Sep 2006

I made it to Costa Rica!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!here i am, like a dream in the cloud forest, Monteverde!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have had the most amazing journey since I last wrote. LA was so wonderful and I felt so sad to leave Andrew and Lenny and the Californian fun and sunshine. I had such butterflies in my stomach, getting on the plane. I went through Dallas and American airlines hate vegetarians but at least I´d stocked up on vegan delights in LA, I didn´t need their food anyway..... and Dallas just made me think of that horrible programme from my childhood and the way it tried to implant the capitalist mentality into me....(and I probably shouldn´t talk about that on here, because i guess that´s how I´ve got to Costa Rica?)
anyway, i´m diverting......
I suppose what I´m trying to say is that when I got on the plane I felt like I was going to another planet almost. My first view of the Costa Rican people was one of complete warmth. I had such a good feeling as soon as I got on that plane at Dallas. I sat next to a lovely warm hearted Costa Rican lady and we smiled at each other lots and both probably looked quite nervous to the outside world.
So I arrived in San Jose, expecting a complete scary hustle and bustle of taxi drivers grabbing my bag. Instead I had very polite men welcoming me to their country and asking if I´d like a taxi....I´d booked this shuttle which never turned up and one man did get quite persistant, although in a quite unthreatening way, but his taxi was in the parking lot (and I wasn´t walking across a parking lot with anyone), so in the end I just took a red one that looked official to get away from him. So arrived at Casa Hilda, where the owner, Luis made me feel very welcome. My room was a little bit like a windowless cell, but in the morning I had a lovely (much welcome) breakfast of tropical fruits and toast, and had nice chats with 2 couples, Spanish and German. They all seemed impressed I was alone and gave me lots of support and good wishes.
Then the best part.... I got this touristy shuttle I´d booked online to Monteverde. The photo above is of the driver, Pedro. There was just the two of us so we had the most amazing drive and chatted all the way. I apologised (in Spanish) for my Spanish and he was so laid back just saying "we practise". His English was about on the same level as my Spanish (very basic) so we had this most amazing 6 hour drive where he showed me all the sites, and taught me lots of words and phrases and made me feel so welcome and so much more confident about speaking Spanish. I showed him my postcards of North Shields, he thought it looked beautiful! Haha wonder what he´d think if he got the metro......unfortunately I didn´t have the vocabulary to explain so I just agreed that yes it was beautiful.
He took me round all the sites of Monteverde and kept getting out to pick fruit off the trees for us to eat in the car, and stopping to show me howler monkeys in the trees and to look at all the best views. He gave me a Costa Rican flag because he has two, la bandera. Everyone seems to have flags on their car windows, the people seem very proud of their country and it is so so beautiful I can see why. It seems different to the Union Jacks in North Shields. So when I took his photo he had his flag in his hand, and he picked a lovely flower for me to hold and took my photo (but i look awful in it so you probably won´t see that one!) Then when we got to Monteverde, the hotel I reserved forgot about me so Pedro helped me find another room. He gave me his guide book to Central America and said I must contact him if I have any problems in Costa Rica. He was so kind, and wouldn´t take a tip just wanted a coca cola but then a massive storm started and it all went a bit crazy with a torrential downpour and thunder and lightning and he accepted money instead of a coca cola...
Sorry this is really long, I won´t be offended if you are asleep now.
I´ll just say quick about where I´m staying. A lovely cabina with a really nice costa rican family. The man is called Eddy and he is so kind too. and I have my own bathroom and they have a kitchen so I went to the supermarket and cooked myself a lovely meal, so don´t have to worry about the chicken stock and lard for now. Eddy can book me tours so I have big plans for my time in Monteverde, I´m going to see so much crazy wildlife. I already have. Thousands of butterflies flying all round the car with Pedro and vultures flying overhead. I have seen the famous blue morpho butterfly already (blue similar to a kingfisher)and I´ve only been here one day!
So just to let you all know, Costa Rica is 100 times more beautiful than I imagined, I can tell already. I feel completely safe (although obviously totally watching my back and being careful still). The people are amazing and I feel so so unbelievably lucky and honoured to be here.......

Typical me. It's 1am and i have to be up at 6am to get my flight to Costa Rica. I had all these big plans to write on here and download photos or upload them whatever the terms are. But here I am still packing my bag after faffing around all day.....
Oh well, I'm still feeling good. It's to be expected, it's what I do most of the time I go anywhere. At least Andrew is driving me to the airport and will make sure I don't faff to the point of missing my flight.
He's so lovely and such a wonderful, inspirational friend and I'm going to miss him loads. Got used to this LA lifestyle. Definitely won't leave it 5 years to come back.
I have so much to write and so many photos to share but there's just not time. Have to do it in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica tomorrow, I can't believe it.....
LA has given me such confidence though. The fear has turned to solid excitement now. I'm so so intrigued to see what's in store. I've dealt with lots of annoying crazy men on the streets and I've found my way round on buses, and had so much fun here. The beautiful abundant plantlife here has just made me think if a car heavy metropolis like this can be so beautiful what on earth is it going to be like in a tropical land? I'm actually going to find out....I can't quite believe it.
So I wanted to share more but will have to leave it at that as my bag needs to be packed. Costa Rica here I come.......................

Feeling quite tired today. It's quite tricky getting around this carland on public transport. Although the buses are fun and you see some amazing characters on them. There is a massive class divide here, which is really represented on the buses. Every journey takes quite a lot of planning.

Went to the Natural History Museum yesterday, and spent hours looking at all the amazing things. They have one of the world's largest ever quartz crystal balls. I looked into it but couldn't see my future. I also liked the meteorite from Mars which landed in LA county in 1999.

At night we went out downtown (in Andrew's car, which means you can go to areas that are no-go for someone like me on foot, like a voyeur). Downtown turns into a complete shanty town at night (parts of it are by day too). There are hundreds of tents on the streets and people just lying on the paths. By day you see lots of people pushing trolleys full of plastic bottles they have collected. I think you get money from the recycling plant. You also see a lot of people with limbs missing sleeping rough (often with US flags on their wheelchairs if they have them), and people holding up signs explaining in great detail about an operation they need to have. It will be interesting comparing Costa Rica, "a third world country" (apparently), to this.

Well here I am sitting in LA, drinking some Costa Rican beer. Been here a week now. I'd like to add a photo but the mouse on this computer has mysteriously vanished and I'm having to do it MS DOS stylee, so think I'll wait to add a photo. September 11th today. I was going to go and see an anti-war play at a theatre but it looks as if it's only on at the weekend. I went for a nice walk around this amazing park called Elysian Park today. When I got back to Andrew's I watched some of the news and saw that Arnold Schwarzenegger was in there at the same time as me doing some propaganda stuff. Thanks goodness I didn't bump into him.
Instead I saw some amazing birds of prey circling over my head, maybe they were some kind of kites? I'm not sure.
The other night me and Andrew were sat watching the sun go down and there was a hummingbird only an arm's length from us. That was definitely my hilight of the trip so far. It was a magical moment.
We went to the Salvadorean area too and it was just as I imagine Central America to be. Lots of street vendors selling cut up mango and watermelon and a real buzz in the air.
LA is a land of contrasts......

The flight to LA went by really quick. It was good except for feeling a little bit stuck between two people and not wanting to keep asking them to get up. Watched 'Secuestro Express' but the plane landed before I saw the end. Got here to Andrew at the hospital because a C02 bottle had stuck to his hand. eek, it was all blistered like frost bite. He's okay though. Got a good prescription.....We sat outside and ate a nice dinner, and walked around smelling all the herbs in their garden. And i got to have a steam bath! Such unbelievable luxury.