Quepos, Monday

Mon 6th 0935 Incidentally thoroughly confused about what food is left by old guests and "shared" and what is private. Fuck knows.

Sitting with weakish coffee (sock type drip thing) in kitchen. Jack in hammock, some other not super communicative guests (some of who seemed to feel it smart to leave kettle on lit stove after they'd finished with it??) around earlier but gone.

Slept OKish, woke up and didn't look at time but must have been super early. Maybe got up 8ish but that feels wrong, maybe earlier. Sweating a bit and feeling inappropriately dressed, though TBH not sure it would make much difference. Illicitly washed a top after cleaned teeth - tap water not supposed to be drinkable here and forgot to take water bottle so bit shitty cleaning teeth with no water.

Slightly torn about staying on. Gut feeling is I will, while I have vague iffiness re ability to get access to space in kitchen to cook as more guests turn up, the reality is that with essentially nothing to do all day I can almost certainly manage. And the idea of (albeit inappropriately dressed and hot) doing very little except reading and the odd walk on the beach etc for a few days is quite appealing.

Slightly uncommunicative maybe French couple this morning talking in mix of English and French about Sierpe and Bahia Drake (they had a guide book, I think) and filled with vague irrational worries it will be "too busy" when I get there and no space for me in accom/tours.

All that notwithstanding I do incline to the extra night. For all it's crude and superficially overpriced except by CR standards, it *is* a private room, the idea of playing Robinson Crusoe for a bit is vaguely appealing and I also kind of feel I don't want to be rushed/rushing. If I am just thoroughly sick of doing nothing, eating tuna+rice+beans and drinking warmish beer on the day of the third night and one more day feels undesirable, that's a shame but at least I'll (as per F33W?) feel I've thoroughly exhausted the appeal here, am bored and be keen to move on. And if - as I suspect - that doesn't happen, at least with a fourth night I am more likely to feel "this is/was fun, but it is time to move on" . And as per itinerary sketched out other day despite vague running out of time worries, the reality is that I have plenty of time to see Osa peninsula and head back north without being frantically rushed.

Charging power bank on table here BTW, as in hostel dorms (TBH everywhere has felt pretty "reputable" and like no one would steal, but maybe fool's paradise) charge+power bank sufficiently low value I am comfortable leaving them there all day unattended, though if power bank hits full will take back to room anyway.

Oddly edgy about "committing" to the extra night. Technically I can leave it til later, although the hostel in Uvita may book up for the night I'm "moving" to the end of my stay.

Given how early I woke up and presumably the locals do too it's probably not a big deal for them to arrange a taxi for me to ferry with plenty of time in hand to get 930 bus to Uvita, and although I'd *rather* get there early and not stuck with a huge wait at the bus station, there is a 1430 IIRC bus as a fallback and *maybe* that 1100 one listed on bus co website but not mentioned by guy at terminal.

I was a tiny bit (almost pleasantly) cold in bed this morning (probably borderline daylight, hard to remember) but pulling the thin sheet up over me fixed that just fine. I did feel vaguely unpleasantly drowsy in bed but also sort of nice. Hard to describe.

0954 Just checked and the hostel in Uvita does have availability (for a fresh booking) on the extra night. Would still be good to sort this soon. I really do think it's silly to worry about "kitchen availability" with so much time available. I feel slightly uncomfortable with a few people sitting around solo and all of us not talking, but we don't need to talk, I don't desperately want to talk and it's fine. Also all else being equal I will naturally feel more comfortable one way or another the longer I'm here.

I don't think I'm adding an extra night gratuitously in an attempt to "pretend" I'm unhurried. Draft itinerary kind of proves I have plenty of time for what I'd half-planned to do, and this is a fairly unusual and interesting and mostly-pleasant experience.

And just to be clear, any possible unforseen issues about getting the 0930 bus to Uvita apply equally whether I stay an extra night or not.

It's perhaps silly but I might wait until it's "time" (got to spread things out over the day) to cook, obv pop out to supermarket for supplies (and maybe a beer, if I'm willing to trust evap cooling experiment, although maybe best to go buy one 5pmish) and cook and if it goes OK (having to wait an hour to get access would not automatically constitute "not OK" ) I'll probably feel happier about the wisdom of the extra night, although I'm not sure this is rational. Realistic and probably unlikely worst case result of delaying is just paying a few extra dollars for a dorm bed on the moved night.

Just FTR my room is the lower left of the block of four - the upper two rooms have balconies and presumably sea view, but I didn't want to pay the extra for one and I don't regret that at all.

FWIW youngish French couple I somewhat unfairly branded uncommunicative are booking via a phone call a room somewhere for tonight, so I guess they're leaving today.

