so ive actually already written this entry once. in managua, but computors being computors and explorer being shit. lost me the whole lot. and i had caught you all up to nicaragua. which had taken a fair amount of time i have to add. so i will try and do this one a tad bit quicker.
right so dnb was cool. had to pick up the rum and cigars that id left at couch surfer pauls place before meeting up with paul sanchez from western springs days. it was really nice catching up with him again. he's married now to this tica called nazala. she's real cool and ive had alot of fun practicing my spanish with them. they are really easy to understand compared to his family who i found utterly incomprehensible. i spent a few days with paul having various missions to get things posted and getting that damn camera. on tuesday i had to head out to the airport to get it as fed ex being the huge multinational courier company that it is. was not able to bring it into the coutry without charging me an extra $170us. a paltry fee for their time and energy.
so anyway i headed out to the airport where the camera had been for a while as fed ex had never actually had it at all. i had to go to one side of the airport to register as an importer. from here a guy from the airport started helping me which as it turned out would have taken me an eternity to get if he hadn't been there. he required adequate reimbursment at the end of course. so after this i had to go tot he other side of the airport and go through security and talk to this lady who verified who i was and checked my documentation as an importer. she then took me to another person in the warehouse adjacent to her office and they ordered the camera over. we opened it up to make sure that it was indeed a camera as it said on the papers. then leaving the camera then we went back into her office where she instructed me that i had to go to the bank and pay 72colones. now this may seem like alot but when you know that there is 500colones in one us dollar. then you start to get the picture as to why i had to ask why? nope she couldn't accept it i had to go to the bank. so i had to go down to the bank and pay this measely sum and return with the appropriate documentation. she looked over these then sent me to another office to talk to another person who stamped my forms and said that i had to go to this counter next door and pay 3500colones which i did and was then sent back to that person. who stamped it again. then back to the original lady. she then sent me to another door of the warehouse where the people there checked over my papers and then called for my camera which was still sitting beside that ladies office. again we checked to make sure it was still a camera. and just to make sure that nobody had made a mistake the guard on the way out repeated the whole process of checking papers, camera etc. so then all i had to do was pay the guy who had been helping me this whole time. at first he wanted $50us which he had calculated i owed him through some complex calculation based on the cameras worth and the postage paid. i thought his was rediculous and told him so. we argued and finaly i paid him $30 which was still too much, but in reality if he hadn't been helping me i could still well be there figuring out what hoop i next had to jump through. moral of this story, dont send or have things sent to costa rica. the bureaucracy just isn't worth it.
so with that drama out of the way i headed to cahuita, where i was going to stay with clay, a guy id met through couchsurfing who was starting up an organic permaculture farm. i took a bus to puerto limon only arriving at 3:30pm after the debacle at the airport. i finaly found a bus that was supposedly going in the right direction. the only problem was, nobody knew where las palmas de colores was. so i wound up in cahuita after the driver forgets to let me know where im supposed to get off. so another half an hour on another bus goign back in the direction i just came and i finaly arrive. its dark, raining and nothing is sticking out as anything he had said. so after being chased out of one yard by dogs, 3 massive dogs, i foudn someone who showed me where he lived. so i was thoroughly drenched when i finaly turn up.
the rain did not let up the entire time i was there. i have never seen so much rain, so we stayed inside and played alot of chess. we never even made it up to his farm it was too wet. the rain would pour down for about 2 hours then sometimes stop for about 15minutes. one time when it stopped for half an hour we went down to the beach. wading out in shin deep water to get out of his place. the surf was really choppy and we kept having to dodge these massive logs and sticks in the water. so we didn't last long. and so the 3 days were spent inside hiding from the rain. but i had a good time nonetheless. we had some interesting conversations about politics, gardening, construction, his farm and various experiences couchsurfing. i was tempted to go back again when there wasn't a tropical storm but i just couldn't fit it in.
we both caught the bus back to san jose on the friday, we could see the effects of the storm everywhere. there was so much flooding, over the roads, into peoples homes, everywhere. we had to stop for an hour while they cleared the road on the mountain near san jose. once in san jose i tried calling home but skype was not very forthcoming. i went back and stayed with paul again as we were heading to his families beachhouse in jaco the next day. we were supposed to go early in the morning on saturday but naza was sick so paul stayed behind too. i went over with his cousins to jaco where its full of high rises right up to the beach, very touristy. i see what people had been telling me about it. but pauls place was up at the other end of the beach where it wasn't so developed and away fromt the hordes. we stayed there with his mothers side of the family so there were about 15-20 of us. his family were really hard to understand. but they were really amazing even with the language barrier. we had these massive meals which kept me full for a good part of the day.
the water there was really warm and i stayed in for about 2 hours which i think is a record for me.
but as mum has just come online and havent talked to her in ages. ill finish up now.
peace and love to all.
