Mon 23rd 1253 Well that all went rather well. Woke up probably 7-8ish and half drowsed (kept going to sleep but it seemed like no time had passed when I woke up each time)/stayed in bed til 9ish. Vague "oh no, got to move today" feelings but nothing major.
Left accom about 1055, was probably at bus stop by 1110 at latest, bus waiting (two in fact) and a small queue so hung around not feeling too uncomfortable until driver turned up about v approx 1130. There was a dead rat in the gutter, it didn't bother me except that obviously it was going to get squashed at some point, but I didn't have to watch that.
Bus only cost 910! Pleasantly surprised. Maybe I misheard the other driver and he said 1100 not 2100, or maybe different companies have wildly dfferent charges. I think we got in about 1245 (v approx), hostel v nearby. Bus was not empty but far from heaving, I had a double seat (3+2 arrangement) to myself as did most other solo travellers. Quite nice views from window as you might expect.
I was able to check in early here so am writing this in room, which is small but pretty nice and has a huge CRT TV and a ceiling fan, which feels quite cool (no pun intended). Quite a nice courtyard, there's an associated restaurant open from Wed (little pricey - there's a menu in my room) and apparently there's a free coffee maker just on landing near my room, which I hoped for but didn't see on listing. Saw bar in corner of courtyard, didn't ask if it opens during week. I think the courtyard may be used (not blocking guests at hostel out) for restaurant too.
I didn't see (m)any other guests as I was shown round though the place seems quite large. No idea if they're not as busy as booking.com seems to make out or if everyone is out.
Vague plan is one I finish writing this up to head out and do some walking round town for exercise/getting bearings/sightseeing and have some dinner late afternoon-ish. Then come back here, perhaps see about some free coffee, shower and then go sit down in the courtyard this evening and get a beer if I can. :-) It would be nice to get into a conversation with someone but I'm not counting on it and I'm not desperate at this stage.
Oh, although I haven't asked, there is a blackboard at reception showing a tour to Volcan Poas at $25.
And incidentally the Fecosa terminal in Alajuela is mentioned in guide book so I expected it to be in use, but from some vague "we arranged the funding" type commercial poster I saw in a window somewhere in Alajuela, maybe it's new and/or being renovated and hasn't (re)opened yet. Just speculating.
Before I head out, tried to use torch on K1 to check under bed before leaving Alajuela accom and it's not working, nor is the camera! I haven't tried a reboot to see if it will fix this or not. I used the camera only a few days ago and it worked fine. Not the end of the world if this has permanently broken, although it does make me worry about the possibility more stuff is going to break...
1834 Down in garden, fairly quiet, just the three of us and I think one is the woman who let me in. Not sure if bar is open or not, no rush (he said with his tongue hanging out :-) ).
Decided earlier that I am going to give the tape water a try here. It is supposedly safe almost everywhere (except very rural areas), some websites mutter about "avoid if you have a sensitive stomach" but on a trip this long and *not* (touch wood) thinking I do have a sensitive stomach (I get sick *when I drink water I'm not supposed to*) I think it's worth a shot. The savings of time, hassle and money aren't to be sneezed at. I don't *want* to get sick but if I do at least I am here four nights so have time to recover without having to be on a bus or something.
Wandered round town this afternoon, quite a nice little place - very nice views from the edges of the centre over the surrounding hills/mountains. Snapped a few photos. Had a bit of a linguistic/nerve failure in one soda (but hey, I tried), nearly went in another but I felt a bit uncomfortable after staring in from street at menu and the guy I was (incidentally) staring over the head of inside seemed to eyeball me a bit, ended up at Soda del Hospi (right by hospital entrance) and after some semi-fluent and semi-fluffed negotations had a very decent casado de (con?) bistek with a spearmint (yerbabuena) juice (novelty that - very nice though) for 3k. I handed over 4k as 2x2k as I thought they said 3.something even though I expected 3k and got 1k note back. I didn't leave a tip, gut feeling is I didn't need to and I also didn't want to tip 1k.
I also later - TBH was getting a bit fed up of walking, although it's all exercise and actually out to north I got into this more suburban-yet-industrial bit up by Maxipali supermarket where it felt a little bit like walking into the country just a touch - got a few bananas (semi-fluffed language) for 50 each (!) at a little shop. I figured (probably did on previous trips too) buying some fruit to snack on and bolster my diet (healthily/cheaply) is a good idea - didn't do this in Alajuela as didn't think straight away and didn't want to buy just one banana or end up bringing some with me.
I honestly don't know if there's anything to do here. It may well be a half-decent base for some bus trips out to nearby places though. I will see how it looks, I don't have to rush as such.
They have cats here. Saw one when I checked in (white and coloured splodges) and there was a vaguely ocelot-like one just now in the garden.
Just got a beer, 1400 for 350ml bottle Imperial, not amazing but not terrible. Also had weird (but amicable) pseudo-bilingual exchange with probably French woman who asked me if I minded if she smoked. (We're in the garden. Nice of her to ask, but I don't see any real need, if the owners allow it.)
Incidentally CR has UK-style huge no smoking signs with reference to some anti-tobacco law on. They don't have the annoyingly smugarse legally mandated sentences the UK does, but to make up for it the signs are generally fucking humongous.
Writing this on phone in garden is slightly against my "rules" (trying to be present, etc) but it's fine. This is just an alternative to hanging out alone in my room, I am going to read a book on phone when I finish writing this, which I think is now.
It does feel fairly empty here. Maybe booking.com was telling truth wrt "only 1/2 rooms *of my type* available, but I find it hard to believe the dorms are rammed. This isn't exactly bad (except it doesn't bode well for meeting people to chat to, but not a big deal, especially this early in trip) but it also doesn't fit well with the " it's peak season and it's *so* busy" narrative. To be scrupulously fair, Grecia - while I rather like it in its own right so far - isn't even really listed as a place in its own right in RG (no lists of accom or bars or map) so maybe this is a bit off the tourist track. Which is cool, if maybe boring - although if it is a decent base for some side trips that works nicely for me.
Incidentally there are mosquitoes (I think; maybe just flies) here in garden. Not been wearing repellent until now, I am not going in to put any on but I hope I don't regret that. (Disease, rather than bites as a nuisance. I don't like bites of course but I don't expect to get hundreds sitting here.)
Oh, I did have some of the free coffee earlier - made it with a weird free-standing drip net thing, a bit like a drip machine but one where the water goes through the net in about 30 seconds. Tasted OK anyway.
1908 It did occur to me this afternoon that in principle I could just shove a few bits and pieces into my day pack and set off walking out of town in some random direction and see how far I get, turning back when I need to to get back comfortably before dark. Of course the big problem with that is the risk (fear?) of dogs once I get into the middle of nowhere. The other issue is that the roads may be busy-ish but without footpaths, there are a few spots like that just in town based on my walk today.
booking.com still shows "only 1/2 left" for even 4 bed dorms here. Maybe they are busy, maybe they don't put that many places on booking.com at once in order to always show this. Still, in its way this suggestion the whole country isn't booked solid is reassuring.
They do have a lot of international beers here but I figured the local beer (Imperial) is probably cheapest and more worth trying. I can drink a Hoegaarden or some (probably US) craft IPA back home.
Quick poke on web is a bit vague re malaria (although other stuff like dengue/zika is really more concerning, if I think less likely) but probably not a massive risk here. Touch wood. Will put repellent on tomorrow night though.
1923 Incidentally I haven't forgotten about the language exchange idea. Gut feeling is this place won't have one but I may check later/tomorrow.
Also incidentally, sign at desk says laundry service here is USD6. I may or may not take advantage, though given the size of the place plus its relative emptiness I may feel less furtive doing some probably-technically-illicit laundry in one of the shared bathrooms.
It's actually quite nice sitting here in the garden with a bit of music on and a handful of people around. And a beer of course! Though have finished first and not rushing for second until MoS goes over to bar again - he's sitting at a table most of the time. (Possibly he and the probably Dutch woman who checked me in are co-owners, I have no idea though.)
I do wonder if I'm a bit more relaxed than I used to be, but I don't feel too much of a loser sitting here on my own. It's pretty much the two staff (not together), the French woman and whoever she's with and me. It's not as if it feels like it's a party and I'm hanging around on my own in the kitchen. As I say, it's just quite nice sitting here etc.
I brought a bottle of chilled tap water down with me and am drinking that too, BTW. The one thing I've seen so far which feels oddly as though this hostel is busy is the amount of stuff in the shared fridge upstairs near my room!
I did feel surprisingly hot and sweaty walking round this afternoon at points, and also when got back to room. I don't know if this is just random or it indicates something about climate here. Very comfortable temperature out here in garden now anyway, and I did feel a lot better after shower.
2006 Just got another beer.
Incidentally I don't set myself up as a connosieur or anything, but this Imperial original is a perfectly decent lager.
2018 Ocelot style cat just let me stroke it. :-)
2035 Just noticed a drinks menu on table (for the restaurant, nominally). Local beers are indeed cheapest at 1400, Corona is 2000, Carlsberg (5% - Carlsberg Export?) 1800, Stella 2000, Leffe 2200 (oscura o rubia), Delerium (Tremens, I think) 3600 and Duvel 3000. But a decent-ish international selection, undeniably. Hoegarden at 2200 feels surprisingly unexpectedly cheap.
I incidentally have no idea what a beer costs in a supermarket yet. The one I went into several times in Alajuela didn't seem to sell beer. I will look at some point, partly just as a baseline and partly because not ruling out buying a few to drink in my accom privately at some point (probably not here though).
Incidentally (I should stop writing that, it's obvious) wrt business or otherwise I do not FCDO site says flights to CR (admittedly it doesn't say *visitors*, but my flight was nearly full) have "nearly" returned to pre-pandemic levels. So in theory I wouldn't expect things to be quiet because of pandemic aftermath type stuff.
Oh, there are signs round central park here with cv stuff like you can only enter if you have disinfected and wear a mask. Also the buses (not sure if the one I actually got, but most I saw at stop) from Alajuela to here all had "mask" graphics on near the door. The signs round the park are clearly outdated (no one is following them, no one is enforcing them and this isn't AFAIK just slackness, VCR site suggests outside medical contexts there is no legal requirement to do any of this stuff). Do people actually enjoy having these incorrect outdated reminders hanging around or is it (probably) just laziness/incompetence?
I need to check guidebook both re possible daytrips and where I might be heading, but looking at maps I half think Monteverde (?) and its cloud forests are the likely short term goal. It will be interesting to see if it really is busy somewhere as apparently touristy and notionally overcrowded as that.
2044 Finished beer. Pretty restrained for a 350ml bottle, could have finished faster. Not gagging for more and if I might spend next three nights sitting here with a beer no point going nuts tonight, but I might get one more in a bit. Not ruling out four TBH (it's only a bit over two pints, well maybe three, mental arithmetic not my strong point, but not loads) but depend if it feels like there's no one else here.
I do wonder if it will be busier here from Wed when restaurant is open, or if it'll still be (pleasantly, in a way) dead.
It is nice to be here in this "private" space having a beer or two and not worrying about a) getting home b) randos hassling me - not that I've been out here at all so b) may or may not happen, but still, the thought is there.
Do feel very slightly "tipsy" , not quite right word. Not a bad feeling. But I do feel I've had a beer in a way I wouldn't normally expect after two bottles.
"One man's sentimental is another man's cheesy" in lyrics on song just playing. :-)
2106 Just got third beer.
Wikitravel has a page on Grecia although it was last edited four years ago... It says there is a "world of snakes" a couple of km away, ie possibly even walking distance.
Reserva Forestal Bosque del Niño is apparently 14km north of Grecia and has its own website. However, that seems to say that from Grecia you get a bus to "Calle Rodriguez" (a place not a street?) and walk 4km. Hmm. But maybe worth investigating. Quick look on Google Maps suggests Calle Rodriguez is maybe a very long road stretching out of Grecia.
Seems to be getting a little busier here, though in a vaguely odd way.
2126 "Living next door to Alice" on and I couldn"t help wondering if it going to be the Chubby Brown (?) version, but it's not. There are several groups of people around the garden now and I almost kind of wonder where they came from and where they were until now - this doesn't feel like the kind of town they'd really have been out in until half an hour or so ago.
Feeling definitely a bit tipsy, it's not bad but also a smidge weird.
Google Maps and tripadvisor both have World of Snakes as permanently closed, so will probably forget that.
Worth remembering almost anything could be a little mini adventure. Push comes to shove I could get on a local bus to random small town X nearby, have lunch there and get a bus back. Big ticket items are cool and all and I do want to do some but this sort of thing could be quietly amusing/instructive. Unlike setting off on a walk into the unknown, this is probably a bit safer because there's bound to be a bus back and if not in a pinch there's probably scope for a cab back and/or staying overnight.
I do feel vaguely lonely with these conversations going on round me, which is a bit odd as I didn't feel terribly lonely below. Meh.
Still not quite sure what I will do tomorrow. If I just spend the day puttering around town that's not the end of the world.
Trying to think, I have three more full days here without extending. I will need to make onward plans before then but to be fair I probably don't need much effort to find a bus stop for an onward trip, eg the Grecia stop in Alajuela was actually on OSM as I noticed on getting phone sorted to make sure I knew when to get off after I'd got on the bus, or I could ask. So while I might "do something" in terms of going further afield tomorrow, if I don't, the next day (Wed?) is free for that with a bit of forethought Tue and leaving Thu to sort out onward travel if necessary.
I don't want to completely waste time but as per wafflings before I even set out I also don't need to pressure myself. If I'm not just sitting around in my room all day, that's pretty much enough right now. Get a bit of atmosphere and experience and confidence under my belt and maybe let serendipity work its magic.
2145 Nearly finished this beer. What with the vague lonely feeling and the slight tipsiness I will head up to room, guzzle a banana or two and probably move towards bed. I should probably study the guide book a bit as well, it may offer inspiration of one kind or another (eg for all that Grecia is a bit ignored, it may identify possible nearby side trips). I really don't like reading the guide book, which is probably a bit of a weak point. If I could force myself to do that, especially before I left home, I'm sure my memory would be good enough it would form a kind of framework of vague possibilities.
Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Monday, 23 January 2023
Alajuela, Sunday
Sun 22nd 2106 On the whole a quietly successful day by my fairly undemanding standards.
Just been adding Grecia hostel to Google Maps/OSM and it's only 11.9km from here! Saw a road sign today saying Grecia 22 (km I assume) so maybe the road winds a bit.
Woke up about 9am though had been intermittently drowsing before then. Think I maybe left accom about 10 but far from sure. Went out to get cash (eg to pay new hostel) and the streets were pretty quiet although there seemed to be some guys playing music in central park IIRC and a few vague "stall" things (eg a hopscotch grid chalked on pavement?). Got some cash with Starling at Grupo Mutual, I suspect the "160000 is less than 2000" problem *was* caused by the need to enter an extra two zeros for the fractional colones, as I got it to work after doing that. Definitely best bank so far as the fee is "only" 1500, and for all I know it's possible to amortise this further by withdrawing more than 160k.
Vaguely fancied sitting in somewhere for a coffee but nowhere massively appealing came up - lots of places shut anyway, prob as it's Sunday.
Came back to accom to drop off cash and went back out. Popped down to the street outside Feria and somewhat hastily snapped the nice view and briefly admired it in person, though I felt not quite edgy but as though someone might come up and hassle me, although hardly anyone about. Also suddenly on this walk thought about random dogs having a go - to be fair, although there's been the odd yappy bastard inside someone's house as I've walked past, so far there don't appear to be any street dogs just wandering around.
Then went into town for walk round, vaguely tried to locate Soda del Banco for lunch but couldn't find it (it might have been shut, but I didn't find it to find that out). I ended up going to a random soda which had prices on display (*possibly* Las Delicias, but I really wouldn't like to say).
I dithered heavily from the street but decided to go in as it was busy enough to presumably be good but not too rammed and intimidating. I took a punt on the casado de bistek, having been made edgy by seeing various casados with "pollo/carne/etc en salsa" , but since this menu did have those options but had no mention of salsa on some others I had a go, and I'm glad I did as this opens up easier dining options for rest of trip. I also managed to get the salad undressed, so 3-for-3 on that! Anyway, the casado was nice but actually utterly lacking in novelty - steak with (suggested by waitress) onions on, beans (frijoles-ish but still individual beans, not cooked to a mush), salad and rice, which is pretty much something I've had in loads of places before. Not complaining, just pointing out that although it may or may not have been called a casado in other countries I've visited, the same kind of dish was there under some name or other.
I think I sort of figured out the "rules" for sodas, at least based on observing other people in this one - it's table service to order, but you go to the counter to pay. They also don't seem geared towards letting you eg order a coffee after the meal - or maybe I'm just crap/nervous about trying to attract waitress attention. As no one came over when I sat down at first I actually went over and ordered at the counter, despite thinking it would have been table service and it actually being so for some other people who sat down while I was there.
The waitress was nice enough but - maybe I was just edgy as it was small enough with enough customers I felt self-conscious - seemed to start talking at me when I approached counter without giving me time to say anything. Meh. I did at least avoid any massive linguistic hassles.
After that I felt time hanging a bit heavy on my hands - I had done a fair old walk in the morning and after lunch I might guess it was 2ish. As it happened I wandered round and to central park (in front of yday's museum) and there was a "senior citizen's dance" (I think) in the kind of covered over pseudo-very-large-bandstand with some guy playing vaguely (sorry, no good with genres) Latin type music and various old-ish (maybe one or two young-ish) couples dancing with lots of people standing round watching.
Not normally my cup of tea but I had absolutely nothing else to do so I stood and watched and kind of enjoyed the music and got a bit lost in thought and was impressed by one or two very energetic dancers and didn't feel "threatened" or terribly uncomfortable most of the time. I stayed there til about 1615 IIRC, as I wanted to get water on way home and also get back before dark, though I probably wasn't pushing it wrt darkness.
I have remembered one of the "tricks" to getting rid of large bills from cash machines is to use them in a big supermarket where they generally don't make a fuss. That said, I only remembered when buying water but had already palmed off a 20k on the soda for lunch. Incidentally I missed the "X" in "X mil blah blah" when they told me the price, I should have asked but I felt off balance and just handed over the 20k. Sure they didn't rip me off but not ideal on my part. I rather awkwardly put 400 in coins on counter as a tip, I rather suspect I don't need to do this but not sure.
