18th Dec 1732: I booked flights to Costa Rica on Thursday (kind of). I'd been dithering about doing a trip for months (?), and things finally developed enough momentum that I kind of found myself "pushed" into booking because I didn't want to lose a half-decent option I'd found when I was really just investigating without a specific intent to book.
19th Dec 0131 Just waffling some more to catch up on already-happened stuff.
I had a quick poke at flights on Sunday night, having at some point half-decided that Costa Rica was the preferred option on my short list (but without any really solid reason, except "I haven't been there before"). Another poke on Monday night. None of the comparison sites I used seemed to be willing to cooperate and allow me to easily say "I don't want to transit the US or Canada", even though my primary reason - you have to get a transit visa, which costs money and takes time, so you can find yourself in limbo (e.g. by the time you get the visa, the flight price has gone up - or you book the flight to fix the price, then don't get the visa) - seems to be something surely many people will be worried about. I guess maybe most of their users are American so they don't care.
I found a flight via Madrid but no one would sell it me unless I flew into Madrid for an ~24h layover before flying out. This makes no sense with the number of flights there must be from London-Madrid - *no* other flight had an acceptable 3-4h-ish connection time and spare seats at a decent price? - but that's what it looked like.
So long story slightly shorter, in the end I splurged slightly on direct BA flights Gatwick-San Jose and back. This has a generous 23kg hand baggage allowance (which I'm going to come nowhere near) but no checked baggage (which I can live with, but it means I can't bring any alcohol back as a "souvenir", because Terrorism). Seat selection is also not free, even 24h before checkin, which feels chiselling, but although some information I saw while deciding whether to book or not seemed to suggest it would be £40/flight to reserve a seat, in the end I actually reserved a seat (on 18th, a few days after the booking) each way for £26/flight, which isn't *great* but isn't too bad. I didn't get super cushy seats but TBH except for paying nearly £100/flight to sit in the emergency exit row, none of the pricier seat options looked tremendously desirable. I picked something at the back (fingers crossed there's no terrible turbulence, though I guess I'll never know whether it's *slightly* better sitting over the wing or *loads* better, as for any particular turbulence event I'll only ever be sitting in one place, and I don't fly enough to do some kind of mental averaging out) with the aisle on my right (since I'm right handed), which is absolutely the main thing and really the only reason I'm willing to pay for seat selection (the aisle, not specifically aisle on the right). It's been a long time since I flew but I skimmed a few websites for tips on seat selection in case they jogged my memory (they didn't really) but apparently picking an aisle/window seat at the back can increase your chances of the middle seat(s) being empty as almost no one is going to choose a middle seat at the back. I have no idea if the airline might tend to allocate seats to those who don't pay in these shittier areas even if the flight's half empty, but anyway, worth the punt. I don't mind the possible noise from being near the toilet and I figure it might (vague memories seem to back me up on this) feel a bit more spacious back there because of the lack of further seats behind me. (I deliberately didn't pick the very last row as the seats wouldn't recline; I don't care too much about reclining myself, but if the person in front of me reclines, I want to be able to "pass it on" by reclining myself.)
I was of course dithering about booking the flights. I happened to notice on Monday while dithering that BA had a "reserve the seats and price for 72 hours for £10, refundable if you do book, and if the price goes down you still get that lower price too" option, which I dithered a bit about in turn and then took. That gave me three days to "play" with the idea of having committed to the flight, and I did book on the Thursday afternoon. My admiration for this rather nice offer was tempered a bit by receiving a confusingly (deliberately or incompetently?) worded e-mail just after midnight saying "just 24 hours to book" when I actually had ~47 hours left (it even quoted the deadline I expected), which made me worry I'd got confused and was going to accidentally miss the deadline or be forced into giving up some of my 72h dithering time, but overall it's a nice feature. So I sort of booked the flights on Monday evening, but I actually properly booked them on Thursday afternoon, then I (probably) had another 24h to cancel and get a full refund so I was still forcing myself to think "do I want these flights or not?" on Friday afternoon before the 24h window ran out. I started looking at the seat booking on Saturday night but since things didn't look like they were in any danger of selling out I slept on it and only booked those on Sunday night.
The flight times aren't bad - the departure from Gatwick is ~11am, which probably means leaving the flat at 5am or something horrible (and worse if there are train strikes that day; it's not clear yet) but could be worse, and I get into San Jose late-ish afternoon, so there may be daylight for the transit. Returning from San Jose the flight leaves about 6pm, so I don't have to be rushing around like crazy early in the morning on the last day or hanging around the airport from early afternoon until midnight or anything. And of course having a direct flight is always vaguely nice.
20th Dec 2103 Still not caught up on all the stuff that already happened but I'm checking over my clothes. I think the two pairs of trousers (black and charcoal) from the last trip are still fine - they (and anything else new) only had 5 weeks' wear, of course. Dark+light blue isocool long-sleeved top seems fine. The two dark blue isocool long-sleeved tops are both a bit weirdly "horizontally lined" at the same place on the back - I have to assume some kind of friction, but I can't think what exactly. They are probably wearable but would ideally replace them (or it, depending how many I want to take).
Of the two thin long-sleeved merino wool tops, the grey one got mended (pretty nicely) as it tore while I was in Colombia - may or may not want to take that. The blue one looks OK, there's maybe just the tiniest hint of wear under one of the armpits which might be where the grey one went, but I wouldn't like to swear it's not just discolouration. I always felt a bit dubious about wearing these, mainly because of my prejudice against wool, even though they are actually pretty fine. They are also a bit tight (not "not fitting", just "not loose") and that may not be ideal for keeping cool and/or against mosquitoes - really not sure though.
Dark and light grey (two separate) Quechua short-sleeved T-shirts look to be in reasonable condition, although broadly speaking I prefer long-sleeved.
Bright red Domyos short-sleeved T-shirt looks in good condition, possibly never worn. I have a bright blue one of these too which has some small stains (presumably food or something which didn't come off fully in the wash), and also a darkish red unbranded short-sleeved T-shirt which shows discolouration under armpits and some small probably-food stains - those are both probably wearable (and the underarm discolouration is probably irrelevant, unless it's actual wear and the material might go, but I suspect not - probably sweat/deodorant bleaching) but perhaps very slightly scruffy with those small stains on.
I had a look at the PackTowl the other day and it seems to be in reasonable condition. Fleece (black) also looks in good condition.
Shell jacket (black) looks in good condition - it has some whitish marks in slightly odd places that are probably scuffs. It is possible I didn't wash this when I got back from the last trip, although I probably did - I washed everything else, but since it's all a little musty from being in a bag in the cupboard for three years I am sticking stuff in the wash again tonight once I've been over it.
Shell trousers (black) again in good condition - not too surprising as they've only been worn a handful of times IIRC.
Underwear looks good too, although I do seem to have one never-used pair FWIW.
This isn't counting the "old" travel clothes (beige Rohan trousers, beige combat-ish trousers, blue short-sleeved Rohan collared shirt) which are perhaps a bit worn and/or perhaps not a good idea wrt "fashion" anyway.
21st Dec 0015 Checking misc travel supplies so I can order what I don't need; doing this late-ish at night because can't check once I go up to visit parents. I seem to have two bottles of shaving oil, one nearly full - can't see a best before date so I assume this doesn't go off. I have a full bottle of saltidin anti-mosquito spray (still sealed in plastic bag it came in) but it expired in 2021 :-( It might work but when there's a small risk of getting malaria or dengue or whatever if it doesn't work I'm reluctant to take the chance, so I'll have to buy some more.
For the record, I already have a new unused toothbrush and disposable razor which I can take with me, I don't need to buy new ones. The water purification tablets I always take and almost never use (since they're not perfect, they're just "just in case") are still in date as well.
0316 Just noticed the grey merino top has a small-ish hole in it. I wasn't planning on taking it away with me really, but this definitely knocks that out. AFAICT having just checked it again the blue one still looks fine, although this does make me wonder about the durability of these (maybe the grey one was just unlucky though?) as they were new before the Colombia trip and if memory serves (blog could confirm) the grey one developed the big hole and got repaired while I was in Barranquilla fairly early on (and before any kind of "trekking" that might have put extra strain on it). I was thinking of - and still might - buying a new one or two of these, assuming they're still on sale (as I think they are). Anyway, I'll chew it over.
22nd Dec 2256 Not done anything specific re trip but will contnue with wafflings about already done stuff. I'll double check this as I write and then it's done. Had a look at the vaccination advice for Costa Rica a few days ago, none are "advised" but you should consider diptheria, hepatitis A, rabies and tetanus. Let's put rabies to one side - I may or may not faff with this, but *if* I just need to get a booster for it *and* I can get that done at a reasonable cost before I go away I may, otherwise I may not - as I've said before, you still need shots if you get bitten and I don't plan on doing anything specifically risky in this area. OK, I don't have my vaccination booklet here with me so I can't finally double-check this and be done with it, but in short I believe I already have all the others. Ah, the blog entry from September 2018 covers this anyway. Yes, the booklet shows hepatitis A running out in August 2016 but the nurse told me I didn't need it, and it looks from the web as though two shots is now considered to be valid for 20 years or life. And I had tetanus/diptheria/polio in September 2018 valid for 10 years. My typhoid vaccination from then will have expired, but typhoid is not mentioned on the NHS Fit for Travel page for Costa Rica so I guess that's fine. And the whole country is low risk for malaria, there are other mosquito-borne illnesses for which there's no vaccine or other preventive medication, but it's basically just a case of trying to be diligent with mosquito repellent and hoping - I don't need to be trying to coax a doctor into letting me pay for anti-malaria drugs. So except for the vague possibility of a rabies booster I'm sorted there.
A quick look at NHS page about rabies vaccination seems to suggest that one booster dose might be considered if I was vaccinated more than a year ago (which I was, of course), but it doesn't give any details on how much time can have elapsed between the initial three dose course and the booster. The Boots rabies vaccination page seems to imply that you can have a booster dose after one year, but it has to be after one year almost exactly. The Superdrug website says a) there's a national shortage of the vaccine b) that the rabies vaccine [none of these sites says "rabies vaccine type X", incidentally] protects you for 10 years but if you're working with animals or otherwise at higher risk, more frequent boosters might be recommended. Given the "may be considered" wording on the NHS website, it and Superdrug are vaguely consistent, although the NHS website is silent on how long the vaccine lasts instead of saying 10 years.
I'm not super happy about this but gut feeling is I am not going to try to see anyone about this rabies booster. Meh. WHO rabies map shows Costa Rica as medium risk. The Fit for Travel site (which links to it) sort of implies it's not necessary and that it is necessary - if you will be "travelling to...a county.. where rabies is considered a risk" (not any specific level of risk) you should "consider" it, but then things like "trekking, cycling or running" only seem to be treated as relevant if you're going to a "high risk" country. Meh.
OK, I found: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies-post-exposure-treatment-timing-of-vaccine-booster/guidelines-on-timing-of-rabies-boosters-based-on-antibody-levels It says "Routine booster doses are not recommended for most travellers. A single booster dose of vaccine can be considered, following a risk assessment, in those who have completed a primary course more than one year before and are travelling again to a high risk (enzootic) area." I am *not* travelling to a high risk area, assuming this uses similar terminology to that WHO map.
My natural caution is making this a bit of a fuckfest but it really doesn't look like the travel advice makes this a particular necessity - it's not, for example, in the "courses or boosters usually advised" advice for Costa Rica, which is where I started this caution loop. And since, as I think I've already said, you still need urgent treatment after a bite from a possibly infected animal even if you are vaccinated/boosted, it's not as if having the vaccine (which I have had - it's just that my booster state is a little vague) is all that comforting. I honestly don't know what happens if you're on some trek (thinking of that three day hike I did in Colombia, for example) and a suspicious bite happens, it feels vaguely ridiculous to think special steps are going to be taken to get you to a doctor ASAP, but maybe that happens, or maybe it should. Really don't know. This is obviously actually entirely outside my area of expertise (which isn't purely medical, it's also about "how easy it is to find someone who can treat you" - and presumably even if pretty back-of-beyond areas there could well be some sort of treatment available at rural surgeries or whatever, I just don't know), but as I say I think really it doesn't look like I'm being strongly advised to have it, and I *may* qualify as already having had it anyway.
Just had quick look (via Google; didn't go there directly, it just came up in the results) on the CDC website and it's totally at odds with NHS advice for Guatemala, e.g. malaria medication is recommended for some areas and typhoid vaccination *is* recommended. Fuck knows, there's probably a huge amount of grey area here and no one really knows.
29th Dec 1736 Still need to finish writing up some of the earlier stuff, but will also try to keep this up to date-ish. Been pretty slack but I need to have a skim over a guide book or something and sketch out a rough itinerary - I will almost certainly abandon it at some point, but I want to have some kind of rough plan to keep me going until something turns up to change it. In particular, I need to sort out accommodation for the first few nights and get my head straight about how to get there from the airport, and I need to form some vague plans first.