Rambling but laundry this morning bit stuffed by oddly narrow plughole in stone (concrete?) sink stopping my universal plug keeping water in. But now I know I could stopper it up with a sock; I just didn't have one handy.

I thinkg TBH there's an element that needing to decide whether to exercise my option to stay another night is slightly corrosive - I am "hanging around" trying to decide, rather than it being a done deal where I just make the best of it.

1117 Killing time a bit uncomfortably. Will try to hold off on shopping expedition for lunch til 12. Just remembered I asked Marco last night about difference between Imperial Original and Silver and IIRC he said Silver is less malty while Original has a stronger flavour - this affects the colour of the beer too, which I will never have seen (even if I remembered the colours without seeing them side by side) as I nearly always drink out of a can and probably haven't seen Silver in a glass. On this basis (and IIRC, which I may not, previous inclinations) I probably should prefer Original, if both are available.

1142 It's a small thing but I'm getting a bit fed up of not having a cloth to dry my hands on after I wash them. Have to keep leaving them wet or using trousers, both of which are unsatisfactory.

1148 Just had brief chat with owner (in English) as he brought some water out for the communal kitchen supply - apparently they extract it from a well with solar power (electric pump? didn't ask) and then filter it. I think based on overhearing something yesterday at some points in year they use rainwater, but not now (dry season of course).

1313 Been out for food. Jack cooking as half expected and youngish French couple (she appears very fluent in multiple languages though) are still here too say maybe they are staying. He is eating so maybe they've already cooked. I will wait for Jack to finish, I'm not actually desperately hungry - but obv need to cook at some point, and it's something to do - but rather not be trying to squash round cooker with Jack, plus rather annoyingly French bloke is at the sit down table eating while she's eating at the high bench so they're really occupying up plenty of space.

1351 OK, don't actually care but taxi coming for young French couple in a few minutes. Waiting for Jack to finish eating before I cook.

FTR I have white salt-sweat (I assume) tide marks showing on my black trousers. Deeply unhappy with clothing issues, although TBH my brief attempts at analysing this (practical and mental aspects) stumble on my extreme reluctance to continually be slathering myself with sunblock on practical, cost and "does the damn stuff actually work?" grounds. I don't *think* it would make much difference if I had an absolutely amazing body, I don't think that's a big part of it.

1601 Amused to note there's a copy of Robinson Crusoe on the table - someone, perhaps Jack or a new guy I have exchanged a few words with, left it there.

1630 Yay, massive booking fuckery. booking.com won't let me change the dates - when I do, it says "price has changed due to restrictions" but doesn't, you know, *show* me the new price or anything - it acts like an error. And if I search for a fresh booking at same place it's now USD54ish+tax despite fact my existing booking is at USD33ish and I can book the one extra night at USD11+tax, so I honestly don't see why I can't just change my dates to be one day later and pay virtually nothing different. I have messaged property but no guarantee they can or will help in time - if not resolved by midnight I will have to cancel anyway otherwise I will be stuck with unwanted booking.

I feel vaguely guilty but I have booked for the whole of the new three nights at another (higher rated, but it has a pool which I don't like) hostel in Uvita with free cancellation until end of tomorrow. It is about 40+tax but not sure, feeling a bit frantic. So it is now certain I will be cancelling *a* booking and I generally prefer not to, but they offer the option and they (booking, at least, not individual hostels) are being awkward so.

All this has at least cemented my "I want to say here another night" feeling, if only out of bloody-mindedness - I don't want to cancel the extra night here just because booking.com website is being unreasonably stroppy about modifying my existing booking.

Have vague feeling my ears are a bit sunburned but I definitely put sunblock on this morning and can't seriously believe I forgot my ears. They feel vaguely sticky when I touch them but it could just be sweat. FWIW beyond 14 mins walk to supermarket and maybe a bit of sun-getting-lower-coming-in-sideways into kitchen (which has a high roof and open-air sides) I haven't really been out so if I *did* forget to do them I might hope we're not looking at major burning.

French woman from older couple offered me a coffee while I was fretting and fiddling with phones, I accepted and hope I managed to appear gracious. She speaks moderate English and a little Spanish - I asked, we didn't have a proper chat yet.

Altho I have my two cans I will prob pop back out to LJ2 for a litre bottle or something in the next half hour or so.

"Hostel" (let's just call it that) internet is down, so had to do all this via hotspot from G5 (K1 has booking.com password and by using Chrome on it I avoid "it's your browser" problems), lucky really I *do* have mobile data as otherwise I could have got caught out here. And still might I suppose.

