Santa Elena, Thursday

Thu 2nd 2004 Didn't exactly sleep badly IIRC but woke up a few mins before 715 alarm feeling rather groggy, snoozed on alarm for 10 mins and made it to breakfast maybe 740. Four (?) other guests, I did exchange a few words with them but nothing major. I think two are Israeli and two are Argentinian based on stuff they said between themselves. Spoke to them a bit about "extreme" canopy tour, they showed me an outdated (bits blacked out which they no longer do) leaflet.

Asked about paying for room for next two nights and if I have to move and was told I didn't and that I could pay this afternoon.

Went into town about 845 IIRC - I didn't rush to get out and had a poke on website for extreme canopy tour to see what it involved, also exchanged some emails re night walk tomorrow and though it seems more expensive than A+J led me to believe ($10 extra for pick up, on top of $25 tour fee and $8 entry to park, both of which I was expecting) since I do have a personal recommendation for this I signed up for it (and got confirmation email when came back to hostel tonight). Going back to canopy tour, was similar to leaflet though not entirely clear how high their tarzan swing is as seemed to be conflicting info, but not obviously a big deal. Had been dithering a bit about it last night but once I was up I thought fuck it, I'll do it. I could have booked it on their website but I'd have had to pay by card with no right to cancel as less than 24h, so I went to my tourist info office and after getting stuck behind one couple asking a lot of questions and having 930 bus to catch and feeling *slightly* worried about time (it was fine) I got booked in for 11am tomorrow with 1020 pickup at hostel. May have saved or overpaid about USD5 either way, can't be sure, but worth it I think not to be 100% committed. Also had a bit of a chat with advice woman who told me it's windy up til IIRC early March-ish and then it gets very hot with no wind. This may account for aircon being advertised at those La Fortuna hostels too.

Incidentally although no fancy eco-lodge, this place I'm staying now is just enough out of town and with the balcony looking over a valley and with this howling gale that it does kind of feel a little like being in the country.

I then got the 0930 bus to Monteverde Reserve no problem, pleasantly surprised to find it was only 800 each way - maybe I misheard the 1500 somehow yesterday, it *was* Transmonteverde. Mild queue to get in and evidently there is some theoretical possibility of them saying "sorry, too many people in, you'll have to wait" as they book people in and out with a featureless white smartcard they give you when you pay, but there was no problem when I was there. Took photo of info board but all I can remember is temp was 15C.

Oh, this reminds me - saw during breakfast that it was fairly overcast and (I popped out onto uncovered bit) with a sort of very fine drizzly misty kind of rain. Wore fleece and of course took bag with shell jacket and waterproof trousers (didn't need them, but good to have I guess) when went into town, this very fine drizzle didn't really seem to make me wet and the sun also came out a bit.

This sort of weather (which eased off in the afternoon) did make the forest feel rather more like I'd expected a cloud forest to be, but since I noticed the weather change back at hostel comparing the two days, I think this is just "the local weather changing" and not a real difference between Santa Elena and Monteverde forests.

I didn't spring for a guided tour, I'm not saying the info wouldn't be nice but I am doing that guided night walk and (it really isn't mainly about the money) I just sort of want to "be there" and get some walking in kind of thing. I did about 95% of the trails between probably getting in there about 1115 and getting back for the last 1600 bus at about 1540 - I went to the continental divide lookout twice, and the missed 5% is for the little connecting bits between certain trails which weren't convenient to fit into my tour.

It wasn't enormously different to Santa Elena and although hardly packed I think it was a bit busier. The continental divide lookout was very cool - east side had really strong wind coming in with elf (? dwarf-gone-PC? the Spanish text said "bosque enano" ) forest and a sort of cloudy mist (clouds rocketing along everywhere when you looked up at sky, BTW) and the west side had views over (if I read OSM correctly) Nicoya peninsula and was sunnier and warmer.