Looking on archive.org there's a 2015 guide book for CR on there so I will skim that and bash down a few thoughts. I "should" probably enjoy planning out the trip and looking at all the exciting things I can do, but as I've probably said before I don't. Oh, FWIW, archive.org is also replete with "how to retire to Costa Rica" books, which feels mildly alarming in a "it's going to be *so* fucking expensive because of all the rich retirees" way. In no particular order, as stuff catches my eye:
- It might be nice to visit Lake Nicaragua, although the map in the guide book implies it is entirely within Nicaragua rather than forming part of the border itself. But potentially doable, of course.
- Guide book says busiest weeks are Christmas and Easter; if true, while I am going in the peak dry season, I may at least avoid the absolute worst of high demand etc.
- Trying not to take the guide book's details too seriously - it's a 2015 edition, so it's naturally out of date, plus there's been the Incident since then. However, it does suggest there are tourist shuttles between the more popular destinations, which might be a good option, and that buses are probably OK too.
- Ziplining/canopy tours. Guide book says these originated in CR, which may explain why it seems to have so many of them. I get a vague feeling the "adrenaline" aspect of this is maybe a bit of a more recent thing and that it's possible to do this without having your stomach ejected through your throat. Hmm, yes, later parts of the book draw a distinction between "classic" and "extreme" canopy tours; applying a small discount from the book's text in the vague hope that it's trying to flatter the reader with their adventurousness ;-), the former is probably (insurance permitting) something I could have a go at.
- Canyoning (assuming this isn't all ultra-hardcore) might be an option. Guide book implies dry season isn't the best, OTOH it may not be a bad thing from a novice POV.
- Hiking is an obvious option, though there's the usual concern about finding a tour and/or getting to somewhere in order to walk myself (if it's short enough to do in a day).
- Given I can't swim, rafting doesn't massively appeal. I also think this is more a wet season thing. Snorkeling and scuba diving is obviously right out!
- Not necessarily up my street, but apparently one of the two most famous mascaradas of the year will happen while I'm there - in Barva in late March.
- The local food (i.e. what's probably available in cheap unpretentious restaurants, I hope :-) ) looks pretty decent by my standards.
- Volcanos are an attractive idea. No idea if it's still true but this guide book says you can hike to the rim of Rincón de la Vieja.
- Guide book makes San Jose sound pretty unattractive in general, but says it is safe during the day and has some interesting stuff but hardly a must see. Gut feeling is that I would probably be better off visiting it at the end of the trip, as I need to be there for the airport, and if I *do* get mugged or something it's not going to spoil the whole trip. In my skimming so far I haven't found an obvious non-day-trip location (a bit analogous to Antigua in Guatemala - close enough to the capital to be easy to access straight off the plane and touristy/safe) to head out to as soon as I land, though.
- Poás Volcano National Park near San José sounds good.
- I wasn't thinking properly at the time but I'm sure I read some comments on climates varying across the country, and I should look into this so I visit different parts at as close to optimal times as I can. (OTOH, I am perhaps irrationally a bit concerned about being there during peak season in the first place, so maybe going at slightly the wrong time to individual regions might pay off. ;-) )
- Monteverde sounds promising - "most stunning and accessible cloud forest", although "big crowds during high season" - so maybe Río Celeste or Rincón de la Vieja. These are all probably in broadly the same region. Guidebook also suggests beautiful but less spectacular San Gerardo de Dota as an alternative, but with the wording "avoiding tourists" maybe it's ultra difficult to get round rather than just not so busy. Shouldn't read too much into it.
- Arenal/Lake Arenal sounds good, although perhaps overly busy. (I'm not too against a "touristy" area, *especially* not to start with, but as I keep saying, the prospect of ultra-high prices, shortage of accommodation and massive crowds doesn't appeal.)
- Río Celeste looks good, and the book says it's off-the-beaten path, which may mean "impossible to get to if you don't drive", but still. Yes, I think it's a car-only destination.
- Got to be honest, I think I'm taking this information in at far too detailed a level. Almost everything is going to sound "yeah, that's worth doing", and it probably is. But especially given the outdated information (albeit not insanely so), it's much better to sort out the precise "I'll go to place X and do tour Y" stuff once I'm at or near place X. No real harm reading this stuff, but what I really want here is a broad plan. Part of this might be forming a suitable route between warm and cold parts of the country. If I'm coming in from the UK winter, maybe I want to go somewhere warm-ish first. Then again, cloud forest might not come as such a shock to the system if I go there "straight" from UK winter. Probably doesn't really matter that much.
- Starting to feel the need to avoid to put any pressure on myself here. Need to not turn this into a nightmare of feeling I'm not doing enough etc etc.
- Chirripó might be cool if it's not too hard for me; probably not too bad, obviously I would need to go with a tour. Maybe not, given the guide book says you need a sleeping bag and no way am I buying one and lugging it out from the UK with me. Maybe this sort of thing might be provided on a tour, although it's probably too personal an item.
- Llanos de Cortés waterfall. Although maybe not ideal during dry season?
2007 Had a break from that to have a Spanish lesson. Let me just fill in some of the older stuff rather than continue ploughing through the guide book.
I looked into travel insurance shortly after reserving the flights for 72 hours and got a nasty shock. Despite being one of the cheapest on the Colombia trip, M&S quoted me >£500 for Costa Rica and even another insurer I tried was quoting something >£250. I could have paid this but I really didn't want to, it felt insane. Luckily I poked around a bit more and LV quoted me £140-ish, which I subsequently took up a few days later just after I'd actually booked the flights. The LV policy was multi-trip, but I'm unlikely to get much extra benefit from it - it's not inconceivable I'll do a month or two's trip at some point during the rest of the insured year, I suppose, but not super likely. The M&S policy wasn't multi trip, but that's only because their multi trip policies topped out at 31 days, whereas the LV policy allowed up to 90. I'm not bowled over with the amazing value of a £140-ish policy, but I suppose it's not too bad.
No, I've got confused. £140 is what I paid M&S for the Colombia trip, the LV quote which I took up was nearly £160. Not terrible and certainly if you take the £250/£500-ish quotes as the baseline it is amazing.
I ordered myself a new ultralight bag just before Christmas; it hasn't arrived yet and I keep getting text messages about it being delayed, but fingers crossed it will turn up soon. As always all these kind of things seem oriented towards mountaineering or "serious hiking", whereas I mainly want it as a general travel bag, but I think it will be fine. (I probably already said, but the last lightweight bag developed tears during the Colombia trip - its first - and I got a full refund under the guarantee, which was nice but also annoying. I think the basic idea of the lightweight bag paid off well and the benefits outweighed (ha) the disadvantages. I didn't want to buy a new bag straight away as I had no idea when I would next travel and I didn't want to start the clock ticking on any guarantee the new bag had when I wasn't going to be actively using it.)
I think that's all the stuff I did earlier which I haven't yet written about now documented. I still need to put in some more online orders (e.g. for a new bottle of saltidin spray) and I need to decide what I'm doing about buying some extra clothes/shoes, of course, but I've written about what I've actually done/checked so far.
2042 Back on the guide book. Feeling a bit down TBH. Getting this feeling I am neither old and rich enough nor young and adventurous enough for Costa Rica. ;-) I suspect this is just one of those passing feelings but FWIW.
Just waffling, and I have no idea how practical this is nor am I ruling anything out, but:
- I really just need to go and putter around a bit and see what happens and what/where I do/don't like.
- It would be nice (a bit like Paraty) if I could find some cheap beach-ish (though that's the most likely variant, TBH some other attractive "natural feature" like a lake would be a fine substitute for a beach) place where I can get cheap food, have the odd beer and not do very much for a week. I doubt I'd actually spend much if any time "on the beach" itself, but you know, that kind of vibe. If I actually felt safe, I think it would be fine if I was the only tourist there, I don't care if it's quiet.
- It would be good to get some kind of walking in, as I did in various forms in Colombia and Guatemala. This might well include some volcano stuff. I am fairly sure this is doable without insane amounts of expense or having to own a sleeping bag or hire a car.
Those aren't essential. Anything else is just a bonus, the main thing is probably just to see if I can get a feel for the place and which bits of it do/don't suit me.
Actually - and I have no idea if this is possible - although of course it's maybe a bit chilly, it would be nice if there was an actual town in the cloud foresty kind of regions where I could stay for (say) a week in a cheapish hostel or whatever and have the odd beer or two at night admiring the view, a bit like the places I visited on that three day trip out of Santa Marta except without it being so remote you're hiking up there, spending a single night and then off again the next morning.
Finished that guide book, or at least first skim. It was "Costa Rica: the complete guide" by James Kaiser. It *didn't* have the vaguely Lonely-Planet style details - which may be on his website, but I haven't looked - which I could probably do with checking out, because a simple mostly factual couple of column inches about transport from the airport and where you can get to easily might well resolve my "so where do I start for a low-stress arrival?" question.
Do need to bear in mind that apart from my own mental quirks, the guide book naturally reflects the author's own quirks and a certain "yay, this is so fun and amazing" vibe which is expected from travel writing. I shouldn't let the combination of all this put me off, what really matters is what it's like when I'm actually there.
To be scrupulously fair, CR:TCG does seem to make an effort to address both "eco-travellers" and "fun-and-sun" types, which is in its way an improvement over the tone of LP type books.
2117 Just shoved an amazon order in for 100ml of saltidin spray. I have the semi-regular Christmas free trial of Prime so there's no point holding off putting the order in. I think I only took 100ml with me last time anyway, but I do really need to try to keep the weight of liquids I'm taking with me down so I don't want to be taking 2x100ml, I will just have to accept maybe paying over the odds and maybe having to buy DEET spray when I replenish my supply of insect repellent locally. FWIW that guide book was a lot more chilled about the need for insect repellent over most of the country than the health advice I recently read, although it's possible I just misinterpreted it and of course it may have outdated information. At least with insect repellent I assume the locals do use it (unlike high SPF sunblock) so there's at least a chance of getting it at a half-decent price.
I did have a look for non-liquid insect/mosquito repellent before Christmas, but didn't find anything super promising. There were various wipes and things that probably don't count as liquids for airport security purposes, but they were expensive and they all seemed to offer 2-3 hours protection compared to 12 hours for the spray, so the weight/protection ratio is probably not in their favour. [And I'm unlikely to remember to reapply these wipes every 2-3 hours and having to carry some around to do that could be annoying; the spray is a little more spray-and-forget-about-ti.]
I am not planning on taking a mosquito net either. I bought one for my first-ever long trip in 2009, never used it and stopped carrying it a few trips ago IIRC (I'm sure the blog can clarify if it ever mattered). It's probably lost its insect repellent qualities by now, but AFAIK it is probably still "solid" with no holes in the net and might be usable, or of course I could buy another one (and probably would if I needed one). But nothing I've seen has recommended one, and it's bulky and heavy and in the absence of such recommendations I'm not taking one. I can presumably buy one out there in the unlikely event it does turn out to be necessary or at least desirable.
archive.org also has Lonely Planet Costa Rica from 2016, so let's have a poke at this. I feel kind of compelled to do this, yet also not really in the mood and approach it with a vague sense of dread. Let me just flip straight to any advice on where to go to once you've landed. (I did incidentally take a quick look at LP website. They seemed to want to sell me a paper book for ~£17, but I couldn't see any obvious sign of any ebooks. Maybe if I dug more I'd have found it.)
Right, LPCR says there is an Interbus shuttle between the airport and San José hotels. So if I want or choose to stay in San José to start with, something like that is probably relatively stress free. Gut feeling is I'm still better off spending time in SJ at the end of the trip, but a few days at the start isn't necessarily a bad idea.
I am just skimming the book a bit now and Alajuela is apparently "a good base for exploring the countryside to the north", and is near the international airport (5-10 min drive in a taxi). If it's not a horrifically crime-ridden place, it may well be a decent initial option, especially if I could maybe get a cheap hostel there with a pick up arranged from the airport. Parque Nacional Volcán Poás (not going to be bothering with those accents...) is 37km north of Alajuela which might be doable as a daytrip (perhaps even self-organised) from Alajuela, for example. This might be a nice easy start to the trip without too much stress (except getting up early enough to get to the crater before the clouds roll in...) and in a presumably rather smaller place like Alajuela getting an onward bus to a subsequent destination would hopefully feel less stressful than doing it in San José (again, I honestly can't see that accent getting used consistently; I already haven't been).
