Costa Rica Part 2

Man I am writing this slightly hungover after a battering late night session in Panama City with some young English kids and a 2 litre bottle of industrial strength rum (at least it said rum on the label). Have to do some serious catching up as in danger of running behind. Last time I left this thing I was heading to San Jose. Well that morning was apparently bitterly cold though I can't say I actually remember it that clearly. The Finns (after our pax Costa Ricana for the rafting and Chirippo) decided to stay in Alajuela (a small town to the north west of San Jose) rather than San Jose itself. I figured I had to complete my record of staying in every capital no matter how shit (shout out to Tegucigalpa). When I got into town I was mobbed by the usual taxi driver scum yapping about how dangerous this and that street was and how I would be murdered at leats 15 times if I decided to cross this street and for merely half my life savings I could have a pointlessly unnecessary taxi ride. I passed on the offer and walked to my hostel. $10 but I did get a stodgy pancake breakfast included. Damn Yankees meant it was pancake breakfasts everywhere and it was at this point that I decided it was impossible to stay on budget in this country and abandoned my frugality. The city itself is not bad, except for the really dodgy red light district area I walked through to the hostel. To be fair to the taxi vultures it probably is a slightly shayd area and a taxi may be a good idea if you are not that street savvy. There are a few museums in town, but I could not be bothered to visit any really. The art gallery would have been fun, but I was not in town for the free day sadly. Its got some moderately pretty parts and is probably worth a day or two. The women here are stunning as well. Costa Rica comfortably has the best looking women in Central America. There is not really a contest there. In the hostel I bumped into Dom and Tom again. I managed to persuade them to join us for the rafting and we now had a group of six (although Dom had injured his leg in a motorcycle accident in Ometepe and was struggling with some injuries). He has been to see the hospital in San Jose and successfully managed to avoid paying a $100 medical bill because his insurance company seemed incapable of actually doing their job. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. My room consisted of an insane man from Colorado who believed Dick Cheney does not possess his own heart and some bitch Austrian Californian. I hate Californians. She ended up bitching me and calling me an idiot because I said New York feels like London to me. Fuckwit. I still stand by my assessment but was so stunned by the attack I did not really give a good defence for myself.



In the morning I set of on a bus to Volcan Poas and was going to join the Finns on the bus. I got there fgractionally early and luckily I can remember what happened on the day because the water seems to have eaten away the majority of this day from my notes. Ironically it has left the phrase 'could not see anything' as all that is left of the day. Ah who says fate has no sense of humour. I got chatting with a Peruvian girl for some time on the way down and then joined the Finns. Volcan Poas looks stunning in photos and David the Costa Rican guy had identified it for me from my book. Its the most visited national park in Costa Rica and it requires no walking (perfect for the Yankees). It also suffers froma lot of cloud cover. We got there early afternoon and got the stunning view of fog. It was one of the prettiest fogs I have ever seen, but probably not worth $16. The fog refused to clear and only gave us the odd teasing glimpse of what might have been and what we could have seen. We never got to see the crater and the lake was completely shrouded for the whole time we were there. The walking trail was closed for refurbishment and we had to wait 2 hours before the bus headed back. It was the only disappointing waste of time I had in Costa Rica, but it was a spectacularly huge waste of time. Afterwards we got the bus back and I arranged to meet the Finns the next day at the bus station to head to Turrialba. It seems odd writing about people you now know quite well as if they were passing acquaintances that they were at the time. I imagine it will seem even weirder when i come to write this thing up properly as a book of some kind.



On the way back I had made up my mind that I would take the boat to Cartagena as it sounded kind of cool. As soon as I arrived back into the hostel Tom mentioned how he had met an English guy who had done to Olbaldia route. Ok it was back on. Fastest u-turn of mind in history. The English guy had said there was a cool hostel on the frontier and the whole thing cost him not much more than 60 pounds. It was going to be the cheapest way to cross the frontier and we now had a group to take it on with. Oh well we got chatting with some English guys in the garden and got some beers in for a drinking session. One of the English guys had been kidnapped and had a hood placed over his head before he was driven to various cashpoints in Nicaragua to withdraw cash before being abandoned in a field somewhere when his usefulness had expired. Interesting experience. We just drank and chatted and survived more conspiracy theories from the Coloradan. He kept insisting he wanted to show me the local prostitutes in the casino down the road but we never went along.



The next day has possibly the shortest bullet points ever. In the morning I got chatting with a Polish girl who Dom had been chatting up the night previously according to Tom. After a while I found out she had stayed with Geli and Sergio in Xalapa as well and was the very Polish girl they had told me about and who they had liked so much. I could see why. She had good energy and I enjoyed the morning chat that made both of us a little late getting out of San Jose. The three of us grabbed some books from a good shop we had found and headed to meet the Finns. From there we grabbed a bus to Turrialba and found a nice hotel in Hotel Herza. We had got a rafting company down to $55 for a group of our size, but the hotel owner's friend had offered us $60. As he was right there and it meant we could be lazy and just head out to meet Karla for drinks we decided to book in with them and head out. Tom got us into Anglo pitcher drinking and we really should not have drunk as much as we did considering the night was a light one, but thats always the way once you start on the pitchers. Ah I forgot one thing. Just as we left San Jose we got stuck in a conversation with a couple of annoying hippies from England who believed we could all live in a lovely peaceful collective. The girl was devastated when I shattered her happy ruleless utopia with the question of what they would do with a murderer. She said they would not lock them up so i pointed out they would probably do it again. Or if I was bigger than someone else why don't I just take their food and get them to work for me. Her argument was that people liked to work and noone would do that. Its really difficult to have an argument with that kind of naivety and ignorance, but sometimes its necessary to get them to think that societal constraints were invented to stop the strong taking advantage of the weak. Ah I hate hippy lefties. They poison the word liberal for the rest of us. Back in Turrialba we met Karla and stayed out for some drinks on a quiet night before turfing in for the rafting.



