Entries about rain

Just so you know, I've been writing this (or not) for three days, so when I talk about yesterday, I'm actually talking about Saturday 26th June. I have been a mixture of tired, travelling and lazy. Apologies

So yesterday was the craziest of days yet.

I had decided to hike to a series of waterfalls with one of the women from my hostel, Anita and we were ready to set off at about 9:30. A couple also staying at the hostel offered us a lift to the start as it was a long way past the bus stop to the waterfalls. Unfortunately we accepted.

Some cute little Panamanian girls we met that just live in these stone houses with no windows

The couple are born again Christians. I have no idea to which particular denomination they belong (I suspect none), but their beliefs also include:

The Earth is flat
The moon, sun, stars are all made up, put there by Christ as a test or something, I don't know why he's being an arse about it.
So no moon landing or any other space stuff.
The outline of a bird that can be seen from above in some mountain range is what's left over from an actual 150 mile long bird from the past
Basically, all conspiracies that you have heard of are real and anything that randomly resembles anything else is actually that.

This was ok I guess when you could walk away, but when we were stuck in a car with them, there was no escaping the idiocy. When we stopped to take a look at an interesting rock face, we were told that all rocks, apart from volcanic rocks, are the leftover muscles of giants - The Devils Tower in Wyoming is the ankle of a giant. The Giant's Causeway? More giants. It's interesting that the only rock that isn't giants is the one that you see formed in front of you... Although how they explain tectonic plate shifts I don't know, probably more giants.

No rock, remains of a giant, or some other insane ramblings

We eventually escaped and started our walk, but this nonsense went on all week, with them trying to convert new arrivals and trying to convince me that lunar eclipses and horizons aren't real. They failed in all of it.

The first waterfall, where we escaped

Anyway, back to the walk. After losing Mr and Mrs Munchhausen at the first waterfall we continued up through the rain forest climbing up and over rocks, up ropes and across rivers, there were three more waterfalls, all more impressive than the last, they were truly beautiful and well worth the effort, although as you could guess by now if you've been reading my blogs, it's usually around this point where it starts raining hard and this was no different.

Waterfall no 2

The walk to the waterfalls had been mostly uphill, so getting back was a little easier, although it was a lot slippier and we both fell a few times. We were absolutely soaked though as we left with a good couple of hours walk along the road ahead of us. Anita suggested that we ask a guy who had walked in front of us if we could get a ride into town, she's Polish, apparently it's a thing. Before we had a chance though, he offered us a ride! We just had to wait for the other two people he'd offered a free ride to!

Waterfall 3, the weather is getting worse!

What a gent! His name was Frank, a Cuban who had moved to Panama a decade ago and apparently just gave people rides? On the way to town, he surprised us again by pulling into a coffee house and buying us all coffee! It doesn't get much better than this!

Or so we thought until he invited us all to his house for dinner! It was incredible and crazy.. We'd met the guy an hour before and here we were contemplating going to his house for dinner. We were fairly sure this would be some kind of Murder House, but I was bored of cooking my own pasta every night, so I accepted. After a quick stop to buy a huge piece of meat, and another to let us change our wet clothes, we arrived at Franks house and just WOW. It was huge! After we were shown around the place and his two enormous gardens we chatted and drank, got to know each other and finally ate what tasted a lot like perfect beef and hopefully not the remains of the people invited there before.

The final waterfall from the front and back! Aren't you lucky!!

It was a fantastic night. One that I can only imagine happening while travelling and even then very rarely. You'd rarely even hear of someone giving strangers a lift in the rain, let alone buying them coffee or inviting them into their home! But six people from five different countries with varying levels of English and Spanish spent the evening laughing and singing and dancing like we'd all known each other for years. I'll never forget it.

First getting to know each other in the coffee house

Finally, today is day 40 of this trip. on day 40 of the last attempt, I arrived back in Gravesend beaten by the stupid virus, so every day from today is officially the longest I have travelled for. I very much doubt I'll be out here for a full 6 months, it just seems too long and the price of flights back to Costa Rica from Peru are about the same as a flight back to the UK, so I suspect I'll return to the UK from there, travel conditions permitting, so I think I'm around a third of the way through the trip, but who knows at this point!! If the last week has shown me anything, it's that anything can happen.

Since arriving in Costa Rica I have met a lot of young Brits. The country has been letting in anyone without need of a vaccination or even PCR test since about October last year, so it seems to be the gap year place of choice for many 18 / 19 year olds.

That's all about to change as it looks likely that by the time I post this, Costa Rica will be on the UK's Red list which will come into effect Tuesday. These kids, who have mostly been here three or four months, now need to get back to the UK before then or face a £1750 quarantine in a Holiday Inn for 10 nights. Some of these kids were on the ball and got a PCR test yesterday and flights back to the UK. Others, including two young girls in my room, have been less lucky (or less smart) and are worried that they will have to fly via another country (they're looking at Italy as one of them has family there). No one will go to a quarantine hotel, they'll fly somewhere on the amber list and spend the money there, why would they do anything else?

more photos of nothing to do with the narrative, this is my room though, very nice. My bed is the bottom left.

The cheapest reasonable flight back to the UK (one that doesn't take 37 hours) is currently £350, about £100 more than you'd expect. I have no idea what this will end up as this evening after the official announcement. Another reason not to fly directly back to the UK. This can't help curb the spread of any virus surely? Still, about 30% of the people I've met here are young Brits, so there could be a sharp decline in the number of filled up hostel and hotel beds.

None of this affect me though, as I'm not leaving for ages and I don't think I'll be leaving from Costa Rica, although at the moment, Ecuador, Panama and Peru are all red list countries so If needs be I'll fly home via 10 days in Orlando or Morocco for a cheaper option.

Cute lizard sitting next to me as I type

Yesterday ended up being a literal washout for me. I had decided to walk to a local beach, about 4 km away, for a bit of exercise rather than getting a bus for 30p. It should have taken about an hour. The walk was ok, but very hilly, some of the steepest roads I've ever walked up. it it was bloody hot at 8am, around 28 degrees.

All like this. Insane. I don't know how some of the old bangers they drive round here made it.

Some beautiful views though

Eventually, I came to a gate with a pathway heading down through the forest to the beach. It was about here when it started raining. Only a bit, not too bad. By the time I got to the beach I was in the middle of a downpour, with very little cover. I got drenched. The sky looked ok a ways away, so I hung around for a bit and it did start to clear, for all of 5 minutes until it got even worse. By this point I figured I couldn't get any much wetter, but was worried about the stuff in my bag, my camera, tablet etc and didn't think it would improve, so I made my way back, up the pathway through the woods that had now become a stream, before finally hitting the road.

I must have looked more pathetic than usual as at one point an American woman stopped and gave me a lift a kilometer or so, which was nice of her, but I finally got back to the hostel around an hour after the beach. The weather was of course beautiful at this point. I had left so early in the day because the weather 'experts' said it would be lovely until about midday and then horrible for the rest of the day. It was pretty much the exact opposite.

At this point I remembered my passport was in my pocket! It was soaked, like it had been through a washing machine. I carefully dried each page before leaving it out in the sun to dry off, which it did pretty well. Phew. The camera and tablet were both fine in my bag, which was good.

Damp but usable, this is also the name of your sex tape

New tip - Always have a plastic bag with you to protect your stuff in Costa Rica!