Must admit I was hoping for a guide to regional climate by month in the LP guide but can't find one. Let me re-skim CR:TCG for what it had to say on this. Right, it says in North Pacific region, dry season lasts up to six months Nov-May. South Pacific dry season is just three months Jan-March. Caribbean coast has no clearly defined dry season. I am not sure this means all that much to me. It maybe semi-argues for preferring to visit South Pacific region first so as to be more likely to be there in dry season, but I already get the impression from the guide book that non-dry season still has stuff to do and it's not as if a few days at the end of March/start of April are going to be ultra wet etc etc. Caribbean coast is rainy year round but Feb/Mar are relatively drier months. So it probably makes sense to avoid going there at the start of the trip. But really I probably don't need to pay over-much attention to this aspect; even if it turns out I could have gone to place X at a slightly better time within the window offered by my visit, it's unlikely to be a make-or-break aspect. I also half feel (looking at the guide book) like it might be nice to go in e.g. May, which it calls "the most underrated month", when it might be quiet and cheap. Perhaps worth bearing in mind for the future, although if I *did* do a May-ish trip in 2023 I'd probably all else being equal want to go to a different country.
LP guide also has some suggested itineraries, a couple of which start out heading north from SJ, and some of which look like they could be joined together. I don't necessarily want to do that, but it might provide a "just until something else comes to mind" starting point.
I must say I feel a little better for having read some of this. Up and down a bit tonight I guess.
I might well do a bit more skimming of the guide book later but I will stop (I sort of want to and I sort of don't) for now. I am not going to rush into booking something in Alajuela right now, but maybe in the next day or two I will have a look. Fuck it, let me just have a quick poke on hostelworld or whatever now to see if there's anything at all.
OK, "everything" seems to be dozens of km from the city centre, I wonder if this is measuring from the centre of SJ or something as I don't think Alajuela is that big. Hmm, maybe not, maybe they just don't have anything in Alajuela. Maybe I don't really care. I can have (although it's selling out fast) a single private shared bathroom for £15.89/night in Grecia, which is apparently an hour by bus from San Jose (although not necessarily easy to get to direct from the airport when I'm tired). As always, not saying I won't stay in any dorms (as part of a "try not to be a complete wuss"+"keep costs down" thing, and occasionally it seems to be a near-necessity) but certainly not intending to do that when I first arrive. That place actually looks pretty decent, but they aren't obviously offering airport transfers and while I may well go there early in the trip, it doesn't seem to be quite what I want right now. That said, the prices are vaguely reassuring!
Another place does seem to be in Alajuela (albeit perhaps on the outskirts, although I don't think the distances being shown are from Alajuela) and will do SPSB for £21/night, and the listing does mention airport transfers but with no details and no prices.
FTR the outdated guide books do seem to suggest tap water is nearly always safe to drink in CR. I would want to check some more up to date sources first. As I think I've said before, it feels like what's always caught me out before with regard to getting the shits etc is drinking the tap water - although to be fair, I've usually done that when it hasn't been explicitly been advertised as safe.
There's another place on hostelworld at £33.65 with private bathroom (incidentally it says 13% tax not included, and I suspect this *may* be the case for all of these, but can't be helped) which is a bit pricey, but it's apparently 2km from the airport. They don't advertise airport transfers, but - although this feels a bit expensive TBH - for such a short distance and a tiny bit of research on where/how to get proper taxis at the airport, I could probably handle doing that solo.
booking.com? OK, there's stuff available. Annoyingly I can't see a way to filter out dorms, but just eyeballing the list there's e.g. a single room at £45 inc taxes for 3 nights (with free cancellation - several of these do have that though - until the night before) in Alajuela a couple of miles from the airport. Again no airport transfer but subject to doing a little bit of research I am probably capable of arranging a taxi over that kind of distance without too much trouble. Uber claims to be available FWIW, although I don't really want to rely on having a working SIM at the airport.
Quick rather inconclusive poke around on the web suggests there are official orange taxis with a yellow triangle on the side at the airport, which have proper licences and will use the meter. That web site says Uber cars can't get near the airport and you have to get them down the street, which may or may not be up to date.
Incidentally CR:TCG did have an "etiquette" guide which actually wasn't too smugly, err, "politically correct" for want of a better word. And it said you should be almost comically gentle with car doors when shutting them.
In the rest of the country outside the airport taxis are red instead of orange, still with a yellow triangle on the door.
mytanfeet.com (!?) apparently written by a Costa Rican says by law all official taxis must use the meter and the local name for it is "MARIA". This site also makes the point that (as I had read about in TCG) as there aren't really any addresses in CR (!, but people keep saying it so presumably it is true) you can't just give the taxi driver an address. But maybe they know hotels, and I would hope the hotel websites will give a suitably local-intelligible address substitute.
I don't much like the way mtf.com says you absolutely can't wing it with booking things last minute during high season. Hmm. I don't fucking want to be booking all my individual stays now. I guess I will if nothing else have to keep an eye on sites like hostelworld even once I actually have booked my initial accommodation so I can see how much availability is changing day-by-day.
I would have liked to see something a little more concretely reassuring but this does suggest that I probably can get a taxi from the airport to Alajuela without it being too stressful.
mtf.com does also say something about how Costa Rica can be as expensive as North America, it's not cheap. This is also a bit worrying. However, I suspect/hope this and the advice about booking in advance is perhaps aimed at more upscale travel. I find it hard to believe I could get a single room for £16/night in the US, even in rural areas, for example.
booking.com keeps saying I'm eligible for a "genius" discount if I log in, and I do have an account, so it's possible the prices would be 5-10% lower than I've been seeing, I don't know yet.
I think I am going to sleep on this but the basic idea of booking a few nights in Alajuela now, keeping an eye on availability so I can see how much I need to try to plan ahead (but I really can't see myself booking a string of short stays before I leave and just "hoping" that doesn't get annoying and/or doesn't fit badly with bus schedules/routes) with other bookings and doing the airport transfer in a simple local taxi does sound like a plan. I can then probably use Alajuela as a base for some local-ish stuff (perhaps extending my initial stay to do that) and/or move on from there with some fairly short bus hops to places like Grecia or whatever.
Oh, I just spotted the bit of text I half remembered but couldn't see in TCG - Jan-March are the best months to visit the South Pacific with its longer rainy season. But that's kind of what the other bit of text I did quote says, and given I return early in April anyway I don't think this is really a huge concern.
30th Dec 0043 Oh, and the "etiquette" thing about CR waiters not wanting to disturb you and gringo customers not wanting to ask the waiter for the bill sounds familiar from e.g. Guatemala. Also to a lesser extent (this is perhaps more of a problem with me being a bit shy/diffident, though maybe not) the related thing about "poor" service (by NA standards, at least) where you need to attract the waiter's attention if you want something because they will leave you alone otherwise.
1601 Insect repellent spray and new backpack arrived today. Not had a really good play with the new backpack but it seems OK. (Deuter Guide Lite 30, for the record.)
2200 Done a very small amount of additional web searching about Alajuela and have slept on it and I think the plan of getting accommodation there and getting a taxi from the airport is fairly decent. It may well be dark when I get out of the airport but it isn't going to be the middle of the night or anything either, which helps. Apparently Alajuela is the second largest city in the country, but I think it's still vastly smaller than San Juan and probably isn't too rough. I am thinking I will look into actually booking a ho(s)tel tomorrow, I don't really want to look today. I might book for four nights rather than the three I initially (without much thought) considered - the first night is immediately after the flight so there isn't really much of that day "left", and that gives me three full days to potter round/buy a local SIM/maybe do a day trip to somewhere/decide where I'm going next and or if I want to extend in Alajuela.
I *haven't* looked too closely into this, but some maps I've seen imply that San Juan has a metro system and that a (presumably outlying) station is probably a 5-10 minute taxi ride from Alajuela, so if I wanted to (although gut feeling is I wouldn't, right at the start of the trip) I could probably use taxi+metro to get into San Juan for a day or two out while actually staying in Alajuela.
I have to say that taking three or four days in Alajuela at the start of the trip feels a little bit "excessive" - my mind turns on those "visit a fair chunk of the country in 2 week" itineraries in the LP guidebook. But I *don't* have to rush, I don't like rushing, I am unlikely to be insanely bored during three "full" days in Alajuela and it will give me a chance to settle down, get over my initial "everyone is going to try to mug me because I'm a tourist" jitters and so forth. I'm still "being there" even if I'm not doing stereotypical tourist stuff and for all I know there will (for example) be a cool little bar just down the street from my ho(s)tel with live music on Saturday night or something like that.
Feeling surprisingly jittery about not having got the Alajuela accommodation booked. But I think it's broadly sensible to sleep on this and do it fresh tomorrow, and if the only thing standing between me and no availability or insane prices is a day or two at this point, I'm fucked, because I will not be able to be booking accommodation as I go a few days ahead. I suppose to some extent once the trip actually starts I can exhibit some flexibility (I was going to go to town X next but there's no cheap accommodation so I'll go to near-ish town Y instead) which isn't really an option here as I've identified Alajuela as singularly convenient for getting to from the airport, but still, I am booking ~3 weeks ahead at this point.
31st Dec 1523 I've booked accommodation of some sort (I think it's a vaguely family-run thing) fairly centrally in Alajuela for four nights from 19th January for ~£80 including taxes. No free breakfast, I could have had something for £60 for four nights with a (presumably basic) breakfast included, but it was a bit out of the town centre and I figured I'd probably be better more centrally. I have free cancellation on this until a day or two before I'm due to fly anyway. I checked booking.com, hostelworld and expedia and in this case booking.com were easily the best; hostelworld had a very limited selection and expedia seemed to have a limited selection too but hide it by offering me places in San Jose, not to mention that expedia's places were generally pricier. booking.com flip-flopped from telling me I have to pay in cash with CRC or USD on arrival during the booking (I got a guide price in GBP, which is fine) to saying USD in the booking confirmation. I guess they probably will take CRC anyway. I understand USD is fairly widely availble in CR but I also don't know to what extent it might actually be "preferred" and to what extent it's offered for the convenience of the many US tourists and expats and CRC is preferred and you risk getting stiffed on exchange rates if you're using USD. All else being equal I'd rather not be having to deal with two different types of currency (I'm thinking mainly of getting the coins mixed up; two different types of note may not be too problematic), but we'll see how it goes. I may - depending on how much I'm rushing at the airport and what's available - get both USD and CRC out at the airport and try to hold the USD in notes as an "emergency" reserve.
Still, while I do still feel a bit edgy that it's going to be impossible to book other stuff at short notice, it does feel vaguely good to have this booking arranged, and the free cancellation is a nice touch.
TBH it's super unclear if the accommodation has a private bathroom and/or a private kitchen and/or non-24h reception, but none of the half-decently priced options seemed very clear on this and I can live with any of the variants.
Just noticed booking.com has a probably-ad for an airport taxi booking service which will (with a 10% discount!) see me in a people carrier one-way from £31.23. I understand an actual airport taxi will be more like £10 tops (which still feels a bit excessive for a five minute trip, but there's always a premium at airports) and gut feeling is that having deliberately picked accommodation near the airport I am not willing to pay an extra £20 for a very small extra peace of mind element to this.
1646 Quick web search finds possibly-unauthoritative web site saying that USD is widely accepted but it is a bit touristy, bills larger than USD20 may not be accepted and you will typically get your change in CRC. So although I could see potential exchange rate fuckery both ways (e.g. a tour is priced *only* in USD, but I want to pay in CRC and they apply a crappy exchange rate from USD to CRC in the hope I won't notice), it is probably OK to mainly use CRC.
I have had some automated-ish e-mails from the accommodation booking, it all looks very self-check-in-y and "the neighbour will take your money if you arrive at certain times" but it's probably fine, and there is a CR-style "directions for taxi driver" given (I asked for this, but maybe they always include it as these mails look automated).
3rd Jan 0117 Quick look on Lonely Planet website suggests the lack of any ebook price for the "Costa Rica" guide book means it doesn't exist. However, their "Central America travel guide" has a chapter on Costa Rica which I could buy for £2.99 as a PDF. This isn't too excessive, and it would be nice to have something up-to-date I can keep on my phone (i.e. zero mass) for reference. What's annoying is I'd vaguely like to see the "Plan your trip" and "Understand Central America and Survival Guide" chapters, but I don't really consider those worth £2.99 each. It would be nice if these were available for 50p each or something, but what do I know?
I feel intermittently a bit jittery about the upcoming trip. Hardly suprising. It also feels like I'm not "prepared", but the reality is that although I do want to buy more stuff (e.g. clothes, a few miscellaneous supplies), I don't absolutely need to - the trip won't be ruined if I don't. I don't think buying these things is entirely gratuitous, they're not 100% "want" and 0% "need", but they're probably more 50-50 on that spectrum.
