Grecia/Naranjo, Wednesday

Wed 25th 1911 In garden with beer. Restaurant is open today so may account for it being slightly busier.

Bit of an iffy day. Not terrible. Will rant below.

Woke up about 5am busting for a piss. No big deal except didn't realise until I finally got up properly about 9am that I'd left my room key in the outside of the door on returning from piss so anyone could have come in.

Saw both hostel cats in last 5 mins FWIW, both let me stroke them. One looks vaguely pregnant and is white-ish with large splodgy colours, the other is the Ocelot-ish one (black rings on dark brown fur, a bit leopard-ish).

Anyway, I did go over to Naranjo *but* I finally this morning for some reason scanned the QR code I had had pointed out to me when I checked in with the hostel's travel tips blog. This is a nice effort and superficially had all sorts of good stuff. However:
- Poas still sounds like a mare if you don't have a car. You have to prepay for a specific time slot (I guess this is the registration thing mentioned in Alajuela) and if you don't get there on time because of buses, fuck you.
- Some nearby hikes given, including one accessible by bus, but it starts off with explicit instructions to ignore a "private property" sign with wooden guns drawn on it. Makes me edgy, even putting aside the "dare I go off hiking on own" stuff (eg dogs).
- Other stuff needed a car and/or you were advised not to go along because of robberies.
- Details on how to get to (former) Zoo Ave given but as previously noted, fuck them and their USD30 entrance fee.
- There's a bus (except maybe there isn't due to road works) direct from here to Monteverde but it involves pre-booking a ticket and boarding one of two (7am, 3pm IIRC) buses at the side of the highway and frankly it sounds a stressful headache given I'm not that pushed for time so I didn't try to ask staff about the possible road works to see if this is an option.

Most of this is not the hostel's "fault" and this is a commendable bit of local advice. It's just a shame being solo+cowardly+carless makes most if it irrelevant.

Anyway, I also discovered from their blog there is a main bus terminal here in Grecia distinct from the one I knew for the Alajuela-Naranjo route. So I wandered over there and had a quick look before going to Naranjo - apart from San Jose (which is always an option, I guess - how do I get to place X? Go to San Jose and get a bus from there to place X - but feels a bit nuclear) it's all local destinations. Obviously at some level these local destinations and their own buses out will probably allow reaching most of the country, but right now given my level of knowledge and the fact I don't have infinite time to blip around local towns until I reach escape velocity means it feels like the only exits from this local bubble of Costa Rica are Alajuela/San Jose and San Ramon.

I went over to Naranjo and found the main bus terminal (my Alajuela-Naranjo bus had its own one not far away) and looked at what was on offer. There are no ticket offices so no one to really ask. Anyway, lots of local-ish buses and (the only one with no printed timetable) a bus to San Ramon. Saw no sign of a San Carlos/Quesada bus.

I did some poking on phone on web from bus stop and hung around a bit (after an initial wander round time, brief visit inside cathedral, admiring scenery etc) and Naranjo seems small but pleasant enough. Nothing obvious to do touristically.

So anyway on returning to bus stop and hanging around a bit a San Ramon bus (same company as I had found on web) turned up and after he disappeared and came back I asked the driver and he said 650 to San Ramon. It was 655 Grecia-Naranjo FWIW. And yes, the coins do seem to go that precise.

I didn't ask about frequency but the web site implies there's a bus every 30-60 mins.

In short, while I don't like having to change, it's probably no huge deal (having done this preliminary recce) or tremendously "threatening" to do a trip with my bag Grecia-Naranjo-San Ramon in one day. There's a hint on the sign at bus terminal in Naranjo the bus only goes to San Ramon Calle Viera, which might be a km or two outside town, but it probably doesn't (if it terminates in SR, why wouldn't it terminate in town) and if it does it sucks but I can walk or get a taxi.

Had another wander round, had a casado con bistek in Soda del Rinconcito right by bus terminal (sadly marred by a big portion of spaghetti in tomato (probably) sauce, which contaminated other stuff and which caused me to knock a goodly portion of rice off the over-small plate as I tried to rescue the steak - rest of food was decent though) and got bus back from the other terminal. Left my reused diet coke bottle full of water on table at SdR by accident, bit annoying but hardly end of world.

Popped into the cathedral here in Grecia on my return (didn't take any photos, maybe another day - felt a bit off, and it's not like there won't be photos on web, and I do have photos of outside) and then went and bought (bit lardy) some tortilla chips from supermarket partly because I fancied some and partly because I wanted to break a 20k. Guzzled those back in room. I actually kind of lucked out as it started to piss down about 10-15 mins after I got back. Not sure exactly how long it lasted.

