Uvita-Bahía Drake

Sat 11th 2149 Oddly, despite it being notionally desirable, lying here in bed in dorm on my own makes me feel a little bit of a sad loser whereas I felt fine before.

0721 Slept pretty badly, probably nerviness about getting bus/boat on time. Had big dump already but having couple of cups of coffee. *Not* packed yet as want to minimise early disturbance in dorm. Asked reception and they said USD15 for morning boat, 20 for afternoon - with luck I think I will be OK for morning boat but we'll see.

I think my nominal 50ml sunblock is about empty. I got enough out for today but it was a tiny bit of a struggle. Will probably top it up from the new large bottle once I get to new accom.

Have packed leftover rice/coffee/spices (well, I have them in carrier bag on table to take up and pack), I may want/need to cook in BD. Finished my milk in coffee and drank last little bit, obviously not taking milk with me. Rotten milk still seems to be on side in kitchen where I was told to leave it, unless it's been emptied but left there, fingers crossed no one knocks it over (though it is a screw lid so probably be OK).

1748 Bit emotionally rocky earlier/was a bit of a whiny bitch. Much ecotwattery however.

Bus to Palmar Norte fine, except possibly delayed slightly due to some kind of cycle road race. Also it cost 3.5k which felt insane and given when we got to PN and went past where Google Maps showed the terminal and I asked the driver if we were going closer to the terminal and he said no, I went to get off and he just drove on, so I half wonder if he was deliberately overcharging and/or jerking me around. Anyway.

Guy (honestly don't remember if Spanish or English) on street started talking to me as I got off the bus cursing the driver (I also semi needed a piss, which didn't help) explaining how I wouldn't get a bus to Sierpe in time for the boat. I was feeling ultra fucking suspicious and wanted to get my bearings so I told him I'd just get the afternoon one. He told me that one was often full. So I said I'd just stay in Sierpe. He finally got the message and to be fair (as it turns out) while he was probably a taxi driver of some stripe touting for business he was probably telling the truth *and* he did point me to bus stop round corner.

And there's a Sunday timetable which has no chance of connecting with the 11:30ish boat. Because obviously while fleecing tourists is the primary national industry, there's no need to actually arrange the Sunday timetable so tourists can get to their tourist places to be fleeced, is there?

Luckily a guy who I had seen on bus (but not spoken to) and who (when I spoke briefly to him at far end) turned out to live in Bahia Drake had also (unless this is a contrived setup) missed the bus and I suggested we share a taxi and like magic an unofficial type taxi driver turned up and offered to take us for 7k. It was all so rushed I didn't have time to check it was 7k for both. He was some sort of "taxi carga" and made me put my bag loose in the back of his pickup for (I think) traffic police reasons which I didn't like but I kind of felt I had to. We picked up a couple with a small kid part way to Sierpe and they got charged 1k each if I overheard correctly. Other guy sat in front and was talking to driver and I couldn't heard much.

Did wonder if I was going to get fucked over (eg 7k each) but I handed over 4k and no fuss made. Maybe overpaid but I was in a bit of a hole and this didn't overly bother me.

Tout type chaps all over us at Sierpe boat terminal place but the guy I'd come down with explained it to me and I sort of "went with it" and it was fine. Price USD20 not 15 as hostel said but they did quote that to all the tourists - no idea if locals pay that. More cheekily I asked (and again overheard this for other tourists) about paying in colones and the guy said 13k! That's a tasty markup over the market rate, which would be under 11k. I decided I'd use a scarce-ish USD20 bill after all - we didn't pay til we were underway on the boat.

Got to use toilets at (I think) La Perla del Sur restaurant/hotel at boat terminal for free and sit there waiting. They obviously get a fair bit of business from this. At 1.2k for a coffee or 2k for a natural with water I wasn't over-inclined to buy, but I did shove 300 (10% on whatever they didn't actually sell me) in the tips jar towards the end of my hour-ish wait there (thanks to getting that shared taxi we were there way earlier than most tourists so got to watch other people arrive).

Gonna have little break from writing now.

1813 For fuck's sake. Got to send a Mother's Day card - nothing says "I love you" like being socially compelled to send an overpriced piece of fucking cardboard - and of course you can't buy them in January so I couldn't simply leave one pre-written at home. (Yes, I thought about it.) So trying Moonpig and the fucking app has just crashed for the fourth time in a row when I select an address. Is this going to hurt them? No. I have a 40% discount on the insanely high price in the app as it's the first time I've used it, but because I *have* to send a fucking card I will instead have to use their fucking website instead and reward them for their incompetent shit.

Maybe I could just e-mail Mum a video of me burning a five pound note instead?

