Discuss travel to Costa Rica and other Central American countries here.October is rainy season, so ominous storms with plentiful lightning are a regular occurrence throughout the region.
Went to the market for a nice plate of local food. Pasta tuna salad was super delicious, and the quantity of shredded meat in the sauce was generous as well. The mama waiting tables was kind and gracious. Cost ¢2700 or $6, plus another ¢1000 for rich vanilla ice cream. Menu prices were recently raised, and the TV was playing a news story about new price hikes on eggs, onions and other staple foods which continue to exert upward pricing pressure on restaurants. The family sitting next to me had to count their cash to make sure they didn't overspend on their order; that was sad to see.Just to investigate I visited Hotel el Encuentro (the Hookup Hotel), an awful shitty place above a bar near the market. Rooms in that dump cost ¢15000 or $33. Angry men had beat up the entry smashing the plexiglass door panels and punching holes in the wall. ¢1400 or $3 for a 330 mL bottle of national beer were also overpriced as fuck. (Beer prices are advertised on posters in many Central American bars.)
Somebody left their shitbull tied to a railing on a very short rope. Evidently it jumped down off the platform and then got stuck with the rope choking it, yelping horribly until it managed to climb back up. Nobody around gave a shit. Tomorrow I plan to go to a smaller town tucked away up in the hills via local bus. There is a cheap hostel in the town center, which has a compact grid layout like most Spanish planned towns. Sadly, so many cute small towns in the highland region have very limited lodging options...though that could be a Google Maps problem, not showing the shitty local properties. (Hotel El Encuentro for instance doesn't show on the map.)
SJO airport has one of the prettiest backdrops of any airport I've been to...a vista of forested peaks rising in the far distance.Funny enough I saw tons of white granola girls in the airport, but here only 2 km away I haven't seen a one. Guess they all hurry down to the beach to hang out with grinning brown beach boys and smoke weed with them. Yep, that's a thing here. A fair portion of the local chicks are cuter and dress much better than the tourist girls, but I speak Spanish so slowly, they probably think I'm retarded.
disclaimer for newfags: this is not a general or discussion thread or anything like that, this is just one faggot flooding the thread with shitty phone photos and miles of boring blogpost
>>2914774People dont go to central America to live like poorfags except you and other poorfags like africans and Venezuelans
>>2914783How the locals live is definitely very different from the privileged tourist lifestyle. Walking through the fringes of town following narrow pathways across deep rushing ravines with tiny fortified shacks crowded up against the potholed pavement. Even the poorest people live in steel caged houses for their own protection. So different from Asian slums where doors are wide open, porches are piled with stored items and there are no burglar protections at all. Lots of Colombian migrants in this town. The only blacks I've seen were a mom and her teenage son staying in this crappy hostel and a group of Colombian brothers owning a barbershop next door. Haircuts in Panama City were $7, I expect they are $12+ here in C.R.
Roads are usually in good shape, but stolen grates leave dangerous gaping holes in the gutters. Sidewalks vary constantly, sometimes disappearing. Drivers can be impatient and uncaring of pedestrians, but most are considerate and stop to let you cross in front of them. Red lights must all have cameras because nobody violates them. Overall yeah it does feel very Third World, even with rubbish piles dumped here and there. Behind the skate park some pendejos even dumped a huge pile of rubbish in the drainage channel leading down to the river, which was filthy brown and reeking after recent flash flooding in the hills. Fried rice at a random Chinese fast food place costs $8.50 for a full plate. I paid over $12 for this sushi roll; it was delicious and good-quality. Restaurants are held to high standards here, unlike Asia where everyone skimps and cuts corners to minimize costs. Service is very friendly at all the places I've visited - to everybody, not just to me. Not like the underpaid, couldn't care less wageslaves that churn out cheap food in countries like Malaysia and India.
Cute little passageway through the jungly growth around the river gorge was the closest to nature I could find around here. My next destino Grecia is off the main highway and should be more tranquil, but the surroundings still look fully developed, with only the smallest scraps of nature remaining. Now it's clear why tourists don't stick around here; reckon I will be taking a longer bus ride sometime soon. Supposedly the Pacific coast towns charge even higher prices for food, but the northern plain is so desolate, with no cheap hostels even in cities like Limon on the costa caribe.