Great. Auto message from new accom saying no check in before 2pm unless you pay USD35 extra. This isn't a *killer* but given I could potentially be there 12ish if all goes well it's a bit annoying - they seem to be implying you can't get in at all, though haven't studied message too closely. FFS.

1804 somewhat confusing message back (not helped by booking.com auto-translating so I thought they were writing in English so I wrote in English when they were actually writing in Spanish) but may be OK, see what happens.

Went out for beer, nothing in fridge (which has broken sliding door) v cold and only litres of Imperial Silver and there's the returnable deposit shit *and* the bottles had caps and I hadn't thought to check if hostel had an opener so got 2x473ml Imperial Original for 2500 - shit (they were also only borderline cold) but better than bar next door. had a can on beach just because I could with a can unlike a bottle but sunsets here not up to much tonight or last night, v cloudy etc. dogs came out with me. Little yappy fucker squeezed under some barbed wire and pursued me on approach to hostel gate but not too big a deal, and one of the hostel dogs also followed me and felt vaguely protected.

One of the four hostel dogs - the one that sort of snapped when I was being shown round - had a bit of a go at me earlier as I walked out to get beers, but woman there subdued it. It has been wandering round grounds and I think it's ignored me then so maybe it just doesn't like me near-ish the house.

Half wonder if all the hassle (even before this date shifting fuckery) of extending by a day has kind of negated the benefit of *having* the extra day - arguably today has been spoiled by it - but I think that's probably a silly argument.

Feel sweaty as fuck despite it being dark now.

Phantom keyboard gestures auto-deleting text firing a bit.

1937 Somewhat convivial evening with older French couple (Patricia and Joseph) and Jack - Jack speaks French (he may be Dutch, but not sure) but I could kinda sorta understand a bit (I just cannot speak even schoolboy French since I stopped using it and the Spanish drove it out) and although I felt a bit of a third wheel it was quite nice.

Still exchanging slightly cross-purposes messages with the hostel re change of dates, I don't think this is language issues but a certain carelessness/different people dealing with it, but who knows? Apparently price was higher cos of some festival ending today, which is fine, but neither my old nor new dates overlap the festival so why is this an issue? *Maybe* some IT limitation means this is the "restriction" put on booking.com to avoid some kind of exploits re date changes and the festival, but still. It's a fact *I* cannot change the dates and I'm asking them to but since they seem to keep missing the point they haven't. If they don't sort it for me by 11pm-ish or maybe earlier I'll just have to cancel the booking because otherwise I'll be stuck with the old dates. Just maybe - the "new" hostel is not much more expensive and has a better rating, but I have an irrational-ish preference for the old one - if I do cancel, tomorrow once festival has ticked off the calendar and there's one less booking because of my cancellation, I will be able to do a new booking at old hostel for the right dates at a decent price and then cancel the booking at new hostel I made this afternoon to hedge my bets.

Moderate amount of lightning and little bit on thunder IIRC earlier. Jack says it might have rained a bit once in the week he's been here but he's not sure. So although to me this kind of weather presages rain, I am not sure it's like that here.

While a smidge awkward due to language etc it was v kind of French couple to offer me wine etc (which I accepted, but declined food). And this kind of thing is something there's (probabilistically) an extra night of with the extra night's stay, even if (which I think is overblown) the hassles associated with staying an extra night and bumping up existing accom have totally ruined today.

2233 Right, still no final response - conversation died about 1840. Don't like to on all sorts of levels but going to have to cancel the booking, I can't wait til tomorrow in hope they make the change for me as by then they'll have me over a (modest) barrel.

Been watching some YT in bed in room, did some semi-illicit laundry of underwear and had a shower first. Bit warm and sticky weather still but not terrible.

2237 OK, cancelled. I do at least have *a* booking at another hostel (with a damn pool) at only slightly more money and I just had a quick attempt to rebook at original hostel and it still shows as USD54ish. I *may* try this again tomorrow, but tbh it's not as if the difference in hostels is huge and if I do rebook the fact there was a cancelled booking may confuse matters and it's probably not guaranteed that I can check into the original hostel early either.

Mildly peeved but it's all OK really.

Kind of wish I could have shaved earlier as proto-beard lightly irritating but there was no mirror in bathroom apart from maybe feeling a smidge rushed.

Let's actually get "properly" into bed and be willing to fall asleep etc. As I say, mildly peeved but there isn't an enormous problem here. If I decide to keep new booking I will request a lower bunk tomorrow and if they can't do it it isn't the end of the world.

Oh, there was a biggish frog hopping up against wall in "corridor" outside room when I came back earlier. Wondered what it was but didn't flip out and quite cool to see it.