I had played Mika a few times at chess that night and this morning. He smashed me in the first game (It was kind of embarassingly easy for him). The other two were Somme like trench warfare chess games which we won one each. They were neck and neck for the entire game and both games were won from only one mistake. It did make for some good if a little long games. That morning the guide was late. Shit. Was he even legitimate. Had we just pissed away about $300 between us. All of us were concerned, but abaout half an hour late he rocks up and we headed out to the river. Here we seemingly waited for hours because the other tourists were either late or delayed. Without Dom it was left for me and Inka to try to decipher the Spanish that was being spoken. Tom ended up wandering off to skim some stones and the rest of us just descended into abject boredom. Eventually we were awoken by a huge bunch of Canadians and their assorted allies who had been sailing around the world for 10 months studying on board a yacht. Why did my university never do anything that cool. We got a crash course in white water rafting commands and set off down the river as the first dingy. Both Mika and Tom had done white water kayaking (In fact in New Zealand white water kayaking is a school class as one option instead of languages. Class), but none of us had rafted. National geographic had classified the Pacuare as one of the most beautiful rivers to run on a raft and it was also in the Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book (Possibly the best investment I ever made). It was stunningly beautiful as we glided through the jungle and wrestled with the rapids. They were not too hardcore with only 4 that were class 4. You can do a class 4 and 5 run on this river, but only if you have class 4 experience. We do now and all of us want to run something tougher. The first feasible chance looks like it will come near Banos in Ecuador. A few people got chucked from the other rafts, but the closest we got was when Mika was bounced at the front end. I did have my foot caught underneath me on a 'get in' command on a class 4 and injured my leg. Nothing too serious though. The class 3's are good as you buck and rumble down them, but the 'get in' commands only really came for the class 4s and they were fun as you get tossed and ricocheted around the boat. We spotted Montezuma birds from the raft and the scenery alone is worth the trip, but all of us loved the rafting (though I think Tom wanted something a bit more hardcore). I did meet a Canadian the other day in Bocas Del Toro though, whos friend had drowned getting trapped under driftwood in the rapids so it can be dangerous. We broke for lunch just as the skies opened up for a downpour. We feasted (Me and Mika more than the others) upon lots of fresh and incredibly sweet pineapple and melon and the downpour eased up just as we were headed back for the boats. Almost as if God wanted to give us a boost of water for the second half of the run. Most of the way down we were turfed out of the boat by the guide and floated downriver part swimming for about 10 to 15 minutes. It was nice and refreshing. I love swimming in outdoor bodies of water now (something I had sadly never done in the UK). Afterwards we headed back got changed and went out with Karla and her friends again for some drinks. We were a little late, but we met up with Karla and two Dutch girls Marscha and Siska. Marscha was very good looking and most of the guys had noticed that from the beginning. I tried to engineer it that I would get to chat with her and we all had a good chat over dinner. Afterwards we decided to bar hop around the backstreets of Turrialba in varous cheaper and less cheaper places. One place had a fussball table. Dom and Siska kicked mine and Lauras arses, but then I suck at that game. I ended up talking deep philosophy with the two Dutch girls and trying to persuade Marscha that she really does want to have kids lol. Eventually after everywhere had shut we had to construct a plan to get more alcohol. Marscha suggested she had a bottle of rum back at the school and me and her would set off to get it. Just then Karla managed to get us into the final bar Charlies. Normally I would be happy, but I was actually a little disappointed because I was looking for some good one to one time. Once we got in the bar everyone seemed to pair up with each other. Inka and Mika had headed back because we had to leave early in the morning to get as far as the base of Mount Chirippo the next day. Not sure how I would structure this as lots happened over the night, but I really want to focus specifically on something else. Think I will take care of the former first. Tom ended up hooking up with Karla and disappearing somewhere at the end of the evening. Dom looked like he may pair up with Laura and Marscha asked me if they were going to. I thought I would not be surprised but could not say for certain. Marscha and me stayed chatting on anything and everything and she never flinched from body contact, but neither did she reciprocate. Tough to read. I also knew she had a boyfriend so did not try anything, but I enjoyed the company and when we departed at the end of the night I figured I wanted to clarify something I had mistakenly not done that night. After I said goodbye to the Dutch girls I ended up running the wrong way to the hotel. I was accosted by some Ticos who told me it was dangerous out (I had suspected they themselves were going to mug me) and sent me in the right direction. Having found the hotel I realised I was locked out and had to knock on our room window. Dom answered the door and informed me he was with Laura. Ah shit. No sleep for me then. I nestled down on the computer and only left when i had to creep past the room for a nighttime shit. The next minute the sun was up and Laura was asking me if I had seen Tom. I figured she was nuts because he was off with Karla (or so I thought), but apparently he had come back and climbed into the room through the bedroom window therefore disturbing Dom somewhat. The three of us ended up chatting on the balcony and I figured I would send Marscha a message hinting at my interest unequivocally and then wait on a reply to see what I would do when I got down from the mountain. I would head back via Turrialba if positive and push on through David and Chiriqui province if it wasn't. Tom decided he would stay to see Karla again the next night (and in my understanding another one afterwards), while Dom decided he would join us despite the injury. Mika and Inka got a brief summary of a night in which 4 of the 6 of us had not slept at all. So those straggling survivors from our group decided to set off for a bus to the mountain. I would go to climb this thing and await my answer when I got back down probably.