San Ramón, Saturday

Sat 28th 1822 At accom, have been here since maybe 4-ish. Pretty quiet day, slightly dull TBH but not exactly bad.

Slept OKish, finally got up about 9:30-10 IIRC, had quick look at guide book re San Ramon and only one museum mentioned on the main square so I went out and went over there - free, quite small but decent enough way to spend an hour or so. Had an empanada de carne (my first empanada in Costa Rica) for 1200 on takeaway place next to museum, quite nice (guzzled it a bit) and oddly pleased to have it handed to me in a single-use plastic bag.

I wandered round town far more than was actually "necessary" just to fill time. I went into a small "vaguely plastic junk" type shop to see about a water bottle, MoS accosted me almost immediately and after some minor difficulty I explained what I wanted and she took me over to the right area but did leave me to it. Moderate variety, almost all at 2500, which feels insanely expensive but it is a physical shop I guess. I thought I'd try somewhere else, found another shop and again MoS accosted me and after a brief language problem I was shown a smaller selection at about 2250; I did ask if they had anything cheaper but they didn't.

So I went back to the first shop - I had tried to remember some nearby landmarks to locate it as streets unlabelled and hadn't liked to use phone as felt a bit cheaty/tourist-status-advertising (not that I feel particularly under threat here, incidentally), so minor miracle I did find it. Dithered a bit but picked a small very slightly childish green one with a flamingo on. They had larger more adult ones for the same price (2500) but I went with this as it was the lightest and also a slightly flexible plastic which may help it fit in my bag as I lug the damn thing round with me for the next two months. There were other versions of this flexible one but they were really childish/girly with unicorns on so I compromised on the green. The flamingo design is OK, hardly anyone will see it (except it does have a "hook" on and I may at some point resort to carrying it on the outside of my bag to save interior space) and it's also a fairly cheap-looking "sticker" so I suspect it will naturally (and slightly unfortunately) "erode" anyway.

Nice work envirotwats. You've forced me to waste money and resources buying a bit of made-in-China tat which will have *no* compensating eco-advantage, because I was and am and will continue to reuse my "single use" plastic water bottles except in your hallowed turf. They're lighter and if I *do* forget one somewhere (eg like leaving that reused diet coke bottle in the soda) I don't feel I've lost something of value, and indeed the thing lost probably consumed fewer resources as it was thinner and lighter.

I did a bit more wandering (carrying my bottle around), found Soda La Porteña and had a slightly crappy casado de pescado (it was obvious when I left they were on the point of shutting anyway, so the fish had probably been sat there all day) although I found out what chimichurri is (some sort of chopped tomato and veg thing, apparently no sauce/dressing, quite nice) and it was served pseudo-buffet style so I was able to get non-sauce stuff and it was good to eat a "proper" meal unlike yesterday.

Then came back to accom via a supermarket, I got a 2.5l bottle of diet Fresca grapefruit pop which is currently chilling in fridge and broke a 20k note. I was tempted by the beer and by the crisp/chocolate type snacks but manfully resisted - a beer is nice but it's got a bit "routine" lately and a gap before having another will make it more fun, ditto snacks to a lesser extent.

This is the first town I've been in that really seems to have "bars" that aren't upstairs and hidden away - quite a few of them around with open areas onto the street. Quite tempting (it's warm, not painfully so, quite nice really - and on some streets depending which direction is open quite a strong but refreshing cool breeze) but I resisted, given have had quite a few lately as I just said and also this accom is not really suited to coming back late at night and while a beer during the warmth of the day might have been nice I wasn't gagging and returning even slightly tipsy felt unappealing.

It's a smidge cool in the accom tonight, as it was last night - I've kept all my clothes on, whereas I'd take some off in the accom in Grecia as it was a bit warm. This isn't a great fit with the "luxury" of the cold pop but hey, it's still nice.

I do have this vague "I should be having more fun" feeling but it's not that strong and it's fine. I don't have any huge rush, it's vaguely cool to visit places like SR and potter round (though TBH tomorrow may hang heavy on my hands as I'm rather pottered out) and I should "do stuff" in SE/MV.

Oh, I did stumbled on a bus to Zarcero during my wanderings and I was briefly tempted to just get on, but I decided not to. It was about 2pm at this point, I think it's an hour each way on the bus and there isn't a bus every five minutes either. If I'd felt more comfortable getting back into this accom mildly late after dark I might have gone for it, but as I say it was a bit late and I don't really want to get caught out after dark "unplanned". I *could* try to go tomorrow, but given I have the early start with the bus on Monday I am not sure that appeals - the chances of me getting " stuck" in Zarcero somehow are small but not utterly negligible. The weird stuff in the town square mentioned in RG sounds vaguely cool but I'm not desperate to go (think said before main appeal was poss a vague cloud forest feeling there, before I realised MV/SE may be busy but isn't insanely expensive) and it's at least possible I will be in Quesada in a week or so's time and could visit from there.

It does occur to me that if I had the energy/stamina, was willing to give up some of peaceful "yeah, this is quietly cool actually, I'm relaxing" stuff which comes from the vague wandering so far, what I've really "done" from a pure tourism point of view is maybe a day's worth of Alajuela sightseeing (eg the museum with the views over the square), a day's worth of the botanical garden and that's probably about it. It would probably have been possible to "do" Alajuela the day after I landed, get a bus to Grecia/Sarchi the next morning and "do" the botanical garden that afternoon. I really don't want to travel that way and over a long trip it's probably not physically sustainable (FF3W seems to agree with me there), I'm just making the observation.

FWIW forgot to say yesterday that all the stuff with the host here (asking her about bus etc) was in Spanish and while not perfect I managed quite well.

Yawning. Not necessarily a bad thing, given early start Mon if I were to go to bed early-ish tonight that wouldn't hurt. Probably stay up watching YT and drinking Fresca for at least a few more hours though.

1909 Possible live music from a nearby venue audible. Bit of a shame I'm not there if so, but sort of nice to hear. Just remembered the museum did have a single panel of information about coffee being shipped to London at some point in IIRC 1800s and yes, it did indeed leave from Pacific coast of CR, down to Valparaíso in Chile, round the bottom of South America and then to London. It didn't say *why* though.

I don't feel exactly lonely but I do have this vague nagging "I should be having more fun and meeting more people" thought. TBH quite apart from any personal difficulties (age, personality, etc) I might have here, I think opportunities have been limited - there just weren't scads of other tourists around to meet in the Alajuela or Grecia accom and obviously not here either. Nor were there obvious signs of "traveller's hangouts" or whatever - I think probably a sign and minor drawback of being slightly off the beaten path (or on the beaten path, but traversing it far more slowly than average - it's easy to imagine most people going straight from Alajuela to Monteverde, for example - I don't exactly regret my route as there have been quiet little moments of enjoyment, but in hindsight I can also seem some benefits to that). It's not as if I've locked myself alway in my room and avoided the hordes of other tourists.

I suspect/sort-of-hope MV/SE will be different. My personal problems meeting people may well be an issue, but the opportunities to have at least a brief chat with people probably will exist, and I may be able to go out at night a bit etc.

2042 Getting into bed. My nose is running (sort of) and I keep coughing a bit, I hope I'm not getting a cold, but I suspect this is just a small reaction to it actually being cold. If I wasn't a lazy git I'd have just dug my fleece out of my bag and put it on earlier.

I did a bit of laundry earlier incidentally.

2158 Probably feeling quite a lot better, not certain.