Carpet

the stray dogs here are just too cute. we have befriended a lovely little one we apatley christened carpet. he is a poodle mix and stands about knee high with super shaggy black hair that hangs over his eyes. today i used one of my hair elastics and tied his hair back. he looks so cute but doesn't seem to happy with it although he can finally see. he appears here in the mornings and i give him some food if i have then we see him around in the evenings to. their is also shandy (as she looks like a puppy version of my friend amy's old dog) although she is also called sniffles. very cute but a little timid and carpet likes to steal her food. we conteplating using a sharp knife to cute carpets hair over his eyes but i said if we accidentally blind him then i got to take him home with me.

Chips and Shelbys

We left San Jose on friday and had to endure a 4 and half hour bus trip to Monteverde. The bus driving stopping so often to let on locals who didn't pay, the seats that were made for midgets with a lovely metal bar as a head rest and barely any leg room. 2hours in and i got car(bus) sick.. well almost, i got that lovely salty taste in my mouth and had a paper bag in hand. the road for the last hour and half was a dirt road up a mountain pass with a drop on the other side. chris's words of comfort were "if a bus had gone over and people had died we would have read about it in lonely planet". hmmm. we made friends with a french couple who also came here from san jose and were staying at the same hostel as us there. she told us about a good hostel she had stayed at here so we were going to stay there. as soon as we got off the bus we were surrounded by men all shoving pamphlets at us and trying to get us to stay at there hostel. tony won the fight. 7 usa dollars a night each in a private room,free internet and free breakfast(although the pancake mix was only there the first day). friday we started out late as chris was feeling ill and weak. we took a walk to the ecological sanctuary and did a short hike there. 9 dollars enterance fee and well sign posted trails. we went to the 3 look out points but skipped the waterfalls as it was a steep climb back up. at the one look out post we were so busy looking at the view we almost didn't notice a coati! the basically these cute looking animals that are a mixture of a racoon, opossum and anteater. their tails are held extremely high and when the digging for grubs in the long grass you just see the tails standing up. every hostel we stay in seems to have the token american couple . we have named the men chip and the women have all sorts of names from shelby to kelsey. we are up to about chip number 5 now. my personal favourite quote is from a young couple from san diego "wow the hike was like so super steep and muddy, but when we got up there it was awesome and like you could see the volcanoe and a bunch of other things. we like played hacky sack and ate some mango then these awesome costarican guys came and talked to us and like gave us some avocado with this like spicey stuff and lemon it was awesome!". there is also a possibly gay older american couple who are so scared of the water they cooked pasta in about 2 litres of kindof expensicve bottled mineral water. our second night we missplaced the key well i left it by the computer and chris didn't know so he didnt pick it up. we then realised this at 9ish and it was too late as porkticia (the not so friendly young lady at reception) knocks off the moment it hits 9 and closes up the lounge area., computers, tv and kitchen. so we had to break into the room by removing window pains and me getting thrown in! at least we got in even if i have a few bruises! yesterday we just chilled as i have the squirts but not too badly yet. today is sunny and nice so not sure what we will do. we leave here tomorrow at 4 20am and head to granada nicaragua.xx

film noir

San Jose... is a seedy film noir city. i don't except cape town like cities here and i don't mind rural and dirty but this city takes things a step further. its gritty and grimmy. it feels like all the dodgy back stabbing drug dealers live here. i don't mind cities with hobos and poor people thats life in durban, but here i don't know it's a different breed almost mafia feel to it. dim lighting and shakey shots all filmed in black and white with a girl walking past in a red dress. and you have san jose.

mommy can i buy a puppy

day two in costa rica well 3 if u count the entire day spent at an airport sitting outside on the street. haven done much so far. the weather sucks its raining all the time or almost raining, its like being in the uk. worst thing about this country is that you can not i mean you are not allowed and no 1 does... put ur toilet paper in the toilet. u hav to put in in a bin. so u end up having a bin fill of over flowing stinky poo toilet paper. yesterday we slept in and then went down town. took a walk around, it reminds me a lot of korea with funky smells and people selling stuff on the street, the only difference is i can read the spanish signs as they are similar to english.. wait some words are even similar to afrikaans. gratis means free!! same as afrikaans yet said wihtout the deep clearing of the phelm in ur throat. we have learnt some interesting lessons like slush puppies come with condense milk and a wipped cream like stuff in them. so not yummy. so far i have managed to only get stuff without meat and we made a vegetable pasta last night for dinner. we walked around down town which is very seedy and gritty with people selling lotto scratch cards and all sorts of crap. went to the town square and fed the pigeons. its like durban beach front back in the day, very mangy looking pigeons some with hair feet and others with no toes at all just scabby stumps. went and chilled in what is apparently a park but looks more like a traffic circle. then walked down to the dodygiest area of down town to by a bus ticket to habana (a beach town) the people there were very scummy. the one man or women i couldnt tell its hair was one big giant dreadlock. we saw one dead rat but lots of puppies!! there is a pet shop and they were so cute. proper purebred schnauzers puppies so little and cute. then two sad looking runny eyed older poodles and a cute little mini chichuaua puppy. however they were 200 usa dollars each. its really really expensive here esp for food. eatting at an american restaurant is the thing to do and its like us going out to a 5 star place. people dress up and go for fancy dinners there. hence a large hawiaan pizza at a pizza hut costs wait for it....... 20 dollars!! that is like 140 rand!! chris has been up all night with a dodgy tummy so we not going to habana today im not sure what will do,.xx

