I am now in Costa Rica. Firstly, let me say this border crossing was the most bothersome in that it was so busy, and due to this iT also had all the accompanying “vultures” waiting to swarm you upon arrival.

I have found that when crossing the borders it is best to be dressed properly ie. pants and a decent shirt.  It is bloody hot here now.  Even at 10 o’clock, when I arrived at the border, it was about 30 C or so, so I was wearing shorts.  Planning to change in my car as I had done before, I stopped just before the border to change, but apparently it wasn’t far enough away.

I had my shorts around my ankles and no underwear on when I looked up and saw 6 or 7 “camberos”, people who change money at the border, running to/at my car to get first bid.  This is not a welcome sight (even with your pants on).  I am so glad I still had the car running, as I just threw it in reverse and peeled away from them.  You should have seen the looks on their faces.  It was hilarious, as though they had never seen someone do THAT before.  They just looked at me stunned for a moment, had a little discussion and a laugh, and sent one guy over instead.

This border was like that all the way.  Huge line-ups, humid and hot, people offering “to watch” your car when it is in plain sight.  You just shake your fist at those guys.  Vultures.  If anything happens, you know who it is, and can make it so they never work the border again quite easily.  Like I really need someone to watch my car when there is a lineup a mile long of tourists standing right next to it.  In a group, they are quite honest.

Anyways, I an mow in Liberia, Costa Rica, and apparently this happens to be the week of the The Fiestas.  It took forever to find a room, as most didn’t want to rent a room fit for three to one guy, and the others would only rent you the room if you were taking and organised tour in the morning with them.  This city is full up, but I still managed to find a room for 5 buks.  Adequate is a good way to describe it.  Shower down the hall and a cockroach the “size of a truck” just scared buddys’ girlfriend, a woman I would never travel with, next door.  “EEEK, EWWW, get it, whine, whine… ”  Such is life in Central America.  I haven’t seen any in mine… yet.

After a shower, the world looked new, and me and a guy I met from the States, make our way down to a restaurant overlooking the Parque Central. this is when the parade started.  Parade???  What??? As we ate an incredible fish dinner, the crowd started to gather on the street below, and after a cup of coffee post dinner, the street was lined with people in chairs.  then the horses started going by, and the bands, and the cow-girls (oh my God), and more horses.  Lions tigers and bears.. oh my.

There must have been about two thousand horses, every one of them doing dressage (if you know what that is), in the course of a few hours.  I didn’t have my camera, so you will just have to take my word for it.  During, but more so after, they set off fireworks right in the Parque with a perimeter rope about 100 ft away.  Debris falling on everyone, it was great.  You could stand right under where they were exploding.

Walking around  later, for blocks and blocks either direction were bands set up, stands, vendors, and all manner of things relating, along with thousands of people and horses EVERYWHERE.  Some standing in groups outside the local bars having drinks on their horses, many still “showing off” for groups of people, but mostly just riding around town with a drink in their hand enjoying the week that is just for them.  None of this was evident when I arrived.

This is the sort of thing that makes travelling spontaneously so good.  You just never know what you are going to run itno.  Had I shown up with expectations… well, it wouldn’t have been such a treat.  Now I know why I stayed and extra day in Nicaragua.  This was the first day of the festivities and I would have missed it had I come yesterday.

Come to think of it, it also explains why I passed through three police check-stops, and was stopped by each of them along the 76 km of road between here and the border.  “Do not speed, and keep your seat belt on” were good words of advice from other travellers.

I would hate to travel through here and not see the coast, so tomorrow, I hear tell that the road from Liberia to Sta. Crua is in excellent shape.  From here to the coast… lets say Avellana is about 30 km.  I can do that at a snails pace if I have to.

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Ok, so this has to stop.  I have been here long enough to get an almost burn, stub one toe so it has a big blood blister on it, and step on a thorn that went right through my sandal and into my foot about a 1/4 inch.  Right back to the hotel for the Bactine.  I want to do some more body surfing in the morning, and a hole in your foot doesn’t bode well for that sort of thing.  At this point I think I will stay put for a little while to make sure it heals up overnight.

I left early in the morning for here.  A good decision.  It wasn’t far, but the heat…  the road to this place was good for the first thirty clicks, until I make the turn off for Tamarindo.  From there it was pure hell.  The hitchhiker I picked up was a mechanic, sort of insurance I guess, and he said that last year the road was good and that the damage was caused by the rains here.  Obviously this is an ongoing problem.  The gravel road had intermittent patches of pavement of different types.  Some held up, but most didn’t.  There is a way to pave a road here that will last, as we evident from the patches of good pavements, but they just aren’t using it enough.

Tamarindo is a booming little place full of tourists, and it is now that my Spanish schooling is paying its dividends.  Most people here are stunned and pleased when you walk up to them and start speaking their language, and then they are shocked whey you can hold a conversation. They are so used to tourists forcing them to speak English that it must be a relief to them.  I, of course, am happy to oblige.  I already know where the locals eat cheap, good food, where the best value for a hotel is (where I am until tomorrow), and have conversations with the folks trying to hawk their stuff instead of being pressured to buy it.

There are canopy tours here, but not much of a canopy compared to northern Guatemala.  It makes me laugh inside when I see the signs and know what I have seen.   They are getting ripped off.  there is a surfing school here and today’s class was in the water on two foot swells.  Lame.  Body surfing was and exercise in patience. You had to be in the right spot and wait for a good set to come in.  Then it was sort of fun. but not like Zipolite in Mexico.  Checking back later in the day, to step on my thorn, I saw the waves were much bigger in the afternoon as the tide came in.  I will try to be out early in the morning to see if it is the same then and before the sun is directly overhead.

It wasn’t the same.  It sucked.  This place sucks.  that is all there is to it.  It is expensive, windy all the time so you are getting sandblasted, the “surf” is hit and miss, right now it is still two feet, and said to get “really good” by next weekend.  Meaning 6 feet?  The road here is terrible, on and on…

I won’t be coming back.  Tomorrow I will crawl back to the highway and make my way further south.