I *may* actually have an outdated copy of the ancestor of that LP CA guide book on paper in my flat, I'm not sure. (I may be thinking of "*South America* on a shoestring.) archive.org also has the 2013 edition of the ancestor ("CA on a shoestring") and TBH since those "would like to read" chapters are probably not that variable across time nor really that desirable (I imagine it's mostly political crap or stuff I can and probably already have found in other random guide books/on the web) I may just content myself with reading the old versions of those on archive.org and just buy the one chapter. It's not as if I regard LP as having some uniquely insightful perspective on things; what I'm really paying for is an up-to-date-ish reference which I can access without needing internet access and to provide a reasonably trustworthy opinion on things like the safety of region X and town Y, without drowning in a sea of conflicting and unknown-trustworthiness opinions found via random web searches. (I do also wonder just how up to date the LP guide is; it could easily be a year or two old. But still, that's not terrible.)
0203 On a random note, I just checked the hand luggage rules and disposable razors are allowed in hand luggage. Small scissors (blades under 6cm) are as well, so I *could* take some nail scissors, but since I can't rule out the possibility of taking other flights with different rules I'll probably just make do with nail clippers. Nail scissors aren't tremendously expensive but being forced to chuck a pair out at security would grate more than a disposable razor I've already had a use or two out of.
Tweezers are allowed, having been browsing onebag.com intermittently to refresh my memory I have toyed (not for the first time) with getting some (mainly for insect bites, albeit this hasn't been a big concern in practice so far), but a decent-ish pair seems to be about £10 and it feels like the sort of item I might be forced to toss at security somewhere (perhaps even in the UK, if some random security inspector decides they don't like my face or whatever, despite what the rules nominally say).
0248 If I didn't already say, I don't have any specific goal to take Spanish classes on this trip. If I find somewhere I like for whatever reason (it just feels nice, it's a good base for lots of surrounding area activities, whatever) I may well spend several weeks there. Signing up for "full time" Spanish study may or may not come into this (e.g. I like place X and the fact I could do Spanish lessons there makes staying feel more "useful"). I do intend (subject to availability) to go to language exchanges where available and not ridiculously inconvenient, because it's social and it's a good way to practice. But formal classes will depend on how things go. If Costa Rica is not particularly cheap, it would probably end up being group classes as in Colombia, and (perhaps I'm over-sensitive) I'd probably rather not do that if it's just going to mean lots of political shit in the class discussions and maybe even with other students - one "plus" about group classes would be the social aspect of meeting people, but if I feel politically awkward that's not going to happen.
0359 Not actually checked them out, but for the record, onebag.com has (on its links page, natch) some accommodation sites listed which I don't think I've used personally and which may be worth checking out.
0404 Flicking around on https://web.archive.org/web/20110706181617/http://www.ease.com/~randyj/rjlife5.htm (as linked from onebag.com), I'm intrigued and vaguely reassured to see the author recommending taking days off when you just do a few chores, read and relax during a trip. Admittedly I'm probably lazier than that, as I'm typically only doing half days of "tourism" thanks to getting up so late a lot of the time, but still.
Skimming a bit more of that site - though I really need to go to bed, and I actually clicked on the link to it from onebag.com in the hope of advice re street touts etc (have sort of found something) - there's a bit of an off-putting smug "real traveller" vibe, the sort of thing which I tend to perceive in a distilled kind of way in guidebooks, especially those aimed at a younger crowd. Meh. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. (Also, to be honest, while I guess I shouldn't absolutely write myself off, part of what annoys me here is that the tone is all "yeah, experiences and meeting people and belonging and shit" and *I can't do that*. Well, obviously "experiences" to some extent, everyone experiences stuff all the time and I can pay for a tour or whatever just like anyone else, but not the 'authentic' stereotypical traveller experiences.)
OK, https://web.archive.org/web/20110706182436/http://www.ease.com/~randyj/secure4.htm#touts does look useful wrt touts. I might as well point out that while any advice here is welcome, what really concerns me are unsolicited personal contacts that are perhaps a precursor to an attempted mugging or something similar - it is annoying to be constantly turning down people trying to sell you sunglasses or water, but (as I think I've said before) these guys have to make a living somehow, they're not doing anything wrong and as long as they take no for an answer they're not really a big problem. It's the difference between the hundreds of random itinerant vendors in the walled city in Cartagena vs that fucking big guy trying to do some sort of (IIRC - not checked old blog entries, but sure I wrote about this) bead selling scam which felt like it had vague overtones of possible violence down the slightly quieter back streets of the walled city.
Hmm, reading that secure4.htm page. It's interesting and feels useful-ish, but it doesn't seem to address mugging type issues; I don't want to be pickpocketed, but although it's worth being reminded, I kind of already follow the page's advice that (except when I'm in transit and have everything with me) the realistic worst case of being pickpocketed is nuisance, not disaster. The reminder to "Learn to be rude!" is also appreciated; IIRC last time I looked for advice on this (probably while I was in Cartagena) I was coming across endless "look at it from their perspective" smug-arse vaguely politically correct advice on stackexchange and similar. Thinking about it now, Cialdini's "Influence" probably makes a similar point - if someone is actively trying to manipulate you by relying on social conventions about rudeness/reciprocation, you should feel exempt from respecting those rules because they're trying to cheat.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110706181352/http://www.ease.com/~randyj/secure1.htm#xstoc seems interesting and kind of reassuring. I also kind of know a lot of this stuff, both from experience (I may not be a "real traveller" etc etc, but I have spent a moderate amount of time abroad and very little seriously bad stuff, especially in the way of crime, has happened so far touch wood etc etc) and from general reading, but I know I worry about this sort of stuff far more than I need to.
I'm just waffling, but although violence is actually the thing I worry about most, getting robbed/mugged when I'm carrying everything with me in transit is also a major concern.
This site makes the same observation as one of Anders Ansar's reports that (with his super light travel style; far too extreme for me, I think) when you're walking around with no luggage, you look like a much less tempting target - it's less obvious you're a tourist, and more to the point it's much less likely you have lots of nice stuff worth stealing on you. I might vaguely hope my relatively small bag offers me some advantages here.
This site (I'll call it F33W - Footloose and Fancy-Free in the Third World) also advises taking your valuables like your passport with you in a money belt when you go out except in very remote areas with bandits or whatever, because the chances of anyone robbing you at a level that will take these "hidden" valuables is way less than the risk of someone stealing them from your hotel room. I actually can't remember what I "normally" do. I probably (but I haven't tried to find old blog entries about this) generally leave them in the hotel room/dorm locker unless I feel it's particularly unsafe. I'm not necessarily revising this plan and to some extent there's an element of playing it by ear, but I can't help feeling F33W's argument has some validity.
The advice that travelling on the cheap is good protection from theft, because you're not showing off your wealth, is probably something I've thought of before myself, but it is vaguely reassuring too.
1426 Not sure if it's a coincidence from reading all that (albeit reassuring-ish) safety/security stuff on F33W last night but I woke up with a minor case of the heebie-jeebies the morning. Don't feel too bad now. Reading some more of F33W (as I'm pretty sure there's a fair amount of gold in there, albeit buried in annoyingly self-confident smugness about being "on the Road" and "real travellers" and so forth). Will intermittently waffle about it here. Interesting he says on a new trip even he has to start out fresh and it takes several weeks to get rid of feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. And that he says you should aim to arrive at your first destination in the daytime rather than the middle of the night, check into a comfortable hotel even if it's more expensive than you will usually pay, staying in arrival point for several days or even a week is stuff I've already thought about for myself (unless I read it on here years ago and forgot). Of course, he also says to find the local travelers' hangouts and join this community, which is obviously not something I'm going to do, but as I say, the fact he's writing a lot of stuff which I *do* agree with and maybe even concluded on my own (perhaps feeling a little bit guilty/lazy/pathetic for concluding it) is both reassuring and suggests there's lots of good stuff I could learn or re-learn from this site. I have probably skimmed it in the past but I'm realising it's not absolutely enormous and I am planning on trying to read the whole thing.
Note that in some countries his observation "there really are local buses and local hotels" but "you'd feel like a fool using them since 'no one' else does" strikes a bit of a chord. Not that they *weren't* exactly local buses, but when I took some of the tourist shuttle buses in Guatemala it felt a bit like "taking the easy option" rather than using the cheaper ex-US-schoolbus type buses, but it also felt like the "normal" thing to do. Although I did use some of the EUS buses, and as I say it's not as if all or even most of the people on the shuttle buses were other tourists.
2030 Continuing to intermittently read F33W, finding it by turns fascinating and irritating. It's actually a lot bigger than I realised, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing - I quite like a long read if it's mostly entertaining. One thing it is making me think is that it definitely makes more sense to visit San Juan late in the trip rather than early, not just for the reason that that way if I *do* get mugged or something it won't spoil the rest of the trip, but also because after a few weeks in the country I will be feeling that bit more confident (I remember that happening in Guatemala, for example), my Spanish will have warmed up a bit (and I'll have had chance to get use to any local accent or quirks) and as a result the chances of things going south will be reduced.
2105 It's not a criticism as such - the site has been taken down and has to be read via archive.org, and onebag.com linked to it pointing this out - but F33W is in some ways an intriguing period piece - e.g. ATMs really are almost everywhere now. And there are some things that might be outdated or might just be something I've somehow managed to miss out on and I'm really not sure which - e.g. the claim that there will be any number of occasions when you need to produce a flashlight, cup and spoon (not necessarily simultaneously!). I agree a flashlight is useful, but I don't think I've ever needed a cup or spoon or thought "well, it would be nice if I had one". (I *have* wished I had a tin opener and had to buy one.) Reading further, this is apparently for cases of communal cookery (presumably out in the middle of nowhere), which sounds vaguely plausible but feels a bit "extreme".
I keep seeing phrases in F33W which I remember from onebag.com. I wonder which came first?
2252 Feeling a bit guilty for spending time reading F33W instead of doing something more productive, but hey, at least it's got me thinking about the trip.
I am reminded (but it's not entirely novel) about the possibility of not taking a separate camera and making do with just my smartphone(s) or "no camera", depending how you want to view it. My current compact camera is a bit beaten up (the lens cover occasionally jams, IIRC) but the last time I checked it does work, and it was a decent-ish (not amazing) one when new etc, and it probably takes better photos than my non-expensive smartphones. I do also sort of feel a bit "safer" whipping the camera out to take a quick photo; I'd much rather someone stole the camera than my smartphone, not so much as a matter of cost (back home, a new camera would probably be £80+, whereas I buy smartphones secondhand and e.g. my G5 cost me under £40) as on difficulty of replacement - a smartphone isn't *just* hardware, there's the data on it, there's the config for the various apps, etc. The K1's camera isn't bad in its way, and the G5's camera works fairly well but it doesn't always seem to auto-focus nicely, although if I started using it seriously and regularly I might get into a way of using it that skirts these quirks - as it is I use it infrequently and just end up taking half a dozen photos and hoping, but I could in theory experiment with it.
It would be nice if my compact camera was USB chargeable, but as it is I have to take a separate battery charger. Gut feeling is that I will probably take it with me, but maybe try to experiment a bit with taking photos on phone too. I'm reluctant (even if I could find one; I guess compact cameras are much more niche than they used to be) to spend money on a new camera which would be USB chargeable when I'm already toying with ditching the separate camera anyway.
I suppose in principle I could (probably not for this trip, I'm just speculating) take an *extra* (third) smartphone with me to serve primarily as a compact camera replacement; it would then be USB chargeable and would of course function as a spare smartphone if I lost one of my others. That camera replacement smartphone could be something I wouldn't normally pick, as what I'd mainly care about was the balance of price and camera quality.
There is also the perennial "do I focus too much on trying to take 'nice' photos instead of really observing for myself?" dilemma.
2331 F33W does talk about renting sleeping bags if necessary, so presumably they are not "too personal" for this to be ridiculous. I don't know that I would want or need to do this, but it does suggest that that hike up the high mountain might be an option if I wanted to.
2343 "Two Years Behind the Rear Axle" as a suggested title for a travel book (from F33W, of course) made me smile. I actually had no idea the front of the bus was supposed to be more comfortable. Maybe this is more of an issue with crappy buses than well-maintained coaches.
Also interesting to see scopolamine is mentioned in F33W as used in motion sickness patches! I haven't checked to see if this is still true. If so, presumably the dose makes a huge difference.
4th Jan 0059 FWIW the (perhaps rather dated, at least in most countries) F33W mention of countries where you have to declare foreign currency on entry and exit and it's compared with official receipts when you changed that money at official banks to check you didn't use the black market reminds me of the similar thing with erosion+food in/amount excreted receipts in HHGTTG. I obviously "sort of" got this joke beforehand, but I do wonder if it was intended in part as a reference/parody of this real-world thing, which I wouldn't have noticed before (at least not when I first read the books, and perhaps not until just now).
