Quick Wrap-up

Dominical: disappointing. Even the waitresses in restaurants are American. No Spanish needed. Think Spring Break, but with surfers. We ran into the U. of Arizona kids we met at Corcovado Park in La Sirena. They´ll be travelling with us for a few days. Stayed at Cabinas San Clemente ($7 a night) where I increased my mosquitoe bite count by two-fold in just one night. I suspect half of them are bed bug bites. I´m up to 56 bites now. My goal is to hit triple digits before the end of my trip.

Manuel Antonio: beautiful, but small beach. Park was disappointing after spending a few days on the Osa Peninsula in Corcovado Park. We´d already seen all the animals before. Good place for souvenir shopping though. Stayed in Quepos at Wide Mouth Frog. Highly recommend this hostel. Has a pool, clean dorm rooms for 10 bucks each, internet access. Owners Chris and Marie are helpful and friendly. Picked up Tyler here, also from Arizona, and parted ways with the U. of Arizona kids.

Montezuma: We spent the most time here out of all the places we´ve been to. Nice little beach town. A little overpriced, but cute. Tyler, Camila, and I stayed at Hotel La Cascada for 10 bucks each with a private bath. Bought entirely too much jewelry here, drank too much jugo con leche, and we had meat-on-a-stick every night for dinner. Good place to buy souvenirs from too-good-looking rasta boys. The dogs here have it good. They get to keep their testicles and mate with other dogs on the beach, for the voyeuristic pleasure of all the humans. Tyler parted ways with us here.

Currently at: La Fortuna - for Volcan Arenal. Arrived last night. Staying at Hotel Las Colinas for 8 bucks a night. Very clean, and I don´t think I´ll be getting bites here.

Funnily enough, I´ve been missing my ipod more than I´ve been missing my digicam. My 35 mm backup camera is probably helping in that sense. Instead of having music for my long bus rides, I find myself with an internal ipod playing endlessly in my head. Last night, during my last evening in Montezuma, I found my brain playing The Killer´s Smile Like You Mean It as I walked across the beach back towards the hotel. This morning, I woke up to Green Day´s Give Me Novocaine.