Sámara-Montezuma

Fri 24th 0837 Waiting on lower terrace for shuttle. Woke up a bit in night, not exactly bad. Didn't super want to get up on 0745 alarm but after minute or two I did. Two guys in room - some confusion last night as some banging on a door to get in and I thought it was our dorm door and was calling out "hello?" and it wasn't. Stuffed everything in bag in kitchen area outside dorm, luckily had shit, etc.

Vague lurking BNM feelings but not feeling too bad. Just hope the shuttle turns up. Feel a bit hot but that's because there's not much breeze here and I don't feel like I'm going to die from the heat or anything. I hope the shuttle will either be airconned or have opening windows.

Top I washed late last night still smells a bit smoky so wearing the other one of the two tops I've been repeatedly wearing here (also hand-washed yday, in afternoon) and will try to favour the smoky one for days out (when it won't matter) and presumably the smell will fade as it is washed. I may also spring for a laundry service in MZ depending on how things go.

Just FTR "weird" Chilean woman went up to a group of German speakers last night when I was waffling and spoke to them in English and they switched. I think I'd have felt rude doing that, but maybe I'm being ridiculous. Dunno.

1033 Just had rather epic bus transfer in Nicoya - lots of milling around and modest confusion. On fairly big bus to Montezuma, watched my bag get lifted into back so that's something.

Got out of bus at Casa Tierra as it was picking someone up (didn't know him, tho *may* have seen him round first first night) as the woman who sold me the ticket had some out to "meet" the bus and might have missed us so being paranoid I asked to get out and ran into hostel to check she didn't have some voucher for me (she didn't). But this worked out nicely as Michel was in front courtyard at CT and shouted and waved at me so I waved/shouted back which felt nicely friendly.

We are still waiting to actually head out of Nicoya but I'm not in any massive rush. Some people are snacking and a woman just asked if there was time to get off and buy snacks, and I'm kind of jealous but also as is my usual policy deliberately *not* snacking, I could trivially have bought some earlier (I had an unneeded piss - destroyer tactics :-) - as soon as we pulled into the petrol station being used for the bus meetup and passenger redistribution and chose not to. It's not as if I'm not "treating" myself (beers, those snacks the other night, etc), I am just hoping to lose some weight etc and there's something about snacking *just because* I'm on a bus and maybe bored etc feels wrong. I wouldn't typically snack if I was out for a walk or sitting on the beach or whatever, after all.

1040 I think we may be off. It's all been aircon except waiting on forecourt at garage and that was warm but not insanely sweaty, helped no doubt by just standing there no "doing" anything.

Irrationally I do wonder if I am going to struggle to extend accom in MZ given how busy it obviously is, but after all I got in to this place the day ahead. I will see how tonight's sleep and tomorrow's breakfast goes and if everything feels OK I might extend by a couple of days tomorrow morning. But no need to worry about that today.

1135 Rest stop. Absolutely could buy snacks and am tempted but not doing it. It irrationally irks me "other people can do this and I can't" , but of course a) I can and I'm choosing not to, which is different b) their personal choices/manner of trying to achieve their health/weight/etc goals (or not caring, then whinging later) are theirs and mine are mine. i can and will snack in due course when circumstances and/or temptation conspire against me, but not now.

Air conditioning on bus is so good I feel cold. Have got off just to be excessively hot for a bit by way of contrast. Not going for piss, I really don't need one.

Google Maps says we're in Jicaral, incidentally. And now I look it's damn obvious as there's Ferreteria Jicaral across the road.

1723 Jesus. I just don't know. I don't outright hate Montezuma, but nor am I in love with it. The hostel is just about OK but it seems pretty shit. I did get a lower bunk. There are at least lockers. However: The bunks are pushed up so tight against the next set (foot-to-foot) that without being rude I can only hang stuff on the head end. The bathroom is off one end of the dorm, but there's no sink - that is in the dorm, near one set of beds. Zero privacy and obviously fuck all chance of a decent stealth wash. There are 3 (count 'em) spare sockets in a 6 bed dorm, and one of those is only useable to charge something if you're willing to rest it on the sink or have a really long USB cable (I don't) and are willing to leave it on the floor. The tap on the sink even manages to not flow vertically; it sort of squirts sideways into the back of the basin.