I then got vaguely stressed out and worked up about having to sort out onward plans.

Incidentally plan for tomorrow is probably to do another local bus daytrip. I might just go back slightly towards Alajuela (Tacares??) on the Alajuela-Naranjo route. This is just a "what the hell" things as I'm here with nothing else obvious to do. l noticed on way down here tonight there's an attractive "stuff to do" display in the hostel reception but I think it's all the kind of stuff on their blog which one way or another doesn't feel doable.

So trying to get this into some sort of logical order rather than how my thoughts wandered, it looks as if short of doubling back to Alajuela I "have" to go to San Ramon to escape this local region. That already takes two shortish bus hops with a change in one day.

San Ramon has only slightly shitty accomodation (it's pricey, and even when I tried for dates a week or two in advance I only got one cheap-ish dorm come up) online - I tried airbnb, expedia, hostelworld and booking.com. Long story short I've booked in at some airbnb-ish "host" style thing via booking.com for three nights at what works out about 25 quid a night. Not super happy about this, but even if I *knew* (I probably am, but not certain) I was heading up towards Monteverde, while there is potentially cheaper accommodation there it's still a little short notice and the direct route is basically San Ramon-Santa Elena (which is the "gateway" to Monteverde AFAICS) which takes maybe 3-4h and I have no idea if you need to book in advance. Doing Grecia-Santa Elena in one day with two bus changes, one in an unknown largish town where I might discover I should have booked ahead, feels like pushing it a bit, just to save a little bit of time and money, so I reluctantly booked that 25 quid accom for three nights.

I did see in poking around in guide book - which is how I found out about Santa Elena, and I am probably going there rather than trying to go round via Quesada-La Fortuna-Monteverde - that there's actually a smaller volunteer operated cloud forest reserve 9km outside SE, ie cheapish taxi and there's a local bus, and you can turn up and do various walks within the reserve (so presumably no dogs) and the shortest is maybe an hour and the longest is maybe 4.5h, which is totally doable I think. This all sounds great.

RG says nothing about this but on clicking on the link my ire is roused by "no single use plastics allowed in" rule. What box-ticking, does no one any good eco shit! So instead of continuing to reuse the same "single use" plastic bottle for water, I have to buy a "reusable" plastic bottle just to tick this stupid box. And I can't put my phone or camera in a "disposable" plastic bag, presumably. What a load of wank. I could see "no plastics to be thrown out in the reserve" as reasonable, but this feels fucking stupid. (Hey, if my phone breaks because it gets wet, having another manufactured will have *way less* eco impact than me using a disposable plastic bag to protect it, right? Not to mention I would have reused that plastic bag anyway.)

Apart from putting my back up, this isn't necessarily a killer. It half makes me not want to go. Wording vaguely suggests *all* reserves in CR have this rule but fuck knows. But I will probably buy a cheap shitty "for kids to take to school" type water bottle in one of the many shops selling plastic tat and when I inevitably lose it a week or two later it won't be too much of a wrench.

So that's kind of OK. I looked at accom in SE and it looks like there are options. Private rooms not super cheap but not terrible, certainly no worse than SR. That said, even if I can get a satisfactory experience from the wanky rules reserve (in theory that would easily sate my cloud forest desires, although I see stuff about you being "assigned" to a route depending on how busy they are, so it could easily turn out to be super unsatisfactory), perhaps visiting 2-3 days in a row, I am not sure that will pan out. And several of the more backpackery type accoms in SE which are dorm only do seem to have their own guide services/affiliated aguides, and I am wondering if it might be worth the minor stress to go stay in one of those. They *are* cheaper too. I need to mull this over, perhaps do some reading tonight/tomorrow now I've made the decision over SR accom, and book ASAP so I'm not getting too fucked over by booking last minute.

I've got a bad taste in my mouth but I get this kind of works. Book for SE tonight or tomorrow, hopefully don't get caught short (and if it helps, it won't be the weekend) by booking late as a result. Most likely spanner in the works is that there are no seats on buses SR - on Monday (which is when I'd be going - Fri-Sun nights incl would be in SR), and that doesn't feel (touch wood) too likely.

(Incidentally, absolute cheapest beer - Bavaria 4% - in supermarket was 500 for 350ml can. But Imperial is 900-1100ish IIRC. I will try that Bavaria at some point.)

1951 BJ Piano Man starting. Just got second beer - could have called the barman guy by name but chickened out, felt wanky (which is stupid).