It was sunny this morning and I was wearing the dark orange merino top I got at Decathlon just before trip and I felt it was maybe a smidge warm, though not necessarily. It clouded over this afternoon and it felt very comfortable then - even if it *isn't* ideal for very warm weather, I need to remember that I'm not always going to be in super stereotypically sunny tropical weather on this trip.
It did rain *very* lightly - like just a sort of watery feeling in the air, almost - not enough to really even notice. IIRC I checked forecast last night and it said 1mm of rain against the hours showing possibility of rain or something like that, which I don't think is a lot.
I also managed to speak to a bus driver at the Grecia stop to ask the price and he said it was 2100. I wasn't expecting it to be a lot (it's about an hour's journey and this is a local-ish type bus, although generally they do look modern-ish coach types) but good to have a rough idea so I can have approx right cash on hand.
Bit edgy about tomorrow and getting the bus with my bag but it should be fine of course.
I did a sneaky (and slightly unsatisfactory due to no plug working, as other day) wash of a couple of tops tonight. This gives me an extra couple of days in hand when combined with uw wash the other day. Using room's tower fan for a bit of assistance with drying these off.
I allowed myself to kill some time on YT this evening and I also a bit weakly snacked on one of the packets of nuts I brought for the flight out if necessary. I'm vaguely hoping to lose weight over this trip, as I did in Colombia, and generally although not huge the one soda meal a day has been fine. I think perhaps the nerves induced by tomorrow's transition made it more tempting to snack tonight. Not saying I won't snack and eat more and have beers etc during trip, just that barring special "temptation" I don't think it's entirely a bad thing if I'm slightly under-eating in general.
2135 Quick look at RG says very little about Grecia. Which is maybe kind of reassuring. It would be good if I could get some kind of walking in the countryside in and I kind of have to do that via a tour given I lack the balls (or perhaps enjoy not lacking the balls) to head out solo and get savaged by some random dog in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how tourist-oriented Grecia might be, maybe there will be some options or maybe not. Worst case I'm sure I can pass three days there pleasantly enough and identify somewhere near-ish for a next little hop.
I will be vaguely sad to leave Alajuela. It seems a nice enough place on the whole, although I also have to say that it doesn't feel like there's a huge amount of "tourist" stuff I haven't seen - guide book says you can do it in half a day IIRC. But still, seeing things like the dance this afternoon is quietly cool.
I am genuinely surprised there seems to be no real concept of a sit-in or takeaway coffee shop here. I don't think I've seen one of the big coffee chains (despite a notable presence of other chains like McDonalds, KFC, BK, Taco Bell) nor do there seem to be local businesses of this type. Yes you can get coffee anywhere, but everything seems to be a soda ("get in, eat, get out") or a full-on fancy-ish restaurant, with very little in the way of cafe as an intermediate step. In particular nowhere seems to have anywhere to sit outside despite the weather seeming perfect for that (it's not as if it's searingly hot, at least right now, even when the sun's out - an umbrella etc over a table would go a long way), and it seems a bit surprising there's nothing of the sort on the central square. (It might have been too expensive for me anyway, but I didn't get to the point of rejecting anywhere on price grounds.)
2223 Cleaned teeth, had shower and shaved. Moving towards bed. Not super tired but not not tired either. I haven't really packed but it's not as if I have that much, some clothes are still slightly damp, today's dirty clothes need to be out in case I need them in the night (eg for toilet visit) and it's not as if (touch wood) I expect to be short of time in the morning - I am stone cold sober and on recent form I'm getting up around 9am anyway, checkout isn't till 11 and although I'll probably be tempted to leave earlier it is smart to stay as long as I can, since check in at the new place isn't til 2 (of course you can always get lucky and they let you check in early, but no guarantee) and touch wood even with walk to bus stop and waiting up to an hour for a bus the journey isn't likely to take over three hours.
Camera has been fine, incidentally, though only been dragging it out of pocket for quick snapshots.
It might seem a bit silly but in some ways if tomorrow goes OK the basic "framework" of the trip is in place. I have been getting around OK here in Alajuela, if I can manage a bus trip that's the basics sorted. :-)
Incidentally if I didn't already say since I actually got here to Alajuela properly, people don't seem to be so keen to speak English as they were at the airport. I'm not complaining, just making the observation. I suspect a lot of them might speak basic English and if you were confident and/or desperate enough you'd get by just fine without any Spanish, but obviously I'm not trying that.
Just been adding Grecia hostel to Google Maps/OSM and it's only 11.9km from here! Saw a road sign today saying Grecia 22 (km I assume) so maybe the road winds a bit.
Woke up about 9am though had been intermittently drowsing before then. Think I maybe left accom about 10 but far from sure. Went out to get cash (eg to pay new hostel) and the streets were pretty quiet although there seemed to be some guys playing music in central park IIRC and a few vague "stall" things (eg a hopscotch grid chalked on pavement?). Got some cash with Starling at Grupo Mutual, I suspect the "160000 is less than 2000" problem *was* caused by the need to enter an extra two zeros for the fractional colones, as I got it to work after doing that. Definitely best bank so far as the fee is "only" 1500, and for all I know it's possible to amortise this further by withdrawing more than 160k.
Vaguely fancied sitting in somewhere for a coffee but nowhere massively appealing came up - lots of places shut anyway, prob as it's Sunday.
Came back to accom to drop off cash and went back out. Popped down to the street outside Feria and somewhat hastily snapped the nice view and briefly admired it in person, though I felt not quite edgy but as though someone might come up and hassle me, although hardly anyone about. Also suddenly on this walk thought about random dogs having a go - to be fair, although there's been the odd yappy bastard inside someone's house as I've walked past, so far there don't appear to be any street dogs just wandering around.
Then went into town for walk round, vaguely tried to locate Soda del Banco for lunch but couldn't find it (it might have been shut, but I didn't find it to find that out). I ended up going to a random soda which had prices on display (*possibly* Las Delicias, but I really wouldn't like to say).
I dithered heavily from the street but decided to go in as it was busy enough to presumably be good but not too rammed and intimidating. I took a punt on the casado de bistek, having been made edgy by seeing various casados with "pollo/carne/etc en salsa" , but since this menu did have those options but had no mention of salsa on some others I had a go, and I'm glad I did as this opens up easier dining options for rest of trip. I also managed to get the salad undressed, so 3-for-3 on that! Anyway, the casado was nice but actually utterly lacking in novelty - steak with (suggested by waitress) onions on, beans (frijoles-ish but still individual beans, not cooked to a mush), salad and rice, which is pretty much something I've had in loads of places before. Not complaining, just pointing out that although it may or may not have been called a casado in other countries I've visited, the same kind of dish was there under some name or other.
I think I sort of figured out the "rules" for sodas, at least based on observing other people in this one - it's table service to order, but you go to the counter to pay. They also don't seem geared towards letting you eg order a coffee after the meal - or maybe I'm just crap/nervous about trying to attract waitress attention. As no one came over when I sat down at first I actually went over and ordered at the counter, despite thinking it would have been table service and it actually being so for some other people who sat down while I was there.
The waitress was nice enough but - maybe I was just edgy as it was small enough with enough customers I felt self-conscious - seemed to start talking at me when I approached counter without giving me time to say anything. Meh. I did at least avoid any massive linguistic hassles.
After that I felt time hanging a bit heavy on my hands - I had done a fair old walk in the morning and after lunch I might guess it was 2ish. As it happened I wandered round and to central park (in front of yday's museum) and there was a "senior citizen's dance" (I think) in the kind of covered over pseudo-very-large-bandstand with some guy playing vaguely (sorry, no good with genres) Latin type music and various old-ish (maybe one or two young-ish) couples dancing with lots of people standing round watching.
Not normally my cup of tea but I had absolutely nothing else to do so I stood and watched and kind of enjoyed the music and got a bit lost in thought and was impressed by one or two very energetic dancers and didn't feel "threatened" or terribly uncomfortable most of the time. I stayed there til about 1615 IIRC, as I wanted to get water on way home and also get back before dark, though I probably wasn't pushing it wrt darkness.
I have remembered one of the "tricks" to getting rid of large bills from cash machines is to use them in a big supermarket where they generally don't make a fuss. That said, I only remembered when buying water but had already palmed off a 20k on the soda for lunch. Incidentally I missed the "X" in "X mil blah blah" when they told me the price, I should have asked but I felt off balance and just handed over the 20k. Sure they didn't rip me off but not ideal on my part. I rather awkwardly put 400 in coins on counter as a tip, I rather suspect I don't need to do this but not sure.
It was sunny this morning and I was wearing the dark orange merino top I got at Decathlon just before trip and I felt it was maybe a smidge warm, though not necessarily. It clouded over this afternoon and it felt very comfortable then - even if it *isn't* ideal for very warm weather, I need to remember that I'm not always going to be in super stereotypically sunny tropical weather on this trip.
It did rain *very* lightly - like just a sort of watery feeling in the air, almost - not enough to really even notice. IIRC I checked forecast last night and it said 1mm of rain against the hours showing possibility of rain or something like that, which I don't think is a lot.
I also managed to speak to a bus driver at the Grecia stop to ask the price and he said it was 2100. I wasn't expecting it to be a lot (it's about an hour's journey and this is a local-ish type bus, although generally they do look modern-ish coach types) but good to have a rough idea so I can have approx right cash on hand.
Bit edgy about tomorrow and getting the bus with my bag but it should be fine of course.
I did a sneaky (and slightly unsatisfactory due to no plug working, as other day) wash of a couple of tops tonight. This gives me an extra couple of days in hand when combined with uw wash the other day. Using room's tower fan for a bit of assistance with drying these off.
I allowed myself to kill some time on YT this evening and I also a bit weakly snacked on one of the packets of nuts I brought for the flight out if necessary. I'm vaguely hoping to lose weight over this trip, as I did in Colombia, and generally although not huge the one soda meal a day has been fine. I think perhaps the nerves induced by tomorrow's transition made it more tempting to snack tonight. Not saying I won't snack and eat more and have beers etc during trip, just that barring special "temptation" I don't think it's entirely a bad thing if I'm slightly under-eating in general.
2135 Quick look at RG says very little about Grecia. Which is maybe kind of reassuring. It would be good if I could get some kind of walking in the countryside in and I kind of have to do that via a tour given I lack the balls (or perhaps enjoy not lacking the balls) to head out solo and get savaged by some random dog in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how tourist-oriented Grecia might be, maybe there will be some options or maybe not. Worst case I'm sure I can pass three days there pleasantly enough and identify somewhere near-ish for a next little hop.
I will be vaguely sad to leave Alajuela. It seems a nice enough place on the whole, although I also have to say that it doesn't feel like there's a huge amount of "tourist" stuff I haven't seen - guide book says you can do it in half a day IIRC. But still, seeing things like the dance this afternoon is quietly cool.
I am genuinely surprised there seems to be no real concept of a sit-in or takeaway coffee shop here. I don't think I've seen one of the big coffee chains (despite a notable presence of other chains like McDonalds, KFC, BK, Taco Bell) nor do there seem to be local businesses of this type. Yes you can get coffee anywhere, but everything seems to be a soda ("get in, eat, get out") or a full-on fancy-ish restaurant, with very little in the way of cafe as an intermediate step. In particular nowhere seems to have anywhere to sit outside despite the weather seeming perfect for that (it's not as if it's searingly hot, at least right now, even when the sun's out - an umbrella etc over a table would go a long way), and it seems a bit surprising there's nothing of the sort on the central square. (It might have been too expensive for me anyway, but I didn't get to the point of rejecting anywhere on price grounds.)
2223 Cleaned teeth, had shower and shaved. Moving towards bed. Not super tired but not not tired either. I haven't really packed but it's not as if I have that much, some clothes are still slightly damp, today's dirty clothes need to be out in case I need them in the night (eg for toilet visit) and it's not as if (touch wood) I expect to be short of time in the morning - I am stone cold sober and on recent form I'm getting up around 9am anyway, checkout isn't till 11 and although I'll probably be tempted to leave earlier it is smart to stay as long as I can, since check in at the new place isn't til 2 (of course you can always get lucky and they let you check in early, but no guarantee) and touch wood even with walk to bus stop and waiting up to an hour for a bus the journey isn't likely to take over three hours.
Camera has been fine, incidentally, though only been dragging it out of pocket for quick snapshots.
It might seem a bit silly but in some ways if tomorrow goes OK the basic "framework" of the trip is in place. I have been getting around OK here in Alajuela, if I can manage a bus trip that's the basics sorted. :-)
Incidentally if I didn't already say since I actually got here to Alajuela properly, people don't seem to be so keen to speak English as they were at the airport. I'm not complaining, just making the observation. I suspect a lot of them might speak basic English and if you were confident and/or desperate enough you'd get by just fine without any Spanish, but obviously I'm not trying that.
Sunday, 22 January 2023
Alajuela, Saturday
Fri 20th 2054 Someone is playing (recorded) music mildly annoyingly elsewhere in accom. We just had a weird but sort of cool vaguely salsa-ish (really not sure how to describe it) version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
Bed.
2059 Actually TLST only just finished. I rembered what I was going to say - I was tempted to get some beers at supermarket and have one or two here (in kitchen, maybe) but I decided against it. As it happened the supermarket didn't seem to sell alcohol anyway. (I had seen other places I could have bought beer if I'd wanted. Not saying I won't, but probably as well to have a day or two off when there's no pressing "reason" to drink.)
I also just realised actually the 10 day Claro plan would have worked out at 1k less over 30 days than the 30 day plan. And might have had 1GB extra over the 30 days. Not getting up to check the leaflet! :-) But in any case, 1k not end of world, and having to top up every 10 days would get tedious and I'd be more likely to have a crisis of some kind and then realise I'd forgotten to top up. Plus swings and roundabouts having 5GB over 30 days vs 2GB every 10 days, in terms of being able to "smooth out" variations in need vs being able to use more and know you get a fresh allowance soon.
Sat 21st 0929 Woke up about 6am ish IIRC, went back to sleep and finally woke up a bit after 8 without being able to get back to sleep, been sort of lying in bed eading since then and intermittently making vague lazy forays into the guide book.
Looking at guide book map, my confusion re street numbering arises because there's an odd/even distinction to both calles and avenidas based on which side of the centre you are.
Vague plan for today is to go to nearby Feria market mentioned in accom booklet but not RG, maybe treat myself to an empanada or something, then perhaps go over to the two adjacent bus stations near the centre to scope out buses to Grecia and perhaps visit the museum Juan Santamarca (sp, from memory).
I am wondering - not that the accom guidebook makes out it is a hotbed of crime or anything - if I avoid taking my phone and/or camera to the market in case of pickpockets. This is entirely paranoia on my part but I might do it.
I might also pop back to accom briefly during the day as it's all fairly close, eg to have some of that cold pop from the fridge and/or to pick up camera/phone again if I do leave them behind when I go to the market.
Looked at weather forecast earlier and it might piss it down tomorrow afternoon, and a bit on Monday. Not sure. Nothing I can do and if I do get soaked I won't be that far from home etc.
Guide book says Poas volcano park is open daily and makes no mention of this reservation business. Then again, owner here probably knows and after all that Canadian woman *had* been on some site and registered, so there must be something to it. I haven't looked on the web yet and despite this apparently having mildly "must do" status I probably won't. If it's true it *is* only doable on Saturdays and the weather turns after 10am I have already missed it. I am oddly not that bothered about it - maybe, despite really liking that kind of thing, because I am thinking there might well be other such opportunities during the trip. Also it is highly likely I will be back here at the end of the trip, or could be without any great pain, given how close it is to the airport, although if you really can only do the volcano on a Saturday that doesn't fit well with me flying out on IIRC Thursday. But if I am desperate it wouldn't be too hard to do the tour from San Jose if I am there, or to come to Alajuela for a couple of nights just to do the tour from here.
Worst comes to worst, I don't think it's a deathbed regret item, and if (not impossible) I do return to Costa Rica it would (Saturday stuff permitting, though even if true that may not be the case in even a year's time, given no guidebook of any vintage seems to mention it) be easy enough to go see it as first thing after arriving.
Right shoulder is hurting BTW. It was hurting a bit before I left UK and I suspect I just knocked or strained it a bit, but I hope it clears up. At least it's not my left arm so I'm not left with nagging doubts it's a legacy of breaking it.
As there are no windows in room and I just have bedside light on, it feels vaguely night time even though I'm certain it's sunny out. I kind of don't want to but I should probably start prepping (eg stashing cash I got yesterday, which I didn't do last night) to go out. No rush, but maybe be good to aim to be leaving here in an hour or so.
Accom book suggests getting empanada arreglada. Luckily I just Googled it and it's "slathered in condiments". Fuck that. I might chance ordering an empanada of some other type but got a nasty feeling it might be slathered in condiments anyway. Still, they are probably cheap enough I can just chuck the bugger away and write it off to experience.
1647 Been back at accom a few mins. On the whole actually a quietly successful day with actually some moments in which (without being related to women) I could " feel my happiness uncurl" to misappropriate a quote from The Streets. (Stray spaces around double quotes are present because the K1's keyboard app knows better than I do how to punctuate. Yet right now I feel vaguely discombobulated. Meh. Going to try to relax a bit, am probably back at accom for good tonight. Will probably write today up in a bit.
1654 Have been wondering about having a Spanish lesson, but I know from overhearing other people the walls here do very little to block sound and therefore I'd have to assume other people would hear the entire thing. On the other hand, since I don't intend to say anything secret, maybe I shouldn't care.
1756 Have a Spanish lesson in half an hour. Just done some semi-illicit socks/uw washing (2 pairs each) in shared bathroom - this is the downside of shared bathrooms. Not explicitly not permitted, but they have a laundry service (USD5) so implicitly maybe not permitted. Bit of a lightweight wash as couldn't get water to stay in basin despite my "universal" sink plug but I tried to block it up a bit with garments being washed. Will give them the sniff test once they've dried. I really need to wash a pair of tops to go with them but we'll see how that goes; if push comes to shove re-wearing a top isn't so critical. I may pay for a laundry service at new hostel, but here I don't have enough dirty stuff nor really enough time to feel comfortable spending USD5 on laundry service and risking not getting it back before I go.
