This week I have been to the gym twice, gone white-water rafting and surfing, all for the first time. I only mention this because it is pretty much the most active I have ever been and hopefully does something to distract from the fact that I haven’t written anything in a really long time.
To rectify this here is a whistle-stop run down of the past month and a bit: firstly there was the surprise trip home. After making it through the fun of NY I arrived back to freezing Britain two days late, raced around London (managing to hit almost all my favourite pubs) and caught up with lots of people. Then headed up North where I almost gave the family a heart attack by letting off a party popper in my poor Mum’s face as she answered the door and by lurking out of the evening gloom when my Dad and bro came to pick Ciara up from sledging. I won’t be trading in jobs with Aston Kutcher any time soon, felt too mean about punking people and instead of delight I mainly got a mixture of disconcertion and confusion (also Demi is a bit too old for me.) I promptly caught a cold and slept a lot of the time trying to recover from the jetlag and illness. Still was nice to catch up and was great to see everyone again but also made me realise that I shouldn’t be too homesick because life goes on pretty much the same and my loved ones are so lovely as to remain that way.
Full of cold and sinus pressure I dragged my self back on various airplanes and, despite a blizzard in NYC (they know how to keep airports running- take note London!) made it back without problems and arrived in to San Jose airport to find Kayla waiting (Kayla was my best friend in Chile, she’s from the States and is totally awesome and lovely. Brilliantly we have managed to stay friends for the 4 years since Chile and now we were able to reunite on Latin American soil!)
Kayla and I had a brilliant time catching up. After showing her the two bars of Ciudad Colon we hopped on the sweatiest bus known to man or woman and headed down to the south Caribbean-side town of Puerto Viejo. There we went on lovely long bike rides, spotted monkeys and sloths in the trees, hung out at the beach, drank cocktails and spent a mad New Year’s Eve in a bar full of fire-crackers and inside fireworks (I jumped 10ft in the air everytime one went off- I blame this on my root-memories of Belfast but I think I might actually just be a scardy-cat.) Other things we saw that night included a crazy-eyed arm wrestling contest (if looks could kill) and a man walking round the bar using a tiny huskie puppy as the best woman magnet you’ve ever seen. We saw in the New Year dancing crazily to “Baby Got Back” and followed that up by arguing aggressively with some idiot boys from Florida who bought us drinks and then got on to universal healthcare and the right to food and it was all I could do to stop Kayla (rightly) ripping their heads off.
The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed to head down to Panama. At 10am on the 1st Jan we were walking, in the drizzly rain, along railway tracks and across a rickety, wooden bridge which linked the two countries. It was a very filmic and dramatic sight but we made it across without being shot by border police or eaten by the crocodiles swimming below. Once in Panama we took taxis and a long, arse-bruisingly bumpy boat ride out to the islands Bocas Del Toro. We stayed on the islands for several luxurious days, went dolphin spotting, accidently went snorkelling when the boat we were on stopped in the middle of the ocean and scuba gear was handed out, lounged on Playa de Estrellas (COVERED in star fish), ate good food and drank nice beer. All in all it was jolly nice!
It was very sad to see Kayla go but soon school had started again and we were back into the busy-schedule of class and parties. Ben and I recently held another open-mic/trivia night which went down really well. I have been overly energetic, as stated above. Oh and between Kayla and school I fit in another trip to Manuel Antonio national park where I saw more wildlife and did a lot more beach-bumming. Life is pretty bloody good. So there we go- just about caught up and I can start being more attentive and interesting in the future.
Lessons learnt:
I surfed the same break as the current Costa Rican surfing champion. I'm not sure but this may mean I am now the Costa Rican champ. After 2 lessons..... it's possible.
Panama crossings involve rickety bridges and crocodiles- it is like something out of a really lame Indiana Jones.