Anyway, not that I've been going crazy with my 3x350ml beers a night here, but by the sounds of it a quiet-ish week-ish (given the airbnb-ish style I doubt I'm gonna feel comfortable going out on the lash in SR even though it's the weekend, but never say never) in SR+SE with 3/4/5 days of wholesome exercise and no privacy and just maybe meeting people (this is another good reason to go dorm in SE - given the hiking-ish activity of the place, it's vaguely possible there will be other people going out to the People's Anti Plastic Cloud Forest etc for sharing rides and/or security benefits), and then after that *probably* either an exit to relatively affordable La Fortuna before heading up towards Lake Arenal - I do like a big lake, especially if I can have a beer on its shore :-) - or striking out west for the beach.

I don't know if there are any other "big ticket" items - it *would* be good to get a multi-day hike in if I can, and to see some volcanoes - in the NW once you get past Arenal. But if not that's fine, putter over via some cheaper towns towards the beach, then head vaguely back down south. I need to sketch a rough itinerary out perhaps, but I think it can wait a day or two until I get SE sorted.

Ocecat is sleeping on seat near me, which is nice.

I am kind of thinking I'm not too fussed about the Carribbean coast unless something massively attractive comes up. Gut feeling is to head NW, maybe Nicoya peninsula (if only cos getting a ferry back across to Puntarenas sounds slightly cool, while it is probably very routine), then try to head south where it may be a little more off the beaten track hikey (although maybe car-demanding and/or needing bags of confidence or self-supplied hiking partners to strike out) and loop back up via Cartago and end up in San Jose.

This assumes I don't fancy Nicaragua. I haven't decided yet. I saw something in guide book about CR charging fees to enter/exit by land which feels vaguely annoying but not necessarily a killer. I also feel a bit edgy about coronavirus rules - even if (not looked) Nicaragua doesn't require tests/vac certificates I'm relucantant/unable to produce, what really nags at the back of my mind is being in Nicaragua when a sudden bout of rule changes breaks out and finding myself unable to re-enter CR to get my flight home. I don't have to decide yet, as I say.

I can't check into the accom in SR until 3pm. This is a bit of a pisser as although there's lots of scope for random delays with two buses, it's probably only a 3ish hour journey and I had been thinking (in order to allow time for random fuckups) I might as well leave Grecia about 10. But maybe I'll hang on until 11 or even 12 (checkout time). Dunno.

While there's a vague sense of satisfaction sometimes, having to sort these transport and accommodation logistics out is a pain in the neck. Yesterday I didn't do that much but enough and felt chilled. Today I feel I'm being squeezed by high demand, crappy options and "must do" places like Monteverde (or the nearby PAPCF variant). While a tiny bit dull, there's a quiet satisfaction (up to a certain point) in puttering around these little towns here which don't feel insanely expensive or overly touristy.

Of course this argues for staying in each place longer, but there has to be enough "stuff to experience, if not do" . I think I've just about exhausted (given none of the self-organised hiking type stuff works for me here) the casual bumming around potential here. Even tomorrow's day trip feels a bit "unnecessary" - I could have just booked in here for three nights in hindsight, *but* then the "got to sort out the next move" stress would have kicked in earlier and tainted the first couple of days.

I did incidentally sit on the side of the pavement (it was the top of a hill, so this worked) admiring the view in one place in Naranjo. Felt quite relaxed for a few minutes, but the odd person came past and although I don't think I was remotely in any danger I felt I couldn't hang around there for ages. Still, sort of cool. I do kind of like the "this is not earth-shatteringly amazing but it is quite cool and I have no pressing call on my time to go do something else" feeling.

2041 Third beer. I just had to pop back up to room for a credit card as I decided I'd book something in SE and all of a sudden booking.com wanted a card for the reservation, even though I have free cancellation up to 28th. (This isn't ideal as a guard again no bus seats available, but does let me mull things over and change my mind tomorrow.)

I booked a room to myself in centre-ish of Santa Elena at what works out at about £16/night - double bed + 2 bunks (!) with shared bathroom. I was looking at the dorms etc (and I note booking.com was happy to try to sell me a place which had *only* a female-only room available, meh) and the one which really seemed to maybe run its own tours (which might of course be overpriced or not happening now or whatever) was charging roughly as much for a dorm bed as I'm paying for this room. There were cheaper dorms (maybe half what I'm paying) at decent-seeming hostels but I'm not desperate to stay in a dorm right now, and if I'm not in that hostel which does its own trips the advantages are reduced. Moreover a) I can now maybe e-mail PAPCFR and see about getting a reservation in advance b) this is sufficiently acceptably priced (if memory serves it's about what I'm paying here in Grecia - this is not *cheap* but it's not insanely expensive) that I don't think I'll feel the need to "do SE ASAP and get out" , although there's always a bit of background time pressure, but anyway my point is that I can probably organise tours with all sorts of agencies in such a touristy place - including wandering over to expensive dorm hostel on the offchance and asking, they probably don't only sell to their own guests - and if I *can't* and/or I somehow need to vaguely hope I can meet hiking partners or whatever, I can always book into a dorm to extend my stay in SE by a few more nights.