1949 Had Spanish lesson. I snapped a few photos on phone today (more on this below) and I appear to have 256 photos (a handful of those from before today) totalling 1GB. I think my turning HDR mode on which effectively quadruples the number of photos may have been a bad idea. (Or I need to tell it to not keep the three component images, but that seems a shame. Or I just need to be very selective with HDR and not leave it on as I blat out dozens of shots in the hope some will come out.) l had hoped/expected to get all my photos (in duplicate) on 2x32GB SD cards, and all the photos from eg my Colombia trip would easily fit. Not a big deal but I do need to be careful.
Anyway, let's waffle. To be absolutely clear, I feel broadly OK (perhaps rambling at my Spanish teacher about this sort of stuff also helped ;-) ) but it's been a little bit up and down today.
So I did got over to the Feria. The route took me past a rather rundown looking patch of scrubby land surrounded by barbed wire which I had walked past yesterday, and I might have not gone that way had I not been going to the Feria. I didn't feel too edgy and there were people around and as the road had no buildings on the south side part of the way there were really nice views over the countryside to the mountains. (I didn't take a photo as didn't have camera and although I toyed with getting phone out on way back, I didn't quite feel comfortable.)
The food market was fairly big and I walked round it a couple of times. It was busy but not heaving (plenty of space) so it didn't feel at all intimidating and I'm sure there was no real risk of being pickpocketed. That said I don't think it would have been appropriate to pull out a camera (or my phone) and start snapping - maybe no one would have cared, but maybe they would and I think it would have been a bit crass.
I tried not to zoom round walking insanely quickly and to appreciate being there. There was also a really nice cool breeze at times (and it was all under a big roof) and I found myself half wishing I could buy stuff and cook with it, and then also thinking about making wine with some of it, and I had some vague thoughts of home and opening a bottle of (say) the cherry wine when I get back and I started to feel vaguely cheerful in an odd but nice way.
I had seen Soda Gina (as mentioned in the accom book page about the market) and went over there and had a very nice arroz con pollo and (yay) an undressed salad and some stuff that might have been fried plantain but I'm not sure (but was very nice) and a "jugo de cas" which seemed vaguely familiar but I don't know what "cas" is, but it was very nice anyway.
I then (realising - not for the first time - I had very little to do, and in fact that the big problem of being a tourist is filling the gaping quantities of time on hand) decided I'd stay for a coffee. I in fact stayed for a second coffee and was just vaguely watching the goings on and getting lost in more-or-less pleasant thoughts and feeling very touristy and a bit relaxed. (My right shoulder was hurting and I realised it felt stiff when I turned my head to the right; I must have slept on it badly or something, it still hurts a bit but is much better now as I'm writing this.)
I did wonder if I was "in the way" and maybe this wasn't the sort of place you were meant to hang around in indefinitely, but since there were several tables free I figured I wasn't doing any harm and I was running up a bigger bill and thus giving them money so no one should care. And maybe no one did, but I started to get edgy.
When I asked for my third coffee I got a different waitress (who seemed to have come over to take my empty cup) and who seemed to look at me a bit blankly when I asked for another coffee. She then said something I didn't understand and I felt awkward as fuck and I think I asked again for a coffee and she left, but didn't bring me one. So I went to the counter and asked the original waitress who said yes, sure, but then came to the table a minute later to say they had no more coffee but only juice, so I ordered a juice.
And then a bit later the other waitress came back and I felt awkward (which didn't help my language skills) and maybe explained that she had been trying to tell me they had no more coffee, or maybe explained that they did have coffee again if I wanted one. I really don't know. I felt awkward and confused and I wondered if I'd accidentally been rude as a result etc and it was just as I say awkward.
(To be clear, except that the "second" waitress did seem to look at me blankly when I said (not trying any flowery phrases) that I'd like another coffee, I don't think she intended to be rude and the fault, if any, was mostly mine. I also don't think I was necessarily rude, at worst I probably just came across as not understanding. But it still all felt awkward.)
I was also a tiny bit edgy as there were no prices on the menu, I had asked the price of the arroz con pollo (2300 IIRC) and the accom book had recommended this place but I started to wonder if they'd claim the juice was 5000 each or something. This didn't happen, I went to counter and they asked me what I'd had (very trusting of them) and it came to about 5100, which seemed pretty reasonable (if not insanely cheap - a general CR observation on my part, not complaining about this place - I am also still not "acclimatised" to the currency and find it hard to make snap judgements on whether a given price is "expensive" or not). I was going to round up as a tip and handed over a 20k note hoping for change (which I don't think was unreasonable for a bill of that size) but I stupidly showed that I had some small bills when I took the 20 off my roll and they asked for them and (politely, I think giving genuine advice) told me to be careful (presumably thinking I didn't realise it was a 20k and that someone might short change me), and that flustered me a bit so I ended up accidentally not leaving a tip. To be fair I had a quick look in guide book before leaving this morning and although it didn't mention sodas, it did say in restaurants 10% was automatically included and no need to tip, and I guess I probably didn't need to tip at the soda, though I would have and probably will continue to do modest rounding up (though at an approximate 10%ish level, not rounding 5100 up to 6k say, given that's over a quid tip and nearly 20%). So I felt a bit bad about that too.
Anyway, I then went into town and headed for where I'd seen from the guide book the two likely bus terminals (and associated sprawl of street-side bus stops) were. The F* (can't remember name) terminal looked huge, new, well-maintained and utterly unused with all the gates locked and the vast sprawling expanse of concrete utterly empty. No idea what's going on there. I found the Tuasa terminal and looked at the front of all the buses there but none obviously said Grecia.
I wandered around (it's all exercise/sightseeing, and I wasn't feeling too stressed as I didn't need to go today) and did things like try to observe where random buses on the street seemed to be coming from/going to and eventually stumbled on the street side bus stop (no actual formal bus stop signs or anything) where there were two buses for Grecia (and points further). FTR, if I remember correctly a) this is just outside the "back" exit of the Tuasa terminal, up past a "Claro" sign on the right b) this is at corner of Avenida 1 and Calle 10.
(I had toyed with asking someone on street where I could get a bus to Grecia, but I lacked confidence and/or felt it might be a bit rude. I also wasn't desperate.)
I stepped up into the waiting bus (no queue, no apparent intention to depart there and then) to ask the driver and he sort of waved me back a bit. Not sure why, surely I hardly look like a threat (and he wasn't wearing a mask or anything, so presumably there's no covid angle on this). Anyway, although he didn't seem super friendly, to give him his due he politely enough answered my questions (I can buy a ticket on the bus, no need to buy in advance, there's a bus about every 45 mins - and I subsequently saw other buses probably for different companies there to Grecia, so maybe guide book's 30 mins is about right if he was only talking about his compact - and there's a service every day - I just wish I'd asked the price so I can have roughly correct money on hand when I go on Monday) and I didn't seem to have any big language problems.
I then wandered off just killing time/sightseeing/walking for exercise and came across the central park quite by accident and saw the JS museum so decided to go in. I already thought it was free but it looked deserted-ish so I asked the guard(s) on the entrance if it was open and if it was free and after writing my name in a book I was waved in.
I have to be absolutely clear here that everyone in the museum was in fact super friendly and accommodating; I really do mean that. However, there seemed to be absolutely loads of guards around and they seemed to be slightly more "active" /"friendlier" than I would have expected and I was constantly on the back foot in case they were going to tell me I'd done something wrong when in reality they were just coming over (to take the first example) to tell me the uppermost floor where there's an open air walkway round the building with nice views was closing soon if I wanted to go look at it (which I did, after I finally clarified what the guard wanted and that I hadn't done anything wrong).
I was also the last one off the roof (as I hadn't twigged to the closing soon bit - not the museum, just the roof - at this point) and I apologised in (incorrect) Spanish for delaying them and they were super affable, but then one said something about photos (and I should say at this point the guard at the street entrance had clarified unbidden that photos without flash were fine, just no flash) and he was *probably* just asking me if I'd taken some photos to be friendly but I got a vague impression he was maybe checking I *hadn't* taken any photos because it wasn't allowed and I ended up mumbling something which probably made no sense but was accepted. This combination of irrational guilty conscience, suspicion of crazy rules (maybe you *aren't* allowed to take photos from the roof, although I honestly can't see why that would be the case) and linguistic difficulties (exacerbated by nerves from the other points) does my head in, further exacerbated by feeling frustrated that I get unnerved so easily by this sort of stuff (i.e. I have a problem that I have a problem with this).
I did see the rest of the rooms and as I say everyone was in fact super affable and courteous but I just felt constantly on the back foot by this point and was quite glad to finish a hurried inspection (to be honest, the museum was OK and interesting in points but the building itself was nicer/more interesting) and leave, still feeling a bit edgy.
(One point I wouldn't mind clearing up is that one of the earlier rooms said they exported something - it's not germane, but maybe coffee - from Puntarenas to England in (say) the 1800s. I was intrigued enough to go back and look at the map in the first room (which was interesting, as my CR geography knowledge is nonexistent) and Puntarenas is on the *Pacific* coast. So why were they shipping stuff to England from there? Was it *so* much harder to get stuff to the Carribbean coast from (I think) Alajuela that it was worth having to (I assume) ship it right round South America to get to England? Or did it then hop up the coast from Puntarena to near Lake Nicaragua and get transshipped a couple of times (overland the short distance Pacific to LN, then steamer, then overland from east side of LN) to cross to the Carribbean side that way? Or something else? This was just a casual mention of shipping to England in the museum so they didn't go into this, but I really am curious.)
Oh - jumping out of sequence - when I was at Soda Gina I got my phone out just to check Spanish dictionary and saw I had a text from "Sutel" which (I didn't fully understand the Spanish) seems to be advising me that my phone (it quoted the IMEI) is not approved and that (I think; this is very must a "gist" thing) I may have problems and can't complain if I do. It doesn't seem to be threatening me with anything (cf the message I got in Colombia telling me my A9s was not approved and would be blocked after 40 days or whatever) or suggesting I'm doing anything illegal, and it does in fact seem to work fine, so I guess it doesn't matter, unless they continue to send these messages and ramp up the aggressiveness.
After leaving the museum it was a little early to come back to the hostel (evenings a bit dreary as it is, though TBH with a bit of admin type stuff then the Spanish lesson and now writing this, it will probably be 2130ish by the time I'm done and I'll probably be happy to go to bed and/or watching an hour or so of Youtube would fill the time before a slightly later bedtime without much boredom) I thought I'd maybe just wander the streets a bit more then come back.
As it was I still felt a bit edgy from the museum and I also walked down a (not massively deserted or insalubrious-looking, but not bustling - it was pretty busy in the really central part of town, probably because it's a weekend as it felt busier than yesterday) street and a couple of people hanging around outside on a shop forecourt *might* have shouted at me (come here??? but really not sure) but might have been shouting to a mate across the road and certainly didn't attempt to do anything when I ignored them and walked past (they were several metres away) but it made me a bit jittery. Just FWIW, not saying Alajuela isn't safe or that I didn't feel safe most of the day.
I stopped in at a mini supermarket round corner from accom to get some water - piss a bit yellow this morning so wanted to get plenty. They didn't have that much water on display and it was same in the big supermarket yesterday. I also sort of thought sparkling water would be nice (I probably hadn't had any since I was in Colombia) and I asked and ended up (without fully twigging how much it was, though I'd probably have paid anyway to be polite) asking the very polite cashier if they had any and she found me a 2l bottle of Canada Dry soda water which was 1950 - over two quid!
I enjoyed it and as a one-off "treat" (retrospectively classifying it as such) that's fine but I'm not routinely paying those sort of prices. (She didn't know the price and took it to the till to check; I'm 95% sure she did not mark the price up because I'm a tourist. Incidentally that reminds me as I was recounting my adventures to my Spanish teacher, she told me a couple of rip-off stories she'd experienced with her daughters *in her own country, in her own language, within (I'd guess) 100 miles of her own home* which were the sort of thing I anticipate in my paranoid moments but which (touch wood) were *way* more exploitative than anything I think I've actually experienced, despite me being way more of a touristy potential victim than her and her family due to being foreign, from a "rich" country and not a native speaker. So maybe on the whole I've been lucky and/or I've somehow managed to look after myself surprisingly well.)
It's speculation on my part but I do wonder, given relative lack of water in both those shops, if the tap water *is* safe to drink here and as a result the market for bottled water is vastly smaller, so it's more of a luxury good and isn't sold in bulk as it is in my Latin American countries. Following on from this, it may be that because it isn't "normal" to buy bottled water, there isn't the same demand for sparkling water. I may have got the wrong impression and/or have forgotten what it was really like, but generally it's felt to me as though "agua con gas" is just a standard non-luxury item in most LA countries, just an alternative to "agua sin gas" , whereas here perhaps it is relatively uncommon for people to drink it because they all just get tap water and buy soft drinks when they want fizz.
It may just be my pronunciation or a regional language variation, but the woman at the mini-supermarket today didn't seem to recognise the phrase "agua con gas" and thought I'd asked for something else (can't remember what, sadly), though when I clarified by saying "agua con burbujas" she realised what I meant. I don't know what the phrase here is - the bottle I bought is "club soda" , but that may be beause it's a soft drink (Canada Dry) branded "mixer" rather than because that's what sparkling water is called here.
I will say that Aldous Huxley quote about welcoming boredom as a sign of excessive freedom when travelling came to mind at the Feria (not sure if I should capitalise that) this morning, in quite a good way. Yes, I am not "doing much" , but it was on the whole quite nice to feel I have a lot of time on my hands and one of the "big things" I did today was as simple as spend half an hour or so wandering round a food market and then have nothing better to do than fill in a couple of hours having an early lunch and some juice/coffee etc.
I think that's most of the stuff I have to say written. I will probably have a shower/shave shortly and move towards bed - it's already 2105 and I do feel slightly tired. Not that I couldn't stay up if something interesting were happening, I'm not fighting to keep my eyes open, I just do have this kind of "yeah, I guess I am a bit tired" feeling.
2131 Oh - during walk today I saw an ordinary-ish looking (vaguely chain - the poster was professionally printed in colour, not a sole proprietor whiteboard type of sign) restaurant advertising 6 chicken wings, fries and a coke for 5500 - that's over 7 quid, nearer 8. This feels fucking insane. I'm not sure it would cost that much in London. It's not as if this was somewhere swanky, several cuts above the sodas I ate in yesterday and today. Obviously I am not having to pay that, but it's vaguely disconcerting to think that I can't just walk into a non-pretentious restaurant without paying attention and not have a fairly nasty surprise when I get asked to pay.
2157 Have decided I will upload (almost all) trip photos to Google Photos - the privacy loss is fairly small and the ability to easily share some with family and to have an extra backup in case of accidents is worth it. Will turn backup off again after trip though.
Think I forgot to say earlier that FWIW, when I got that blank look on asking for another coffee, followed by what felt like rather a fraught situation, *if* I'd been drinking beer I'd have thought they thought I'd had enough. Which just goes to show how you can maybe misinterpret a situation sometimes. (Which also reminds me somehow of the strangely reassuring sight of the woman leading our party arguing with a female bouncer that we weren't too drunk to go into a West End that night I went to the film preview with J+V. A situation I'd normally associate with myself feeling awkward with a male bouncer.)
Finally ready to have shower and clean teeth and go to bed. The shared bathroom does make this sort of (slightly, if I'm being honest) more of a chore than it "should" be, but it's not a huge deal and the cost savings are well worth it, especially on a long trip in a mildly expensive country.
2240 About to go to bed. Shaved despite not feeling like it, because I probably ought to try not to look unnecessarily scruffy.
As discussed with teacher, when I don't understand someone I will try to either say that I don't understand, could you please repeat etc or if I *might* have understood, to paraphrase back to them as a question ("Sorry, I'm not sure I understand. Did you say the museum is closing now?" style of thing). *Not* guessing, hoping and pretending. ;-)
Bed.
2059 Actually TLST only just finished. I rembered what I was going to say - I was tempted to get some beers at supermarket and have one or two here (in kitchen, maybe) but I decided against it. As it happened the supermarket didn't seem to sell alcohol anyway. (I had seen other places I could have bought beer if I'd wanted. Not saying I won't, but probably as well to have a day or two off when there's no pressing "reason" to drink.)
I also just realised actually the 10 day Claro plan would have worked out at 1k less over 30 days than the 30 day plan. And might have had 1GB extra over the 30 days. Not getting up to check the leaflet! :-) But in any case, 1k not end of world, and having to top up every 10 days would get tedious and I'd be more likely to have a crisis of some kind and then realise I'd forgotten to top up. Plus swings and roundabouts having 5GB over 30 days vs 2GB every 10 days, in terms of being able to "smooth out" variations in need vs being able to use more and know you get a fresh allowance soon.
Sat 21st 0929 Woke up about 6am ish IIRC, went back to sleep and finally woke up a bit after 8 without being able to get back to sleep, been sort of lying in bed eading since then and intermittently making vague lazy forays into the guide book.
Looking at guide book map, my confusion re street numbering arises because there's an odd/even distinction to both calles and avenidas based on which side of the centre you are.
Vague plan for today is to go to nearby Feria market mentioned in accom booklet but not RG, maybe treat myself to an empanada or something, then perhaps go over to the two adjacent bus stations near the centre to scope out buses to Grecia and perhaps visit the museum Juan Santamarca (sp, from memory).
I am wondering - not that the accom guidebook makes out it is a hotbed of crime or anything - if I avoid taking my phone and/or camera to the market in case of pickpockets. This is entirely paranoia on my part but I might do it.
I might also pop back to accom briefly during the day as it's all fairly close, eg to have some of that cold pop from the fridge and/or to pick up camera/phone again if I do leave them behind when I go to the market.
Looked at weather forecast earlier and it might piss it down tomorrow afternoon, and a bit on Monday. Not sure. Nothing I can do and if I do get soaked I won't be that far from home etc.
Guide book says Poas volcano park is open daily and makes no mention of this reservation business. Then again, owner here probably knows and after all that Canadian woman *had* been on some site and registered, so there must be something to it. I haven't looked on the web yet and despite this apparently having mildly "must do" status I probably won't. If it's true it *is* only doable on Saturdays and the weather turns after 10am I have already missed it. I am oddly not that bothered about it - maybe, despite really liking that kind of thing, because I am thinking there might well be other such opportunities during the trip. Also it is highly likely I will be back here at the end of the trip, or could be without any great pain, given how close it is to the airport, although if you really can only do the volcano on a Saturday that doesn't fit well with me flying out on IIRC Thursday. But if I am desperate it wouldn't be too hard to do the tour from San Jose if I am there, or to come to Alajuela for a couple of nights just to do the tour from here.