48 hours

and so begins another adventure, im not excited, well i kindof am but all the stress about my dad has made me not realy think about this trip but now i am here. i arrived in sao paulo after 9 hours of flying and first thing that hit me was the lack of english. even in the airports in sa everyone can speak english even if it isn't there first language. here most people can barely say a few words. the forms on the plane that i had to fil in for immigration were all in portugese! luckily i was able to figure out most of what it meant. i had 8 hours in the airport. never ever again. i walked laps around the place and was happy to see a familiar face when i saw charlize theron i wanted to run up and give her a hug but she was 7ft tall and made out of cardboard. i read my book the horse boy ( really good about a parents with an autistic kid who take the kid acros mongolia on horse back to get healing from the shamans) when trying to decide what food to eat the golden arches that look like an upside down pair of saggy boobs won so i went to mcdonalds and no it does not taste the same everywhere in the world. while sitting at eating i was approached by 2 young kids begging!! even in sa we don't have beggars in the airports. in the line for check in i met a typical texan. this guy had kakhi pants, a checked shirt,leather shoes and blonde school boy style haircut. he had just been in brazil with his church, he had a troop of followers mostly asian girls all with knee length good girl skirts, conservative shirts and glasses. i was sudenly informed at checkin that i needed a visa for mexcio even though i had asked both the mexican embassy in sa and the sa embassy in mexico and they told me that i don't need one. so Patricia Romana (future employee of the month) told me that they have to confiscate my passport and i will be in security area in mexico. so i get on the plane and managed to sleep for a bit of the 10 hour flight but i was mostly worrying what would happen when i arrive. at mexico city i was lead off the plane and given my passport. i was then taken with a security guard to a room with other passengers who were also in transit. the room had chairs that you can sleep on, a vending machine with peanuts and a lone fanta, a bathroom and a tv playing some scifi english movie. oh it also had 4 security guards in it. i fell asleep and was taken by escort to the plane. another 3 hour flight and i was finally in costa rica! the line for immigration was very long and took 4 hours. however the people were very entertaining. the obligatory groups of american girls on summer vacation with their ll bean back packs and north face jackets. there were at least 4 different groups. upon evesdroping the conversations ranged from group to group about religion and Gods plan for your life, being drunk the night before and someone saying you make good balls. the line also had what i guess to be a german tourist he had a peter pan hat with a feather stuck in it and a large african american guy wearing a destineys child say my name tshirt. i cleared immigration and customs and then went to were international arrivals was. big problem. it is outside. literally. once i had exited the airport i couldnt get back in. i then had to sit outside on benches and the ground along with 100 people trying to get tourists in taxis, offering hostels and people with signs for tours. worst part i was there for 9 hours. i arrived at 12 and chris was arriving at 9pm. it was bad but i made friends with an american father and daughter, a 37 year old women who is my new hero who is not married and has no kids and is living her life as an artist on the beach in costa rica after living her home of canda 5 years ago. she is really happy with her life and doesn't believe in having a job you don't like etc. oh and she also had a cute little doggy named Rio that i played with. when chris arrived we got accousted by a women we named brigita who claimed to be from germany and really really really wanted us to stay at her guest house. we took a bus for very cheap and walked along a road to find a hostel. we staying at a nice place called hostel mollino or the red windmill. we have our own room and bathroom but the room has a double bed and two singles, we pay 15 usa dollars a night. so far so good, just chilled today as sooooooooo tired. have eaten only american food so far, taco belle, fresca and pappa johns pizza.x

well actually the second to last if you count antartica

so this time next week i will be in costa rica...

i am not sure what that means it is just a longer and more interesting way to get to rio (one of the top 5 places i want to go) i have the time and the money and the travel partner so the time seems good except for my dad being ill but i will come home if needed. facebook will have most of my photos but this is for my messages, ideas, info and thoughts.

xx

ps: next blogs will hopefully be more entertaining