It feels good to have this mostly kinda-sorted. I could still be shafted by bus seat availability but touch wood gut feeling is this shouldn't be too big a deal - and I can look at it either Fri afternoon post-check-in or Sat morning. I will probably not email PAPCFR until tomorrow evening though.

Given SR accom is so expensive for what I expect to be a pleasant enough but not amazing town I don't really mind having pre-committed to not spending more than three nights there. Plus it's probably easy enough (if not essential) to call in at SR on the southbound leg of my vague loop via Nicoya peninsula - it's not that far from Puntarenas.

PAPCFR does show a close up of a tarantula on one of its rolling website banners. Honestly didn't think they'd be big on such moist environments, but what do I know?

I also seem to have the option to cancel the SE accommodation even after Friday and "only" lose $18, not the full cost of the booking. I don't intend to do that, but worth bearing in mind as it's better than nothing if there is a major fuckup with the bus tickets or something.

I sneakily washed a couple of tops earlier tonight. I have a private bathroom at the place in SR so in theory can give everything a good wash and head to SE with a full complement of clean stuff, but given it's airbnb-ish I wonder if it'll feel quite that private. I guess it should be OK really.

Probably because restaurant is open there's a new MoS tonight. He took me off guard by looming up at me out of what looked like a group of friends chatting at a central table instead of staff and also (possibly just my imagination) said "buongiorno". It's really not a big deal but I do constantly seem to run into situations where I fail an " initial Spanish test" out of stress/shock and then someone speaks to me in English thereafter. This is kind of why it's nice when people *don't* speak English. (Also I suppose it does give me a vague hidden ability to actually understand Spanish to some extent which people don't suspect in these situations. I wish my Spanish were better than it is, but it is way better than it superficially appears when I fuck up a sudden initial burst of colloquial stuff.)

2127 Fourth beer. Perhaps pushing it but hardly a big deal. It's perhaps the spend rather than the alcohol I should worry about, but I spent four nights off in Alajuela and it wouldn't surprise me if it's similar in SR and SE - there may be the odd beer, but I doubt there'll be the relatively "nice" option of a few beers in the garden I've had here.

Repeating myself, but even though Friday will still be a bit of a stress and I need to sort bus SR-SE out, it does feel vaguely reassuring to have things mostly sorted.

Feels a bit awkward here with AFAICT no other guests/diners here and just me and the hostel/restaurant staff chatting away at another table. Meh.

I will get a wodge of cash out tomorrow - there's a Grupo Mutual ATM on the main square near the hostel - ready to pay on check in on Friday, and perhaps also (depending how much I have etc) towards paying in SE.

Don't exactly feel drunk but a vague tired/bluriness behind the eyes. Oh, for whatever reason, I kept wanting to fall asleep on bus back from Naranjo today - I had slept OK if not great, I hadn't forced myself to get up early, I had walked a bit but not miles, no obvious reason for that but there it was.

2200 Finished that beer. TBH if the new barman hadn't suggested I run a tab (never offered before, not that I mind) on the third beer I'd probably only have had three. But it's fine. Feel a bit (and oddly) drunk, not out of control etc, just know I've had a drink. Will go up to room, maybe a bit of music/YT and then bed. I am thinking given my inclination to wake up early plus the way it gets light apparently about 5am and gets dark about 6pm I should be getting up earlier than i am, it would only be a small extra effort. OTOH that's maybe useful in say SE, but here where I'm just doing pointless little daytrips and even those have to be dragged out to fill the time, it's maybe not such a big deal.

Plan for tomorrow is still some local place, maybe Tacares just on a whim, but I'll probably be flicking through RG with a vague sense of despair tomorrow morning. Anyway, let's head back to room.

Do feel a bit sad sitting here on own but fuck it, it's not like it's within my control, nor are there apparently tons of other guests I could in principle have met etc - it's me vs staff/their presumably local friends, so to speak.

2221 Just going to bed I think. I feel OK on the whole - already a lot more sober, rationally or not. It does feel vaguely loser-ish that I'm not just meeting up with people left right and centre in that stereotypical way but while vaguely annoying, TBH it's difficult to see how anyone could (not saying they *wouldn't*, but still) have done better - I've stayed in two separate places and neither seems chock full of people to meet (not saying there's no one, but not loads) not matter how extroverted I might be, nor does either place seem to have outside-accom liveliness on a great scale.