i think i'd rather the mosquitos just carried me to their lair and finished me off quickly rather than piece by piece, day by day. spent last night watching Quien Quiere Ser Millionario, was shocked to find out that they only win 25,000,000 colones (roughly 33,000 English pounds), not that anyone gets close, the questions are so tricky. who knows which team Michael Jordan retired playing for?

went for a wonder in essentially a mini-rainforest today and was told to look out for the presence of small rodents, humingbirds, sloths, snakes, pumas and tigers, although in a typical recreation of my youthful zoo visits, I saw nothing. Probably for the best.

everything's tougher in the heat... cycling, walking, living... everything except taking a cold shower, that is.

that noise, the one outside my window that could be mistaken for the sweet, English-countryside ambience of crickets... is snakes! hissing, horrible, exotic, poisonous snakes. just don't go off the road at night.

went to a Catholic church today and actually heard some real singing. backed out, in typically polite british style, on eating el cuerpo de Jesus though.

one line on my day... i sacrificed my first sunburn (and what a full-back beauty it is) and a long journey (including one moment in which the bus had to let a lorry past a single-vehicle bridge, only for the lorry to continue blocking the bus to get the girl sitting next to me's phone number, brilliant) for my own middle-of-nowhere, un-gringo-fied, two-tiered, pure, fresh waterfall. Amazing.

apparently some cockrels are just too eager to start crowing... in no part of the world is the sun rising at 1am!

of all the events from today (including meeting costa rican family and travelling halfway across the country), the most note-worthy has to be the guy trying loudly and with every technique in the salesman book to sell toothbrushes on the coach. you can put this one in your shirt pocket!

first conversation in Spanish went well, with a man in a DIY shop, but it very quickly faltered when i worked out i didn´t actually know how to say ´padlock´. so near and yet so far.

Continental Airlines don´t have a little celebratory trumpet like Ryanair to signal a ¨successful flight¨(whatever that means in terms of Ryanair), but they do have 335 films. yeah.

Introduction

For those who know me, the following statement may seem slightly ridiculous and also, if you take it as a downright lie that no intelligent person would believe, insulting... i'm going to keep it short but sweet. Not sure how much i'll get to a computer anyway, but when I do I will give you a line per day... and I hope you'll enjoy

Oli