So, our quartet is down a man after the sad departure of wee Kimbo yesterday. She left with one of her cheery grins and the sound of her incredibly bad Spanish drifted slowly oot on the breeze as she drove off with yet another crazy taxi driver. It felt subdued after she was gone, but we quickly got on the bus to our new home for the next while; an incredible and inspiring Eco village up in the mountains of Costa Rica. This worthy project is peopled by the creme de la creme of Americas progressive youth as they attempt to carve out a different, meaningful existence in a geographically paradisiacal setting. Except its not, and once more lonely planet has scumbagged us.
We turned up in this crap Roystonveisy-ish little village where we were meant to meet someone connected to the Eco lodge (this part for me is vague as I was letting Angela deal with the logistics as usual) the hostel was empty- dank peeling paint, creepy shutters on the window- the usual Lonely planet recommended fare- so we went to have a small baked treat at Costa Rica version of greggs. Stale.
After a while we scampered back to the hostel where we were met with one of the most singularly Unattractive human beings I have ever encountered. Small, exceedingly smelly and with a Dickensian oily gleam about him, he seemed exhausted by our presence, was really unenthusiastic and said there wasn't anything to do up at the farm but we could go and make our own work if we wanted....what type of work was unspecified. He then said we could stay in his freezing shed in exchange for cleaning his restaurant kitchen. "Was the the restaurant connected to the Eco project" I asked hopefully, no, no, it was his own private endeavour. Stagnant at moment as he can't find a local who won't ROB AND STEAL with their horrible brown hands. He showed us where the industrial sytrength oven cleaner was, made from the breath of rare butterfly's as they perish to death or similar, and left us to it. Me and Angela that is. Matt was cleaning up literal shit from the front garden.
The shameful part of the story is that instead of swanning out on a (secretly relieved not to be spending weeks in a tent) wave of indignant glory, leaving only cutting retorts in our wake, we merely put on rubber gloves, cleaned his kitchen and made fun of his unfortunate appearance behind his back. Then we ran away back to San Jose.
This turn of events is ok for me; I have absolutely zero interest in Eco farming, communes or indeed any kind of alternative living unless its in the form of having caviar drizzled on your toast by a servant on your private yacht. I'm not proud of this but nor is it one of my top five shames. I have also become obsessed with jungle bugs a result of a young man we met in Panama who had been jungling about the joint in Costa Rica and had a massive minging lump on his head. I chummed him on his way to the doctors and when I left him he was blithely assuming it was a mosquito bite, a wee infection that was all. The next time I saw him, he had a look I'm his eyes of a man who has been to the brink and will never be the same again. The doctor had begun to cheerfully clean his "mosquito bite", at which point the scab had begin to quiver, and pulse and next thing he knew his head had burst open and a writhing and fully formed BOTT FLY had emerged. The event and its graphic retelling has had quite an effect on me, creating a sense of unease in the presence of anything green and a general mistrust of any blemish on my person. I am at this point riddled in suspicious bites and have taken to touching them in a quiet place and listening for a responsive pulse or buzz... Horrid, and I can only imagine what advances form my neurosis would have taken in a muddy tent in the dark. Anyway I decided to accept an offer of work in Colombia. I'm going to be au pairing for a family in outskirts of Bogota. They look lovely and I'm thrilled. Hope that the other two find something soon, and we can regroup later in the year. It's silly to have come so far only to head back the way again but everyone already thinks I'm silly anyway. That PR ship has sailed.
We spent today roaming San Jose. It's a bit of a dump to be honest; the centre has some nice architecture and a nice wee food market where we had cerviche today - cerviche is a chilled soup made out of marinated seafood, generally fish. It's raw but "cooked" in lemon and herbs. It's sometimes amazing, other times a bit like fishy lemon barley. Hmmm. Today was nice but muy piquena for old fatty puff here. After lunch we wandered and found a charity shop!! What bliss. Bought several ill advised items and was almost seduced by some dungarees with Winnie the Pooh on them. Thought not best outfit choice for first impression as responsible adult who can look after your child, and reluctantly returned them to the shelf. Still I have 3 more days is San Jose so there is still time.
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