A few people are around now but it feels super un-convivial, maybe because I'm in a slightly shitty mood. I am almost certainly staying my three paid nights - there are no rats or bed bugs, it's not *terrible* - but if I want to stay in Montezuma I can't see myself extending here voluntarily. Maybe I'll make a friend and change my mind but I doubt it. However, I am telling myself let's wait until breakfast (8-9) and a night's sleep before making plans.

On a whim I popped into Hotel Lucy on walkabout earlier to ask if they had availability Monday, and was told to come back Monday and ask! We never even got to price. Cos yeah, I'm just gonna not book anything and if you don't have availability, never mind, I'll pay USD50+ a night booking a dorm last minute. They presumably just don't care.

I walked a random direction out of town after checking in, stumbled on the waterfall by chance and walked the pleasingly slightly treacherous (a nice no-health-and-safety vibe) path up to the lower falls. Only on a second look at map at entrance (it's free by the way, which is nice) did I properly twig there's an "intermediate" (it's all intermediate or high) path all the way to the top - I saw the "high" entrance to the upper path and was torn but decided not today. I will probably go back and at least do intermediate path to top. I was thinking - esp as I have a locker and could put all my valuables in it - I could maybe go into the pool at base, I asked and although it's obviously deep near falls (people jumping in etc - I do feel fucking cheated for having to go through so much swimming lesson pain as a kid and still not being able to swim, but what you gonna do?) it does slope so it is tempting, plus as it's in a kind of chasm there would be virtually no direct sunlight except round noon, so no worries about sunburn.

I am actually sitting in the fucking street on seats outside hostel as the two tables inside are occupied by people who look like they're in couples or whatever.

Went to Soda La Tipica Las Palmeras for food, casado con bistek (very nice to be fair) advertised at 4000 but a juice is 2200 (!) - again to be fair I said no drink and they still gave me an iced water. It's obviously *not* a "soda" in the usual sense and more like a restaurant. The bill was 4000+400 tax - what the fuck? why wasn't this quoted up front? more to the point, since VAT is 13%, why is the tax 400? Is this a Montezuma thing or some wankery on their part? It did *not* say tip, it said tax. Since it was a restaurant type place I felt I "had" to tip so left change to make it 5k. Borderline acceptable but not great.

Walked back into town and round square (that's about the whole town). One of the two "super" markets has a sign in English and Spanish (I photoed it, while saying something to myself about it being a pile of wank) saying "no more plastic" and "no plastic bags please" . AIUI, this doesn't mean they won't give or sell you one. It means THEY DON'T WANT YOU USING ONE, FULL STOP. How very *dare* you even think about taking your *own* plastic bag? Well, fuck you Super Montezuma. Super Mamatea (sp) will be getting my business, such as it is, unless I'm in dire straits. I was torn about buying a beer but wasn't going to anyway at this point, as was just having a little recce.

Back to hostel feeling a bit shit, crappy shower in fortunately empty dorm, desperately tried to water-only wash today's top and the two-tone blue one which got smoky and which (maybe I'm just imagining it) feels weirdly "slimy" despite having had a with soap hand wash last night and beyond the wood smoke has only had "usual" sweat, nothing special.

And now I'm out here.

Obviously my attitude is not going to help wrt meeting people so I need to be careful.

I think tomorrow (subject to dicking around looking at poss extension accom after breakfast) I will do that long walk up the chain of nice beaches. Beyond the waterfall I'm not sure there's anything else here I really desperately want to do. I'm not entirely sure what's so fucking special about the place, except it's small and hard to get to and at least slightly expensive.

I'm not making any hasty decisions. Gut feeling is I might stay at least one extra night here but as I say not necessarily by choice in this hostel.

I have no fucking idea what I'm going to do tonight. Given it's Friday I am vaguely tempted to go to the bar in the square but I'm sure it's massive overpriced and given dorm shit - cleaning my teeth will involve disturbing everyone, although maybe I can use the washbasin in common area outside the dorm - I don't really want to be drunk.

I was thinking I'd have a day of the beer today. I still might but I dunno, I might go and get a can and sit on the beach with it (though we're facing the wrong direction for beach sunset views here).

Anyway, I've bashed this out so let's stop writing and see what if anything happens (in my brain and/or in the outside world).

