Early blog entry today. Am at Stella's Bakery and Cafe, a 10 minute walk down the road. I've ordered a mocha and a chocolate soaked cinamon roll for 2200 colonnes NZ$5.70. Not bad.

I've done well in sticking to my program today: Meditated for almost an hour at 7am, had breakfast while revising the spanish I learnt yesterday until 10am, then ran into town (San Elena) 3km away which took me about 20 minutes and had a look-see:

1. Went into a 'Farmacia', noticed they sold cameras and asked if they did repairs. Nope. An instant camera costs between 5000 and 7500 colonnes. Will consider this.
2. Jason had recommended Arenal Volcano tours so I stopped to enquire. He could hardly speak any english and attempted to explain to me with a piece of paper which I think I understood most of. 5 hour tour, jeep-boat-jeep, US$40 + 20 (transport to) + 20 (transport back). I seriously got to get some conversational spanish going quick! He was really great, not like the repulsive sales people I've grown accustomed to back in Singapore who get all huffy when you don't purchase something after an enquiry. Pura vida!
3. I stopped at a visitor information centre and asked for 'el mapa' of the local area. She greeted me with a lackluster "hello" and a general description of the area at my request. I was so not inspired. I thanked her and dawdled around the office looking at the various posters and pamphlets lying around for tourists. An older American couple came in and asked her a question in which she suddenly perked up and answered with gusto and with a strong American accent that I had not noticed just 2 minutes before. Fascinating, although I have observed similar invertebrate behaviour in other cultures (including mine) .
4. On the run back I got a little lost. I tried not to look too conspicuous searching for landmarks and signposts and constantly reminded myself to keep my mouth closed and run 'cool' as much as I can. (yeah right, Asian guy running through the streets of Monteverde trying to blend in. Who am I kidding?!)
5. On the arduous run back I stopped at a spanish language school I had spotted earlier and picked up a brochure. US$300 for spanish emersion classes. Forget it, I'll stick to Nicole's 'LatinAmerican Spanish in 3 months'. Muchas gracias, Nicole!

Got home 1130am and jumped in a cold shower. Made/cooked myself an sandwich with cucumber, tomato, egg (scrambled) and ham. Yum.

Now here I am in the cafe. I've had my not very spectacular cinnamon bun and mocha with about 45 minutes before Amber gets home. We're going for a hike late afternoon, and I'll cook dinner again (she earns the $ and I'm the practicing house-husband). We spend our evenings reading from about 7pm to 10pm which we absolutely LOVE.