Dos Brazos, Tuesday

Mon 20th 1946 Think I forgot to say I did get a lower bunk, and I think at least for tonight no one is in the upper bunk either (not that that's a huge deal).

Mosquito net (tight enough weave to stop sandflies apparently, tho not apparently an issue this time of year) makes it feel like being in a little private tend anyway and fingers crossed the "square" hanging means it won't be as annoyingly in my face as the one (which had holes in as well, tho not a big deal in practice) one in Quepos.

It's just started to rain, sounds fairly light.

G5 seems to keep wanting to switch to Panama time zone, I wonder if my SIM being out of credit and being near (but only -ish) the Panama border have some bearing on this. Have just forced time zone for now instead of risking alarms going off at wrong time and generally getting confused.

FWIW the (up to) four charge indicator LEDs on the power bank are illuminated while charging phones in bed and serve as a modest but still surprisingly "usable" night light.

0642 Go me. Got up early despite it sounding like light rain (it did rain a bit in night) - it wasn't, just presumably dry leaves falling and rustling - and left hostel about 0450 and made it up to Gotogo (?) lookout about 0520. Sky getting light by then and the actual sun rose behind a tree but pretty cool all the same, mist in the valleys, ridges shading into grey in distance etc.

Having coffee now. Was tempted to go back to bed but given might want to do this again tomorrow plus fact I want to be leaving here not long after sunrise to get down in time for 7am bus Thursday means shifting to an "earlier" sleep schedule (if that happens) wouldn't hurt.

Sky borderline light as I set out. Trail not too scary in dark, I mostly was just focussed on (actual, not phone) torch beam and where to put my feet and not getting lost. Howler monkeys definitely add atmosphere and although I dismissed most rustles in the undergrowth as iguanas the idea there might be a viper or a mountain lion impossible to completely eradicate. :-)

Woke up a couple of times in the night (including 2250ish and was shocked to see time as it felt like 3am) but not in a bad way and did broadly sleep well.

1806 In common area writing this, been sitting reasonably comfortably in hammock "in" (it's open air) dorm for an hour or so.

Everything's OK and not a bad day but feel vaguely flat. Maybe mildly edgy about airbnb, I WAed them this afternoon but not seen response yet.

Feet hurting, walked loads - already noted this morning's dawn walk, then also walked out to waterfall (well there are several, but main one) and did upper and lower falls (walked - with shoes on - through water to get to both, also did a bit of abortive "climbing" in order to try to get up before I realised where trail was), then slogged back and did the Loope Grande trail. All quite cool really but I was exhausted - mainly feet.

Cooked when got back, ate and was feeling sweaty as hell while eating but then went and had a shower and v bad shave (there is a mirror hanging by showers) and (I think before all that) did some laundry but the sink has a super baulky tap (no stop, so if you turn it off "hard" it goes past and drenches you with a massive spray) and is huge and slightly dirty so I had to wash in running water and soap didn't really "work" . Not a huge deal but not ideal, have hung clothes up on rather full lines, no pegs so fingers crossed.

Would kind of like coffee but kitchen a bit occupied. I may brave it anyway TBH.

Something - probably me - smells vaguely "not dirty but kind of river-ish" . I am wearing mostly clean clothes, though it may be coming from my still-damp shoes.

No, just had another try for coffee but four people in kitchen and someone is using the one (gas) kettle. Not utterly gagging. Some guy (prob staff/volunteer) has turned up with a load of beer and ice and everyone seems v excited - I am kind of not, I was semi-planning not to drink here (and also was kind of fantasising about trying the Pilsen doble malta 6% when I get back to civilisation).

I managed to get my power bank on charge midday-ish between the two trails and it's still charging but hasn't even got up to three of four dots full yet - third dot is still flashing. Will be OK but bit crap.

I am probably going to bed earlyish but not just now.