0122 I am not big on haggling in general, nor do I shop for very much stuff, but F33W is intersting on this. The "tactic" of saying "I am not buying today, but when I come back tomorrow/next week/just before I fly home, I may buy" and perhaps getting them to write down a price on a business card or similar feels worth remembering, if only for situations like those in India where I was forced into letting someone show me loads and loads of goods I'm not interested in then guilt-tripped into buying *something* because they invested so much time in me (even though I didn't initiate the process).
0131 F33W observation - for all that it's rather old and I suspect things are easier now - that simple things like buying a train ticket or doing laundry can take most of a day is rather heartening, because this feels true and it always makes me wonder if I'm just being ridiculously inefficient or lazy (e.g. comparing myself to someone on one of the "see half the country in two weeks" suggested itineraries in the guide book). I probably am a bit inefficient and/or lazy, but maybe not quite as much as I sometimes suspect.
This is perhaps a bit of a recurring theme. In among the little bits that make me feel jealous or in some way inadequate, a lot of F33W seems to be expressing stuff I already know/agree with/discovered for myself but presenting it with confidence as the voice of experience/reason, whereas I was probably more inclined to regard it as symptoms of my own flaws (laziness/lack of confidence/assertiveness/planning/etc).
It really must have been both exhilarating and a bit scary/lonely to have travelled in an era without cheap universal e-mail, where you'd give your friends and family a list of planned poste restante boxes to write back to you etc.
0245 Finished F33W (at least whichever version, probably the latest, was linked from onebag.com). Not read the travel anecdotes but I may do at some point. Overall an impressive and useful piece of work, and I've probably been a little unfair at some of the perceived smugness. I still feel the author massively overstates the ease of meeting people, particularly other travellers, but still. I liked it enough that I've downloaded the (perhaps even older?) all-in-one Word document version and printed it to a PDF to take with me for reference.
Not a novel observation but reading F33W sort of reminds me that I have a tendency to assume locals just hate me automatically because I'm a tourist, which is probably overly negative. Growing up in a UK seaside town I know a lot of the locals here don't like tourists, but at least nowadays I personally don't really despise them. And while the locals abroad may or may not exactly love me automatically either, if I'm not rude without being provoked, make an effort with the language (a relatively strong point for me in Spanish-speaking countries), etc, there's no real reason to assume I'm actively disliked by everyone. Some, sure, that's inevitable, for good or bad reasons.
1915 I keep writing San Juan when I mean the capital of Costa Rica, which is San José. Not going to correct the errors above in the interest of "honesty", but making a note here. A very quick web search suggests there is a San Juan in Costa Rica.
2209 Jeez. Just noticed the Lonely Planet Central America travel guide which I was thinking about buying the Costa Rica chapter of for £2.99 is 10th Edition Jul 2019 - next edition due Nov 2024. I'm really not sure it's worth it, I'm sure half the businesses mentioned will have been destroyed during the pandemic, ditto for the bus routes etc. Their "Costa Rica" guide is 14th Edition Nov 2021 and explicitly says all businesses have been re-checked wrt pandemic effects, but it simply isn't available as an ebook.
Rough Guides have five different guide books covering Costa Rica available as ebooks. "Rough Guide to Costa Rica" is £13.99 as epub and has a 15/09/2022 publication date, although there's no obvious "yes, we checked everything" selling point. "Insight Guides Costa Rica" £12.99 published 31/07/2019 - definitely not. Also it says "Insight Guide" is a pictorial travel guide in magazine style; this doesn't sound like the sort of thing I want anyway. "Insight Guide Explore Costa Rica" £6.99 epub, published 30/11/2018 - definitely not, also why the hell are there *two* different Insight Guides for the same country? "Insight Guides Central America" £12.99 epub published 30/11/2017 - FFS! Not even checking "Insight Guide Pocket Caribbean Ports of Call" (£4.99).
So *maybe* - I could probably check reviews of it elsewhere - the Rough Guide is worth having, although £13.99 isn't nothing. If I *really* used the guide book heavily it would be fine, but it tends to be more something I skim or just dig the odd fact out of (like the location of the ATM at Guatemala City airport). Also, annoyingly (ebook feels like it ought to be cheaper) amazon.co.uk are selling the 2022 edition as a physical paperback for £13.49. Ah, and the Kindle edition for £8.99. I'd *rather* have an epub than a Kindle edition, but still, the saving is there. Anyway, the amazon.co.uk page says it has ben "fully updated post-COVID-19"; you'd think Rough Guides might actually say that themselves on their own site...
FWIW Amazon actually offer a free ebook with every purchase of a printed book; it may be (not sure, but I did see something a bit like this on a dated page in a websearch) RG themselves do this too. So in principle I could pay £13.49 for the paperback and get the ebook as a bonus, rather than pay £13.99 just for the ebook. OTOH, the reality is I don't *want* a paperback - I have loads of books already, these go out of date and it's not as if I have months left before the trip when having a "free" paperback copy around might encourage me to browse it for a few minutes here and there.
5th Jan 0018 Intermittently reading some of Anders Ansar's travel light reports I purchased back in 2010-ish. Mostly a bit extreme for me. However, the observation that you can use a TV in your room to play music via bluetooth is both obvious in hindsight and interesting - I had toyed with buying and taking a short 3.5mm stereo plug-to-plug lead, since once or twice I've had accommodation with a small hifi in and it would have been nice to be able to listen to my phone through it. But these days any accommodation nice enough to have such a thing is likely to have a reasonably modern TV and there's I think a fair chance I could use it as a glorified bluetooth speaker. It's also not as if I've often had this option to use a stereo, so I think for now I definitely won't buy and take the 3.5mm lead. (Plus if I did, no doubt I'd find myself constantly in accommodation with stereo systems that have phono aux inputs, just to spite me. :-) )
Feeling a bit jittery re trip but also sort of looking forward to it. In a strange way while I dread the flight date creeping up on me a bit like a dental appointment, once it arrives that's sort of "it", I just have to make the best of it and don't have to worry about preparations and shopping and so forth. I'm currently visiting parents and it will be both good and bad to get back to London (which I plan to do about a week before the trip, so I'm not overly rushed). In particular I haven't been able to do a test pack of my new backpack yet, since the bulk of my travel gear is in London. I'm sure it will be fine - it isn't that different in nominal capacity from the Laser 35 which broke - but still.
0259 I did do a brief web search re compact cameras the other day, but although I wouldn't say it's a certainty, it does seem increasingly the case that the smartphone has killed the market for the sort of cheap (£100-ish new) compact camera I currently have. There are maybe a few available, but most of them are no-name brands and they may or may not be any good at all, and they're not cheap enough that I fancy buying one on the offchance. (Maybe they're not quite no-name enough that there could be honest reviews.) The compact cameras that are made by recognisable brands are super expensive, I guess because only hardcore photographers buy them now, although one site did suggest secondhand might help (but I suspect they'd still be more than I'd want to pay, especially for something that could fairly easily be lost, broken or stolen).
I do find myself wondering if using my existing compact camera is going to give off a vibe of "poor tourist, doesn't even have a smartphone, not worth mugging" or "rich tourist, that must be one of those £500 compact cameras they make nowadays, probably a solid gold iPhone Pro Max Ultra 23 in his pocket too, jackpot!".
I'm not saying it's a novel thought even for me, and I probably won't stick to it religiously anyway, but it probably bears repeating that some photos really don't need to be taken. Any well known and probably even merely "well known enough to get a mention in a guide book" landmark is going to have dozens, hundreds or thousands of photos online, almost certainly available "free" (given I only want to look at them myself). Of course, taking my own picture is nice, because it makes it "personal" even if it's not up to pro quality, and sometimes it's nice to have these more scenic pictures printed up and stick them on the wall for a bit of decoration. But maybe there's no need to go nuts taking loads of photos of these "standard" things if it's a hassle or reduces "immersion"; one or two is enough to remind me "oh yeah, I went there on date X". The cooler (from a personal POV) photos are the ones of ordinary-ish stuff that just happens to catch your eye as unusual or interesting, which might well be similar to photos hundreds of other people have taken, but which you'd never be able to find and which wouldn't have the same "I actually saw this, isn't it neat how the sun is reflecting off that boat window (or whatever)" feeling if they weren't yours.
1357 FWIW I got (the 2018 edition, sadly) "Lonely Planet Costa Rica" guide in my electronic library app; I had put a hold on it just on the offchance it was useful but it said 6 weeks estimate IIRC. Anyway. I haven't looked at it yet and given it's 2018 I may not take it too seriously; normally a few years old travel guide would be OK-ish, but with The Event between then and now all bets are off. It did occur to me that since there is an electronic library version of 2018 edition, there might actually be an ebook of the 2021-or-whatever edition even if LP's own website doesn't want to sell it, but I just had a look on Amazon and they're not offering a Kindle version of this edition, just the paperback.
Gut feeling is I will probably buy one of the electronic versions of the 2022 Rough Guide (their own overpriced epub one or the Amazon Kindle edition) but I'm not rushing into it.
1616 Bought myself some (rather overpriced) solid stick deodorant. I've been looking for solid stick sunblock (or whatever the hell it's called - sunscreen? sun lotion? sun cream? searching for it always seems harder than necessary as a result of this ambiguity) but can't find any; I'll just have to take creamy stuff as usual. This isn't a huge deal, I'm trying to reduce liquids for both weight and volume in the carry on liquids bag reasons, but I have one or maybe two small 50ml sunblock bottles I can refill which aren't too problematic in the bag, and not having to put the deodorant in there will help with space. I may have taken solid stick deodorant before, I can't remember.
I had a look in Sports Direct to see if they had their long-sleeved "running" T-shirt in blue (which they do on their web site), but I couldn't even see the small/medium black one of these I spotted in the shop the other day. I might try to find one of these in the London shops when I'm back there. I did see some thinnish synthetic zipped "jackets" which were vaguely interesting-looking, but I already have the fleece+associated shell-ish waterproof-ish jacket and I don't really want to be carrying even more stuff or buying things on a whim, but maybe worth bearing in mind for a future trip. (Maybe "windbreaker" is the right term for these lightweight thinnish jacket things, I'm not sure. I think those ones in Sports Direct might have been described as running something-or-others, but not sure.)
Was having a quick play/closer examination (for manufacturing defects I might not have noticed before) with new backpack earlier. I am not sure it has any means of attaching a water bottle on the outside. Not a huge problem if it doesn't, but given it's relatively small this is something I would sort of like to do if I'm in transit, since putting the bottle inside the bag takes up space and carrying it in hand is slightly annoying, although if it's not a big bottle not too big a deal. For all I know there may be some hidden "feature" I haven't observed for this anyway.
6th Jan Starting to read "The world awaits" by Paul Otteson on archive.org, another onebag.com recommendation (I've semi-neglected its book recommendations before, despite having taken the site as almost a personal travel bible, probably in part because archive.org's free book lending service wasn't as good or simply wasn't known to me in the past). I am quite liking the tone so far, it actually seems to describe the sort of experience I'd want but don't always quite get, and although (probably something that comes from my perceptions as much as any reality) there's still a very slight "smugness" about (paraphrasing unfairly) how great and sociable and generally successful in all travel areas the author is, I have fairly high hopes this is going to be a decent, interesting and useful read. (And of course, especially for something more "philosophical" than "information about location X" like this - it's not a guide book to country X or region Y - would I really want to read it if the author *wasn't* confident and had something useful to impart? I suppose that might be kind of interesting, but not necessarily useful.)
What I'm already finding interesting (perhaps not novel, I'm not sure) in the first few pages is a kind of "permission" to say "yes, I do want to do challenging and even risky things". I very much *do* value safety, but at the same time it sometimes feels as thought it's "wrong" to seek out adventurous or apparently adventurous things, as though it would be "posing" or something. For whatever reason, something in the guide book about a not-very-touristy train which runs once a week somewhere in the region of the Chile-Bolivia border springs to mind - that sounded really cool, but I kind of talked myself out of it based on a mixture of "I don't have a sleeping bag, so I might freeze to death or at least lose body parts" and "isn't it a bit wanky to want to do something like that just because it sounds kind of adventurous?".
0254 TWA observation about the "home base approach" to travelling is interesting. As with a lot of this stuff, it's kind of obvious but only when pointed out. The idea that you park yourself in one place *and sleep there most nights* for something like a week or more while taking trips out to nearby stuff during the day, some of them perhaps fairly far-reaching, somehow feels quite novel. I think I have a tendency - one I stumbled into, rather than deliberately choosing - to try to relocate myself into accommodation in any place more than an hour or two away from my current accommodation if I want to see/do stuff in that place. In some ways this "move accommodation a lot" option seems quite good, but it does also add more of the hassles of physically relocating more often, and there's probably a sense of continuity to be had from staying at the same presumably nice-ish and/or cheap-ish "base camp" for a while. F33W touched on the hassles caused by physically relocating too much when it advocated making long-ish stays in the same places; this now feels like a similar point to TWA's, just stated differently. I'm constantly moaning about how I feel extra-vulnerable in transit, because if I do get robbed or just lose my bag somehow, practically everything is gone, whereas once I am actually checked into some accommodation I have at least divided my belongings between those on me and those back in my room. Avoiding this feeling might well be a good trade-off for taking some longer day journeys to nearby places, not to mention that it might actually be more satisfying to make those day journeys in their own right. (For example, I might feel happier taking a third class bus or whatever you call it if I'm just carrying a daypack with maybe a change of underwear and a toothbrush in case I get stranded before I can get home, whereas if I'm lugging all my worldly possessions I might feel that's a bit risky and/or uncouth - my bag's not huge, but it's still probably big enough to piss people off if it's really crowded.)