There were some nice waterfalls and contradictory as it sounds I have a feeling there was another decent lookout point I can't remember. Personal highlight apart from those would be the Los Robles trail, which felt emptier and was pleasingly hilly and winding (although still fairly well groomed - nowhere was as "raw" as the Caño Negro trail at SE).

I'm glad I did both but if I had to choose to keep just the memory of one reserve I think it would be SE. If all goes to plan I will probably go back there Saturday.

However, MTV reserve gets credit for a sane "no dumping rubbish, carry out what you bring in" policy instead of a wanky crusade against the use of "single use" plastics. If I didn't already say my "cheap" reusable water bottle leaks when turned upside down; it is just about OK for things like these walks (I took it to MTV reserve in case they had same policy as SE) where it wedges upright in daypack next to spare clothes, but I now know why it leaked when on its side in my backpack on bus from San Ramon to here and I can't really use it normally.

I tried to be "present" during the walking round but struggled a bit; this is a general problem I have and wasn't symptomatic of anything related to today specifically.

Got back into town, tried to get some dollars (thinking I'd try to get a 10 bill to help pay hostel bill of $51 approx without getting stiffed on exchange rate, and thinking in general if a price is expressed in dollars I should pay in dollars as I will then be exposed to artificially crap exchange rates only on the small amount of change - I have the canopy tour, night walk and jeep+boat trip to pay for in dollars as well as the hotel) at the BCR machine but (despite visiting three times in vague hope) it was "temporarily out of service". The Banco Nacional machine only offered colones (and I have plenty of those for now) so I didn't proceed and have no idea what the fee situation would be. I plan to pop over there tomorrow morning between breakfast and tour.

I tried to pay hostel bill tonight with 3x20 but guy had no change (even colones) and I am going to pay tomorrow after breakfast when he will. I think I have actually been assuming there's one hostel guy (owner/staff) but there might actually be two! This is maybe a sign I'm not looking people in the face etc enough, but in my defence I was a bit edgy at first after the checkin payment fuckup. (I don't think I actually revealed my " you're two people!" confusion, assuming I am right, it's just that I acted as if tonight's guy - who is definitely the guy who checked me in - knew about the new reservation from our chat this morning, but the way I phrased it was ambiguous and "worked" even so, by luck.)

If I can't get dollars tomorrow that's a fucker but I can probably pay the canopy tour tomorrow on card *if* I want to, or I can pay colones and suffer the exchange rate swindle risk. I should have enough dollars to pay the night walk guide in dollars as he seems to strongly prefer and maybe by the next day I can get dollars even if I can't get them tomorrow. With possible exception of night walk guy no one is trying to insist on dollars, it's just I've realised (I hope correctly) paying in the advertised currency (which I get at " official" bank exchange rate) reduces my exposure to crappy exchange rates (unless the change is more than the amount I'm paying).

Had an early shower tonight and tried not to be a wuss about the lukewarm water. To be fair I am sitting on the bed now writing this post-shower and it's not cold at all - I think there's maybe a bit of a draught (especially if I leave bathroom door open) sometimes but not here on the bed right now, and there's maybe a psychological chilling effect of the wind outside.

Going back, I asked tour office woman this morning if there was anywhere I could buy a glasses elastic strap to keep them on and she told me to try Vitosi, she even came out into the street with me and pointed it out. I went in there straight after getting into town back from forest and ended up upstairs talking to a helpful MoS who offered me some elastic cord which I bought (though it was marked 230 colones a meter - I asked - yet it turned out to be 380ish for my 1m when I got it downstairs to the counter with the chit she'd given me, meh) and pointed out some stuff "behind" a display of coffee which I had a look at and seemed to be paracord (inconveniently half wrapped up in a cardboard sleeve so you couldn't examine it or see the length) with some sort of rubbery tubes on the end which *might* have slipped over glasses arms but I didn't like to try, and the cardboard didn't *say* anything about glasses, just that it was paracord, and they were all (in varying lengths) $8 so I decided I'd be fine with my elastic - it is at least black unlike the white string I used the other day, and I need to have a fiddle with it now as I plan to be going into town tomorrow morning for cash so won't have that much time for improvising glasses holding equipment.