Moderate sized spider on floor near bunk earlier (during day), it was hiding on daypack. It scuttled off sharpish though. Saw another one near dark on coming back from hammock. Fingers crossed none in bed but probably unlikely and not too worried.

airbnb host has replied saying they'll meet me at the bus terminal! Trying to put then off and explain that I won't have internet (because of course Claro don't make it easy to top up your credit, because why make it easy for people to give you money). They say they are 2.5km from centre but I will just have to walk it, and if I want to see anything of San Isidro I will have to walk it at least twice a day. Still, at least they do seem to expect me and are not saying stuff like "oh, that listing should have been cancelled months ago" .

Part of the problem with getting coffee is that because it's a hostel you "have" to clean everything as soon as you're finished with it, but of course the damn coffee sock is hot immediately after use and it's just generally an enormous faff with other people in the kitchen.

YAY! The airbnb is not really in San Isidro. The rough map shown when I booked implied it was, but it is not.

I am wondering if I should just cancel the fucking deceptive arsed shit. I feel stressed and fuck and of course I have shitty internet and people are talking round me and I feel pissed off.

But if I cancel this how the fuck will I ever get out of this shithole? Nowhere has any fucking buses to anywhere. Maybe I should just double back via somewhere like Uvita, probably doable via a chain of buses although maybe not as perhaps they all run once a day or something like that.

Fuck a doodle fucking do. Fuckety fuckety fuck.

1839 Trying to stay calm. I have free cancellation until 2pm-ish tomorrow so unless internet here utterly craps out I do not have to rush into a decision. Guide book says few recommended accom options in SI centre anyway. Not super happy, but gut feeling is I just suck this up - but it feels *super* fucking deceptive.

It would be nice if they did pick me up, but because I don't have data and Claro didn't warn me so I had the option to *maybe* top up first (tho there's no Claro shop in PJ so maybe not - in theory Claro could *tell me* how to top up via ccard, but why do that? There is a Kolbi shop in PJ - with razor wire which you could slice your fingers open on simply by raising arms about your head - but for better or worse I'm with Claro).

They are being super nice and insistent about picking me up but what happens if this 9am bus *doesn't* exist and I can't tell them what's happening?

1846 Making coffee, kitchen is empty tho lots of chat in common area. Trying to chill. It feels like midnight with it being so dark etc.

1857 Got coffee. Trying to be calm. I think I will go with this SI accom, if I just spend three nights/two days hanging out in this suburb that's fine. The alternative is to try to sort out accom in PJ for one night via shitty net connection here and then spend the night in a mad panic of booking when I already know it is a complete mare.

They also seem really nice and helpful, I just don't really want to be stranded and leave them hanging around for me and cause ill feeling. I guess if I am *not* on the bus I can probably trog over to the old hostel and sneak onto their wifi and/or ask nicely if I can use it, or perhaps use some cafe wifi or something if there is such a place, in order to notify accom of delays.

Am I going to be forced to try to top up Claro early (and thus not quite have the 15 day packet reach to the final day) via the crappy internet here? I could in theory do it post-midnight Thursday but internet doesn't nec reach to dorms here.

Beyond the modern cathedral (worth a look if I *can* walk into SI one day from this suburb) there isn't much to see in SI according to guidebook and no huge loss if I don't see much of city proper.

1914 OK, I think I see how it's possible to top up Claro via web. Of course it may not *work* when I try it, and the damn 15 day thing means I kind of don't want to do it until Thursday and if I'm doing it "at dawn-ish" it will be harried as fuck but it may be doable. (Or of course the net access here may fuck up just when it's semi-critical.)

Listening to mixed German-French group speak in English. Don't feel left out as such as I have been sitting here fiddling with phone like mad. Also the youngish German girl (is it Sandra? it's too dark to see, half suspect not) seems mildly annoying (eg she did workaway on project to tell Mayan women their rights in the north of Guatemala as they're so discriminated against - I mean, *maybe* they are, but this kind of shit just strikes me as so wanky) and I don't desperately long to be in the conversation.