1552 TWA is a bit flowery in its prose at times, and of course there's the obligatory screed about colonialism and "Eurocentric greed"; it's not so much that I think colonialism is/was a good thing, as much as this speaks to me of a certain need to show active disapproval of it. Meh. As always, try not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. [Thinking about this a bit more, it's maybe the use of words like "Eurocentric". Would colonialism be hunky-dory if non-Eurocentric greed is the motivating factor? No? Well then, does "Eurocentric" mean anything except to adopt the appropriate buzzwords for showing your tribal membership?]
1805 No change in Costa Rica travel advice on FCDO site. Still get a bit of a heart-in-mouth feeling when I load the page, dreading some new coronavirus rules.
2252 Just submitted "advance passenger information" on BA website.
7th Jan 0147 Just checked FCDO, heart in mouth at seeing an update. Fortunately it doesn't affect me, although I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me nervy - new coronavirus restrictions on travellers from China and some nearby countries.
8th Jan 1510 For no particular reason haven't read any more of TWA or any other travel books recently. I am feeling intermittently vaguely jittery about the trip. This morning I also woke up no so much feeling jittery but feeling "if I spend four nights in Alajuela, and then four nights in some random place nearby, and so on, I am not going to see/do *anything* 'important' on the trip". I don't think that's necessarily accurate - the time doesn't quite just go in that way, and if I am enjoying it then it's fine if it does, but still, the thought was there. This obviously touches on stuff I've read in F33W and TWA.
Just checked FCDO CR page, no updates.
1533 Doing a quick accommodation search for the dates I'm already booked for in Alajuela, to see how prices/availability have changed. OK, the place I'm actually booked into is still available, the notional price is 28% higher than I'm paying, but I am not logged in to booking.com right now and there would probably be a 15% discount, which would mean the price currently shown is about 10% higher than I booked for (and I may have got some special promotional discount on the site as a whole). There's obviously still 11 days to go, so this is earlier than I would like to be making reservations ahead during the trip, but it's still vaguely encouraging that the whole country isn't rapidly selling out.
1556 I'm sure it's just a kind of pedantry on my part, but I find it vaguely amusing TWA's steps for obtaining a passport are:
1. Be or become a citizen of the U.S.
2. Obtain your birth certificate
3. Get some passport photos taken
4. Find and go to the right office
2-4 are actual actions you might reasonably take. 1 is more like a prerequisite for this particular checklist than a step, and having it presented as a step just has a comic effect. Nothing wrong with a book being written for a US audience, but the way this is expressed, it's as if this is general advice and anyone anywhere in the world wishing to obtain a passport should first become a citzen of the US as a necessary prerequisite.
1911 Intermittently reading TWA. It does remind me that I should probably be a bit bolder about flagging down buses outside "official" stops. I'm not usually (and don't really intend to be) "in the middle of nowhere" needing a bus, but the example that springs to mind is being in Puerto Iguazu trogging half an hour plus into town just to get on a bus to the falls at the bus station in town, even though my accommodation was just off the road all those buses go along to get to the falls. I should have tried flagging down a bus on the street.
2228 More TWA. Feeling a bit jittery TBH. Reading the (not specifically scary or novel) stuff about getting sick in TWA raises that obvious spectre. The reality of course is that mostly speaking, anything *really* bad that could happen abroad could happen at home anyway - it's really crappy, but it's not specific to travel. And while a bout with some form of vomiting or diarrhea for a few days is hardly fun, I've been through it before and it isn't the end of the world.
TWA continues to be subtly smug but I'm probably just over-sensitive.
2244 Finished TWA. I skimmed some of the more philosophical stuff towards the end. The guy clearly has some experience and useful things to say. On the other hand - and bear in mind I'm perhaps more jaded from today's increasingly fucked up social media black and white guilt tripping etc than I would have been had I read this a few years ago, or in 1996 - there's just enough of the smugly self-righteous "politically correct" (*not* the right phrase, but it will do) attitude on display that I find myself coming to his moral arguments with a raised guard and a "yeah, yeah, what a surprise *you* feel this way" attitude of my own, which is probably a bit unfair, as there does seem to be some genuine subtlety in what he's saying. Meh. Doesn't matter. There were certainly some useful thoughts and so forth in there, and even though it's neither novel nor surprising, it's fascinating to see this written in 1996 on the cusp of the internet taking off with all the stuff about poste restante and telegrams and so forth.
9th Jan 0017 Not novel, but I do need to remember (easier said than done) that really the single most important thing to do in terms of enjoying the trip is to avoid constantly feeling terrible because I "should" be:
- doing more stuff
- meeting more people
- "having more fun"
- making more of the opportunity
- not so damn lazy
- more confident
- better at speaking/understanding Spanish
- braver
- etc etc
I do need to push myself a little bit so I don't just huddle up in the centre of my comfort zone, but this kind of "musturbation" :-) is completely counter-productive.
And I'm sure there are going to be at least a few mornings when I wake up with that intense (but brief) sense of despair/homesickness/whatever, but that's not the end of the world, nor is it actually something that only happens when I'm abroad.
0048 Looking at LP CR on archive.org (2016 edition; I have IIRC 2018 on library app on phone, but it's much nicer to read on big screen and I doubt the basic geography has changed much) I am very much thinking my initial plan is a slow-ish wander NW - first stop Alajuela, then maybe Poás region which LP CR says for cloud forest hikes, heading along Cordillera de Tilarán [accents on first use only, probably, as is my general lazy policy] towards Volcán Arenal.
Looking at LP CR, Alajuela seems to be the obvious base for Poas (park as well as the volcano itself) but it's 1.5h by bus each way which could get old fast, yet it's not that obvious there's anywhere nearer that is going to be super convenient. I guess the best option is probably to putter along through some of the other towns in the region (e.g. Grecia) and see what they're like and maybe not get too fixated on this or any other specific park.
The thing to do with wrt Poas is probably (after a day or two in Alajuela to settle down a bit) to force myself to get up early and take the bus to Poas and back for a long-ish day out; I might get lucky and get there in time to see the view from the top before it gets cloudy, if not I can try to do a bit of freelance walking. 2016 LP CR says the bus back leaves at 2:30pm, which feels a bit early, although it may well be there are lots of other buses. Apparently (and this seems reasonable) it's best to go on a weekday, which is worth bearing in mind. That said, it probably wouldn't hurt to go on a weekend. At least that guide book makes out the offered tours to the volcano get there as late as the bus and therefore aren't really worth it, and since it's probably fairly easy it might also be that taking the bus on my own initiative would be a good starting point for building up my confidence.
0143 Re-reading early parts of Guatemala blog and while I think I did show a fair degree of self-awareness, it's also a bit disconcerting just how fucked up I was about personal safety and conflicting advice about taxis and so on. I'm not sure there's an easy answer to this but perhaps just remembering how that was and maybe also trying not to get too hung up on safety advice (*especially* when it's inconsistent) will help. I have to say that generally speaking my personal feeling is still that I'd *much* rather walk than get into a taxi if there's any suggestion at all a taxi could be iffy - I *might* get mugged while walking, but that feels like the worst realistic case, whereas getting into a taxi could potentially see me kidnapped or taken off somewhere and beaten in the course of being robbed. I don't say that's *likely*, but still. And of course with the taxi there's also the potential of a row (perhaps even escalating to violence) if the driver tries to insist on an outlandish fare, and/or the risk of getting shoved out of the car in the middle of the ride after an argument about pricing and not really knowing where you are.
0203 It is interesting to see I was worried about ice in drinks at least early in Guatemala. I had a vague mental impression that this wasn't in practice worth worrying about in most parts of Latin America these days, but it may be that I've made that up out of nothing. I suppose it's possible I will witness my attitude to this change over time, if I continue to read forwards through the old entries. It's by no means all bad but it does feel a bit depressing to see how kind of stressed out and on edge I was a lot of the time.
0216 Jeez, I do actually on the whole have fond memories of my Guatemala trip but it really doesn't look like I enjoyed myself much for the first couple of weeks as I read the blog. It does look like I kind of had some background "family" stuff going on given the odd mention of news from parents, which may not have helped, but I wasn't actively blaming that for how I felt at the time so who knows. To be fair, those 2-3 nights out in Antigua worked out fairly well by chance, the Pacaya day trip was decent, I did enjoy Cerro de la Cruz and it was sort of cool to meet my Spanish teacher, but there was also a lot of nerviness in Antigua, quite a bit of general feeling low and Panajachel in particular seems to have been a bit rough emotionally for no obvious reason. And I haven't read up to there yet, but heading into Xela I'm about to get seriously upset by the bloody Spanish teacher at the first school there. I clearly did enjoy myself at points during the first bit of the trip but there were undeniably a lot of shitty moments as well. It's not clear these were anyone's fault but my own, but still, I obviously didn't set out to be in a bad mood and yet one thing and another clearly weren't conducive to really feeling comfortable.
To repeat myself, I do think I get far too overly obsessed about personal safety; especially where advice is utterly inconsistent I perhaps need to try to be a bit more happy-go-lucky.
I also can't help feeling I was massively over-tipping all the time, but I'm never fucking sure what to do and there's usually a bevy of inconsistent advice, not helped by those fellow "rich country" writers who seem to feel you have a personal moral obligation to overpay enormously just because you can.
It isn't quite the same as this over-tipping type stuff, but IIRC both TWA and F33F both seemed to be quite firm on saying "no" to randoms demanding money off you (baksheesh etc) for nothing at all, despite their obviously relatively liberal leanings. They also didn't seem to feel there was necessarily anything "wrong" with objecting to paying the "tourist" price for things if you were actually able not to, as opposed to that attitude I would (imagine; this is probably unfair) see on something like the travel stackexchange where there's going to be a horde of people telling you shouldn't resent paying massively inflated prices because it's nothing to you and is a lot for them.
Although it's maybe motivated reasoning on my part, I can't help feeling there's rather a smug patronising element to a lot of this "you should pay more, because you're a rich first world person" shit. If someone e.g. charges me X for a meal and local tipping practice requires me to pay (say) 1.1X, why "should" I pay 1.2X or whatever out of some kind of vague guilt/pat-the-poor-little-third-world-guy-on-the-head-and-smile-patronisingly way? I have waffled about this before, I just came across something about it in the early Guatemala blog. Also I remember a Colombian woman telling me I had massively over-tipped at a cafe we had a coffee and croissant in late-ish at night (apart from maybe generally over-tipping, in this specific case I felt a bit guilty because it had been practically empty when we turned up and I had a probably correct feeling that they had only stayed open because we were there) in Medellin.
0307 Still reading Guatemala blog, although I half hate doing it. I didn't remember I felt so crappy with the first Spanish school so early on; I thought there was a little bit of a honeymoon period first.
Obviously there was all sorts of other stuff in the background (not necessarily anything specific, just general life/emotional context) when I did the Guatemala trip, I've probably changed a bit since then and there's no reason to think I'm going to fall into the same pattern of behaviour etc etc. It is probably a good thing to be re-reading this and remembering these day-by-day details that have got lost in the (probably broadly accurate) more positive but fuzzier recollections I have of that trip. And it's not as if the Guatemala trip is "special" or necessarily more relevant than others; it's just the one I happened to pick to re-read.
1840 Just checked FCDO, no updates.
2310 To kind of repeat stuff I said earlier, although it's easier said than done I think I need to try to remember/"accept" that I'm likely to feel a bit nervy/on edge for the first 1/2/3 weeks of the trip and not get worked up about it.
Wrt tipping I've subsequently read past some advice my second Guatemalan Spanish teacher gave me which did seem to imply I had been over-tipping rather heavily earlier in the trip.
10th Jan 2007 Just checked FCDO, no updates.
11th Jan 0058 Bit intermittently edgy about trip; probably doesn't help that I'm still visiting parents and so there's also the "saying goodbye to them soon" aspect. I had planned to go back to London today but a sudden discovery on Friday of some half-decent possible travel clothes via mail order (which may save some running around in London, or at least reduce the importance of that) and delays with the order turning up has caused me to postpone. This isn't exactly bad, but at the same time I kind of just want to get this "goodbye" over with.