Worst comes to worst, I don't think it's a deathbed regret item, and if (not impossible) I do return to Costa Rica it would (Saturday stuff permitting, though even if true that may not be the case in even a year's time, given no guidebook of any vintage seems to mention it) be easy enough to go see it as first thing after arriving.
Right shoulder is hurting BTW. It was hurting a bit before I left UK and I suspect I just knocked or strained it a bit, but I hope it clears up. At least it's not my left arm so I'm not left with nagging doubts it's a legacy of breaking it.
As there are no windows in room and I just have bedside light on, it feels vaguely night time even though I'm certain it's sunny out. I kind of don't want to but I should probably start prepping (eg stashing cash I got yesterday, which I didn't do last night) to go out. No rush, but maybe be good to aim to be leaving here in an hour or so.
Accom book suggests getting empanada arreglada. Luckily I just Googled it and it's "slathered in condiments". Fuck that. I might chance ordering an empanada of some other type but got a nasty feeling it might be slathered in condiments anyway. Still, they are probably cheap enough I can just chuck the bugger away and write it off to experience.
1647 Been back at accom a few mins. On the whole actually a quietly successful day with actually some moments in which (without being related to women) I could " feel my happiness uncurl" to misappropriate a quote from The Streets. (Stray spaces around double quotes are present because the K1's keyboard app knows better than I do how to punctuate. Yet right now I feel vaguely discombobulated. Meh. Going to try to relax a bit, am probably back at accom for good tonight. Will probably write today up in a bit.
1654 Have been wondering about having a Spanish lesson, but I know from overhearing other people the walls here do very little to block sound and therefore I'd have to assume other people would hear the entire thing. On the other hand, since I don't intend to say anything secret, maybe I shouldn't care.
1756 Have a Spanish lesson in half an hour. Just done some semi-illicit socks/uw washing (2 pairs each) in shared bathroom - this is the downside of shared bathrooms. Not explicitly not permitted, but they have a laundry service (USD5) so implicitly maybe not permitted. Bit of a lightweight wash as couldn't get water to stay in basin despite my "universal" sink plug but I tried to block it up a bit with garments being washed. Will give them the sniff test once they've dried. I really need to wash a pair of tops to go with them but we'll see how that goes; if push comes to shove re-wearing a top isn't so critical. I may pay for a laundry service at new hostel, but here I don't have enough dirty stuff nor really enough time to feel comfortable spending USD5 on laundry service and risking not getting it back before I go.
1949 Had Spanish lesson. I snapped a few photos on phone today (more on this below) and I appear to have 256 photos (a handful of those from before today) totalling 1GB. I think my turning HDR mode on which effectively quadruples the number of photos may have been a bad idea. (Or I need to tell it to not keep the three component images, but that seems a shame. Or I just need to be very selective with HDR and not leave it on as I blat out dozens of shots in the hope some will come out.) l had hoped/expected to get all my photos (in duplicate) on 2x32GB SD cards, and all the photos from eg my Colombia trip would easily fit. Not a big deal but I do need to be careful.
Anyway, let's waffle. To be absolutely clear, I feel broadly OK (perhaps rambling at my Spanish teacher about this sort of stuff also helped ;-) ) but it's been a little bit up and down today.
So I did got over to the Feria. The route took me past a rather rundown looking patch of scrubby land surrounded by barbed wire which I had walked past yesterday, and I might have not gone that way had I not been going to the Feria. I didn't feel too edgy and there were people around and as the road had no buildings on the south side part of the way there were really nice views over the countryside to the mountains. (I didn't take a photo as didn't have camera and although I toyed with getting phone out on way back, I didn't quite feel comfortable.)
The food market was fairly big and I walked round it a couple of times. It was busy but not heaving (plenty of space) so it didn't feel at all intimidating and I'm sure there was no real risk of being pickpocketed. That said I don't think it would have been appropriate to pull out a camera (or my phone) and start snapping - maybe no one would have cared, but maybe they would and I think it would have been a bit crass.
I tried not to zoom round walking insanely quickly and to appreciate being there. There was also a really nice cool breeze at times (and it was all under a big roof) and I found myself half wishing I could buy stuff and cook with it, and then also thinking about making wine with some of it, and I had some vague thoughts of home and opening a bottle of (say) the cherry wine when I get back and I started to feel vaguely cheerful in an odd but nice way.
I had seen Soda Gina (as mentioned in the accom book page about the market) and went over there and had a very nice arroz con pollo and (yay) an undressed salad and some stuff that might have been fried plantain but I'm not sure (but was very nice) and a "jugo de cas" which seemed vaguely familiar but I don't know what "cas" is, but it was very nice anyway.
I then (realising - not for the first time - I had very little to do, and in fact that the big problem of being a tourist is filling the gaping quantities of time on hand) decided I'd stay for a coffee. I in fact stayed for a second coffee and was just vaguely watching the goings on and getting lost in more-or-less pleasant thoughts and feeling very touristy and a bit relaxed. (My right shoulder was hurting and I realised it felt stiff when I turned my head to the right; I must have slept on it badly or something, it still hurts a bit but is much better now as I'm writing this.)
I did wonder if I was "in the way" and maybe this wasn't the sort of place you were meant to hang around in indefinitely, but since there were several tables free I figured I wasn't doing any harm and I was running up a bigger bill and thus giving them money so no one should care. And maybe no one did, but I started to get edgy.
When I asked for my third coffee I got a different waitress (who seemed to have come over to take my empty cup) and who seemed to look at me a bit blankly when I asked for another coffee. She then said something I didn't understand and I felt awkward as fuck and I think I asked again for a coffee and she left, but didn't bring me one. So I went to the counter and asked the original waitress who said yes, sure, but then came to the table a minute later to say they had no more coffee but only juice, so I ordered a juice.
And then a bit later the other waitress came back and I felt awkward (which didn't help my language skills) and maybe explained that she had been trying to tell me they had no more coffee, or maybe explained that they did have coffee again if I wanted one. I really don't know. I felt awkward and confused and I wondered if I'd accidentally been rude as a result etc and it was just as I say awkward.
(To be clear, except that the "second" waitress did seem to look at me blankly when I said (not trying any flowery phrases) that I'd like another coffee, I don't think she intended to be rude and the fault, if any, was mostly mine. I also don't think I was necessarily rude, at worst I probably just came across as not understanding. But it still all felt awkward.)
I was also a tiny bit edgy as there were no prices on the menu, I had asked the price of the arroz con pollo (2300 IIRC) and the accom book had recommended this place but I started to wonder if they'd claim the juice was 5000 each or something. This didn't happen, I went to counter and they asked me what I'd had (very trusting of them) and it came to about 5100, which seemed pretty reasonable (if not insanely cheap - a general CR observation on my part, not complaining about this place - I am also still not "acclimatised" to the currency and find it hard to make snap judgements on whether a given price is "expensive" or not). I was going to round up as a tip and handed over a 20k note hoping for change (which I don't think was unreasonable for a bill of that size) but I stupidly showed that I had some small bills when I took the 20 off my roll and they asked for them and (politely, I think giving genuine advice) told me to be careful (presumably thinking I didn't realise it was a 20k and that someone might short change me), and that flustered me a bit so I ended up accidentally not leaving a tip. To be fair I had a quick look in guide book before leaving this morning and although it didn't mention sodas, it did say in restaurants 10% was automatically included and no need to tip, and I guess I probably didn't need to tip at the soda, though I would have and probably will continue to do modest rounding up (though at an approximate 10%ish level, not rounding 5100 up to 6k say, given that's over a quid tip and nearly 20%). So I felt a bit bad about that too.
Anyway, I then went into town and headed for where I'd seen from the guide book the two likely bus terminals (and associated sprawl of street-side bus stops) were. The F* (can't remember name) terminal looked huge, new, well-maintained and utterly unused with all the gates locked and the vast sprawling expanse of concrete utterly empty. No idea what's going on there. I found the Tuasa terminal and looked at the front of all the buses there but none obviously said Grecia.
I wandered around (it's all exercise/sightseeing, and I wasn't feeling too stressed as I didn't need to go today) and did things like try to observe where random buses on the street seemed to be coming from/going to and eventually stumbled on the street side bus stop (no actual formal bus stop signs or anything) where there were two buses for Grecia (and points further). FTR, if I remember correctly a) this is just outside the "back" exit of the Tuasa terminal, up past a "Claro" sign on the right b) this is at corner of Avenida 1 and Calle 10.
(I had toyed with asking someone on street where I could get a bus to Grecia, but I lacked confidence and/or felt it might be a bit rude. I also wasn't desperate.)
I stepped up into the waiting bus (no queue, no apparent intention to depart there and then) to ask the driver and he sort of waved me back a bit. Not sure why, surely I hardly look like a threat (and he wasn't wearing a mask or anything, so presumably there's no covid angle on this). Anyway, although he didn't seem super friendly, to give him his due he politely enough answered my questions (I can buy a ticket on the bus, no need to buy in advance, there's a bus about every 45 mins - and I subsequently saw other buses probably for different companies there to Grecia, so maybe guide book's 30 mins is about right if he was only talking about his compact - and there's a service every day - I just wish I'd asked the price so I can have roughly correct money on hand when I go on Monday) and I didn't seem to have any big language problems.
I then wandered off just killing time/sightseeing/walking for exercise and came across the central park quite by accident and saw the JS museum so decided to go in. I already thought it was free but it looked deserted-ish so I asked the guard(s) on the entrance if it was open and if it was free and after writing my name in a book I was waved in.
I have to be absolutely clear here that everyone in the museum was in fact super friendly and accommodating; I really do mean that. However, there seemed to be absolutely loads of guards around and they seemed to be slightly more "active" /"friendlier" than I would have expected and I was constantly on the back foot in case they were going to tell me I'd done something wrong when in reality they were just coming over (to take the first example) to tell me the uppermost floor where there's an open air walkway round the building with nice views was closing soon if I wanted to go look at it (which I did, after I finally clarified what the guard wanted and that I hadn't done anything wrong).
I was also the last one off the roof (as I hadn't twigged to the closing soon bit - not the museum, just the roof - at this point) and I apologised in (incorrect) Spanish for delaying them and they were super affable, but then one said something about photos (and I should say at this point the guard at the street entrance had clarified unbidden that photos without flash were fine, just no flash) and he was *probably* just asking me if I'd taken some photos to be friendly but I got a vague impression he was maybe checking I *hadn't* taken any photos because it wasn't allowed and I ended up mumbling something which probably made no sense but was accepted. This combination of irrational guilty conscience, suspicion of crazy rules (maybe you *aren't* allowed to take photos from the roof, although I honestly can't see why that would be the case) and linguistic difficulties (exacerbated by nerves from the other points) does my head in, further exacerbated by feeling frustrated that I get unnerved so easily by this sort of stuff (i.e. I have a problem that I have a problem with this).
I did see the rest of the rooms and as I say everyone was in fact super affable and courteous but I just felt constantly on the back foot by this point and was quite glad to finish a hurried inspection (to be honest, the museum was OK and interesting in points but the building itself was nicer/more interesting) and leave, still feeling a bit edgy.
(One point I wouldn't mind clearing up is that one of the earlier rooms said they exported something - it's not germane, but maybe coffee - from Puntarenas to England in (say) the 1800s. I was intrigued enough to go back and look at the map in the first room (which was interesting, as my CR geography knowledge is nonexistent) and Puntarenas is on the *Pacific* coast. So why were they shipping stuff to England from there? Was it *so* much harder to get stuff to the Carribbean coast from (I think) Alajuela that it was worth having to (I assume) ship it right round South America to get to England? Or did it then hop up the coast from Puntarena to near Lake Nicaragua and get transshipped a couple of times (overland the short distance Pacific to LN, then steamer, then overland from east side of LN) to cross to the Carribbean side that way? Or something else? This was just a casual mention of shipping to England in the museum so they didn't go into this, but I really am curious.)
Oh - jumping out of sequence - when I was at Soda Gina I got my phone out just to check Spanish dictionary and saw I had a text from "Sutel" which (I didn't fully understand the Spanish) seems to be advising me that my phone (it quoted the IMEI) is not approved and that (I think; this is very must a "gist" thing) I may have problems and can't complain if I do. It doesn't seem to be threatening me with anything (cf the message I got in Colombia telling me my A9s was not approved and would be blocked after 40 days or whatever) or suggesting I'm doing anything illegal, and it does in fact seem to work fine, so I guess it doesn't matter, unless they continue to send these messages and ramp up the aggressiveness.
After leaving the museum it was a little early to come back to the hostel (evenings a bit dreary as it is, though TBH with a bit of admin type stuff then the Spanish lesson and now writing this, it will probably be 2130ish by the time I'm done and I'll probably be happy to go to bed and/or watching an hour or so of Youtube would fill the time before a slightly later bedtime without much boredom) I thought I'd maybe just wander the streets a bit more then come back.
As it was I still felt a bit edgy from the museum and I also walked down a (not massively deserted or insalubrious-looking, but not bustling - it was pretty busy in the really central part of town, probably because it's a weekend as it felt busier than yesterday) street and a couple of people hanging around outside on a shop forecourt *might* have shouted at me (come here??? but really not sure) but might have been shouting to a mate across the road and certainly didn't attempt to do anything when I ignored them and walked past (they were several metres away) but it made me a bit jittery. Just FWIW, not saying Alajuela isn't safe or that I didn't feel safe most of the day.
I stopped in at a mini supermarket round corner from accom to get some water - piss a bit yellow this morning so wanted to get plenty. They didn't have that much water on display and it was same in the big supermarket yesterday. I also sort of thought sparkling water would be nice (I probably hadn't had any since I was in Colombia) and I asked and ended up (without fully twigging how much it was, though I'd probably have paid anyway to be polite) asking the very polite cashier if they had any and she found me a 2l bottle of Canada Dry soda water which was 1950 - over two quid!
I enjoyed it and as a one-off "treat" (retrospectively classifying it as such) that's fine but I'm not routinely paying those sort of prices. (She didn't know the price and took it to the till to check; I'm 95% sure she did not mark the price up because I'm a tourist. Incidentally that reminds me as I was recounting my adventures to my Spanish teacher, she told me a couple of rip-off stories she'd experienced with her daughters *in her own country, in her own language, within (I'd guess) 100 miles of her own home* which were the sort of thing I anticipate in my paranoid moments but which (touch wood) were *way* more exploitative than anything I think I've actually experienced, despite me being way more of a touristy potential victim than her and her family due to being foreign, from a "rich" country and not a native speaker. So maybe on the whole I've been lucky and/or I've somehow managed to look after myself surprisingly well.)
It's speculation on my part but I do wonder, given relative lack of water in both those shops, if the tap water *is* safe to drink here and as a result the market for bottled water is vastly smaller, so it's more of a luxury good and isn't sold in bulk as it is in my Latin American countries. Following on from this, it may be that because it isn't "normal" to buy bottled water, there isn't the same demand for sparkling water. I may have got the wrong impression and/or have forgotten what it was really like, but generally it's felt to me as though "agua con gas" is just a standard non-luxury item in most LA countries, just an alternative to "agua sin gas" , whereas here perhaps it is relatively uncommon for people to drink it because they all just get tap water and buy soft drinks when they want fizz.
It may just be my pronunciation or a regional language variation, but the woman at the mini-supermarket today didn't seem to recognise the phrase "agua con gas" and thought I'd asked for something else (can't remember what, sadly), though when I clarified by saying "agua con burbujas" she realised what I meant. I don't know what the phrase here is - the bottle I bought is "club soda" , but that may be beause it's a soft drink (Canada Dry) branded "mixer" rather than because that's what sparkling water is called here.
I will say that Aldous Huxley quote about welcoming boredom as a sign of excessive freedom when travelling came to mind at the Feria (not sure if I should capitalise that) this morning, in quite a good way. Yes, I am not "doing much" , but it was on the whole quite nice to feel I have a lot of time on my hands and one of the "big things" I did today was as simple as spend half an hour or so wandering round a food market and then have nothing better to do than fill in a couple of hours having an early lunch and some juice/coffee etc.
I think that's most of the stuff I have to say written. I will probably have a shower/shave shortly and move towards bed - it's already 2105 and I do feel slightly tired. Not that I couldn't stay up if something interesting were happening, I'm not fighting to keep my eyes open, I just do have this kind of "yeah, I guess I am a bit tired" feeling.
2131 Oh - during walk today I saw an ordinary-ish looking (vaguely chain - the poster was professionally printed in colour, not a sole proprietor whiteboard type of sign) restaurant advertising 6 chicken wings, fries and a coke for 5500 - that's over 7 quid, nearer 8. This feels fucking insane. I'm not sure it would cost that much in London. It's not as if this was somewhere swanky, several cuts above the sodas I ate in yesterday and today. Obviously I am not having to pay that, but it's vaguely disconcerting to think that I can't just walk into a non-pretentious restaurant without paying attention and not have a fairly nasty surprise when I get asked to pay.
2157 Have decided I will upload (almost all) trip photos to Google Photos - the privacy loss is fairly small and the ability to easily share some with family and to have an extra backup in case of accidents is worth it. Will turn backup off again after trip though.
Think I forgot to say earlier that FWIW, when I got that blank look on asking for another coffee, followed by what felt like rather a fraught situation, *if* I'd been drinking beer I'd have thought they thought I'd had enough. Which just goes to show how you can maybe misinterpret a situation sometimes. (Which also reminds me somehow of the strangely reassuring sight of the woman leading our party arguing with a female bouncer that we weren't too drunk to go into a West End that night I went to the film preview with J+V. A situation I'd normally associate with myself feeling awkward with a male bouncer.)
Finally ready to have shower and clean teeth and go to bed. The shared bathroom does make this sort of (slightly, if I'm being honest) more of a chore than it "should" be, but it's not a huge deal and the cost savings are well worth it, especially on a long trip in a mildly expensive country.
2240 About to go to bed. Shaved despite not feeling like it, because I probably ought to try not to look unnecessarily scruffy.
