Nuevo Arenal, Monday

Mon 13th 1059 Sitting in room, it's raining and been pissing it down since the early hours. Woke up maybe a bit after midnight from some vague pseudo-mild-nightmare, then again at 0330 surprised how earl it was, finally woke up properly-ish and semi-drowsed in bed feeling mildly luxurious and mildly cold from about 8 til 10.

Hope rain isn't too terrible to go to lunch without getting soaked. Will wear the shell jacket as although I got the actual surface dried on dirt off it with my wash in shower the other day it is still visibly dirty and so if I do get rained on it may at least help clean it off further.

Thinking I might have a read of guide book later and see if I can book ahead to go somewhere suitable for new moon turtle watching and maybe even actually try to book a tour for it if I feel that might be necessary. I don't like booking up too much in advance but touch wood there should be no big problem - none of the already pre-booked accommodation should depend on "difficult" travel hops, and as I said yday the Liberia accommodation isn't so appealing as to make me think I'm going to want to extend, plus if I do want to spend more time in Liberia it will be natural and easy to go back there from some other place in NW - depending on how the buses work, it may be I'll end up travelling between coastal places X and Y via (same day; it's all probably 30-60 min bus journeys) Liberia anyway.

I am in truth not absolutely desperate to see the turtles laying eggs but it may also actually be pretty cool and since the timing probably (I haven't double checked yet) works out nicely it seems a shame not to take advantage. If I could see that it would be a "big" item achieved and help assuage any feelings that I'm somehow not making the most of my time. I will be in CR for the next new moon but (again without having checked the dates yet) it may well be that it's sufficiently close to my return flight that by then I have left the Pacific coast - my very vague mental sketch of an itinerary is to bibble around the NW coast over the next week or so, then head down roughly following the coast to the south of the country with that waterfall hike mentioned by Dutch girl as a vague goal. I guess by the time I get there I might be coming into last 2-3 weeks and I have vague thoughts of circling round through the SE without getting to the coast, coming back up on San Jose/Alajuela via Cartago and ending up with maybe a visit to Poas and perhaps enough time for a week or two in San Jose if I like it and it isn't horrifically expensive, and if I don't like it popping off somewhere else - given all kinds of places (probably most of the country) are within 3-4h bus trip of San Jose I could probably go almost anywhere. This is all very vague but as I say it's my current rough sketch and in the short term I'm thinking a modest amount of planning with a view to giving the turtles a try sounds like a decent goal.

It is a bit annoying that the next two days are both travel days but fingers crossed neither should be tremendously difficult or time consuming. Modulo mild dorm hassles I can then have a couple of days "doing stuff, but locally" in Liberia and the onwards hop to wherever I go for possible turtle viewing is likely just half an hour or so.

1415 On balcony with coffee. Feeling vaguely sad at having to leave here but at the same time in a strange way I will be glad to go somewhere else.

Walked over to EA but El Corral shut - was *sure* sign said closed Tuesday, and outside El Establo it said Martes-Domingo so was 95% sure it was closed today and wasn't in mood to walk all the way over on offchance. Could have eaten at hotel but perhaps stupidly splurged on a load of snacks at supermarket in EA instead. Eaten five sweet and not very cheesy but nice empanadas de queso, a packet of chicharron con limon and about four vibrantly red-with-yellow-centres pan dulces which were nice but also kind of unsatisfying and filled with vague regret. It's fine, I can eat "properly" tomorrow, one day won't hurt.

Dithered about coming up here to balcony but figured last day and glad I did as there were a couple of toucans as well as the slightly more usual variety of birds. Something very appealing about the toucans, they seem kind of cheeky/cocky/inquisitive and there's also a vague Histor's Eye quality to them; in some strange way missing the chance to see them more is perhaps why I feel a bit sad at leaving, not sure.

Something charming about the way the toucans manipulate food at the end of their bill as well.

1514 Back in room, youngish MoS asked where I was from as I paid but she really didn't seem to understand my Spanish - I honestly didn't think I was that bad, and I assume she's a native speaker, but what can you do?

Been reading guide book a bit on balcony - I figured since the alternative was leaving there to read it down in room, I wasn't any worse off reading it up there even though it meant not looking at birds or view.

Gut feeling is the turtle viewing is maybe a bit iffy. Season for NWish seems to end mid Feb and apart from some park which I don't fancy trying to reach under my own steam, the main option seems to be a tour from super-tourist Tortuguero - no, that's E coast, I mean Tamarindo. A lot of the beachy places NW coasty sound super touristy (Cancun style) or hard to reach too. The vaguely Paraty-esque beach ideal is probably not achievable round there but we'll see.

Tamarindo is 2h by bus from Liberia. I think the current rough plan has to be to head over there from Liberia - assuming I can get cheap-ish accommodation in such a tourist hot spot - which I think would be around the time of new moon, see if there is anything doing turtle wise (RG is rather down on the whole thing, not exactly from a purely ecological point of view as from it being a bit kind of "weird" , hard to describe, and I can sort of see that but at the same time I don't quite subscribe to the smug eco-line as these people) and if not perhaps pop over to one or more of the beachy places to the north of Tamarindo for a few days if any appeal based on more careful scrutiny of the guide book and then head down towards Nicoya. I have some doubts about transport and buses and so forth in this region but with the turtle business in the rear view mirror (whether I saw any or not, the window has closed) I can then probably adopt a slow vaguely south-directed wander and see how it goes without too much pressure.