Had dinner at Raulito's as usual (hoping BCR ATM might magically resolve itself over time it took to eat).

Think that's about it, let me stop for now and go fiddle with the elastic.

2102 Right, think I've got something that works. No need to shorten the elastic - 1m (and it is 1m, I measured it against known hand span) is almost perfect. Ends are slightly frayed where it was cut in shop but I am not going to try and find someone to borrow a lighter off and risk melting it badly or hurting myself - the fraying is not major and it's only got to last a day, nothing like the fraying on the white synthetic cord I used the other day. I used anchor hitch to tie onto the hinge nubs this time, not necessarily better but the instructions seemed a bit clearer. I've put a few extra purely cosmetic knots in to use up the inch or so of excess elastic on each knot, rather than trying to tie with minimal loose ends showing (which I suspect is the main problem last time, combined with fraying of the very short loose ends, rather than actually getting the knots wrong). Being black rather than white also helps reduce the conspicuousness, though I'm not all that fussed about it - I also do not plan on buying any photos tomorrow. There are some chunkyish knots extending the visible width of the glasses for a vaguely Dame Edna Everage look, but probably a better job cosmetically and securityally (! but I can't think of the right word, so sod it) than the other day.

I think I may also route the elastic along the arms and over my ears rather than letting it dangle loose, although dangling loose would probably be a smidge more secure.

Going to have that milk I bought yesterday now, I think. Not exactly hungry but it would be quite nice and I did a fair amount of walking today, plus I think it's a semi-healthy kind of overindulgence if it is an overindulgence.

Although this cord is elastic, I have gone for a "glasses on a string" style rather than trying to get the length precisely right to stretch tightly over the back of my head. That would be tricky, might interfere with a helmet and these glasses do fit tightly anyway - this cord is to try to stop me losing them if they unexpectedly come off, not to try to keep them on because they will be falling off otherwise.

I do have an old spare pair of glasses with me for emergencies, but they are a bit loose and so I don't think they're a great choice - I'd probably have lost them (and not been able to see properly for the rest of the tour) had I used them with my badly-knotted string the other day. So I think it's best to wear my main pair and just do my best to prevent them getting lost if (touch wood) they do come off. The fact the cord is elastic may help to slightly absorb any stresses and reduce the chances of the knots unravelling, but I don't know.

2133 Just had a shave, bit rough (as always reluctant to buy a new disposable) but tolerable.

FWIW one thing that helped me decide to book the extreme tour was seeing that except for maybe the height of the tarzan swing and the fact one of the superman things goes through a tunnel, it doesn't seem massively more extreme on paper than the one I did the other day. I'm not exactly "confident" but I kind of feel it will be more of the same, just maybe a little more intense, but with a much better starting position as I know I broadly like the kind of thing we'll be doing. I did wonder if a bungee jump was included but it's not, you can do one there (for USD80+tax IIRC - not cheap but not insane) but I kind of figure there's no need to rush and it feels like I could do a bungee jump anywhere, including back in the UK, whereas the ziplining is a bit more of a specialty here.

I also find myself harbouring vague thoughts of coming back to Costa Rica in that "on the fringe of the rainy season pseudo-low-season potentially almost a hidden secret good value time" (paraphrasing one of the archive.org guide books) around May, if flights are cheap. But almost certainly not May this year - kind of thinking if hypothetically I did another trip a year from now, money permitting I might *also* do a month-ish trip to CR in May (though a month-ish trip would reduce flight amortisation etc etc). Just waffling really.

Coughing a bit FWIW, not tremendously concerned - it's vaguely possible I haven't really drunk enough water today, as I had a limited supply at forest (didn't feel I needed any more and didn't actually empty the bottle, not even close).

Might go to bed once finished this milk, not exactly tired but only reading and can do that in bed and wouldn't hurt to get some extra sleep if I can.

2227 Bed.