Sore nipples.

The arrangement was to return the rental Jimny at 9am in front of Pizza Hut as Thrifty did not have an office in Jaco - how thrifty is that?? The guy was 15 minutes late, but jovial even though he could hardly speak any english. My most used phrase in spanish right now is "no entiendo" which saves me from any awkward conversational encounters. Anyway, so I wanted a ride back to our Hotel which was a good 20 minutes walk and ended up doing a little charade to get him to understand me. As we were driving along the main street in Jaco, I remembered asking Amber what the spanish word for 'red' was over a game of pool (I was trying to sink red). So I noticed a big

red building next to the hotel I was staying and went "color.. roha!" He replied, "Si, roho(red)!" He dropped me off, we shook hands and he said "Pura vida!", which in response I inadvertently blurted "Swee.. mmph!" I felt like such a dumb ass. Funny!

Checked out the shops today and bout a pair of jandals for 10,000 colones and 2 pairs of boardies for 9,000 colones. All that is left is a rash shirt to protect my torso from abrasions. My right nipple were so sore the day we left Map Pais it was not funny. Doesn't look like any surf today or tomorrow though, so i've got time to heal. We might make a trip into Monteverde tomorrow by bus to see rain forests instead! Last stop was to pick up groceries. Check out the shot I took of Amber while we were choosing coffee powder. Moments later a Tico came up to us and gave us great advice on which coffee he liked the most and how to use our coffee maker back in our room.

4x4 and ferry to Jaco!

We've decided to leave heavenly Mal Pais to spend the night(and week) in more accessible Playa Jaco. Before we left though

we had a look at a school 5km north - Hermosa Beach school I think it's called. Nobody was in but that didn't stop Amber and I from wandering around. She got pretty excited about teaching here(maybe not in this school, but Costa Rica).

We got into Jaco just before sunset and it was another night of frantic and frustration searching for accommodation. I practically drove door to door while Amber kept jumping out of the car to enquiry about the rooms - under US$40 with Wifi. I should've taken Lonely Planet's Costa Rica guide more seriously about Jaco when it said to be sure we had made hotel reservations if we were planning to come in during the weekend. Finally, we found a large room for 400,000 colones(NZ$100 approx.) which was a dump! Had nothing in it except for 2 dirty beds(we had to change the sheets as one looked like it had period stains on it). We were just grateful we found a roof over our heads!

Lights out at 1am and very grumpy.

Mal Pais day 2

Today was a fantastic day!

Amber got up at 630am to catch the surf which I was not so keen about(getting up at 630am, not surfing). We are staying at Buenissima(?) hotel while we're here for 3 days, before our journey to Playa Jaco tomorrow. Got upset with Amber last night

and blamed her for our last minute 3 hour search for cheap accommodation after dark. We got to Mal Pais later than expected at 4-ish and all she wanted to do was head straight for the beach, and against my better judgement, we did. It was amazing like nothing I've experienced before. The most beautiful beach I have ever been on.

I surfed today! I can count with one hand how many times I've been out in the ocean with a surfboard, today included. But I got out there today with a rental short-board and practiced my balance on white water. Got on it on what felt like the longest time, although I'm sure it really was not any more than 6 seconds. I was very proud of myself nonetheless, and it encouraged me to come back. Hey if I could get up on the board on my first day, i might turn pro

in August.

Got done with surf just as sun was setting (wanted to squeeze as much surf in as possible). Got back and decided to have an outdoor nudie shower. Amber decided to take some porno shots. This is the only one I dare put up. Showering outdoors was liberating! When I grow up I want an outdoor shower in the middle of a dense bush, just like this one!

Pura Vida, Baby~!

1:48AM. Amber and I cannot sleep so I've decided to pull out our brand new beloved Macbook Pro to work on my blog site. To my frustration I cannot figure out how to add photos so I'm going to leave it to another day.

Only 6 more hours to go. We've got a Suzuki Jimny rental waiting at the doorstep of Gaudys Backpackers. Maybe it's because we are pretty excited about our driving adventure tomorrow that we can't get to sleep! We have the car for 3 days, but have a lot of ground to cover. All of yesterday we have sent out email applications to schools around the country(mostly in San Jose, as this is where most english language schools are located), and later we shall recon beautiful 'playas'(beach) locations where we ideally would like to live. Everything's up in the air at the moment which makes me very apprehensive but excited. This is what I've waiting all year for!

2:04AM. Ok, Time to get some shut eye. Good night from Amber and I(She's very nosy keeps staring at the screen while I write this).

First stop, California!

Amber and I stayed with my cousin Denise and her husband Jeffery in LA for 4 days and 3 nights. Their place was exceedingly comfortable and their hospitality terrific! The weather wasn't so fantastic though with storms keeping the temperature at around 45 degrees fahrenheit. We did many cool things.

Staying at Denise' meant we could afford a rental(Toyota Matrix) for the time we were there. On day 1 we went to 'The Grove' which was a typical America outdoor mall which I would have enjoyed way more if it wasn't so wet and chilly. It had great outdoor jazz music as part of the shopping experience. We were to later buy our Macbook Pro from one of its outlets here. Bodhi Tree bookshop was on my 'must see' list so this was our next stop-over. It was a small shop and I was amazed at how many books could fit in there. Prices were cheap, and I loved all the books, but it was all also very overwhelming as the aisles were narrow, it was busy, and my stomach was grumbling. So we left after about half and hour but I was satisfied that I had actually come to see it. I had first heard of this bookshop when i was checking out Oprah's online class 'A New Earth' with Eckhard Tolle. That's a tick in the box of one of my 'must-sees' in LA.

Day 2. Denise makes us scrambled eggs on toast, and we're off to Universal Studios.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it felt like a completely place than the Universal Studios I had

visited when I was a teenager.

The start of day 3 was literally a spiritual experience. On the top of my priority list was to visit Agape Spiritual Centre who is led by Michael Beckwith(a co-author in the book 'The Secret'). He's the cool dude with the dreadlocks. Anyway, I was drawn to this church and Michael when I saw him on a youtube video talking about his practice of Vipassana, and I thought it was very interesting that he preached in church and practiced meditation. On top of that, Sheri, my older cousin drove in from Irvine the day before and decided to come with us to "worship". She's a 7th day adventist, and I was a little concerned how she would feel about paintings of buddha and other 'new age' images up on the walls of this church and the 30minute silent meditation that preceded the service. I think she thoroughly enjoyed it as did I. I was so great as we never could have imagined being in church together at 630am on sunday. This is my first real experience of being with Sheri, and truly one of my best moments in LA.

We decide to spend the last day of our stay at Venice beach, buying our Merrell 'adventure' shoes and our Macbook Pro. We must have spent close to 5 hours just on the road figuring our way to the beach and back. Traffic is crazy in LA and I don't miss it one bit. I couldn't see myself living there spending so much time in a car just doesn't make any sense. Here are some pictures on the Venice and Santa Monica beach which I PROMISE is much nicer during the summer.

So that BRIEFLY sums up our 4 days in LA. I feel our time was well spent with the main purpose of spending time with my cousins. I am disappointed we didn't get to meet Hasian up in San Francisco even though I was tempted to make that drive up for a day or so. There will be a next time. Looking forward to it Hasy!

We leave Denise and Jeffrey's at 9pm on a monday evening after cooking dinner for them to catch our flight to San Jose via Panama City. We head eagerly for the airport to arrive at a rather unfriendly COPA Airways check-in desk.