1756 Right, I've just booked a single private with shared bathroom at another hostel here for two nights starting Monday at about USD25/night inc tax - I'm paying USD20ish/night here inc tax, although I do get breakfast, and it would have been same to stay here from Monday. I have free cancellation before 26th so I can cancel this tomorrow if I have a change of heart. I've maybe had enough of dorms back-to-back but also the just miscellaneously shitty dorm here has maybe tipped me over the edge - I wasn't *that* bothered about the dorms up til now. I could also have had a dorm at the "new" hostel for about USD15/night, although again with no breakfast. I am not short of time, Montezuma itself seems borderline pleasant (and I would like to eg have a go at swimming or at least going into waterfall pool, or maybe one of the secluded-ish beach cove type places I've seen) even if it isn't necessarily great, I had planned on a few nights not in a dorm anyway (but it didn't happen because with the dates I had at short notice meant this was the only option) so this is hardly a mega-splurge and this way I am not dashing off out of here. Hell, if I like it/feel relaxed enough I'll stay a week or more. I do feel a bit better for having this option, which may just improve my mood wrt possibly chatting with people here, though I don't expect it to work miracles.

1814 Having some water here. I just may go for a wander round square in 30-60 mins, roommates from Samara said people just kind of talk to you here and/or there's a vague "hanging out in the square" thing. I'm a bit dubious but we'll see. Something to do at least.

1822 Woman come up, said hi and is (I think) rolling a fag/joint next to me. (I might guess this is a "smoker's bench" as it satisfies some persnickety "off the premises" rule of someone's.) TBH I am thinking I might have a beer later, feeling a bit sick of watching other people indulge in vices I am prohibited from in various ways. It's 1700 for a 710ml can at the non-wanky "super" market, which isn't too bad.

1831 It was just a fag, at least. I feel OKish, not great, not terrible. There's some vague suggestion other people know each other but I have more of a lingering generalised BNM feeling rather than something strongly situational. :-)

Increasingly feeling I will go get a beer soon-ish, maybe after a little walk.

Incidentally nothing to do with anything tonight, I am going to try to avoid wearing my cap at night. Despite its minor advantages of reducing mosquito-exposed skin and hiding my slightly over-long hair, I feel it perhaps comes across a little bit "furtive" /inhibits eye contact by shading my face etc etc. During the day I "need" it so fair enough, and there's more light anyway so the downsides are probably reduced.

1842 Incidentally all it would take for this hostel to fix the socket problem would be (as the Tamarindo hostel had) to buy a probably USD20-50 5-8 port USB charger, bolt it to the table and plug that in - no need to engage in major rewiring and associated redecoration. Likewise, would it kill them to knock a fucking nail or two into the back of the bathroom door for me to hang my clothes on while I'm showering?

Admittedly this doesn't fix the toe-to-toe bunks with associated lack of clothes hanging space or the shitty sink-not-in-bathroom (arguably some people might prefer that, as sink is available when someone is showering, but so far at least I personally haven't had to wait more than 30 seconds to get into a shared bathroom).

Gonna drink up this water, refill bottles in kitchen (suspect I may have to fight for tap) and head out with a small bottle for a wander and possibly a beer.

2200 In bed, had 3x710ml Pilsen 5% down Refugio Piedras Coloradas in town, will maybe write more tomorrow, I think I've spiralled up rather than down (primary realisation: it's fucking annoying the way everyone else seems to meet people/bond just like that, but I can't expect it to happen insantly when I arrive somewhere) and also among other things I made a small effort to talk to a stranger, I've deprived the eco-correct wankers at Super Montezuma of a bit of money and I also kept popping back to hostel (which was of course super chocked and super matey) to use the toilet, which feels amusingly disrespectful, and I've also formed a hopefully long term resolution to become a fucking demon at identifying faces, so when I first see someone I if anything (tho less as I get quicker) stare at them like a fucking machine rather than feel awkward and look away.

Cleaned teeth, kitchen is locked (as some reviews said) but luckily I had an extra plastic bottle in bag. Think 2 other women in here, otherwise empty, light was on when I came in. I am a bit pissed but not insanely so, plan is obv to be up for breakfast ("free" food, make an effort to be personable and chat to people) but that's 10h from now and may - for first time in ages - listen to bit of music etc before bed on headphones. Vague "everyone else is a smug cnt and I hate them" thoughts earlier but that's not fair. Anyway, music and bed and will post this now.