Puerto Jiménez, Saturday

Sat 18th 1928 In deserted kitchen of hostel. been deleting some photos from Google Photos (pain in the neck) to free up space. Two women in here chatting when I came back just after sunset, I said hi but didn't join in and they left while I was making coffee. One came back and cooked and didn't talk and I think staff guy from yday was around on his own phone a bit. A couple turned up vaguely middayish and I said hi but didn't really speak, and when I came back 3pm-ish there seemed to be quite a few people around. There is apparently a female-only dorm round far side and also two big rooms (one for family, one  a couple), tho not sure anyone is in the latter two.

Woke up prob 930ish, feeling bit run down but prob just thirst. Actually got up 10ish, ended up having quite a decent chat in Spanish with hostel staff woman - I asked her about boats to Golfito, she showed me timetable and I did pop over there in time for the 2pm boat today and saw where to go and spoke to MoS selling tickets etc. However, looking tonight when got back for accom in Golfito, neither hostelworld nor booking.com has anything remotely cheap - absolute was about USD57 for two nights, but that was non-dorm several km outside town. I haven't checked airbnb yet. It is *possible* I'll still go to Golfito by boat just for the hell of it, even if I maybe just jump straight on a bus out, but not sure.

Towards end of chat with woman (who incidentally asked if I was Argentinian - perhaps a slightly weird complement to my Spanish being good enough that she wasn't inclined to assume I was British/American) I carelessly lifted the kettle, snagged the cord (no cordless base) and hot water splashed on my right hand. Luckily it wasn't absolutely boiling nor a huge quantity, I ran it under tap for ages and then dug a block of ice out of freezer and put bit of water on top of that and held it on there and as of now it doesn't hurt and I suspect I've mostly got away with it - it hurt a bit when I was walking round this afternoon (so nerves not damaged!) and while web suggests mild burns *may* blister after multiple hours, I think the worst I'm looking at it is a smallish blister or two tomorrow and I think (touch wood) given it doesn't hurt now I may get away without even that.

2022 OK, had shower and since no one else currently in dorm did proper wash of a set of uw and the top I wore today. Have "packed" for trip tomorrow and come back out to sit in comfyish chair in shared "lounge" while I write this, tho prob move towards bed soon-ish. Different woman (who said "hola" to me but no chat) cooking in kitchen. If anyone wants to talk that's cool but I'm not desperate. And I do want to write this and I "need" to go to bed early - tomorrow probably be slightly keener to chat.

So after leaving hand in ice water for ages I went out for a walk, forgetting to take bottle of water but not huge deal. Went to muelle as noted and found boat ticket place, then sat on beach for a bit and mulled slightly. I figured I would do the tour tomorrow assuming my hand didn't get any worse. By this point I think it was 2ish so was getting a *tiny* bit edgy that I'd miss the office opening (tho this guy seems to open in five minute intervals throughout the day) and I headed back over there (via airfield roads as I did yesterday - surprising number of light Sansa aircraft taking off and both yday and today just by chance I got to watch a take off by hanging round a minute or two as I went past airfield) and asked and yes availability. I asked for price in colones (as while I think I'm fine, I am now close enough to end of trip that esp as here I *can* use dollars as an emergency reserve plus I am going to wd some dollars at airport if necessary to take some home for future trips, always good to have some, and as I was saying I want to run down my reserve of emergency colones - this will also be less of an issue from now on where I will be in towns which have cash machines, rather than these weird "frontier" places like BD and Montezuma) but the price he quoted was like 3.9% over the market rate so I went out and got some more USD from BCR machine and went back.

Luckily as I went to BCR machine I saw unmarked red minibus waiting and as I had read the bus to DB was a red minibus I spoke to driver and yes he is the service to DB and I checked times (11am is the one for me, 7am stupidly early and I *think* he said 4pm but not sure, too late anyway - the times are also on BD hiking place website but seemed prudent to check when I was speaking to driver) and it's 4k. Also incidentally 3.5k for boat to Golfito (hostel woman and MoS at dock said this).

Screen/keyboard going bananas with phantom touches tonight, I rebooted the damn thing and it maybe helped a bit and maybe didn't.

(Two women from earlier now talking in kitchen and I am slightly jealous but not much. It sounds oddly annoying in an ill-defined way, even tho it's just travel plan type stuff. One says "wow" and "that sounds cool" type stuff a lot and just said "life is good" and I dunno, it seems (unfairly) a special kind of vapid.)

So after booking tour (and unprompted mentioning my "dietary requirements" as there is apparently a lunch, guy said when i asked it's a "big casado" ) I went and had casado de chuleta at Los Dragones next door as yday and then back to hostel (when I found all those new people here as noted earlier) via supermarket on corner where I got supplies for BD except I also want three onions but will buy them tomorrow as they will be slightly fresher etc, notwithstanding yes onions are relatively stable to store.

I then grabbed frozen bottle of water from freezer and went down to the beach just to kill time until dark. Bottle had completely thawed (but still cold) by time I made it to beach (15ish mins), FWIW. Sat on beach, mulled vaguely. Few planes coming in and out of nearby airfield. Also towards 515ish a stiff but welcome cool sea breeze kicked in and a load of birds ("condors" and also some that to my mind looked like of vaguely "pterodactyl" -ish (!)) were soaring around scarcely flapping their wind and with very low ground speed and they were silhouetted mostly-black across the sky (not dark yet remember, 30ish mins from sunset) and this was really very cool and I'm glad I saw it. Came back 15ish mins before sunset, getting dark as came back but not quite fully dark. Little bit edgy but nothing major, not as dark as yday of course.

I then did the fiddling with (yeah, there's something weirdly annoying about the way these two girls - one US and one Australian I think - banter, it's a bit stereotypical not-but-closest-mental-reference-I-have-now "valley girl" vapidity, which is unfair of me but there you go) phones to back up photos to free up space on camera card for tomorrow and to charge battery and looked at Golfito accom and found out there's nothing cheaply decent (and remember this is to start next Thu, so not exactly last minute).

OK, so I think that's everything. I might move towards bed TBH, I just need to clean my teeth but if I want I can research Golfito alternative accom options etc in bed and I can do that tomorrow and I don't see much chance of getting into a conversation with either or both of these women or anyone else and neither do I desperately desire to and on similar grounds I'm not anxious to sit here listening etc. I am borderline tired so might go to bed and once I've got bulk of typing out of way as I have now being in bed using phone is not that much less comfortable than being in this chair.

The fucking auto-delete and the pressure it puts on me to type constantly (even tapping elsewhere to move cursor to fix a mistake a few words back is fraught as it may then start to auto-delete the older bit, or may delete what I just typed in the second before I can make the tap) is seriously annoying. Phone was fucked in this way before the trip but nothing I can do about it and it was/is borderline good enough given difficulty of finding eg suitable bluetooth keyboards to allow typing on phone with no hw keyboard of its own, tho I hope by next trip I will have *something* better.

Anyway, yes, I think I shall move towards bed.

2056 In bed. Think I'm set for tomorrow. Incidentally the three "single" women are probably all in the female-only dorm, which may also account for the apparent matiness of the two having the unfairly-judged annoying conversation earlier. The couple who arrived middayish are in this dorm with me, they came back about time I was going to bed and seem to be getting ready for bed themselves - this is fine, just noting for "completeness"/" atmosphere".

Will send this now I think, as going to read in bed and be "willing" to drift off now.

FWIW I think today was definitely not a "wasted" day - I enjoyed Spanish chat with hostel woman this morning, and seeing those birds wheeling over the beach not long before sunset was very cool and maybe something that will stick with me.