Quepos, Saturday

Sat 4th 0842 Woke up about 7ish mildly desperate for piss, finally got up 8ish (?) despite late (not very drunk) night.

Before I lose times, I asked at bus terminal on way out to sunset watch about bus to Uvita and guy wrote the four times on a paper and I'll lose it soon so they are 6am, 9:30am, 2pm and 5:30pm. No mention of the 11am bus which *was* on the company that runs it's own web site, but maybe these ones are safer for a just turn up and go deal. 9:30am may be doable without too much pain despite being on wrong side of ferry.

0853 So last night was a French-Canadian guy's birthday and though I felt a bit awkward about it as had hardly spoken I went out with them - fortunately thanks to influence of Syrian guy (who is 66 incidentally) we went to a bar/casino (found by wandering round) before they went to a club about midnight (me and Syrian guy didn't go in). Not a bad night, and stayed chatting with Syrian guy until maybe 1:15amish when the others came back and bit of chat with them.

Feel vaguely guilty at not "doing much" today (well, not planning to do much) but prob OK. I might go sit down by harbour for a bit for the breeze, it would also be good to see if I can find a cheap barber to shave my head.

Have messaged tomorrow's accom to see if can arrange pickup from ferry about 11:30 - I want to eg try to return as-yet-undrunk beer bottle to supermarket and given people are nice-ish here I will probably hang around and have some watermelon for breakfast or something til check out at 11, and as it's nominal midday checkin at new place this fits quite well.

1253 Pretty lazy day. Popped out and got hair cut at Kevin's just up the road - 2k, not bad. Considered buying postcard in souvenir shop but they were all generic CR ones so not ideal, plus I realised post office prob shut by time I could write them today and it's Sunday tomorrow and I'm moving so they'd get crumpled in bag. Maybe in Uvita. Went down to waterfront and enjoyed breeze briefly (may pop out again in a bit) and then to supermarket for 415g steak, a jalapeño to slice and cook with it and a watermelon for tomorrow's breakfast and a new 1.8l milk. Not super restrained but not too bad - bit tempted by some of the sweet bread snack things but resisted.

No reply from tomorrow's accom yet.

1556 Poking at guide book, maybe Palmar after Uvita - the lithic spheres sound oddly call, and it's near Sierpe so on the way towards Puerto Jimenez. OTOH I could see it being a good spot to visit on the way back north again (probably before Buenos Aires/San Isidro) as well, so maybe if there is a bus eg Uvita-Sierpe or Uvita-Puerto Jimenez that might work better. Without having read guide book or researched kind of thinking it might be nice to get a boat across to Golfito and start back northbound from there, which might avoid a modest amount of backtracking.

Quite lazy and slightly boring afternoon. Oscillating between seafront where there's a breeze and hostel where I can read etc or chat but no breeze. Had bit of chat with a drink seller on seafront. Bought some coconut water from little stall near supermarket on way back, not amazing but good to try it and is slightly growing on me - have offered it round a bit too.

Feeling a little bloated but not in a terribly bad way.

Getting *slightly* edgy I'll run out of time "halfway through" visiting that peninsula area in south. Probably won't and hardly end of world if I do. Slightly jealous of other people I'm meeting who seem to be on open-ended trips, but then I "could" do that if I made certain changes. And except for cost of flights being more significant on short-ish trips, nothing major (money, but not necessarily cripplingly) stops me doing more travel, just in up-to-90-day chunks.

May go to watch sunset, will perhaps not have a beer given I have this litre in hostel fridge (and it's glass bottle so don't want to drink out of it at beach). Half wish I hadn't bought it but hardly a big deal and had there not been that unexpected birthday excursion I would have drunk it myself/shared it out at hostel last night.

Ah, guide book says 5-7 days is about right for leisurely exploration of Osa peninsula and you could do a bit more. So even if I'm inefficient and/or lazy, given I'm (assuming nothing odd happens) expecting to leave Uvita next Saturday with I think a whisker under 4 weeks left on the clock, it seems quite likely I'll be heading back north feeling relatively unhurried with still about 2 weeks left on the clock.

Corocovado sounds a logistic nightmare based on guide book. However, I am assuming the situation wrt organised tours will be clearer once I am in Sierpe/Bahia Drake/Puerto Jimenez and if push comes to shove I am willing to pay a few hundred dollars for a "memorable" experience etc.

2243 Bed.