I am obviously kind of looking forward to the trip, at the same time it's - and I think to some extent this is only natural - a bit stressful/worrying, especially during this "it's not too late to prepare, but time is getting short" stage. Once I'm on the plane I'm on the plane and that's that in terms of preparation. I can't, for example, do a test pack of my new bag, check everything fits and see what stuff I still need to buy until I'm back in London.
FCDO site still has no updates, not that I'd really expect any after checking only a few hours ago, but still. There's no denying the possibility of a sudden devastating rule change doesn't add to my level of comfort.
Have been slowly reading my own Guatemala blog, but it's very slightly depressing somehow. To just keep repeating myself - but maybe it will help it stick - I need to not put pressure on myself to be a certain way or do certain things, *especially* during the first couple of weeks when I am still finding my feet.
1431 No update on FCDO.
1640 No update on FCDO. There also don't seem to be any upcoming strikes announced yet that will affect my return to London or my trip to the airport; I'm not sure, but I have a vague idea there's supposed to be a certain amount of notice for strikes, so with a little bit of luck I may be in the clear in this aspect, although I'm not counting my chickens yet.
12th Jan 0009 Booked train to go back to London on Friday; the usual "saying goodbye" concerns, but at the same time as I said the other day, accidentally dragging out this goodbye isn't really helping.
Having a quick look on booking.com for my Alajuela dates to see how the prices and availability have changed. This is still not quite as short notice as I'd like to be booking during the trip itself, but it is getting into a similar kind of range. Anyway, if I haven't got confused the place with included breakfast which I toyed with but felt was maybe a smidge un-central for my initial stay is still available at £59 for 4 nights (single room) and there's another small double room (single bed!?) 0.5 miles from the centre for £86 for 4 nights. The place I'm actually staying is more expensive than when I booked it, but still, this is vaguely reassuring. I could also have a whole private apartment for £97 for 4 nights. These prices are also without being logged in (in part for pseudo-anonymity, in part as I don't want the fact I already have a booking for these nights to confuse matters), so there's maybe 10-15% "genius" discount off these prices. As I say, this is a very rough experiment but it is vaguely reassuring that short notice bookings don't automatically mean you're screwed. And of course in general I will have some flexibility in choosing to go to places where there's better prices or availability when I have no specific plans. FWIW absolute cheapest on booking.com is £50 (pre-discount) for 4 nights in a 10 bunk dorm, which obviously isn't super appealing but is something I would consider "intermittently" for the experience and to keep costs down.
I am sort of looking forward to the trip but there's a lot of "gah, running out of time to prepare" (even though there's very little I *must* prepare) and "saying goodbye to family" stuff at the moment and it's hardly unalloyed joy. FCDO has not updated, fingers crossed as always.
I'm just repeating myself but the suggestion (from F33W at least, which I am very slowly re-reading - I was in a bit of a hurry to consume it all last time, this time I am less eager but also reading perhaps with a bit more attention, maybe) to use somewhere comfortable as a base to visit nearby stuff rather than checking into 10 hotels in 10 nights is something I'm sort of interested to try. As I probably said, this kind of feels like hard work in some sense by involving longer round trips away from and back to base, but the flip side is that it would reduce stressful "moving with all my possessions" days, and some of the round trips might well be a bit of an experience in themselves and I may be able to relax into them a little more if I'm just carrying a daypack or whatever.
I do wonder if Costa Rica is perhaps going to be an "easy" destination to visit, given how well-developed its tourist infrastructure seems to be. I don't know if this is true or not. I also don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing; I don't want to try to set myself up as a "real traveller" etc etc, but I also don't want to do nothing but shuttle round on tourist buses between big ticket items listed in the guide book. I'm sure it will be fine, I'm just waffling.
Although the bulk of the clothes ordered on Saturday (not Friday, as I think I wrote) haven't turned up yet, some did turn up today and I've got two pretty decent lightweight loose-but-not-baggy long-sleeved T-shirts. I hope most of the rest of the clothes are going to turn up tomorrow (Thursday, technically "today"), which is kind of why I've finally booked the train for Friday, but since I now probably have ~4 long-sleeved tops in decent condition I'm less bothered about the possibility of the rest of the clothes turning up after I've gone back to London. I will still probably pop over to one or two shops in London, but it's definitely more of a "nice to have"/bit of walking to try to get me in shape for the trip, rather than a pseudo-necessity. It doesn't matter if I end up with too many half-decent tops, as I'm sure they will keep just fine for a future trip.
1959 No FCDO update.
2310 No FCDO update.
The clothes all turned up today. Not all of them are great but some of them are pretty good and I've probably got a full set for the trip now, although as I've said before I may also go to some local shops in London on the offchance. However, it's been an utter mare parcelling everything up to go back - it's all from different Debenhams "concessionaire" brands so they have to go back in individual parcels. The return process is subtly different for each. For one of them they didn't provide us with a packing slip showing what the items were, and we've had to guess (albeit plausibly) that the Debenhams order number will be recognised by them. The working printer here has been packaged up to return for a warranty repair so the only printer we have is one with a knackered ink head and half of the return parcels require printing a barcode heavy returns label (which frankly is never going to scan) or printing a QR code to have scanned in a shop and they will print a label, but my dad is returning these and we don't think he is going to manage that. So we've printed a load of shitty labels and are just hoping. I am going back tomorrow, Dad is borrowing the car so Mum can't drive me anywhere to take stuff in, Dad isn't happy about all this and I've now got to go to a local newagents tomorrow to drop one in there and give them a code for printing a label. I've also got to walk to the station, which isn't normally a huge deal, but of course I'll have two bags with me tomorrow as I have all my "regular" stuff plus these clothes and various other supplies I bought here. It's taken probably a couple of hours fucking around with the returns. It *has* been borderline worth it as on the whole I have got a couple of pretty good and a couple of decent-ish tops, but still, hardly a fun experience.
13th Jan 2208 Check FCDO a few times today, no update.
14th Jan 0135 No FCDO update. Have been going over packing list and checking stuff and doing a pseudo-practice pack, though I am getting a bit bogged down (albeit necessarily) checking things still work (SD cards, USB cables, elastic bands) or are in date (medicines) and haven't got that far. It's fine. I didn't get a huge amount of sleep last night, I really should go to bed and then hopefully I can do a bit of light shopping for some of the stuff I'm missing tomorrow.
1630 No FCDO update. Been out to do a little bit of shopping for trip, didn't get everything I wanted but a few bits and pieces. Things feeling a bit out of control, it's fine, the reality is that anything I haven't already done is not make-or-break, but still.
I am anticipating some awkwardness during the trip with WhatsApp if I want/need to share a somewhat disposable local number with people I meet. I am taking two phones, my K1 runs stock Android and already has WA on with my "normal" UK number, which various friends use (occasionally) to contact me, so I can't just ditch it. (If I could, I wouldn't be using WA in the first place.) The other phone will be my G5 on Lineage OS which I don't *want* WA on, and which probably can't run it. The K1's WA "slot" is occupied, in theory it *might* be possible to run WA on the G5 if I have a local SIM in it with a local number, but I'm not holding my breath. As I say, I don't really *want* WA on my G5 in general on privacy grounds. During the trip it's not such a huge deal as it's only temporary, but still not ideal. I may be able to use the web version of WA on the G5, not sure. Not a huge deal and we'll see how it goes.
2215 No FCDO update. Also checked CR tourist website.
Done a test shave to see if the shaving oil I have is still OK (no expiry date on bottles) and I forgot to read the instructions and didn't wet my face first. Oh well. I only cut myself in four or five small places, which is probably about normal anyway. ;-)
15th Jan 0057 FWIW I just double checked and my normal non-sunglasses glasses have a UV-400 coating. I also did a quick websearch and MTF says sun block is widely available (if maybe expensive; twice the price of the US for one example) in Costa Rica, so I'm not going to weigh myself down with a huge supply (especially since mine - despite lacking an expiry date - may be old and less effective than it's supposed to be for all I know), just enough to get me through the first week or so probably.
Checking the glasses order reminded me that I have some reading glasses. I hardly ever wear them so I'm certainly not going to take them away with me, but at least I have now actively thought about this instead of it just happening without thinking. (To be fair, if I wore them regularly I'm sure I'd remember to think about taking them with me. I can't see why my sight should dramatically change in the next few months or why anything I do on holiday is going to make wanting the reading glasses more likely than it is during my life here in the UK; if anything I'll be spending less time looking at computers/books and more time outdoors.)
1710 No FCDO update. I should maybe stop saying that and just take it as read I'm checking a lot. ;-)
Popped over to Decathlon and Boots at Canada Water, managed to get a rather pricey long-sleeved (85%) merino T-shirt in a darkish orange at Decathlon and some extra (possibly unnecessary, but it won't go off) underwear, and a few medical things at Boots. There's a chance I am done with shopping for the trip now, so I may manage to finally do a proper test pack tonight if I can get my act together.
2153 Being very slack but gradually doing a test pack. Just tried doing some laundry with the green soap bar; gut feeling is this works OK and since it saves weight and general hassle of taking the liquid laundry soap I normally do, I'll probably chance it. I'm sure I can be something suitable over there if this actually turns up to be a nightmare for some reason.
16th Jan 1235 E-mail from BA with the usual "you're flying soon" guff. Used their link to check Covid stuff and it says I don't need proof of vaccination and I don't need to wear a face mask at the airport or on the plane. This could still change, but fingers crossed.
Made a slight effort to get up a little earlier than usual today, not much but something. I am a bit edgy about getting up for the flight, if I'm not careful I will get zero sleep that night. This isn't the end of the world but it's not likely to be good for my mental state that morning. I should probably start a fairly serious "get up a couple of hours earlier each day" thing right now, given how soon the flight is.
No FCDO updates either.
I can't check in online until 24h before the flight. It says I should arrive at the airport no more than three hours before the flight, which is about what I expected but still hardly great with an 11am-ish flight. Checking in isn't too big a stress - I just hope my printer works - given I paid to reserve seats, but still.
1256 Flight is 1105 so I "need" to be there for 0805. Fingers crossed it looks like I've escaped strike-related problems on the trains. Looks like it will be £12.50 for a train from London Bridge and there's quite a lot of them. The 0735 arrived at Gatwick 0804 so is the last "safe if I'm playing it strictly by the book" option. There's the 0715 before that. TfL website says it's 18 minutes from my local station to London Bridge. So in reality I probably "need" to be leaving my flat about 0650, which should see me at London Bridge with a moderate safety margin (although I plan to buy my ticket there rather than buy it in advance) for the earlier train. I probably therefore need to be getting up about 6, maybe a bit earlier if I can force myself and want to feel less rushed. This is sucky but not utterly terrible I suppose. It is going to be dark out when I'm leaving though (which feels a bit crappier shutting the flat up etc), as civil twilight doesn't start until 0717.
It is vaguely possible I'll trog over to a nearby station on Wednesday and buy the train ticket LBG-GTW then; this will save a minute or two on Thursday morning, and since the NRE site suggests that *all* trains from LBG are covered by this £12.50 ticket it's not as if I'm likely to suddenly feel I want/need to buy a more expensive ticket because things have gone a bit wrong. I though Gatwick Express was both expensive and served London Bridge, but looking on their website it's only to Victoria (and probably always has been and I just got confused) and it probably is still expensive but I haven't checked.
Actually there's no need to go over to a station, is there? I can buy this ticket online and print it myself or have it on my phone. That way in the event (touch wood) there *is* a crisis of some kind, I can probably get my money back via electronic form-filling more easily.
Writing about all this makes me feel a bit jittery about things going wrong and missing the flight, but touch wood it all looks OK so far. Getting up that early isn't great - I'm sure I'm going to wish I wasn't going away when I wake up that morning to the alarm screaming it's head off after I've had an hour or two's sleep - but as I say it could be worse.
17th Jan 0004 Finally done a test pack of new bag. Luggage scale says 5.9kg with most but not everything in - most notable item excluded is the fleece, which I will be wearing during the flight and may or may not want to pack into the bag a lot of the time. Was something like 4.5kg without the shell jacket and trousers, although that doesn't seem quite right as my notes say they weigh just under 1.1kg. This includes an empty water bottle (for filling at the airport) but doesn't include any water. With the (empty pockets) fleece it comes to 6.35kg; before putting the fleece in the bag was full to just about the "normal" collar (and it may be I haven't got the packing quite optimal), the fleece occupies the space provided by the "extension" collar so makes the bag a bit taller, but that's not a huge deal - during a flight, which is when the dimensions matter most, I would be wearing the fleece anyway.
0210 No FCDO update. Should probably go to bed if I'm going to try to shift my getting up time earlier.
I am taking 62g (roughly half a bar) of the green solid laundry soap; no idea if this will be right, but making a note so I'll be able to judge better after using it on this trip.