As discussed with teacher, when I don't understand someone I will try to either say that I don't understand, could you please repeat etc or if I *might* have understood, to paraphrase back to them as a question ("Sorry, I'm not sure I understand. Did you say the museum is closing now?" style of thing). *Not* guessing, hoping and pretending. ;-)
Saturday, 21 January 2023
Alajuela, Friday
Thu 19th 2043 FFS! I was in the wrong room. I happened to check emails just before going to bed and the non-resident owners had sent me directions to find *my* room (nice enough, but just a private twin with shared bathroom and shared kitchen) at 5ish am this morning and somehow I had never seen it.
Luckily I noticed and I think I've managed to put stuff back how it was near enough and put the keys to that back on the counter in the room and in the lock box. I will keep my mouth shut and if I am asked (fingers crossed some poor sod hasn't been trying to check in - but they could have got into the *building* at any rate, so probably not) I will say that I didn't see their e-mail (which was sent stupidly late really) until I had already had a shower in that room which had a key in the lock box on street, and then I changed. This is nearly true, except I spent a few hours in there, but that's my secret.
I just hope to fuck I haven't left anything in there. I am 90% sure I haven't, and I do have my passport. It's a good job I didn't "unpack" excessively.
Anyway, if there is fallout from this a) it's not primarily my fault and I'm not going to accept blame, although probably no one will try to pin any on me in the first place b) I am definitely in the right room now and I'll deal with it tomorrow after a night's sleep.
2055 Actually in bed at last. Still bit edgy about the above, but the key thing is that I put the keys back outside and in the room itself so no one is going to be seriously fucked over. They may notice a towel is damp etc and I can and will explain if pushed, but no more inconvenience than that.
Fri 20th Jan 1704 Got back to accom maybe 30 mins ago. Went into kitchen to put bottle of water and bottle of some guarana fizzy diet drink I got (Cotiuba?? bottle is in fridge not room so can't see it) at supermarket on way back. Owner was there talking with a Canadian woman guest, had brief chat with them - apparently you need to register (on web?) to go to Poas volcano, you might only be able to go on Saturday and there might not be a bus or there might just be a bus a bit like the one I vaguely recall from guidebook which gets you there a bit late to have a good chance of a cloud-free view of crater and comes back at midday or thereabouts. Canadian woman and her brother are apparently thinking of going via Uber.
I had seen this registering business mentioned in welcome booklet here in room this morning. Not checked my up-to-date guidebook yet. I was already thinking during day (which I intend to write up later after a bit of reading and/or YT - frankly I suspect I'm in for the night now and time may hang heavy) that I might not try going to Poas, at least from here now. Anyway, wanted to note that down while fresh in my mind.
They also said it's Costa Rican school long holidays until Feb (not clear when in Feb) which means it's necessary to register for a lot of stuff and/or it's busy. This shits me up a bit. I may well look into booking next stop after these four nights tonight.
My earlier wafflings about going to Nicaragua or Panama if it's too busy or expensive in CR didn't take into account coronavirus rules; they may be no problem, but as of now I have no specific idea what rules might be in place. Still, while I'd rather not, failing to cross a land border because of a failed PCR test or whatever when I'm in no rush and can just turn back isn't as disastrous as it would be if I were flying into the country.
Incidentally the mask situation here appears superficially rather UK-like (ignoring the legal requirement in medical contexts IIRC) - hardly anyone wearing masks but a few people, the businesses I've been in today haven't made people wear masks and because presumably business owners here have the same weird aversion to taking down outdated notices as those in the UK, a good number of businesses still have "you must wear a mask" and similar signs on the door but no one - including the staff - is wearing one, and AIUI there's no legal compulsion to do so either, so the notices are utterly confusing and pontless. How hard is it to take down a bloody poster? But this isn't a specifically Costa Rican failing, as I say the same seems to be the case in the UK too.
Right, going to slack off for a bit and then continue write up. I will say that my main objectives today were to get cash, get lunch and get a SIM card and I have (subject to some possible problems I haven't investigated yet) achieved all three. I also fairly quickly got to the point where I feel pretty safe on the streets in daytime - no one seems to be interested in hassling me for whatever reason.
1737 FWIW if I forgot to say above, owner said the cloud cover can change rapidly up at the volcano, so just because it is cloudy when you get there, it won't necessarily stay cloudy for the rest of the day.
1826 Been lying on bed reading and I've been on the verge of nodding off a couple of times. This is, I guess, fine, if a little unexpected - I did get a reasonably solid long sleep last night, although I suppose I'd been a bit short on sleep for a few nights and I've done a fair amount of walking today too.
I might go to bed early. Let me just have at least a quick poke on eg booking.com for Grecia and see how that looks, and then I might put off making plans until tomorrow - I could for example trog over to the relevant bus terminal tomorrow and ask about buses.
Oh, I investigate Three Go Roam this morning, but unless you have an old SIM (shame I didn't keep my "Guatemala" one alive, although being PAYG it may not have qualified anyway) there's a £5/day roaming charge to use your allowance, so it's practically useless for me and this is why I think I thought it had been canned - I looked it up a month or so ago and found this and wrote it off.
OK, that hostel I vaguely liked the sound of has a single private with shared bathroom for four nights for about 47k or about £17/night. They have dorms for less but this early in the trip when I'm still finding my feet I'm reluctant to do that. It's free cancellation until 22nd as well so in the (probably unlikely event) it's an utter mare to get to by bus from here I could cancel tomorrow night without having to investigate now when I'm feeling just a bit tired. Sod it, given the free cancellation I will book this.
OK, yes, quick search in Rough Guide on Kindle says buses Alajuela-Grecia every 30 mins and it takes an hour. A nice easy hop, surely. The hostel has a bar, I might meet someone and even if I don't I can maybe have a quiet beer or two instead of sitting in my room as I will here.
OK, that's booked. Feels good to have that sorted. I don't exactly like "rushing off" but until I get more confident re availability at short notice (this wasn't too bad TBH, given it's two nights before) I didn't want to take chances. Alajuela does seem OK and I will waffle about it later, but gut feeling is there's no "must see" here, I can and perhaps will come back here as a matter of convenience at end of trip, and for that matter with Grecia a short and frequent bus ride away, I can probably come back next week if I have regrets.
I am not particularly desperate to socialise at this point but it does feel like a proper hostel with staff and a bar might avoid some of the slight boxed-in feeling of this place (which feels a little transitional).
Incidentally a dorm at that hostel would have been slightly over half what I'm paying. I've been in dorms a moderate amount over the years, I think it's tolerable and I will probably do it a bit (not constantly) later in trip to keep costs down and/or out of necessity due to availability (TBH gut feeling is that availability isn't going to be as bad as I feel, especially as I have some flexibility to vary my route based on availability, it may even take me on the slightly off-the-beaten track parts of the tourist routes as a result, but I also suspect that if you're willing to stay in a dorm you can probably get something a day or so ahead in most places without too much trouble or paying an arm and a leg) but I do want to give it a few weeks first as (not that I feel too edgy right now, except wrt "too busy" concerns, but still, it is early days) I am likely to have found my feet by then.
1918 Right, let's bash out a few notes about today.
I woke up IIRC at about 1 and 4am feeling vaguely disoriented, but it wasn't that crushing (albeit short-lived) feeling I'll call homesickness (although it isn't necessarily that, as it crops up once in a while when I *am* at home). I think I finally woke up about 8am still feeling a bit tired but I just didn't seem to want to go back to sleep either. Maybe it was nearer 9, I'm not sure.
A few people around when I went out to clean my teeth, said hola, it's not a huge place obviously.
I spent ages in my room sorting stuff out (rearranging things following flight - it's different now I have a "base", stuff like that), deciding what the plan for today was (get cash, have lunch, get SIM), researching Three Go Roam, etc. I kept feeling vague "need to get out and do stuff" guilty urges but I kept talking myself out of it. There isn't any rush, I also want to start gradually and a bit of preparation (e.g. making sure my debit/credit cards are split up) could save my arse later.
Anyway, although I had a fair amount of USD I really didn't want to pay for anything except in CRC if I could help it, so cash plus a bit of a walk the first order of the day. I set off and made a point of noting landmarks near accom and did a pseudo-regular tour of the grid-based layout of the town centre. It was warm but not unpleasantly grindingly so (my mind reverts to Guayaquil here, although TBF I think it was going into a rotiserrie restaurant which added to the heat which really sticks in my mind).
At first I felt a bit "everyone is going to see I'm a tourist and hassle me" but I did my best to walk slowly-ish and I don't think it took that long (an hour or two? just a guess) before I pretty much felt comfortable walking around and that no one was going to hassle me.
I found numerous banks and had various confusing interactions with their cash machines. I also got politely told (and my Spanish wasn't good enough while feeling slightly flustered to understand at first) to take my cap off by a security guard at one of the places that had the machines in the main bank - lesson learned. In no particular order:
- one machine wanted to charge me something like ten quid as a fee, so I cancelled, although based on what I learned later it would probably have failed anyway
- at least one bank's machines seemed to insist on you entering two extra zeroes to "fill in" the pointless two decimal places at the end of the amount
- one bank's machines insisted that numbers like 160000 were too small and that the minimum amount was 2000 - as I write this I wonder if this was due to confusion over decimal points (see prev item) but I am fairly sure it wasn't
- several banks rejected the transaction and said to contact my bank
- one bank said transaction had processed successfully after a very very long wait, but gave me not cash - and this was of the machine type that takes your card in - as all UK ones do IME, but here and in other parts of Latin America some banks have machines that only take your card in part way and "locks" it so you can't take it out, but I assume these machines always release your card and can never swallow it.
I did speak to bank staff (is there a cash machine? etc) in Spanish and on the whole that felt reasonably solid, despite a wobble with the security guard asking me to remove my cap.
This was with the Starling card I'd used at the airport. I deliberately hadn't taken other cards out to reduce risk of theft/loss. In the end after maybe two hours (I was walking round and "seeing" the place and getting a feel for it etc, so it wasn't wasted time) I came back to accom and got on chat with them. They were very decent (as they were last time I tried, IIRC) and it turned out I have a £300/day allowance (which I had forgotten, as normally I'd never withdraw more than that in a day) *and it works on a UK calendar day window*. I had withdrawn USD200 at just past UK midnight at the airport so all my withdrawal attempts this morning for £200ish worth of CRC were failing because I only had something like £140 allowance left. (Another minor bit of fallout of cash machine woes at airport - if I'd got this sorted 10 mins earlier none of this would have happened today.)
So I'm sure the Starling card would have worked if I'd waited, but I wanted CRC to pay for food/SIM so I took my Barclaycard Rewards out and used that - I knew roughly where to find the machines now, and used one of the red ones I had used at the airport and got 200k out for an only slightly insane fee of about 2.8k (from memory).
Of course I then struggled a bit to find a place to eat, despite seeing loads when I needed cash first. I did see some OK ones including Peruvian and Chinese but I felt that even though I wouldn't be going for uber-typical CR dishes it would be silly not to eat in a CR restaurant my first day. And in the end I found a soda (had seen loads earlier, as I said) called Soda del Banco which had prices on the menu on the wall (finding my feet - until I know roughly what to expect, don't want to trust the prices are going to be "OK" if they aren't shown) and had pretty decent filet de pollo, papas fritas and a salad (which I asked for no dressing on and got, I felt pretty chuffed with myself - oh, I ordered at the counter, I think that was right) and a tamarind juice (I do like tamarind, it was nice but a bit small as I had a raging thirst on by this point) for something like 3700 for the food, 700 for the drink and (not remembering specifically about tipping customs) figuring making it 5000 would be an OK but not insane (unlike some of my early Guatemalan experiences) tip. I paid with a 20k note to get some small bills too.
I then sallied out to find a SIM. Claro seem to be the only game in town based on my observations. I went into one place and asked about a SIM and the guy said he only had them with no internet. I then found an actual Claro shop, went in and after queuing a bit (small place, 1 MoS and 2-ish customers waiting) I paid 1.5k for a SIM and 10k for 5GB/30 days, unlimited WhatsApp (nice if it works but as this is for G5 to carry round it probably won't) and 200 minutes for calls to CR numbers (possibly useful for taxis etc). Did all this in Spanish and although I fumbled a bit at times and felt a bit annoyed, I am still pleased with myself. I asked if I could try it in shop so I sat down and put it in G5 (had moved "normal" UK SIM to K1 that morning) and it activated but I couldn't get on internet and my balance seemed wrong. A text arrived just as I went up to the counter which said the 10k deal had been activated, but since I was there I let MoS play with phone a bit and she couldn't get it to work either. Oddly I tried it half an hour ago and it seems to work fine, so no idea what happened. I didn't intend to ask for a refund but perhaps this made me feel more flustered (with impact on my Spanish) as I wondered if I was being a bit weak. But (as she asked and I said) I did have another phone back at accom and even if the SIM had only worked in K1 it would still be kind of worth having (though inconvenient to use, as I'd like regular UK SIM available in case of texts warning me of stuff from banks, and I'd rather not carry that SIM in the G5 as it's more likely to get lost that way).
Anyway, touch wood, it seems to be working. I haven't tried to play with WhatsApp on G5 now, maybe eg tomorrow night if I am bored during evening in.
This is a smidge more than I hoped to pay but at about £17/month it's not terrible and 5GB of data is more than I have on my UK SIM back home and should allow me to "splurge" a bit on using it if I am wifi-less for whatever reason. Also if it turns out I really should have gone with another network I can always get one after 30 days and I'm only out the fairly negligible price I paid for the SIM
There were cheaper deals but they were for 15 or 10 days and were more expensive per day, rather than there being cheaper deals with less data/calls for a lower daily rate.
I made a point of not getting phone out and playing with it/reading on it while waiting for/eating lunch and while in the queue at the Claro place; I'm trying to be a bit more present and/or just rely on my brilliantly powerful intellect to amuse me. :-)
It was about 3pm, maybe a bit earlier, when I left Claro shop. It had gone a bit cloudy and pleasantly cooler and there was a bit of a refreshing breeze. There also seemed to be a *very* light rain in the air at some points, which surprised me but wasn't remotely soaking and was quite refreshing.
It felt a little early to be going back to accom but I formed a vague resolution to walk round for another hour or so and get some water+pop at a supermarket, shove it in hostel fridge and maybe drink a bit in the kitchen (thinking that I shouldn't hide myself away too much and then I might get to chat more - this worked to a small extent tonight as putting it in there lead to that conversation already described, though I drank a couple of hasty and awkward glasses solo in the kitchen 10-15 mins later). As it happened despite feeling I'd got the rough hang of the geography and the numerical avenida (W-E) and calle (N-S) street naming, I got lost - *probably* because the avenida numbers decrement as you go north to the centre, then start to increment again, but the street signs don't say "avenida 1 *N*" or "avenida 1 *S*" , just "avenida 1" , so when I thought I was heading south because the numbers were increasing I was actually heading north. This is speculation but I'm moderately confident.
As a result - and vague worries about the darkening sky threatening heavier rain - that was the one time today I resorted to using the phone GPS, which is how I twigged I'd actually gone right out to the NE corner of the main "square" central-ish area. Walked back zig-zagging through the centre and by the time I got to the supermarket I'd previously seen near accom it was relatively late anyway.
General impressions of Alajuela is that it's quite pleasant - I don't know if the whole of CR is like this, but I did feel safe (even from random hassle) on the streets - but not (although there are certainly some cool looking buildings - but I resisted temptation to pull camera out today as I had eg wodge of cash i'd withdraw in camera pocket, and even ignoring that, I didn't want to advertise my tourist status by photographing stuff while I had all that cash and one of my good travel cards on me) on the whole amazingly attractive. Nice enough but not "beautiful" .
As I said last night, v "Latin American" feel to the streets - lots of small-ish businesses which on reflection can also be true in parts of London, but it feels more intensely "small businessy" here - but also oddly and sort of coolly but also sort of confusingly when you're walking around the fairly compact centre - there seemed to be pockets of residential stuff kind of mixed in. This is probably a slightly confused perception based on my somewhat random walking.
Fairly serious looking hills/mountains to north and south horizons; I did try to use these for navigation a bit, but except for E-W v N-S they weren't that useful - I couldn't tell them apart, at first I did think the southern ones were noticeably higher but whether or not that's true, I think in reality the more local up-down of the streets and buildings in the way make this initial judgement of mine a bit unsubstantiated.
Fingers hurting a bit and though I'm not actively tired I suspect if I did lay down I'd fall asleep so I would like to stop. I think I've covered most stuff but can always add more in another day's entry.
It does feel - and I may be being unfair - that scope for using Alajuela as a base for daytrips (ignoring Poas and its awkward buses and registrations - oh incidentally not that I was specifically looking, but I didn't notice any businesses offering tours to Poas, despite an old guide book saying many companies did offer it) feels limited. This accommodation is nice enough but it also does feel a smidge "lonely" and ideal for a transitory stay but not more. There are obviously bars etc in town but nothing looked super tempting/unthreatening and the idea - in my current fresh off the plane state in particular - of going out solo for a few beers and maybe some live music feels a bit impractical. It's a fine line but somewhere a smidge more touristy and/or smaller - like grecia? - feels like this sort of thing might be more doable.
And as I think I've already said, I may well be back here at the end of the trip, and even if I'm not, it's far from impossible I'll return to CR in the future and again Alajuela will be there right by the airport and a natural place to put in a night or two, or longer if I subsequently discover cool stuff here I'll wish I'd known about now, etc.
Going to go have a shower, shave and clean my teeth and then I think I'll move towards bed. I suspect/hope I will naturally be up fairly early again given that I am feeling tired enough I'll probably be asleep quite early. No major plans for tomorrow, probably just wander a bit, maybe check out bus station, probably photograph some of those cool-looking buildings and maybe go into any if they are open, or visit some of the sites listed in guide book. And probably ditto, except bus station, the day after (Sunday) as well.
2039 That went fairly well, the shave (first with a disposable razor I had spare at home) felt OK, naturally some blood but not too bad. Still feeling my way back into the routines associated with shared bathroom, eg I should use a carrier bag to take everything over instead of my hands.
Nearly said earlier re altering plans based on availability and this forcing me slightly off the beaten path that this is probably true, but anything on sites like booking.com is still on a somewhat beaten path. But I didn't because there were entire apartments multiple km outside Grecia available for less than I'm paying for my private room in town. These do feel a little off the beaten path. A bit intimidating maybe but also worth bearing in mind if (more likely on a future trip, with a laptop) I just want to hole up somewhere peaceful that there are possibilities there. For all I know such places might also be a decent base for nearby activities/hikes/whatever, although current gut feeling is that if I do use Grecia as a base for even a week or so I'd want to be in town (not nec at hostel booked tonight) as the extra convenience of buses in all directions and facilities is probably better.
