Nuevo Arenal-Cañas

Tue 14th 1108 At hotel in Cañas, checkin not til 2 (booking.com said midnight-midnight but not a big deal) so may or ma... no, I'm in, all good. Aircon too although don't know if will need it.

Will write more later, no point wasting time, but all went pretty smoothly so far - minor glitch as booking.com said hotel I just left reported me as a no show, but I spoke to them and filled in booking.com form and 95% confident there will be no fuss over this.

1339 Back at hotel. Been for fairly substantial walk round town - very warm, very windy (quite welcome though), not really much to see or do (did look at rather unusual church as recommended by guide book - briefly flirted with walking 5km out of town to wild animal sanctuary mentioned in guide book but decided not to). Feeling a bit thirsty so although pushed on regardless got some cash out (hoped to get dollars but no joy) and went into a supermarket and splurged on a 6.2k bottle of Nivea 125ml SPF50 (which touch wood will see me through rest of trip - as noted other day I still have some of the original UK supply left but this price seemed borderline tolerable so went for it), a couple of razors (630 for two; nearly bought Gillette ones without thinking but fuck them, these are some local brand, "equate"- a near identical looking pair of the same local brand for 90 IIRC but I figured *maybe* the heads will be a bit iffier as ultra-cheap razors have caused me problems before) and a bottle of chilled 2l Canada Dry Ginger Ale Light for 1450 and some bananas (4x50) for later. Not really hungry (had 3 empanadas de queso this morning) so will eat at soda later but haven't rushed to do so.

In my peregrinations went over to bus terminal again and checked and although no ticket office as such there are loads of buses to Liberia according to a sign on wall so fairly sure I can just turn up and pay not very much on the day. I snapped a photo jic.

Fascinating to see just how different the weather is here compared to up by Lake Arenal even though it was only an hour-ish by bus from there to here.

Still need to write up nothing special events of this morning pre getting to Cañas of course.

2208 Feeling a bit hacked off.

FTR I went out, had a decent casado de/con bistek at Soda Guanacaste near bus terminal (3500 seemingly including a decent tamarind " natural", I left 500 of change on counter and felt very awkward, but obviously no one else has ever wondered if you're meant to tip or not in a soda because the interwebs and the useless guidebook don't say) and came more or less straight back - it was hot, I'd already had a walk round (the town is not that small but it's not like I'm trying to walk every suburb in one day - which I suspect you borderline could if you made an effort) and the ginger ale was seeking exit through its natural route.

I was feeling earlier (pre current hacked off) that I was kind of "wasting" a day of the trip by being here (it *would* in hindsight have been near trivial to do a 3 bus hop direct to Liberia) and/or that I was wasting my visit here by not doing much. But later I came to feel it was OK, I did walk round, it's kind of nice just to have a bit of a casual look at the place (which seems pretty nice and quiet but not unusually scenic and perhaps a bit physically dried up with the heat) etc. Also someone singing karaoke near hotel when I got back to my room maybe 3-4ish which felt vaguely colourful, semi-listened to that a bit.

Did laundry so have full complement of clothes. Fingers crossed all be dry tomorrow. Not packed yet, since I am not booked on a specific bus tomorrow and will choose a bus based on check in time at Liberia hostel I don't expect to be rushed in morning so better do it then. Kind of want to go to bed too. Need to have shower and shave (with one of my new razors - the excitement!) before I do.

Saw slightly fancy looking barber earlier and wondered about having hair cut here but didn't see anywhere really liked the look of.

Wifi in room is pants, possibly on a par with the last place. (They - or someone - incidentally, have "cancelled" the alleged "no show" booking on booking.com. No idea if anyone is playing games here but fuck it, as long as I'm not getting my card charged for a no show - which I don't think I am - it's between them and booking.com. Maybe this is normal.) Deeply frustrating especially when trying to sort out Tamarindo accom.

Very quick web search suggests Tamarindo is a reasonable "base" for a turtle viewing. Poking on booking.com and sanity checking on hostelworld (with wifi dropping out every minute or so) Tamarindo looks damned pricey. I've had to book a dorm for three nights, which isn't ideal following straight on from dorm for three nights in Liberia tomorrow, but the dorm isn't exactly cheap (approx 15k/night, and there were more expensive dorms than that - I didn't go absolute bottom barrel as some of the reviews on those places a bit shit although they might in reality be fine) and private rooms probably double that (not in same places) if not more. I guess it's peak season  and I'm going with one eye on the turtle stuff and maybe I am booking a smidge late. I am probably just going to have to pony up for a laundry service and keep my fingers crossed nothing gets lost.

To be fair I am perhaps feeling a touch "lonely" (not quite the right word) and if I can have a bit of a chat with people as a result of staying in these places that would be welcome.

I think post Tamarindo I want to be going somewhere quiet-ish and getting a private room for at least a couple of nights, although a hostel with socialising possibilities is fine. If I *really* want to stay in Tamarindo (currently I suspect I won't) I could always spring for a private room for a night or two there.

Anyway, the frustration of trying to book this combined with a vague "fuck, 6 nights of dorms" (which isn't *ideal* but really, it has its ups and downs and it's the laundry that is the big nuisance to be honest) feeling is why I'm vaguely hacked off. Also forced to exercise tonight as I have been forcing myself during stay in Nuevo Arenal because in a dorm it's not feasible and with six nights coming up really felt I had to make an effort tonight.

Checkout here is at 1200 and checkin in Liberia is at 1400 so I probably want to be checking out of here a whisker before 12 - I haven't checked just now but I think it's an hour tops on the bus, and so even if I end up waiting another hour for a bus to turn up that still works out pretty much arriving around checkin. I've generally been quite lucky with being allowed to check in early but I see no point deliberately pushing it.

2240 About to get into bed. Shower not hot, tolerable because I'm so brave, but if I'd been smarter I'd have had it this afternoon when I felt hot and sweaty. Been intermittently running a/c FWIW, sometimes feels a bit cold with it but taking advantage while I have it. To be fair I think (albeit they may mean "fan" !) both the dorms I've booked have some sort of a/c.

Considering how broadly clean the hotel room is, there was an odd smell in the shower, and there are quite a few ants around - though I do wonder if my sugary biscuit crumbs have attracted the ants to some extent, so I won't rush to blame the hotel for them.

Not feeling terrible. Bit annoying to have back to back dorms but it may prove a net positive and although these are expensive-ish dorms it is also probably helping to keep the total trip spend down (thus giving budgetary headroom for other trips). It was (modulo feeling I needed to exercise+sort out Tamarindo accom) kind of nice to lie on bed earlier with/without aircon and read, and it was nice (need to remind myself that I only had one day with no proper food - the "problem" in last place was indulging in snacky junk *on top of* proper food) to have that proper meal in the soda earlier, and in a way sort of nice to just wander round town a little earlier.

Still haven't written up journey here. V easy - halfheartedly flagged down (with no success) some probably-not-the-right-ones (microbus things) buses outside hotel this morning, flagged down coach type bus and got on it to T-intermittent-memory-problem (Talarin???) no fuss, as soon as we pulled in driver called "bus for Cañas" so I went over there and got straight on that bus - first one was 1200 approx, second about 600, so cheap transport at least. Didn't therefore see much at all of T-whatsit although really I'd only have seen bus terminal anyway. Shortish walk from bus terminal here in Cañas to this hotel and I already wrote the checkin up.

So I think that's it. Anything forgotten can go in tomorrow's entry, of course.