1829 Fairly prolonged power cut. Let me write more.

Boat ride nice enough, bit choppy towards end but nothing amazingly exciting or adventurous. Shoes off for landing which was OK if a minor faff, slightly more disconcertingly bags just handed out to us while standing in the water and risk of an accident a small concern. All OK as it happens but still.

Woman from accom waiting for me with a sign on beach, she walked with me back to the house (it's a smidge hard to find, but this meeting the boat thing seems a standard thing here for some reason) and told me where supermarkets and so forth were. I have no complaints re the accom - it is not luxurious and the shared bathroom is a smidge agricultural but for USD10/night+tax for a private room in a decent-ish location (place is v small) I am happy. A bit annoyingly (and only told when I asked, luckily before it was too late) woman advised me she always tells guests to drink bottled water - I didn't ask if this is excess caution or if it's different to other parts of CR here, I assume she has her reasons - so I popped back out to supermarket and got a 6l bottle for 2500. Jumping ahead, this is no bad thing as it means I've now contributed an extra single use plastic bottle use.

Because woman from accom took me round to a (the??) tour office and basically the attitude is a bit "fuck you, we're booked solid -  there are no booklets, the one tour which *isn't* sold out til the end of the month (!) is USD95 or that plus tax if you pay by card, take it or leave it" and when I booked it I was then told something about wearing closed shoes but then also asked if I didn't have sandals for getting in the boat, and told I couldn't take a single-use plastic bottle. I HATE AND DESPISE THIS UTTERLY FUTILE, INSULTING ECO-WANKERY. It does *not* reduce plastic bottle usage - note I already *had* a nice big "single use" plastic bottle I was going to take - and it really (excessively) put the edge on a bad mood from the sour taste of this booking the tour and the fact I'm here for five nights with just this one tour available.

It also means I'm likely to be thirsty as fuck the entire time (we have to be on the beach at 6am, and it finishes 2pm - going to have to be up 5am to try to have shit etc) since my re-usable water bottle is tiny. I bought a waxed paper carton of fruit juice in the supermarket and will take that in by way of trying to augment my supplies in a technically compliant way, but since IIRC you're not allowed to take your own food in they may kick off at this.

It rained this afternoon once back at accom so will have to lug fucking rain jacket and waterproof trousers with me too. And although no one said anything about swimming I'll have to take trunks and a towel just in case it turns out you have to swim 50m underground at some point and there's no choice but they didn't bother to mention it because everyone can swim and besides, they're booked solid for everything else and who cares about a tourist corpse, as long as it paid its USD95 and doesn't leave a single-use plastic bottle behind?

Power still out, it's vaguely eerie sitting on balcony outside room with near pitch black except phone screen. I haven't had a shower yet and really ought to have one soon but not doing it by torchlight if I can help it. Feeling a bit tired as well as pissed off, prob due to bad sleep last night.

I was bitching to myself after leaving fucking tour office and went to supermarket which works on the "if you have to ask you can't afford it" basis, because fuck all is actually labelled. I did get some stuff and it was moderately expensive but borderline OK - since there's no oil supplied (I asked) in actually not too bad accom kitchen I splurged on a small block of actual butter to cook with.

I half expected (not that I was feeling explicitly hungry) that eating would improve my mood and it did. After asking about drinking water I popped back out for a bit of a walk and to look round town a bit. There are some overpriced restaurants but there was alone one doing casado (albeit prob not including drink) at 3.5k and it does feel vaguely "small town" rather than "tourist trap" a bit.

I had mostly recovered my mood after eating and that walk. The single use plastic bottle thing really really pisses me off - and I'm *paying* these fucking bastards and thus "encouraging" their wanky policy - but it needn't be the end of the world. Oh, the tour includes lunch but no one asked if I had any special dietary requirements so I am not expecting it to be edible.

I was kind of feeling I might as well just have done the full-ish day tour to Corcovado from Uvita instead of come here at great hassle and expense to probably do the same fucking tour. However, it is vaguely cool to be here. While theoretically "lonely" in this accom rather than a hostel environment, it will be nice to have a private room for a few days and the accom is good value. There are also various other kinds of tours (eg a night walk, that self-guided walk Fernando told me about if I can find it) so I can probably fill my time comfortably without needing to book more of the "sorry, booked til end of month" tours I can't get on. I do *half* wonder if this is just the one tour office this accom owner has a relationship with, but based on speaking to people in Uvita I suspect these tours are somewhat centralised. I am just going to do the tour tomorrow and then maybe go speak to one or two other agencies tomorrow afternoon (probably after cooking a late lunch) and see what they say, and if there's nothing else during day and prices not too insane I may book a night walk.