Was going to say one other thing.
2048 Still not come back to me. Will post this and then bed. Can always add forgotten stuff to next entry of course.
Feeling broadly OK. I haven't "done" much by the standards of eg someone making the most of a two week trip, but I've got done what I wanted to do, I'm mostly not pressuring myself and minor jitters aside I'm not feeling terribly uncomfortable and while eg trogging round trying to get cash for two hours wasn't exactly "fun" , I didn't feel I was wasting my time and I didn't get worked up (just quietly a bit frustrated, but I knew I had other cards and some cash and no rush etc) and I could probably say overall the day has been quietly enjoyable in a slightly strange way.
Luckily I noticed and I think I've managed to put stuff back how it was near enough and put the keys to that back on the counter in the room and in the lock box. I will keep my mouth shut and if I am asked (fingers crossed some poor sod hasn't been trying to check in - but they could have got into the *building* at any rate, so probably not) I will say that I didn't see their e-mail (which was sent stupidly late really) until I had already had a shower in that room which had a key in the lock box on street, and then I changed. This is nearly true, except I spent a few hours in there, but that's my secret.
I just hope to fuck I haven't left anything in there. I am 90% sure I haven't, and I do have my passport. It's a good job I didn't "unpack" excessively.
Anyway, if there is fallout from this a) it's not primarily my fault and I'm not going to accept blame, although probably no one will try to pin any on me in the first place b) I am definitely in the right room now and I'll deal with it tomorrow after a night's sleep.
2055 Actually in bed at last. Still bit edgy about the above, but the key thing is that I put the keys back outside and in the room itself so no one is going to be seriously fucked over. They may notice a towel is damp etc and I can and will explain if pushed, but no more inconvenience than that.
Fri 20th Jan 1704 Got back to accom maybe 30 mins ago. Went into kitchen to put bottle of water and bottle of some guarana fizzy diet drink I got (Cotiuba?? bottle is in fridge not room so can't see it) at supermarket on way back. Owner was there talking with a Canadian woman guest, had brief chat with them - apparently you need to register (on web?) to go to Poas volcano, you might only be able to go on Saturday and there might not be a bus or there might just be a bus a bit like the one I vaguely recall from guidebook which gets you there a bit late to have a good chance of a cloud-free view of crater and comes back at midday or thereabouts. Canadian woman and her brother are apparently thinking of going via Uber.
I had seen this registering business mentioned in welcome booklet here in room this morning. Not checked my up-to-date guidebook yet. I was already thinking during day (which I intend to write up later after a bit of reading and/or YT - frankly I suspect I'm in for the night now and time may hang heavy) that I might not try going to Poas, at least from here now. Anyway, wanted to note that down while fresh in my mind.
They also said it's Costa Rican school long holidays until Feb (not clear when in Feb) which means it's necessary to register for a lot of stuff and/or it's busy. This shits me up a bit. I may well look into booking next stop after these four nights tonight.
My earlier wafflings about going to Nicaragua or Panama if it's too busy or expensive in CR didn't take into account coronavirus rules; they may be no problem, but as of now I have no specific idea what rules might be in place. Still, while I'd rather not, failing to cross a land border because of a failed PCR test or whatever when I'm in no rush and can just turn back isn't as disastrous as it would be if I were flying into the country.
Incidentally the mask situation here appears superficially rather UK-like (ignoring the legal requirement in medical contexts IIRC) - hardly anyone wearing masks but a few people, the businesses I've been in today haven't made people wear masks and because presumably business owners here have the same weird aversion to taking down outdated notices as those in the UK, a good number of businesses still have "you must wear a mask" and similar signs on the door but no one - including the staff - is wearing one, and AIUI there's no legal compulsion to do so either, so the notices are utterly confusing and pontless. How hard is it to take down a bloody poster? But this isn't a specifically Costa Rican failing, as I say the same seems to be the case in the UK too.
Right, going to slack off for a bit and then continue write up. I will say that my main objectives today were to get cash, get lunch and get a SIM card and I have (subject to some possible problems I haven't investigated yet) achieved all three. I also fairly quickly got to the point where I feel pretty safe on the streets in daytime - no one seems to be interested in hassling me for whatever reason.
1737 FWIW if I forgot to say above, owner said the cloud cover can change rapidly up at the volcano, so just because it is cloudy when you get there, it won't necessarily stay cloudy for the rest of the day.
1826 Been lying on bed reading and I've been on the verge of nodding off a couple of times. This is, I guess, fine, if a little unexpected - I did get a reasonably solid long sleep last night, although I suppose I'd been a bit short on sleep for a few nights and I've done a fair amount of walking today too.
I might go to bed early. Let me just have at least a quick poke on eg booking.com for Grecia and see how that looks, and then I might put off making plans until tomorrow - I could for example trog over to the relevant bus terminal tomorrow and ask about buses.
Oh, I investigate Three Go Roam this morning, but unless you have an old SIM (shame I didn't keep my "Guatemala" one alive, although being PAYG it may not have qualified anyway) there's a £5/day roaming charge to use your allowance, so it's practically useless for me and this is why I think I thought it had been canned - I looked it up a month or so ago and found this and wrote it off.
OK, that hostel I vaguely liked the sound of has a single private with shared bathroom for four nights for about 47k or about £17/night. They have dorms for less but this early in the trip when I'm still finding my feet I'm reluctant to do that. It's free cancellation until 22nd as well so in the (probably unlikely event) it's an utter mare to get to by bus from here I could cancel tomorrow night without having to investigate now when I'm feeling just a bit tired. Sod it, given the free cancellation I will book this.
OK, yes, quick search in Rough Guide on Kindle says buses Alajuela-Grecia every 30 mins and it takes an hour. A nice easy hop, surely. The hostel has a bar, I might meet someone and even if I don't I can maybe have a quiet beer or two instead of sitting in my room as I will here.
OK, that's booked. Feels good to have that sorted. I don't exactly like "rushing off" but until I get more confident re availability at short notice (this wasn't too bad TBH, given it's two nights before) I didn't want to take chances. Alajuela does seem OK and I will waffle about it later, but gut feeling is there's no "must see" here, I can and perhaps will come back here as a matter of convenience at end of trip, and for that matter with Grecia a short and frequent bus ride away, I can probably come back next week if I have regrets.
I am not particularly desperate to socialise at this point but it does feel like a proper hostel with staff and a bar might avoid some of the slight boxed-in feeling of this place (which feels a little transitional).
Incidentally a dorm at that hostel would have been slightly over half what I'm paying. I've been in dorms a moderate amount over the years, I think it's tolerable and I will probably do it a bit (not constantly) later in trip to keep costs down and/or out of necessity due to availability (TBH gut feeling is that availability isn't going to be as bad as I feel, especially as I have some flexibility to vary my route based on availability, it may even take me on the slightly off-the-beaten track parts of the tourist routes as a result, but I also suspect that if you're willing to stay in a dorm you can probably get something a day or so ahead in most places without too much trouble or paying an arm and a leg) but I do want to give it a few weeks first as (not that I feel too edgy right now, except wrt "too busy" concerns, but still, it is early days) I am likely to have found my feet by then.
1918 Right, let's bash out a few notes about today.
I woke up IIRC at about 1 and 4am feeling vaguely disoriented, but it wasn't that crushing (albeit short-lived) feeling I'll call homesickness (although it isn't necessarily that, as it crops up once in a while when I *am* at home). I think I finally woke up about 8am still feeling a bit tired but I just didn't seem to want to go back to sleep either. Maybe it was nearer 9, I'm not sure.
A few people around when I went out to clean my teeth, said hola, it's not a huge place obviously.
I spent ages in my room sorting stuff out (rearranging things following flight - it's different now I have a "base", stuff like that), deciding what the plan for today was (get cash, have lunch, get SIM), researching Three Go Roam, etc. I kept feeling vague "need to get out and do stuff" guilty urges but I kept talking myself out of it. There isn't any rush, I also want to start gradually and a bit of preparation (e.g. making sure my debit/credit cards are split up) could save my arse later.
Anyway, although I had a fair amount of USD I really didn't want to pay for anything except in CRC if I could help it, so cash plus a bit of a walk the first order of the day. I set off and made a point of noting landmarks near accom and did a pseudo-regular tour of the grid-based layout of the town centre. It was warm but not unpleasantly grindingly so (my mind reverts to Guayaquil here, although TBF I think it was going into a rotiserrie restaurant which added to the heat which really sticks in my mind).
At first I felt a bit "everyone is going to see I'm a tourist and hassle me" but I did my best to walk slowly-ish and I don't think it took that long (an hour or two? just a guess) before I pretty much felt comfortable walking around and that no one was going to hassle me.
I found numerous banks and had various confusing interactions with their cash machines. I also got politely told (and my Spanish wasn't good enough while feeling slightly flustered to understand at first) to take my cap off by a security guard at one of the places that had the machines in the main bank - lesson learned. In no particular order:
- one machine wanted to charge me something like ten quid as a fee, so I cancelled, although based on what I learned later it would probably have failed anyway
- at least one bank's machines seemed to insist on you entering two extra zeroes to "fill in" the pointless two decimal places at the end of the amount
- one bank's machines insisted that numbers like 160000 were too small and that the minimum amount was 2000 - as I write this I wonder if this was due to confusion over decimal points (see prev item) but I am fairly sure it wasn't
- several banks rejected the transaction and said to contact my bank
- one bank said transaction had processed successfully after a very very long wait, but gave me not cash - and this was of the machine type that takes your card in - as all UK ones do IME, but here and in other parts of Latin America some banks have machines that only take your card in part way and "locks" it so you can't take it out, but I assume these machines always release your card and can never swallow it.
I did speak to bank staff (is there a cash machine? etc) in Spanish and on the whole that felt reasonably solid, despite a wobble with the security guard asking me to remove my cap.
This was with the Starling card I'd used at the airport. I deliberately hadn't taken other cards out to reduce risk of theft/loss. In the end after maybe two hours (I was walking round and "seeing" the place and getting a feel for it etc, so it wasn't wasted time) I came back to accom and got on chat with them. They were very decent (as they were last time I tried, IIRC) and it turned out I have a £300/day allowance (which I had forgotten, as normally I'd never withdraw more than that in a day) *and it works on a UK calendar day window*. I had withdrawn USD200 at just past UK midnight at the airport so all my withdrawal attempts this morning for £200ish worth of CRC were failing because I only had something like £140 allowance left. (Another minor bit of fallout of cash machine woes at airport - if I'd got this sorted 10 mins earlier none of this would have happened today.)
So I'm sure the Starling card would have worked if I'd waited, but I wanted CRC to pay for food/SIM so I took my Barclaycard Rewards out and used that - I knew roughly where to find the machines now, and used one of the red ones I had used at the airport and got 200k out for an only slightly insane fee of about 2.8k (from memory).
Of course I then struggled a bit to find a place to eat, despite seeing loads when I needed cash first. I did see some OK ones including Peruvian and Chinese but I felt that even though I wouldn't be going for uber-typical CR dishes it would be silly not to eat in a CR restaurant my first day. And in the end I found a soda (had seen loads earlier, as I said) called Soda del Banco which had prices on the menu on the wall (finding my feet - until I know roughly what to expect, don't want to trust the prices are going to be "OK" if they aren't shown) and had pretty decent filet de pollo, papas fritas and a salad (which I asked for no dressing on and got, I felt pretty chuffed with myself - oh, I ordered at the counter, I think that was right) and a tamarind juice (I do like tamarind, it was nice but a bit small as I had a raging thirst on by this point) for something like 3700 for the food, 700 for the drink and (not remembering specifically about tipping customs) figuring making it 5000 would be an OK but not insane (unlike some of my early Guatemalan experiences) tip. I paid with a 20k note to get some small bills too.
I then sallied out to find a SIM. Claro seem to be the only game in town based on my observations. I went into one place and asked about a SIM and the guy said he only had them with no internet. I then found an actual Claro shop, went in and after queuing a bit (small place, 1 MoS and 2-ish customers waiting) I paid 1.5k for a SIM and 10k for 5GB/30 days, unlimited WhatsApp (nice if it works but as this is for G5 to carry round it probably won't) and 200 minutes for calls to CR numbers (possibly useful for taxis etc). Did all this in Spanish and although I fumbled a bit at times and felt a bit annoyed, I am still pleased with myself. I asked if I could try it in shop so I sat down and put it in G5 (had moved "normal" UK SIM to K1 that morning) and it activated but I couldn't get on internet and my balance seemed wrong. A text arrived just as I went up to the counter which said the 10k deal had been activated, but since I was there I let MoS play with phone a bit and she couldn't get it to work either. Oddly I tried it half an hour ago and it seems to work fine, so no idea what happened. I didn't intend to ask for a refund but perhaps this made me feel more flustered (with impact on my Spanish) as I wondered if I was being a bit weak. But (as she asked and I said) I did have another phone back at accom and even if the SIM had only worked in K1 it would still be kind of worth having (though inconvenient to use, as I'd like regular UK SIM available in case of texts warning me of stuff from banks, and I'd rather not carry that SIM in the G5 as it's more likely to get lost that way).
Anyway, touch wood, it seems to be working. I haven't tried to play with WhatsApp on G5 now, maybe eg tomorrow night if I am bored during evening in.
This is a smidge more than I hoped to pay but at about £17/month it's not terrible and 5GB of data is more than I have on my UK SIM back home and should allow me to "splurge" a bit on using it if I am wifi-less for whatever reason. Also if it turns out I really should have gone with another network I can always get one after 30 days and I'm only out the fairly negligible price I paid for the SIM
There were cheaper deals but they were for 15 or 10 days and were more expensive per day, rather than there being cheaper deals with less data/calls for a lower daily rate.
I made a point of not getting phone out and playing with it/reading on it while waiting for/eating lunch and while in the queue at the Claro place; I'm trying to be a bit more present and/or just rely on my brilliantly powerful intellect to amuse me. :-)
It was about 3pm, maybe a bit earlier, when I left Claro shop. It had gone a bit cloudy and pleasantly cooler and there was a bit of a refreshing breeze. There also seemed to be a *very* light rain in the air at some points, which surprised me but wasn't remotely soaking and was quite refreshing.
It felt a little early to be going back to accom but I formed a vague resolution to walk round for another hour or so and get some water+pop at a supermarket, shove it in hostel fridge and maybe drink a bit in the kitchen (thinking that I shouldn't hide myself away too much and then I might get to chat more - this worked to a small extent tonight as putting it in there lead to that conversation already described, though I drank a couple of hasty and awkward glasses solo in the kitchen 10-15 mins later). As it happened despite feeling I'd got the rough hang of the geography and the numerical avenida (W-E) and calle (N-S) street naming, I got lost - *probably* because the avenida numbers decrement as you go north to the centre, then start to increment again, but the street signs don't say "avenida 1 *N*" or "avenida 1 *S*" , just "avenida 1" , so when I thought I was heading south because the numbers were increasing I was actually heading north. This is speculation but I'm moderately confident.
As a result - and vague worries about the darkening sky threatening heavier rain - that was the one time today I resorted to using the phone GPS, which is how I twigged I'd actually gone right out to the NE corner of the main "square" central-ish area. Walked back zig-zagging through the centre and by the time I got to the supermarket I'd previously seen near accom it was relatively late anyway.
General impressions of Alajuela is that it's quite pleasant - I don't know if the whole of CR is like this, but I did feel safe (even from random hassle) on the streets - but not (although there are certainly some cool looking buildings - but I resisted temptation to pull camera out today as I had eg wodge of cash i'd withdraw in camera pocket, and even ignoring that, I didn't want to advertise my tourist status by photographing stuff while I had all that cash and one of my good travel cards on me) on the whole amazingly attractive. Nice enough but not "beautiful" .
As I said last night, v "Latin American" feel to the streets - lots of small-ish businesses which on reflection can also be true in parts of London, but it feels more intensely "small businessy" here - but also oddly and sort of coolly but also sort of confusingly when you're walking around the fairly compact centre - there seemed to be pockets of residential stuff kind of mixed in. This is probably a slightly confused perception based on my somewhat random walking.
Fairly serious looking hills/mountains to north and south horizons; I did try to use these for navigation a bit, but except for E-W v N-S they weren't that useful - I couldn't tell them apart, at first I did think the southern ones were noticeably higher but whether or not that's true, I think in reality the more local up-down of the streets and buildings in the way make this initial judgement of mine a bit unsubstantiated.
Fingers hurting a bit and though I'm not actively tired I suspect if I did lay down I'd fall asleep so I would like to stop. I think I've covered most stuff but can always add more in another day's entry.
It does feel - and I may be being unfair - that scope for using Alajuela as a base for daytrips (ignoring Poas and its awkward buses and registrations - oh incidentally not that I was specifically looking, but I didn't notice any businesses offering tours to Poas, despite an old guide book saying many companies did offer it) feels limited. This accommodation is nice enough but it also does feel a smidge "lonely" and ideal for a transitory stay but not more. There are obviously bars etc in town but nothing looked super tempting/unthreatening and the idea - in my current fresh off the plane state in particular - of going out solo for a few beers and maybe some live music feels a bit impractical. It's a fine line but somewhere a smidge more touristy and/or smaller - like grecia? - feels like this sort of thing might be more doable.
And as I think I've already said, I may well be back here at the end of the trip, and even if I'm not, it's far from impossible I'll return to CR in the future and again Alajuela will be there right by the airport and a natural place to put in a night or two, or longer if I subsequently discover cool stuff here I'll wish I'd known about now, etc.
Going to go have a shower, shave and clean my teeth and then I think I'll move towards bed. I suspect/hope I will naturally be up fairly early again given that I am feeling tired enough I'll probably be asleep quite early. No major plans for tomorrow, probably just wander a bit, maybe check out bus station, probably photograph some of those cool-looking buildings and maybe go into any if they are open, or visit some of the sites listed in guide book. And probably ditto, except bus station, the day after (Sunday) as well.
2039 That went fairly well, the shave (first with a disposable razor I had spare at home) felt OK, naturally some blood but not too bad. Still feeling my way back into the routines associated with shared bathroom, eg I should use a carrier bag to take everything over instead of my hands.
