, but I started to get edgy.

When I asked for my third coffee I got a different waitress (who seemed to have come over to take my empty cup) and who seemed to look at me a bit blankly when I asked for another coffee. She then said something I didn't understand and I felt awkward as fuck and I think I asked again for a coffee and she left, but didn't bring me one. So I went to the counter and asked the original waitress who said yes, sure, but then came to the table a minute later to say they had no more coffee but only juice, so I ordered a juice.

And then a bit later the other waitress came back and I felt awkward (which didn't help my language skills) and maybe explained that she had been trying to tell me they had no more coffee, or maybe explained that they did have coffee again if I wanted one. I really don't know. I felt awkward and confused and I wondered if I'd accidentally been rude as a result etc and it was just as I say awkward.

(To be clear, except that the "second" waitress did seem to look at me blankly when I said (not trying any flowery phrases) that I'd like another coffee, I don't think she intended to be rude and the fault, if any, was mostly mine. I also don't think I was necessarily rude, at worst I probably just came across as not understanding. But it still all felt awkward.)

I was also a tiny bit edgy as there were no prices on the menu, I had asked the price of the arroz con pollo (2300 IIRC) and the accom book had recommended this place but I started to wonder if they'd claim the juice was 5000 each or something. This didn't happen, I went to counter and they asked me what I'd had (very trusting of them) and it came to about 5100, which seemed pretty reasonable (if not insanely cheap - a general CR observation on my part, not complaining about this place - I am also still not "acclimatised" to the currency and find it hard to make snap judgements on whether a given price is "expensive" or not). I was going to round up as a tip and handed over a 20k note hoping for change (which I don't think was unreasonable for a bill of that size) but I stupidly showed that I had some small bills when I took the 20 off my roll and they asked for them and (politely, I think giving genuine advice) told me to be careful (presumably thinking I didn't realise it was a 20k and that someone might short change me), and that flustered me a bit so I ended up accidentally not leaving a tip. To be fair I had a quick look in guide book before leaving this morning and although it didn't mention sodas, it did say in restaurants 10% was automatically included and no need to tip, and I guess I probably didn't need to tip at the soda, though I would have and probably will continue to do modest rounding up (though at an approximate 10%ish level, not rounding 5100 up to 6k say, given that's over a quid tip and nearly 20%). So I felt a bit bad about that too.

Anyway, I then went into town and headed for where I'd seen from the guide book the two likely bus terminals (and associated sprawl of street-side bus stops) were. The F* (can't remember name) terminal looked huge, new, well-maintained and utterly unused with all the gates locked and the vast sprawling expanse of concrete utterly empty. No idea what's going on there. I found the Tuasa terminal and looked at the front of all the buses there but none obviously said Grecia.

I wandered around (it's all exercise/sightseeing, and I wasn't feeling too stressed as I didn't need to go today) and did things like try to observe where random buses on the street seemed to be coming from/going to and eventually stumbled on the street side bus stop (no actual formal bus stop signs or anything) where there were two buses for Grecia (and points further). FTR, if I remember correctly a) this is just outside the "back" exit of the Tuasa terminal, up past a "Claro" sign on the right b) this is at corner of Avenida 1 and Calle 10.

(I had toyed with asking someone on street where I could get a bus to Grecia, but I lacked confidence and/or felt it might be a bit rude. I also wasn't desperate.)

I stepped up into the waiting bus (no queue, no apparent intention to depart there and then) to ask the driver and he sort of waved me back a bit. Not sure why, surely I hardly look like a threat (and he wasn't wearing a mask or anything, so presumably there's no covid angle on this). Anyway, although he didn't seem super friendly, to give him his due he politely enough answered my questions (I can buy a ticket on the bus, no need to buy in advance, there's a bus about every 45 mins - and I subsequently saw other buses probably for different companies there to Grecia, so maybe guide book's 30 mins is about right if he was only talking about his compact - and there's a service every day - I just wish I'd asked the price so I can have roughly correct money on hand when I go on Monday) and I didn't seem to have any big language problems.

I then wandered off just killing time/sightseeing/walking for exercise and came across the central park quite by accident and saw the JS museum so decided to go in. I already thought it was free but it looked deserted-ish so I asked the guard(s) on the entrance if it was open and if it was free and after writing my name in a book I was waved in.