I fully expect to hate Tamarindo, although to whatever extent it isn't "mandatorily overpriced" I could see myself potentially enjoying a slightly commercial excess for a few days. It is a bit annoying that coming from a dorm in Liberia I'd probably rather not (from a laundry POV if nothing else) want to be in a dorm in Tamarindo where it could help keep costs down and/or meet people. But we'll see, if it is a big cost saving I may do two dorms in a row and splurge on a laundry service. My inclination is to sleep on this and maybe do some more reading later and probably look to book something (ideally with half-decent free cancellation) in Tamarindo when I get to Canas tomorrow night.

According to my phone new moon is on 20th, a week today, so if everything goes to plan with accommodation already booked, three nights in Tamarindo would see me there on the evening of 20th and the two nights before that, which would probably have potential for booking a turtle tour on arrival.

I suppose if nothing else Tamarindo *might* be a good place to pick up a supply of sunblock. :-) Touch wood I'm not on the verge of running out of my initial "nominally 50ml but prob more as I hand filled it" bottle, but it's clearly not going to last the entire trip.

1615 Showered, not shaving (razor's pretty blunt and I can get by without it as shaved - badly - yday), did laundry earlier and will probably try to do small batch tomorrow too to enter dorm with max available clothes. Prob head up to balcony for a few "farewell" beers shortly-ish. Copying some photos and recharging camera.

Undeniably slightly miffed my Spanish fell flat earlier, but can't be helped. Also this vague feeling of sadness at leaving here and a vague feeling I'm over-committing to stuff ahead of time and charging around a bit, partly in order to maybe kinda just possibly have a chance at seeing a turtle.

I think it's fine. Absolute worst case, which I don't think is the case, is I'm wasting a week. In reality although Liberia accom situation felt a lot less choice-rich than I'd hoped, everything up to and including there feels fairly reasonable, and I am not excessively rushing out of Liberia and as already noted it would be easy to return for a few extra days shortly afterwards if I really wanted to.

I have a vaguely jaundiced view of all the coastal towns after skimming the guide but I ought to go have a look for myself. It won't hurt to go to Tamarindo for three nights or so and I might actually like it. I am not letting the vague turtle prospect massively distort the trip, and once that's out of the way I can be a bit vaguer and more wandery and eg see how the local short distance buses work out and maybe find a nice little out of the way spot by chance and if not at least I won't be putting myself under enormous pressure.

1655 On balcony with beer. Woman was on steps as came up and I asked about buses - 730, 930 or 1. I will go for 930, need to wait on opposite side of road (which is the side the bus will be on, though I had hoped I could wave it across from hotel side). Fingers crossed it's not pissing it down. I haven't packed yet, not a huge job, want to let stuff dry and maybe decide if I'm going to risk wearing the shell jacket or leaving it near top etc (both in case of rain, of course), and even if I have 4 beers tonight hardly going to be off my face.

Not feeling terrible by any means, just this vague "perhaps a good sign in its way" sadness at leaving and vague uncertain anticipation of what's to come. I have vague doubts what is to come will be much fun, but that's probably a bad attitude and to be fair I also don't expect it to be terrible. Mildly friendly pseudo-chat with owner guy as I got beer and also felt kind of good to successfully chat with woman about bus. I keep forgetting the name of the town the bus goes to - sometimes it's there in my memory (Tilaran) and sometimes it isn't.

1734 Second beer.

1754 Putting hotel locations on GM and there's a message from hostel in Liberia saying I have a lower bunk as requested, which is nice. (This has nothing to do with age, incidentally. I just feel it's nice to eg have my shoes with "stuff" in them next to the bed, to be able to dangle clothes over the end of the bed without it being in someone else's space, etc.)

1806 There is something pleasingly dramatic and holiday-ish about a palm tree silhouetted against the darkening sky with a bit of a breeze blowing.

Finished second beer. Will hold on a bit before getting another. Don't want to massively overdo it as a vague sense of melancholy and the (minor) stress of actually travelling tomorrow and perhaps the fact I've had a bit (never really to excess) to drink most days lately means there is no special pleasure to the beers tonight.

1832 Third beer. Feeling OK but a bit "flat" , to probably repeat myself.

1853 Getting down third beer. It's nice enough (if not exactly balmy - fine with fleece done up though) up here with the crickets and looking at the lights across the lake, but the real attraction is in the daytime when the view is better and there are the birds, and I shouldn't desperately hang on here too long trying to cling onto some sort of feeling that isn't quite here. Badly expressed but best I can do.

1903 Incidentally they don't stint the birds here - they're putting out whole chopped up bananas, solid unused pineapple bases 2-3 inches high, strawberries, etc. When I first came I thought it was kind of leftovers, but it isn't. Not complaining - it's nice of them really, fruit is probably cheap here and if they choose to look at it that way I'm sure it pays off given the birds are a big attraction (even mentioned on signs along road), just making the observation.

2130 Feel a bit sick after two more pan dulces; still have some of those and the empanada de queso for tomorrow, I might end up packing them, we'll see. *Haven't* packed as don't expect to be too much of a struggle to get up and this gives stuff more time to dry etc. Moving towards bed.

2134 Bed. Vague sense of disquiet but probably 80% stomach and 20% the previously wafflet about "sort of don't want to leave but sort of do" feeling. Browsing map after putting hotels for next few days on OSM I do feel vaguely keen on the medium term prospect of puttering down the west coast.

It's raining outside.