Nearly said earlier re altering plans based on availability and this forcing me slightly off the beaten path that this is probably true, but anything on sites like booking.com is still on a somewhat beaten path. But I didn't because there were entire apartments multiple km outside Grecia available for less than I'm paying for my private room in town. These do feel a little off the beaten path. A bit intimidating maybe but also worth bearing in mind if (more likely on a future trip, with a laptop) I just want to hole up somewhere peaceful that there are possibilities there. For all I know such places might also be a decent base for nearby activities/hikes/whatever, although current gut feeling is that if I do use Grecia as a base for even a week or so I'd want to be in town (not nec at hostel booked tonight) as the extra convenience of buses in all directions and facilities is probably better.
Was going to say one other thing.
2048 Still not come back to me. Will post this and then bed. Can always add forgotten stuff to next entry of course.
Feeling broadly OK. I haven't "done" much by the standards of eg someone making the most of a two week trip, but I've got done what I wanted to do, I'm mostly not pressuring myself and minor jitters aside I'm not feeling terribly uncomfortable and while eg trogging round trying to get cash for two hours wasn't exactly "fun" , I didn't feel I was wasting my time and I didn't get worked up (just quietly a bit frustrated, but I knew I had other cards and some cash and no rush etc) and I could probably say overall the day has been quietly enjoyable in a slightly strange way.
Friday, 20 January 2023
London-San José
18th Jan 1822 OK, the post-by-email process seems to have worked fine from my phone, which is good.
1931 Sort of actually final packing, including putting stuff in clothes pockets for tomorrow. Trying to take my time and be careful, feeling a bit of pressure - it feels super late partly (good) because I got up very early, partly (bad) because I feel I need to go to bed "soon". The reality is I don't need to get too worked up about it, as long as I actually get up tomorrow it doesn't matter too much if I'm knackered - rather not be, but I can (for example) sleep on the flight if I really want to.
Have filled water bottle - 1091g! This is OK though, I probably won't want that much and thought about half filling it but it's probably no bad thing to chug it at the airport before security as then I can carry water through in my body and perhaps be less thirsty later on, if I can't refill it airside.
2042 Final weight is probably 7.9kg, although the only AAA batteries I have are apparently *just* good enough to operate the luggage scales except that when they take the load and are about to freeze a final weight on the screen they reset. This includes the nuts and that full water bottle.
I was taking some photos of some tags I was cutting off a couple of T-shirts with my actual camera and it kept resetting and saying check battery. I've swapped to the other battery (this being the "official" Canon one I got with it) and it has still done it a couple of times. It also sort of kind of seems to work.
It would suck to be without the camera but not the end of the world; I've already waffled about maybe not taking a camera. However, it's going to be annoying to take it and be lugging it round with me as dead weight for two months. Just had a bit of a play with it and popped the battery in and out a few times in case contacts are somehow dirty (incidentally I fully charged both batteries a few days ago) and it (touch wood) seems to be working OK now. I guess I'm going to be taking it at this rate. I have used it intermittently (with the other non-Canon battery, just as it happens) for the odd photo at home over the last few years and it has generally worked OK so it would be a bit of a coincidence if it had just now got worse. Anyway, we'll have to see how it goes.
No FCDO update.
2228 Finally bought Rough Guide Kindle edition (£8.99). Reading first few pages it makes it sound like the country is going to be entirely booked up and expensive as hell during the dry season. Meh, just have to give it a try. Push comes to shove I can always try a border crossing or something like that.
It does say no part of the country is more than 9 hours' drive from any other part. So I guess even without taking remotely epic bus journeys, it would be possible to get to either Panama or Nicaragua from anywhere in the course of say 3-4 short bus hops of a couple of hours each. Not saying I plan to do that, but if I'm finding it completely dispiriting and/or overpriced, maybe.
19th Jan 0027 No FCDO or VCR updates. Bed. Feeling OKish really.
0513 Probably got to bed ~0045 but not sure. Read in bed until at a complete guess falling asleep about 0130. Alarm yanked me out of sleep at 0500, got up about a minute or two later. Feel a bit tired but not terrible, having breakfast (heating up some frozen tortilla). FCDO/VCR no update and trains look OK. In some ways I am up way earlier than necessary but it's nice not to have to start immediately rushing around checking things and leaving.
0619 Had tortilla and a pack of six sausage rolls, didn't entirely want all those sausage rolls but seemed better than lugging them with me and eating on train and making a mess etc. Need to actually start checking round and leaving shortly.
(Also had cup of coffee and a cup of milk to use up the last of the carton.)
0726 On train from LBG to GTW. Left flat pretty much dead on 0650. Probably left actually "starting to leave" slightly too late and felt a tiny bit under pressure, but it was OK. Getting up early did kind of help, I should just have started the "leaving flat" phase a few minutes earlier. All OK so far. Feeling OK, not exactly excited but maybe a quiet hint of it.
There was one of those tube+train maps on platform at LBG and I was looking at it and thinking of my associations with various parts of London. Sort of nice and also a bit melancholy at the same time. (Yes the tube-only map is iconic, but as I've lived in SW London a lot the train lines are needed for the full emotional flavour. :-) )
Obviously early days yet but bag is not negligible but also not a tremendous strain to be carrying. Yes I feel more encumbered than if I had nothing, but considering I'm going on holiday, I could easily be *way* more encumbered than this.
Probably already said but vague plan is that I will try to avoid writing too much blog stuff while out-and-about, partly to be more "present" but also on the practical grounds I plan to leave the K1 (which has a keyboard) back at accommodation and carry the G5 (which doesn't, although just maybe I'll become a convert to soft keyboards and predictive text this trip) around with me. I do intend to try to write something up every day, I will just be doing it back at accommodation if this plan is realistic.
I checked mailbox when leaving flat, nothing in it. Had checked yesterday afternoon but was vaguely possible there was a late delivery. In theory redirection started yesterday anyway.
Will go airside ASAP at airport, I don't think there's any advantage in hanging around landside.
Quite nice vivid orange (red earlier) sunrise from train windows.
Bit of snow/ice in corners of some fields. There was a bit of frost on some streets near flat, though not IIRC right outside it - maybe the areas with frost were a bit more exposed to wind or something.
0856 At Flying Horse. Feels slightly ridiculous "because I can", but hey, I'm on holiday. 4.40 for pint of Doom Bar isn't great but not terrible. Phone keyboard seems to be glitching and I can't get to some special symbols.
Security OK although we had to take our shoes off (though not everyone was doing it, and they intermittently seemed to enforce it) and the metal detector (if that's what it is) beeped and I had to empty pockets of non-metallics as well and go into another booth (one of those extra-invasive X-ray jobs? no idea) and then got a pat down, probably because I forgot to take plastic bag of toilet paper out of back pocket. But everyone was nice enough, I hate the whole business and kind of particularly resent the shoes but there you go. Was pretty quick at least, I had chugged water and got liquids out before joining almost nonexistent queue and was probably through in 5-10 mins even with this extra attention. TBF lots of other people seemed to get pulled aside after initial metal detector beeped, not just me.
Lessons learned:
- I took most stuff off and put it in bag or fleece eg waist belt, but forgot to take watch off. Don't know if this actually mattered, no one seemed to pay specific attention but (guessing) maybe this is what set the initial detector off.
- With this new scanning stuff (poss only relevant for that secondary scanner) completely emptying pockets into bag or fleece (both of which go through in the tray) would also probably be a good idea to have as little hassle as possible.
0905 Rebooted phone, hasn't made any difference to keyboard. Can't believe this is a hardware fault as all keys do work, just not how I expect.
OK, input method had somehow changed to Menu IME. No idea but fixed now.
Oh, I refilled my water bottle OK. Even if I don't want it before or during the flight, it just might come in handy tonight at accommodation if I want to go more-or-less straight to bed without going out to hunt for bottled water. The tap water might well be OK but I'm not sure, might take it easy on that if I can and slowly build up to it - probably paranoid but as I've said before I suspect being cavalier about the tap water is generally my biggest source of illness on a trip.
0930 Free refills on coffee here. Did kind of fancy a pint but that might have been an option. Not going to get a coffee *after* pint, still have maybe third of it and gate should be announced within half hour and then it's only an hour til the flight so can't really be hanging around here. By same token even if I hadn't had the pint I'd probably only have had time for 2 or ;ust possibly 3 coffees anyway.
0951 Finished pint. Quietly enjoyable, been reading a bit as although the decor in here is vaguely nice (I'd quite like to read some of the small print, but impossible unless you have a table right by a poster) it's not exactly "stare meditatively into the distance" territory.
1009 At gate 34. Bit of a trog (though did go for opportunistic piss after leaving Flying Horse).
1048 On plane (for a few minutes now). All OK, flight is full-ish and seats to my left occupied, my immediate seatmate is a biggish woman but beyond some (actually pretty reasonable) elbows straying across the boundary I don't think she is going to be a huge problem.
4 empty seats apparently based on something I overheard. Possibly that's just in economy.
Feeling mild desire for a piss, glad I had one on way to gate. Don't regret pint as such but a minor unpleasant side effect.
Boeing 777 FWIW.
1113 15 mins ish while we wait for de-icing team to do their stuff, then 10 mins taxi time. Some prospect of turbluence mid Atlantic but although they may be downplaying it it doesn't sound like they expect anything too horrific.
Not ideal if we're running slightly late but not a huge deal.
Just FTR (it is what i expected) no masks required in airport or on plane. A handful of people wearing masks as always but most not.
Phone keyboard just auto-deleted a bit of text, something it has been doing intermittently for months. Don't think I was touching it. So if there are odd fragments of sentences in something I wrote, it's probably caused by this auto-delete happening and I didn't notice to rewrite it.
Watching Big Lebowski. Amusingly there's a pre-film ad for citizenship of St Kitts & Nevis by investment. Yeah, that's going to do well with a basic economy audience. I guess the ads aren't tailored on a per-cabin basis, but it still struck me as funny.
1143 Plane is moving.
1203 Made beeline for toilet instant fasten seat belt sign went off ;-). Overheard a conversation earlier and there's apparently a drink served early so wanted to get out before I got semi-trapped here by crew serving or having a drink on my table.
1252 Had a beer (small of course, but not tiny - 330ml, fair enough). Quite enjoying BL - have seen it before, I bought the DVD back when that was a thing but probably only watched it once and I barely remember a lot of it.
Feeling oddly happy, although that seems a bit of an OTT word. Not actively edgy about getting from airport to accommodation but it is a vague lurking thing. Of course there's a fair chance it will be utterly trivial, although I do hope I can coax at least a few small-ish bills out of cash machine at airport to avoid problems paying the driver.
1411 Good to see all sorts of classic lines in context finally (since I forgot the DVD viewing way back when). Not sure if it's one of them, but "Just because we're bereaved doesn't make us saps" feels exactly like something I'd want to say (some of Mark Twain's writings on undertakers inspired similar feelings).
1424 Wow, 1998 date on BL. Don't think I bought the DVD until several years later.
Vaguely tempted by some other films which slip my mind now (got gorilla arm scrolling through all fiilms before takeoff) but will give Despicable Me a try; be good to see origin of those minion characters I've seen a lot.
1612 Sort of liked DM, mixed feelings about it.
Listening to bit of music and reading on phone for a change. Feeling slightly chilly, given quite a few people have blankets on this is probably not just me.
Woman to left hasn't been a problem, the odd bit of picking dropped stuff up for each other etc has made her seem more human. But to be scrupulously fair she hasn't really been sprawling etc anyway. I was being a bit negative.
1631 Feeling a bit sleepy (not for first time). Bit of a wobbly turbulence but it's not that bad, rough road sort of effect.
1842 Just watched ND. Never seen it before, IIRC I did have some vague interest in seeing it when it first came out. Quite good really, not sure what I expected but it wasn't that.
1905 Queued for bog/stretched legs a bit. Left knee-ish hurting from sitting, I got this on train back from parents' too (and other times). It's odd, walking on it is fine, sitting at computer is fine, but sitting on transport isn't. Maybe it's because I am sitting for more continuous time.
Feeling bit edgy about arrival but it's hardly the most epic journey in the world and I'm sure it will be fine.
Going to watch Labyrinth (with David Bowie, not Pan's Labyrinth), reminds me of Rab as I watched it round at his place a few years ago, almost certainly for the first time.
2211 It's 1611 in Costa Rica, we're 40 mins from landing, then a short taxi. I hadn't checked sunset time as I didn't want to make assumptions about speed of customs and immigration, but just maybe i will get to the accommodation in daylight.
Was nodding off and stopping myself during Labyrinth. I tried allowing myself to sleep in the end but don't think I did. Gas coming out of bowels like crazy but I assume it's just pressure changes, I feel OK.
Bit edgy but it's fine, I'm making this into a bigger deal than necessary. Though I think F33W sort of implied this is vaguely normal.
Watching Shaun of the Dead because I have already seen it and own the DVD so if I miss the end (it will be tight-ish with flight landing) it doesn't really matter.
0135 UK/1935 CR I'm at the accommodation, I've had a shower and cleaned my teeth and I am going to bed soon-ish. Everything is broadly OK.
1952 I had to reboot the damn phone as it was crawling and because I'm an idiot I also "had" to do Duolingo.
On the plus side, I got a text from Three saying CR is a Go Roam Around The World destination. I was sure they'd canned this. Anyway, definitely something to investigate tomorrow, although TBH if I can just get a local SIM that's maybe better. I could have bought a Claro SIM in baggage claim hall at airport but I wasn't desperate and I'd kind of rather buy one in a regular shop, maybe from a cheaper network, during my planned puttering around.
I was last through security thanks to being sat at back of plane when we exited at front and also having a strategic toilet visit, but not a big deal. 99% sure I got a 90 day stamp but not double checking now. No problems, except it's a bit disconcerting and also slightly disappointing everyone seems keen to speak English to me.
There was one cash machine in the baggage area and I tried that multiple times without success. A message from bank app now I have wifi here suggests I tried to withdraw £1000 approx because I fucked up choosing the amount. More on that in a minute.
Customs no issue at all, I asked about my (unopened) nuts and they're fine, so I have them if I need them. Food on plane was plentiful and fine so I didn't need them on there.
You exit the customs area straight onto the street with lots of (pleasant enough) taxi touts, but I needed cash. Was feeling a bit sweaty in fleece in apparently 25C weather too. Wandered up and down that road and asked a couple of people, eventually got redirected to arrivals where there was AFAICT one cash machine cluster all for the same bank (red colour stripes) I had had troubles with at baggage claim area.
Problems:
- it doesn't offer a menu of amounts to choose from, as I had expected, so I was trying to do mental arithmetic to convert approx 200GBP into CRC at a rough rate of 575 (or is that dollars and its 750 for pounds? i did know and I have a note but not sure right now) and utterly fucking it up. (In my defence, I was feeling a bit frazzled.)
- I was trying to adjust the figure so it was a multiple of the available bill sizes while giving me some small bills and I kept fucking that up
- I did eventually manage to get the machine to agree to dispense 600k CRC but it then said something (different) to the effect the notes weren't available
- I got desperate and went with the USD withdrawal option and it gave me USD200 without a murmur. USD4.95 fee a bit shitty but what can you do?
Lesson learned: pre-calculate an approximate withdrawal amount in local currency in case there isn't a menu of amounts.
Anyway, I then got a taxi with no real fuss, I was a bit paranoid asking about it being official and on the meter and I was a bit disconcerted I got a red cab (the tout phoned for it) and the tout got in as well, but I think it was an official red cab and although everyone wanted to speak to me in English, knowing a bit of Spanish was reassuring as I could mostly understand their chat and see they were just chatting not plotting. :-)
I haven't sat down and worked it out yet and I'm not doing it tonight but I suspect I got stiffed on the fare. The meter showed 4.2k-ish CRC which seems fine, I did sort of offer to make it 5k so let's call it that. The driver had very little change (how convenient - but not necessarily a fix) and he gave me 5k CRC change in 1k notes for a USD20. I really didn't feel up to arguing, I wanted to get into the accommodation (self-checkin so no reception to dash into if things turned awkward etc) and I didn't want to be doing calculations with possibly misremembered exchange rates on my phone and arguing. Worst case is probably I've paid USD17ish for a USD8ish fare. As I say, I was feeling frazzled and a bit (nothing specific) "at risk" and just wanted to get into accom and deliberately didn't make a fuss.
Driver told me guy I've been calling my tout was head of cabs at the airport, not sure if true. Driver also gave me a card and said to call him if I want a tour or (maybe) even if I just need advice.
All this is one of the reasons I didn't want to get USD at the airport, I suspect it would cause confusion as I tried to mentally juggle three currencies as well as offer scope for confusing change-giving, but it's OK. I do hope I can get CRC at other machines, maybe I was doing something wrong with the exchange rates and asking for impossible amounts at the airport or maybe the airport machines are geared towards tourists who like USD.
Getting some more cash and experimenting with the machines for different banks will be part of my puttering around over next day or two.
Accom is a bit "lonely" as it's self-check in so no reception type staff on hand in emergency, I saw a guy lying on his bed with door open as I came in and said "buenas tardes" but otherwise I just hear a few people. It doesn't feel threatening or anything and the room is pretty big (two single beds and a double) and does have a small private kitchen and a fridge and a bathroom, and a tower fan which I have on, though post-shower I don't feel like I'm dying with the heat, it's pleasantly warm really.
I could maybe write more but I think that's the basics down and it would be good to get into bed and read and go to sleep if I want - I do feel a bit fresher after the shower but I'm not hungry, I have water (full litre bottle from LGW fountain) and so I have no need to go out and look for any food or drink.
My impressions of the city so far are pretty slim but it looks OK. Very Latin American-ish, which I know is very vague. It feels kind of familiar in that way but also just vaguely threatening to be wandering around in after dark with no prior experience of the area when I'm not at my best mentally or physically.
It was dark as I was in taxi; had I not lost so much time finding cash machines and struggling to use them I might have got in in twilight or just possibly even daylight. We only landed about 20 mins behind schedule FWIW.
Wanted to mention one last thing but can't think what it was. Oh, I think just to say the main thing is to just take it easy on myself next day or two, not rush into "doing tourist stuff" and get my bearings and so forth. Try to do a fair amount of walking for exercise and exploration, sort out SIM(s), that kind of thing.
I'm not attempting to sort any of my luggage out tonight, stuff needs shifting round a bit after flight (eg passport will prob stay here in room not on me) but I will do it tomorrow when I hopefully feel refreshed after sleep. I will probably wake up pretty early local time anyway even if I have a long sleep.