I have to be absolutely clear here that everyone in the museum was in fact super friendly and accommodating; I really do mean that. However, there seemed to be absolutely loads of guards around and they seemed to be slightly more "active" /"friendlier" than I would have expected and I was constantly on the back foot in case they were going to tell me I'd done something wrong when in reality they were just coming over (to take the first example) to tell me the uppermost floor where there's an open air walkway round the building with nice views was closing soon if I wanted to go look at it (which I did, after I finally clarified what the guard wanted and that I hadn't done anything wrong).

I was also the last one off the roof (as I hadn't twigged to the closing soon bit - not the museum, just the roof - at this point) and I apologised in (incorrect) Spanish for delaying them and they were super affable, but then one said something about photos (and I should say at this point the guard at the street entrance had clarified unbidden that photos without flash were fine, just no flash) and he was *probably* just asking me if I'd taken some photos to be friendly but I got a vague impression he was maybe checking I *hadn't* taken any photos because it wasn't allowed and I ended up mumbling something which probably made no sense but was accepted. This combination of irrational guilty conscience, suspicion of crazy rules (maybe you *aren't* allowed to take photos from the roof, although I honestly can't see why that would be the case) and linguistic difficulties (exacerbated by nerves from the other points) does my head in, further exacerbated by feeling frustrated that I get unnerved so easily by this sort of stuff (i.e. I have a problem that I have a problem with this).

I did see the rest of the rooms and as I say everyone was in fact super affable and courteous but I just felt constantly on the back foot by this point and was quite glad to finish a hurried inspection (to be honest, the museum was OK and interesting in points but the building itself was nicer/more interesting) and leave, still feeling a bit edgy.

(One point I wouldn't mind clearing up is that one of the earlier rooms said they exported something - it's not germane, but maybe coffee - from Puntarenas to England in (say) the 1800s. I was intrigued enough to go back and look at the map in the first room (which was interesting, as my CR geography knowledge is nonexistent) and Puntarenas is on the *Pacific* coast. So why were they shipping stuff to England from there? Was it *so* much harder to get stuff to the Carribbean coast from (I think) Alajuela that it was worth having to (I assume) ship it right round South America to get to England? Or did it then hop up the coast from Puntarena to near Lake Nicaragua and get transshipped a couple of times (overland the short distance Pacific to LN, then steamer, then overland from east side of LN) to cross to the Carribbean side that way? Or something else? This was just a casual mention of shipping to England in the museum so they didn't go into this, but I really am curious.)

Oh - jumping out of sequence - when I was at Soda Gina I got my phone out just to check Spanish dictionary and saw I had a text from "Sutel" which (I didn't fully understand the Spanish) seems to be advising me that my phone (it quoted the IMEI) is not approved and that (I think; this is very must a "gist" thing) I may have problems and can't complain if I do. It doesn't seem to be threatening me with anything (cf the message I got in Colombia telling me my A9s was not approved and would be blocked after 40 days or whatever) or suggesting I'm doing anything illegal, and it does in fact seem to work fine, so I guess it doesn't matter, unless they continue to send these messages and ramp up the aggressiveness.

After leaving the museum it was a little early to come back to the hostel (evenings a bit dreary as it is, though TBH with a bit of admin type stuff then the Spanish lesson and now writing this, it will probably be 2130ish by the time I'm done and I'll probably be happy to go to bed and/or watching an hour or so of Youtube would fill the time before a slightly later bedtime without much boredom) I thought I'd maybe just wander the streets a bit more then come back.

As it was I still felt a bit edgy from the museum and I also walked down a (not massively deserted or insalubrious-looking, but not bustling - it was pretty busy in the really central part of town, probably because it's a weekend as it felt busier than yesterday) street and a couple of people hanging around outside on a shop forecourt *might* have shouted at me (come here??? but really not sure) but might have been shouting to a mate across the road and certainly didn't attempt to do anything when I ignored them and walked past (they were several metres away) but it made me a bit jittery. Just FWIW, not saying Alajuela isn't safe or that I didn't feel safe most of the day.

I stopped in at a mini supermarket round corner from accom to get some water - piss a bit yellow this morning so wanted to get plenty. They didn't have that much water on display and it was same in the big supermarket yesterday. I also sort of thought sparkling water would be nice (I probably hadn't had any since I was in Colombia) and I asked and ended up (without fully twigging how much it was, though I'd probably have paid anyway to be polite) asking the very polite cashier if they had any and she found me a 2l bottle of Canada Dry soda water which was 1950 - over two quid!