0844 No FCDO update.
I set the harder to ignore physical alarm clock for 10. It went off a few minutes ago and I forced myself out of bed and got dressed. I then notied it was 0841 by the bedside clock. The physical alarm clock showed something like 1013. I have no idea what the fuck happened. This isn't "off by an hour because I didn't set it back", and I'm pretty sure it was set correctly yesterday. Surely it wouldn't run *fast* if the battery is dying? Unfortunately I dropped it while turning the switch off (or something; I'm not feeling 100% as usual when forcing myself out of bed early so maybe I've forgotten) so maybe that did something to confuse matters. Fuck knows. I was a bit tempted to go back to bed after seeing it was so early, but that seems silly - given I have to be up so damn early on Thursday, even getting up this early by accident still leaves me with nearly 3h to be bridged and more like 4h if I want to go for the "not rushed" option.
This feels shit but it's just a transient thing, I'll feel find in half an hour or so and I'm telling myself I won't be forcing myself up stupidly early most of the time during the trip. The time zone shift works in my favour too - it will (touch wood) feel natural to sleep until (say) 9am CR time when it's actually 3pm body clock (London) time after I arrive. On that basis I might actually expect to be waking up 7am-ish or earlier CR time, although if I've been short of sleep for a few nights (the night I just had, plus the next two nights here in London when I'm pushing my getting up time earlier) it may well be I'm wanting to sleep til 3pm or later body clock time anyway. Hard to say. Obviously I am likely to feel tired and go to bed earlier after getting up earlier today, but even if that just instantly works perfectly, the fact I am still going to have to push my getting up time earlier the next couple of days means there will probably still be a net lack of sleep.
I honestly feel pretty crappy. It is cold (13C according to desk thermometer) as heating wasn't on automatically and getting up early always does this to me and I've been bashing out this crap instead of having a coffee or whatever. I don't have that "oh fuck the world is bleak and horrible" feeling I'll probably have on Thursday because at least I don't have to actively "do" anything once I've got up early today, but I do still feel a bit shit.
0944 Been intermittently reminding myself over last day or two that although I sort of just want to slack off and watch crap on YT or browse the web or whatever (and I am doing quite a bit anyway), I need to focus on trip preparations of one kind or another (packing type stuff but also sorting out things here at home so I don't have to worry about them while I'm away) as a priority because I have limited time to do them, they will improve quality of life during the trip *and* because even if the trip was an absolute whirl of socialising, I'm *still* likely to have a fair number of evenings hanging around alone in my accommodation with nothing to do but read/watch YT on phone. This *isn't* as nice as being at home and doing the same thing because I lack a nice computer with a big screen (and if I didn't already waffle about this, I *did* flirt with the idea of getting a laptop, but I decided I'd rather keep the weight and theft-bait down in the interests of easier travel, as this trip is intended to be more of a "wander" than a "go stay in a single place for months" trip), but still, I will be doing it as I can't be out every single night. (And of course at home I can do more "creative" stuff on the computer rather than consuming content, which isn't really an option on the phone.)
1318 Doing quick search for Alajuela accommodation on booking.com for the dates I've already booked, as a sanity check for how affordable/available accommodation is at short notice. I'm not logged in so no Genius discount. The place I'm already booked at is showing at ~£25/night and there are a couple of private apartments ~1.2 miles from the centre (not bothered looking at map, but that doesn't sound terrible) at £96 for the four nights. So this is vaguely reassuring; this is two days away from now and there's still stuff at acceptable prices.
1628 Just tested (leaving it til last minute) and my USB OTG cable+USB card reader seems to work fine with both my G5 and K1, the K1 using a micro-B-to-C adapter. I wasn't going to take the adapter with me as I have a USB A-to-C cable for charging the K1, but it doesn't weigh much and I *may* (really not sure) want to be able to use both phones for getting photos off the camera memory cards. (For example, I still haven't decided, but I may upload at least a subset of photos to Google Photos so I can share the album with family/friends. And it may turn out I decide I'm happy to let Google have *all* the photos in return for a dire straits backup of everything. And anything involving Google Photos needs to go via the K1.) In theory if I'm taking the adapter I could ditch the A-to-C cable to save space/weight, but in practice I don't trust these (fairly cheap) adapters, which I have used a lot over the last year or so at home, to be completely reliable, and it is going to be a fairly big deal if I find myself unable to charge the K1 reliably. Of course I could buy an A-to-C cable over there if necessary, but finding one that isn't massively overpriced and of half-decent quality isn't necessarily trivial, so I think the extra weight (19g; I know it's not much, but it adds up) of the A-to-C cable is worth it. In the longer term, of course, I may well only be carrying devices which use USB C, but that's not the case now - of my three USB devices, two (noise-cancelling headphones and the G5) both have micro-B sockets, with just the K1 rocking the latest hip USB C. This is the (very minor) downside to deliberately using old and/or cheap equipment instead of constantly upgrading to the latest thing.
FCDO still OK, as is visitcostarica.com.
Quick web search turns up https://sjoairport.com/en/llegando-sjo/atm-en/ which suggests there are Scotiabank ATMs at carousel 5 and BAC ATMs at carousel 2 at the airport in San Jose. So at least I now have a rough idea where to go. I would have though there'd be more than that, and maybe there are (perhaps this doesn't show the land-side ones, off the top of my head), but worth knowing. *Very* quick web search suggests that airport ATMs, if operated by actual banks rather than foreign exchange companies, are no more or less expensive than other ATMs. So I should probably make an effort to use any air-side ATMs if I get the chance, because there just might not be any land side and it's also probably a little more secure as random local thieves presumably can't just hang around air side to watch who withdraws cash. (Absolute worst case and I forget or just cannot get any cash at the airport, I have a small amount of cash USD which AFAICT from a web search the other day is still legal tender and which from what I understand of Costa Rica I am going to have no trouble using to pay for a taxi, even if I get stiffed on the rates. I need to pay cash at the accommodation but once I've checked in I can at least drop my bag and so forth before heading out to an ATM, and I assume the host/owner/whatever will be only to anxious to advise on ATM locations nearby.)
Might seem silly but wondering whether I'll splurge on a beer or two at Gatwick. If I do, I want to be paying by card so I'm not lumbered with UK coins as change which I'll be unable to spend until I get home and have to lug around for two months. I generally prefer to pay cash, but this feels like a smart exception.
Another site I found roughly confirms those ATMs, although locations may not be quite the same. The airport is apparently pretty small with two terminals and one runway, although I guess that's hardly tiny and it could still be quite confusing to navigate.
Incidentally, although this is silly and I almost certainly wouldn't do it, Google Maps shows it's well under 3km (closer to 2, depending on route) from the airport to my accommodation and says I could walk it in ~half an hour. Good to have options anyway. I wouldn't do this to save money on arrival (it's borderline conceivable that if I happened to be in the same accommodation on returning, I would walk it then, as I'd have a better idea of safety and I could do it in daylight etc - but on arrival when I'm feeling tired, unfamiliar with the country and I have all my belongings with me, no), only if there's some massive fuckfest with the taxis (e.g. there's a national strike on, all the taxi drivers somehow appear shifty as fuck when I speak to them or they all claim to have no idea where I need to go) would I do it. It wouldn't be utterly insane, it will probably be ~7-8pm at this point, we're not talking the middle of the night, but it's just there as a last ditch option.
2119 Feeling a bit pushed for time, trying to do "final" pack. I have been printing a few things and just remembered I need to check stuff with the Alajuela accommodation. There's no sign on the property but there are some photos and instructions for how to use a combination lock to get in, fingers crossed. I have sent them a (polite) message asking about the code. I do already have the wifi passwords so push comes to shove I can probably get internet access while I'm standing outside the property.
2312 Probably final liquids bag is 434g. Not great but not terrible. This excludes the weight of the solid laundry soap. I have two sample-size tubes of toothpaste in there and TBH some of the medicical ointments feel like things I probably won't need (the hydrocortisone cream in particular is something I don't think I've bothered with before, we'll see how I get on with it) and in a way it's a shame I can't be taking half-full tubes of them, but I'm obviously not literally throwing half of a tube away just to get there. Most of these are things I need sufficently little (at least recently) that I either have no already opened still-in-date supplies at home from normal use and/or what I do have is sufficiently empty and/or manky looking I really feel better taking a fresh tube.
2333 Bag is being packed with 2x190g of mixed nuts, so that will be included in any final weighing.
18th Jan 0012 I think I'm going to at least start moving towards bed. I haven't finished packing but this is a kind of re-pack, I already checked most stuff etc, so it's not critical and probably more important not to stay up all night.
While poking at the grey trousers I started to worry they're a little bit more worn than I thought. This is probably just pre-trip nerves, they're probably fine, they're definitely not falling apart and it's too late to do anything about it now anyway.
0710 Just got up. Yawning like mad. Had a bath last night as kind of last opportunity for a while, probably got to bed about 0145. Not ideal but not terrible. I did wonder about getting up at 5 or 5:30 today but it felt like overdoing it (this was last night when setting alarms, not this morning; I did semi-snooze in bed for 5-10 mins and was awake without the alarm about 0645). FCDO advice still OK.
0740 FWIW I feel broadly OK if a little tired. Vaguely thinking (not that I feel stressed right now, but I expect I will later/tomorrow) that as I've already said a dozen times, I just need to take the whole trip fairly easily but in particular break it down into little chunks tomorrow:
- get up OK :-), maybe have some breakfast and get to the airport here
- get to the accommodation at the other end
- *maybe* pop out for dinner, but given I expect to be tired-ish and I will have had food of one kind or another during the day (albeit not conventional "meals"), perhaps just go almost straight to bed
- sleep as much as I want and not force myself to get up - this should feel luxurious after three straight days without this
- find somewhere for breakfast/lunch - again, I hope this will feel vaguely luxurious after the disruptions of the travel day
- have a fairly easy day but getting in a decent amount of walking (exercise+seeing the place) around Alajuela
0902 FTR if I haven't already said and forget later, I have taken the helmet holder (just a loose bit of net) and hip belt off the backpack. I don't think I really need either of these, the helmet holder in particular, and it's not at all obvious this is something I could repurpose to hold something else. The hip belt does have a small zipped pocket in it but it's not a tremendously useful bit of storage, the bag is lighter without it, it's one less thing flapping around (there are already a slightly alarming number of miscellaneous compression straps and gadget holders that aren't useful to me hanging off it; one or two of these are detachable but they're light enough that I am leaving them on in case I think of something to do with them, if I end up detaching them and carrying them inside that's not the end of the world. The bag is light enough with my luggage that I don't think the hip belt is really necessary to "spread the load", and it's small enough that even if I did some kind of trek with it full of some kind of gear I just can't see it getting that heavy, plus I could probably hire a backpack which was heavier duty if it was really necessary.
1309 Forgot to say, but having read Beyond Backpacking it was kind of weird to go into Decathlon and see all the hiking gear and the "you need this and you need that" kind of advertising. I'm not saying none of the stuff is necessary, but in a strange way it felt kind of less intimidating seeing all this stuff - maybe something along the lines of "perhaps this is more about selling me stuff rather than the basic idea of hiking actually being so insanely challenging it requires all this gear", even if that's probably an excessive reaction on my part.
1321 Got code for accommodation. No FCDO or VCR updates.
1326 Haven't packed fully but I have semi-tidied up all the miscellaneous "not packed and not intending to take" junk that was lying around which helps check there's nothing important for the trip hiding among it. As I think is usual, I am massively dithering about how many spare plastic bags of various sizes to take. These obviously don't weigh much but they do add up, their cumulative volume likewise adds up and I don't need an infinite quantity. On the other hand, they are useful, they do wear out fairly rapidly and it's really hard to buy them in the middle of a trip in whatever size would be most useful, *particularly* in small quantities (so I end up buying a box of 20 resealable plastic bags when I need one or two and lugging the box round because I don't like to throw it out).
I've also checked the pockets of the coat I normally wear (that I'm not taking) for anything I might have missed and emptied out my "old" (it may well still be used for some trips) Voyeaguer bag which I also take back and forth to my parents' regularly to make sure there's nothing hiding in it.
1506 No FCDO/VCR updates.
1523 Checked in online. Double checked FCDO/VCR as I ticked the "I comply with the entry requirements" box, just in case this makes a difference in the event of any compensation/assistance claim in the (touch wood) event of a last-minute change in rules.
Suddenly paid more attention to VCR saying the immigration officer will want to see a return ticket. I would have had this on my phone but I am printing out the relevant page of my flight itinerary just in case.
1814 Checking to see I have offline maps and a marker for the accommodation and OSM shows I am 5429 miles from the accommodation. :-)
Going to try sending this now so I can test posting to blog from my phone, and I will probably put any subsequent ramblings in the London-Costa Rica post to follow.
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