The WA chat died with them saying "don't worry, I will work out when bus arrives" after I tried to explain I might not *get* on the bus due to some random wankery and didn't want them to be stuck waiting for me. But since that's an amicable note and it may be I can say "it's fine, I will prob have internet after all" I will keep quiet for now.

I could top up early and still only pay for the 15 days but all else being equal it would be nice to have mobile data the day I'm hanging around at the airport for hours - yes there might be free wifi, but there might not, and/or it might want e-mail address off me to spam me forever etc etc.

I could also maybe do a near-negligible CRC1000 top up for 300MB of data (and unlimited WA, but as SIM is in G5 with VPN and WA is on K1 that doesn't work great) and keep data off and "hope" that 300MB is enough to get me through the airbnb arrival. But we'll see.

Things seems mostly kinda sorted and I feel a bit more relaxed, but no denying all this has been a bit of a downer. This sort of thing is the problem with airbnb, you don't know where you're really getting - in hindsight they *didn't* even show an approx area indicator, but maybe I missed it. Fuck knows.

The host does seem super helpful though which contributes to my desire not to cancel. Also as I prob already said, I already flipped out while in PJ trying to find *somewhere* I can go by bus from here and get accom so best not to start from scratch again. Retracing steps is maybe doable but since I came into peninsula by boat it's all really "asymmetrical" - it's *probably* doable to get from here to (say) Uvita in a moderate number of hours in a single day, but it's far from certain, even ignoring lack of desire to backtrack.

They're *not* as annoying but these two youngish German women give off a whiff of that slightly smug "political elite trainee/academic" vibe that annoying Swedish woman in Tamarindo did. Tempting to go off on a political rant here but that is *not* what this blog is for, so I'll just take it as read that Future Steve can fill in the blanks, and if not it's hardly a huge deal. Maybe I'm just jealous of the confidence they exhibit, but I don't think that's the primary thing - confident people aren't exactly super rare.

Still, it's 1925 and I have half a cup of coffee and I will probably be going to bed anyway soon (vaguely plan to do dawn hike up to Gotogo lookout again tomorrow) and *not* specifically to get away from this.

(Actually one of the two annoyingish women might be French. They are speaking English but that's because they're in a mixed language group of German/French people, I think.)

1930 There's a general movement to cleaning up I think. I might go wash up cups in a minute etc.

1951 In bed. Still no one in bunk above me. Not feeling too bad overall.

I do kind of feel on the one hand this place is somewhere cool and unusual and if I'd come here with more time in hand (eg heading "into" peninsula, not with the tourist desert north-but-not-on-coast of here to cross) I could easily have seen myself deciding to stay an extra few days. OTOH I have now walked most of trails and with luck can have a chilled-ish day walking the remaining ones and maybe just trying to chill out sitting up at GTG lookout for a big chunk of time (not just dawn) and given (partly my own fault - last night just bad luck but not my fault, tonight my distraction/stress over onward travel/accom prob helped isolate me) I haven't really hit it off with people here (tho I could also imagine getting better know if I spent say 5-6 days here and made an effort) and I also don't feel completely gutted at knowing tomorrow is last full day.

I could see myself coming back here if I do return to CR - it's certainly cheap and nice and interesting and vaguely friendly feeling, and I can't help feel some temptation to do something multi-day in/around Corcovado even if it's more a grim challenge than an enjoyable experience, so there is stuff to kind of come back for. And popping over to peninsula to/from Golfito perhaps en route between Panama and CR in one direction or another wouldn't be too inconvenient.

Anyway, let's lie down and turn light off etc. It's 1957.

PS Did speak briefly with Sandra this morning while having coffee post dawn walk, if didn't already say. Tiny bit awkward but not too bad. Also 50ish volunteer guy (who had come back with beer, nearly unrecognisable after a severe haircut/shave in town) spoke to me briefly as I was making my coffee tonight. As I say, I feel I've been the "problem" with socialising tonight, not anyone else. (Written "else" three times, phantom auto-deleter removing it each time as I moved fingers away from keyboard to tap send...)