I enjoyed it and as a one-off "treat" (retrospectively classifying it as such) that's fine but I'm not routinely paying those sort of prices. (She didn't know the price and took it to the till to check; I'm 95% sure she did not mark the price up because I'm a tourist. Incidentally that reminds me as I was recounting my adventures to my Spanish teacher, she told me a couple of rip-off stories she'd experienced with her daughters *in her own country, in her own language, within (I'd guess) 100 miles of her own home* which were the sort of thing I anticipate in my paranoid moments but which (touch wood) were *way* more exploitative than anything I think I've actually experienced, despite me being way more of a touristy potential victim than her and her family due to being foreign, from a "rich" country and not a native speaker. So maybe on the whole I've been lucky and/or I've somehow managed to look after myself surprisingly well.)

It's speculation on my part but I do wonder, given relative lack of water in both those shops, if the tap water *is* safe to drink here and as a result the market for bottled water is vastly smaller, so it's more of a luxury good and isn't sold in bulk as it is in my Latin American countries. Following on from this, it may be that because it isn't "normal" to buy bottled water, there isn't the same demand for sparkling water. I may have got the wrong impression and/or have forgotten what it was really like, but generally it's felt to me as though "agua con gas" is just a standard non-luxury item in most LA countries, just an alternative to "agua sin gas" , whereas here perhaps it is relatively uncommon for people to drink it because they all just get tap water and buy soft drinks when they want fizz.

It may just be my pronunciation or a regional language variation, but the woman at the mini-supermarket today didn't seem to recognise the phrase "agua con gas" and thought I'd asked for something else (can't remember what, sadly), though when I clarified by saying "agua con burbujas" she realised what I meant. I don't know what the phrase here is - the bottle I bought is "club soda" , but that may be beause it's a soft drink (Canada Dry) branded "mixer" rather than because that's what sparkling water is called here.

I will say that Aldous Huxley quote about welcoming boredom as a sign of excessive freedom when travelling came to mind at the Feria (not sure if I should capitalise that) this morning, in quite a good way. Yes, I am not "doing much" , but it was on the whole quite nice to feel I have a lot of time on my hands and one of the "big things" I did today was as simple as spend half an hour or so wandering round a food market and then have nothing better to do than fill in a couple of hours having an early lunch and some juice/coffee etc.

I think that's most of the stuff I have to say written. I will probably have a shower/shave shortly and move towards bed - it's already 2105 and I do feel slightly tired. Not that I couldn't stay up if something interesting were happening, I'm not fighting to keep my eyes open, I just do have this kind of "yeah, I guess I am a bit tired" feeling.

2131 Oh - during walk today I saw an ordinary-ish looking (vaguely chain - the poster was professionally printed in colour, not a sole proprietor whiteboard type of sign) restaurant advertising 6 chicken wings, fries and a coke for 5500 - that's over 7 quid, nearer 8. This feels fucking insane. I'm not sure it would cost that much in London. It's not as if this was somewhere swanky, several cuts above the sodas I ate in yesterday and today. Obviously I am not having to pay that, but it's vaguely disconcerting to think that I can't just walk into a non-pretentious restaurant without paying attention and not have a fairly nasty surprise when I get asked to pay.

2157 Have decided I will upload (almost all) trip photos to Google Photos - the privacy loss is fairly small and the ability to easily share some with family and to have an extra backup in case of accidents is worth it. Will turn backup off again after trip though.

Think I forgot to say earlier that FWIW, when I got that blank look on asking for another coffee, followed by what felt like rather a fraught situation, *if* I'd been drinking beer I'd have thought they thought I'd had enough. Which just goes to show how you can maybe misinterpret a situation sometimes. (Which also reminds me somehow of the strangely reassuring sight of the woman leading our party arguing with a female bouncer that we weren't too drunk to go into a West End that night I went to the film preview with J+V. A situation I'd normally associate with myself feeling awkward with a male bouncer.)

Finally ready to have shower and clean teeth and go to bed. The shared bathroom does make this sort of (slightly, if I'm being honest) more of a chore than it "should" be, but it's not a huge deal and the cost savings are well worth it, especially on a long trip in a mildly expensive country.

2240 About to go to bed. Shaved despite not feeling like it, because I probably ought to try not to look unnecessarily scruffy.

As discussed with teacher, when I don't understand someone I will try to either say that I don't understand, could you please repeat etc or if I *might* have understood, to paraphrase back to them as a question ("Sorry, I'm not sure I understand. Did you say the museum is closing now?" style of thing). *Not* guessing, hoping and pretending. ;-)