OSM vaguely hints there is a bus across to near Puerto Jimenez, which might be quite cool rather than doubling back via the boat if it can be done. I will ask accom owner in a day or two about getting to PJ.

So as I say I had mostly recovered my equilibrium and wasn't feeling I made a massive blunder booking here for 5 nights (also if I *really* feel I want to leave after 4, which I probably won't, it is cheap enough I could just write off one night's money). But this vague feeling of tiredness and needing to be up earlier and still having to write this up and then the Moonpig app fuckery knocked me off-kilter again.

There is a lovely cat called Cleo (I think) here, which seems very friendly, which also helps.

If power doesn't come back I won't shower, but it would be good to, and also to rinse this top off for nth day in a row - I assume tomorrow will be a sweat fest, though I have no idea what it actually involves (because there's no need to describe the tour when it's take it or leave it, right) or how "hard" it might be in terms of walking etc.

There is a set of those three "laundry" type sinks outside shared bathroom here and a line with some pegs on shared balcony outside room so I washed my dirty underwear (properly with soap) and hung them up to dry earlier, which was also kind of nice. (Didn't ask permission on "easier to ask forgiveness" grounds, but also really don't see why this shouldn't be allowed/expected of me.)

Got to say my expectations for the tour are not high. It feels like the place is too popular and there's a corresponding arrogance and "take it or leave it, scumbag" attitude on the part of the tour operators and park authorities. I'm probably being unfair but still. I don't even know what the other "unavailable" tours involve - all I can say is that from seeing stuff outside the odd tour operator on my brief walk round town, there is the "La Sirena" (sp) one which is apparently *the* one to do (but which I assume you have to put your child's name down for before birth) but I don't know what that involves, and the others maybe seem a bit "swimming" /"watery" but really not sure. I have no idea if the La Sirena or whatever tour really *is* great or if it's just got caught up in some kind of popularity "death" spiral where everyone wants to do it so it's booked solid.

Power is still out.

Accommodation has also provided a towel, which is frankly a really nice touch. It's a bit annoying the shared bathroom is downstairs when I'm upstairs and I hope this power cut isn't typical (though I doubt it's specific to this accommodation) and the shared bathroom is a bit of a concrete untiled cubbyhole (perception - only been in it to use toilet once so far), but as I say for the money I am well happy.

Laura from Uvita hostel (mountain climbing woman, though apparently with ankle recovering from surgery) was doing some 22km/day two day hike in Corcovado with an overnight stay. This costs something like USD300! I have no idea how she booked this, and/or if this is the fabled La Sirena-or-whatever tour. I don't know if I could manage that although I suppose I might - I am not desperately upset at not doing this 22km/day thing, but it might be nice if I'd seen it offered and been able to make a conscious choice.

If I didn't say I was sort of "explicit" (not quite rude) in asking how much the USD95 for my tour would be in colones (dollars are pretty scarce and eg I want to keep 20 spare in case I need to get a boat out to avoid that ultra-shit 13k price) and to scrupulously fair the woman did offer essentially the market rate (I checked on web on phone there and then) so I did pay in colones. I don't think my doing this lowered the social temperature much - as I say, I wasn't exactly rude about it, and things already felt a little "take it or leave it" - but maybe it did.

Just spoke to owner here as she was passing (think some other guests checking in just down balcony, not sure), she thinks power might just be out for an hour or two or it might be morning when it's back - a tree might (not sure if she knew or was speculating) have fallen on the power lines.

This wouldn't matter so much if I didn't have the early start tomorrow. In particular both phones low-ish on power and I need them to sound alarm, plus of course ideally want battery for G5 for during the day. Luckily the power bank isn't totally drained and I'm topping the G5 up with it.

I half wonder if I should go brave the shower cubbyhole in the dark with my torch.

1932 Did, not too big a deal. No soap but not essential.

1958 Just cleaned teeth. What's really annoying is I paid through the nose for a packet of 12 ready-to-eat sausages and 8 are still in the fridge and if the fucking power's off all night I might end up having to chuck them away.

I might as well go to bed. The power cut is somehow vaguely "adventurous" but the added stress to getting up tomorrow combined with the sausage business is a bit of a fucker. Fingers crossed it comes back soon.

2003 In bed. I noticed earlier my receipt for tour says my name is "Steven British" . I kind of like the anonymity but I fucking hope the actual details on the ultra-anal park systems are fine - to be fair, on the scrappy bit of paper she copied details off my credit card sized ID onto, the woman *did* have my actual surname written correctly. As far as I'm concerned this is not my fault and I will argue the toss if this causes problems. Fingers crossed it won't.

2205 Power back a few mins ago, *felt* like 5am as think it woke me up.