I should give myself credit for not freaking out during cash machine hijinx. I was feeling frustrated and tired etc and although I had enough USD for a cab I didn't have enough for accom (not that I've had to pay yet, but I didn't know that) and I really didn't want to have to get to accom then go out again for cash on street in dark in unknown place so I persisted. I did feel a bit lost and vulnerable struggling to get this cash (oh, I also dug out a second card and tried that but no joy - as I say, I suspect I may have been requesting silly amounts, but then again the fact my 600k wd failed differently suggests that wasn't the only problem) but I managed to not let that reasonable-ish feeling spiral out of control.
Bed FFS.
1931 Sort of actually final packing, including putting stuff in clothes pockets for tomorrow. Trying to take my time and be careful, feeling a bit of pressure - it feels super late partly (good) because I got up very early, partly (bad) because I feel I need to go to bed "soon". The reality is I don't need to get too worked up about it, as long as I actually get up tomorrow it doesn't matter too much if I'm knackered - rather not be, but I can (for example) sleep on the flight if I really want to.
Have filled water bottle - 1091g! This is OK though, I probably won't want that much and thought about half filling it but it's probably no bad thing to chug it at the airport before security as then I can carry water through in my body and perhaps be less thirsty later on, if I can't refill it airside.
2042 Final weight is probably 7.9kg, although the only AAA batteries I have are apparently *just* good enough to operate the luggage scales except that when they take the load and are about to freeze a final weight on the screen they reset. This includes the nuts and that full water bottle.
I was taking some photos of some tags I was cutting off a couple of T-shirts with my actual camera and it kept resetting and saying check battery. I've swapped to the other battery (this being the "official" Canon one I got with it) and it has still done it a couple of times. It also sort of kind of seems to work.
It would suck to be without the camera but not the end of the world; I've already waffled about maybe not taking a camera. However, it's going to be annoying to take it and be lugging it round with me as dead weight for two months. Just had a bit of a play with it and popped the battery in and out a few times in case contacts are somehow dirty (incidentally I fully charged both batteries a few days ago) and it (touch wood) seems to be working OK now. I guess I'm going to be taking it at this rate. I have used it intermittently (with the other non-Canon battery, just as it happens) for the odd photo at home over the last few years and it has generally worked OK so it would be a bit of a coincidence if it had just now got worse. Anyway, we'll have to see how it goes.
No FCDO update.
2228 Finally bought Rough Guide Kindle edition (£8.99). Reading first few pages it makes it sound like the country is going to be entirely booked up and expensive as hell during the dry season. Meh, just have to give it a try. Push comes to shove I can always try a border crossing or something like that.
It does say no part of the country is more than 9 hours' drive from any other part. So I guess even without taking remotely epic bus journeys, it would be possible to get to either Panama or Nicaragua from anywhere in the course of say 3-4 short bus hops of a couple of hours each. Not saying I plan to do that, but if I'm finding it completely dispiriting and/or overpriced, maybe.
19th Jan 0027 No FCDO or VCR updates. Bed. Feeling OKish really.
0513 Probably got to bed ~0045 but not sure. Read in bed until at a complete guess falling asleep about 0130. Alarm yanked me out of sleep at 0500, got up about a minute or two later. Feel a bit tired but not terrible, having breakfast (heating up some frozen tortilla). FCDO/VCR no update and trains look OK. In some ways I am up way earlier than necessary but it's nice not to have to start immediately rushing around checking things and leaving.
0619 Had tortilla and a pack of six sausage rolls, didn't entirely want all those sausage rolls but seemed better than lugging them with me and eating on train and making a mess etc. Need to actually start checking round and leaving shortly.
(Also had cup of coffee and a cup of milk to use up the last of the carton.)
0726 On train from LBG to GTW. Left flat pretty much dead on 0650. Probably left actually "starting to leave" slightly too late and felt a tiny bit under pressure, but it was OK. Getting up early did kind of help, I should just have started the "leaving flat" phase a few minutes earlier. All OK so far. Feeling OK, not exactly excited but maybe a quiet hint of it.
There was one of those tube+train maps on platform at LBG and I was looking at it and thinking of my associations with various parts of London. Sort of nice and also a bit melancholy at the same time. (Yes the tube-only map is iconic, but as I've lived in SW London a lot the train lines are needed for the full emotional flavour. :-) )
Obviously early days yet but bag is not negligible but also not a tremendous strain to be carrying. Yes I feel more encumbered than if I had nothing, but considering I'm going on holiday, I could easily be *way* more encumbered than this.
Probably already said but vague plan is that I will try to avoid writing too much blog stuff while out-and-about, partly to be more "present" but also on the practical grounds I plan to leave the K1 (which has a keyboard) back at accommodation and carry the G5 (which doesn't, although just maybe I'll become a convert to soft keyboards and predictive text this trip) around with me. I do intend to try to write something up every day, I will just be doing it back at accommodation if this plan is realistic.
I checked mailbox when leaving flat, nothing in it. Had checked yesterday afternoon but was vaguely possible there was a late delivery. In theory redirection started yesterday anyway.
Will go airside ASAP at airport, I don't think there's any advantage in hanging around landside.
Quite nice vivid orange (red earlier) sunrise from train windows.
Bit of snow/ice in corners of some fields. There was a bit of frost on some streets near flat, though not IIRC right outside it - maybe the areas with frost were a bit more exposed to wind or something.
0856 At Flying Horse. Feels slightly ridiculous "because I can", but hey, I'm on holiday. 4.40 for pint of Doom Bar isn't great but not terrible. Phone keyboard seems to be glitching and I can't get to some special symbols.
Security OK although we had to take our shoes off (though not everyone was doing it, and they intermittently seemed to enforce it) and the metal detector (if that's what it is) beeped and I had to empty pockets of non-metallics as well and go into another booth (one of those extra-invasive X-ray jobs? no idea) and then got a pat down, probably because I forgot to take plastic bag of toilet paper out of back pocket. But everyone was nice enough, I hate the whole business and kind of particularly resent the shoes but there you go. Was pretty quick at least, I had chugged water and got liquids out before joining almost nonexistent queue and was probably through in 5-10 mins even with this extra attention. TBF lots of other people seemed to get pulled aside after initial metal detector beeped, not just me.
Lessons learned:
- I took most stuff off and put it in bag or fleece eg waist belt, but forgot to take watch off. Don't know if this actually mattered, no one seemed to pay specific attention but (guessing) maybe this is what set the initial detector off.
- With this new scanning stuff (poss only relevant for that secondary scanner) completely emptying pockets into bag or fleece (both of which go through in the tray) would also probably be a good idea to have as little hassle as possible.
0905 Rebooted phone, hasn't made any difference to keyboard. Can't believe this is a hardware fault as all keys do work, just not how I expect.
OK, input method had somehow changed to Menu IME. No idea but fixed now.
Oh, I refilled my water bottle OK. Even if I don't want it before or during the flight, it just might come in handy tonight at accommodation if I want to go more-or-less straight to bed without going out to hunt for bottled water. The tap water might well be OK but I'm not sure, might take it easy on that if I can and slowly build up to it - probably paranoid but as I've said before I suspect being cavalier about the tap water is generally my biggest source of illness on a trip.
0930 Free refills on coffee here. Did kind of fancy a pint but that might have been an option. Not going to get a coffee *after* pint, still have maybe third of it and gate should be announced within half hour and then it's only an hour til the flight so can't really be hanging around here. By same token even if I hadn't had the pint I'd probably only have had time for 2 or ;ust possibly 3 coffees anyway.
0951 Finished pint. Quietly enjoyable, been reading a bit as although the decor in here is vaguely nice (I'd quite like to read some of the small print, but impossible unless you have a table right by a poster) it's not exactly "stare meditatively into the distance" territory.
1009 At gate 34. Bit of a trog (though did go for opportunistic piss after leaving Flying Horse).
1048 On plane (for a few minutes now). All OK, flight is full-ish and seats to my left occupied, my immediate seatmate is a biggish woman but beyond some (actually pretty reasonable) elbows straying across the boundary I don't think she is going to be a huge problem.
4 empty seats apparently based on something I overheard. Possibly that's just in economy.
Feeling mild desire for a piss, glad I had one on way to gate. Don't regret pint as such but a minor unpleasant side effect.
Boeing 777 FWIW.
1113 15 mins ish while we wait for de-icing team to do their stuff, then 10 mins taxi time. Some prospect of turbluence mid Atlantic but although they may be downplaying it it doesn't sound like they expect anything too horrific.
Not ideal if we're running slightly late but not a huge deal.
Just FTR (it is what i expected) no masks required in airport or on plane. A handful of people wearing masks as always but most not.
Phone keyboard just auto-deleted a bit of text, something it has been doing intermittently for months. Don't think I was touching it. So if there are odd fragments of sentences in something I wrote, it's probably caused by this auto-delete happening and I didn't notice to rewrite it.
Watching Big Lebowski. Amusingly there's a pre-film ad for citizenship of St Kitts & Nevis by investment. Yeah, that's going to do well with a basic economy audience. I guess the ads aren't tailored on a per-cabin basis, but it still struck me as funny.
1143 Plane is moving.
1203 Made beeline for toilet instant fasten seat belt sign went off ;-). Overheard a conversation earlier and there's apparently a drink served early so wanted to get out before I got semi-trapped here by crew serving or having a drink on my table.
1252 Had a beer (small of course, but not tiny - 330ml, fair enough). Quite enjoying BL - have seen it before, I bought the DVD back when that was a thing but probably only watched it once and I barely remember a lot of it.
Feeling oddly happy, although that seems a bit of an OTT word. Not actively edgy about getting from airport to accommodation but it is a vague lurking thing. Of course there's a fair chance it will be utterly trivial, although I do hope I can coax at least a few small-ish bills out of cash machine at airport to avoid problems paying the driver.
1411 Good to see all sorts of classic lines in context finally (since I forgot the DVD viewing way back when). Not sure if it's one of them, but "Just because we're bereaved doesn't make us saps" feels exactly like something I'd want to say (some of Mark Twain's writings on undertakers inspired similar feelings).
1424 Wow, 1998 date on BL. Don't think I bought the DVD until several years later.
Vaguely tempted by some other films which slip my mind now (got gorilla arm scrolling through all fiilms before takeoff) but will give Despicable Me a try; be good to see origin of those minion characters I've seen a lot.
1612 Sort of liked DM, mixed feelings about it.
Listening to bit of music and reading on phone for a change. Feeling slightly chilly, given quite a few people have blankets on this is probably not just me.
Woman to left hasn't been a problem, the odd bit of picking dropped stuff up for each other etc has made her seem more human. But to be scrupulously fair she hasn't really been sprawling etc anyway. I was being a bit negative.
1631 Feeling a bit sleepy (not for first time). Bit of a wobbly turbulence but it's not that bad, rough road sort of effect.
1842 Just watched ND. Never seen it before, IIRC I did have some vague interest in seeing it when it first came out. Quite good really, not sure what I expected but it wasn't that.
1905 Queued for bog/stretched legs a bit. Left knee-ish hurting from sitting, I got this on train back from parents' too (and other times). It's odd, walking on it is fine, sitting at computer is fine, but sitting on transport isn't. Maybe it's because I am sitting for more continuous time.
Feeling bit edgy about arrival but it's hardly the most epic journey in the world and I'm sure it will be fine.
Going to watch Labyrinth (with David Bowie, not Pan's Labyrinth), reminds me of Rab as I watched it round at his place a few years ago, almost certainly for the first time.
2211 It's 1611 in Costa Rica, we're 40 mins from landing, then a short taxi. I hadn't checked sunset time as I didn't want to make assumptions about speed of customs and immigration, but just maybe i will get to the accommodation in daylight.
Was nodding off and stopping myself during Labyrinth. I tried allowing myself to sleep in the end but don't think I did. Gas coming out of bowels like crazy but I assume it's just pressure changes, I feel OK.
Bit edgy but it's fine, I'm making this into a bigger deal than necessary. Though I think F33W sort of implied this is vaguely normal.
Watching Shaun of the Dead because I have already seen it and own the DVD so if I miss the end (it will be tight-ish with flight landing) it doesn't really matter.
0135 UK/1935 CR I'm at the accommodation, I've had a shower and cleaned my teeth and I am going to bed soon-ish. Everything is broadly OK.
1952 I had to reboot the damn phone as it was crawling and because I'm an idiot I also "had" to do Duolingo.
On the plus side, I got a text from Three saying CR is a Go Roam Around The World destination. I was sure they'd canned this. Anyway, definitely something to investigate tomorrow, although TBH if I can just get a local SIM that's maybe better. I could have bought a Claro SIM in baggage claim hall at airport but I wasn't desperate and I'd kind of rather buy one in a regular shop, maybe from a cheaper network, during my planned puttering around.
I was last through security thanks to being sat at back of plane when we exited at front and also having a strategic toilet visit, but not a big deal. 99% sure I got a 90 day stamp but not double checking now. No problems, except it's a bit disconcerting and also slightly disappointing everyone seems keen to speak English to me.
There was one cash machine in the baggage area and I tried that multiple times without success. A message from bank app now I have wifi here suggests I tried to withdraw £1000 approx because I fucked up choosing the amount. More on that in a minute.
Customs no issue at all, I asked about my (unopened) nuts and they're fine, so I have them if I need them. Food on plane was plentiful and fine so I didn't need them on there.
You exit the customs area straight onto the street with lots of (pleasant enough) taxi touts, but I needed cash. Was feeling a bit sweaty in fleece in apparently 25C weather too. Wandered up and down that road and asked a couple of people, eventually got redirected to arrivals where there was AFAICT one cash machine cluster all for the same bank (red colour stripes) I had had troubles with at baggage claim area.
Problems:
- it doesn't offer a menu of amounts to choose from, as I had expected, so I was trying to do mental arithmetic to convert approx 200GBP into CRC at a rough rate of 575 (or is that dollars and its 750 for pounds? i did know and I have a note but not sure right now) and utterly fucking it up. (In my defence, I was feeling a bit frazzled.)
- I was trying to adjust the figure so it was a multiple of the available bill sizes while giving me some small bills and I kept fucking that up
- I did eventually manage to get the machine to agree to dispense 600k CRC but it then said something (different) to the effect the notes weren't available
- I got desperate and went with the USD withdrawal option and it gave me USD200 without a murmur. USD4.95 fee a bit shitty but what can you do?
Lesson learned: pre-calculate an approximate withdrawal amount in local currency in case there isn't a menu of amounts.
Anyway, I then got a taxi with no real fuss, I was a bit paranoid asking about it being official and on the meter and I was a bit disconcerted I got a red cab (the tout phoned for it) and the tout got in as well, but I think it was an official red cab and although everyone wanted to speak to me in English, knowing a bit of Spanish was reassuring as I could mostly understand their chat and see they were just chatting not plotting. :-)
I haven't sat down and worked it out yet and I'm not doing it tonight but I suspect I got stiffed on the fare. The meter showed 4.2k-ish CRC which seems fine, I did sort of offer to make it 5k so let's call it that. The driver had very little change (how convenient - but not necessarily a fix) and he gave me 5k CRC change in 1k notes for a USD20. I really didn't feel up to arguing, I wanted to get into the accommodation (self-checkin so no reception to dash into if things turned awkward etc) and I didn't want to be doing calculations with possibly misremembered exchange rates on my phone and arguing. Worst case is probably I've paid USD17ish for a USD8ish fare. As I say, I was feeling frazzled and a bit (nothing specific) "at risk" and just wanted to get into accom and deliberately didn't make a fuss.
Driver told me guy I've been calling my tout was head of cabs at the airport, not sure if true. Driver also gave me a card and said to call him if I want a tour or (maybe) even if I just need advice.
All this is one of the reasons I didn't want to get USD at the airport, I suspect it would cause confusion as I tried to mentally juggle three currencies as well as offer scope for confusing change-giving, but it's OK. I do hope I can get CRC at other machines, maybe I was doing something wrong with the exchange rates and asking for impossible amounts at the airport or maybe the airport machines are geared towards tourists who like USD.
Getting some more cash and experimenting with the machines for different banks will be part of my puttering around over next day or two.
Accom is a bit "lonely" as it's self-check in so no reception type staff on hand in emergency, I saw a guy lying on his bed with door open as I came in and said "buenas tardes" but otherwise I just hear a few people. It doesn't feel threatening or anything and the room is pretty big (two single beds and a double) and does have a small private kitchen and a fridge and a bathroom, and a tower fan which I have on, though post-shower I don't feel like I'm dying with the heat, it's pleasantly warm really.
I could maybe write more but I think that's the basics down and it would be good to get into bed and read and go to sleep if I want - I do feel a bit fresher after the shower but I'm not hungry, I have water (full litre bottle from LGW fountain) and so I have no need to go out and look for any food or drink.
My impressions of the city so far are pretty slim but it looks OK. Very Latin American-ish, which I know is very vague. It feels kind of familiar in that way but also just vaguely threatening to be wandering around in after dark with no prior experience of the area when I'm not at my best mentally or physically.
It was dark as I was in taxi; had I not lost so much time finding cash machines and struggling to use them I might have got in in twilight or just possibly even daylight. We only landed about 20 mins behind schedule FWIW.
Wanted to mention one last thing but can't think what it was. Oh, I think just to say the main thing is to just take it easy on myself next day or two, not rush into "doing tourist stuff" and get my bearings and so forth. Try to do a fair amount of walking for exercise and exploration, sort out SIM(s), that kind of thing.
I'm not attempting to sort any of my luggage out tonight, stuff needs shifting round a bit after flight (eg passport will prob stay here in room not on me) but I will do it tomorrow when I hopefully feel refreshed after sleep. I will probably wake up pretty early local time anyway even if I have a long sleep.
I should give myself credit for not freaking out during cash machine hijinx. I was feeling frustrated and tired etc and although I had enough USD for a cab I didn't have enough for accom (not that I've had to pay yet, but I didn't know that) and I really didn't want to have to get to accom then go out again for cash on street in dark in unknown place so I persisted. I did feel a bit lost and vulnerable struggling to get this cash (oh, I also dug out a second card and tried that but no joy - as I say, I suspect I may have been requesting silly amounts, but then again the fact my 600k wd failed differently suggests that wasn't the only problem) but I managed to not let that reasonable-ish feeling spiral out of control.
Bed FFS.
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