The Alajuela city bus station was very clean, spacious and organized. Much better than many American bus stations I visited on my prior trip...instead of felons and ornery black fatasses, there were bucoo attractive young women. Passengers formed an orderly queue prior to boarding. Fares were printed on a poster by the driver's seat, so I didn't get scammed. ¢910 or $2 for the 19 km ride to Grecia...the road was narrow, winding and congested, so it took almost an hour. Up here in the highlands, buses cruise with the windows open; girls let their hair fly around freely in the warm tropical breeze.
This comfy non A/C hostel right on the central plaza of Grecia costs $12 per night in colones. A little noisy, but that's what earplugs are for. The owner evidently runs the hostel from his house; he let me check in at noon and I paid for two nights in colones cash (which everybody prefers, just like they prefer speaking Spanish). My Spanish fluency - much of it acquired by a paid duolingo subscription 6 years ago - has come back much better than expected, though occasional errors still occur. Grecia is a lovely little hill town. After a clear breezy morning, clouds are billowing up once again.
One other think worth noting: WiFi is very fast here even at these bargain-priced hostels, though some areas of the property have poor reception. My pictures upload within a second or two. In Asia they always took so freaking long to upload.
>>2914954>Haircuts in Panama City were $7, I expect they are $12+ here in C.R.>Fried rice at a random Chinese fast food place costs $8.50 for a full plate. I paid over $12 for this sushi roll;>This comfy non A/C hostel right on the central plaza of Grecia costs $12 per night in colones. A little noisy, butThese price are more than Japan. Especially the food
>>2915016And you get the good old electric shower too. Yes food is kinda ridiculous here due to high taxes, high wages and low customer volume; restaurants in Asia are so much more efficient, but they lack the personal touch that you get here, where they make you feel special instead of treating you like customer #324 of the week. Today I had the blandest lunch plate of rice, beans, salad and a little breaded fish fillet. No gravy or flavor, but it was still $8. This hostel has a kitchen, and several supermarkets are nearby, so I might supplement one meal a day with some home cooking. It's really not feasible to eat out twice a day on a budget, let alone three times. One thing I love about C.R., everything is in easy walking distance from the town center. And if you want to go farther, you can take city buses. They're not dirt cheap, but fares are still less than $1 for short routes.
Grecia is full of hotties. This fashionable girl waiting out the rain with her mom is typical of the styles here. Some girls are devout Catholic virgins who dress very modestly, but the tattooed skanks are most eye-catching.
Nice hidden jungle area had this exotic flowering plant. There are no hiking trails around towns, but most unmarried girls are surprisingly fit. They only ruin their body for their husband kekek. Road bicycling is prevalent despite the narrow congested roads and exhaust fumes. In Colombia I also remember seeing many bicyclists. The culture and geography of the two countries is similar in many ways, but Costa Rica is less urbanized and more easygoing. The women are sexy but not outright whores...all the same, prostitution and soliciting women for paid sex are both legal here.>Is there somebody you forgot to ask?Her boyfriend may not appreciate your generous offer of the cuck chair for no extra fee.
Sad to see the rivers hemmed in by development, floods and erosion carving them deeper every year as ever more water runs off impermeable surfaces. Yes, Costa Rica has very good trash pickup service, on par with the US...but their highland rivers are neglected and degraded. Property owners only care about enforcing their boundaries and doing as they please within them; they don't see rivers as a natural habitat worth protecting with a buffer zone.
Damaged or missing storm grates are a serious hazard for unwary motorbike riders here. Even pedestrians could run a real risk of injury walking down the sidewalk in a poorly lit unfamiliar area. Sidewalk quality varies widely, but at least sidewalks are present for most stretches of road near town.
>>2915088La creatura
Would anyone care if I mini-blogged my next Appalachia trip here? Probably not eh.
>>2915131Eh its the same as this one who cares you just walking around seething in poverty
>>2915149I have a car. It's more me seething about how crowded stuff gets, how confusing it can be to find trails, and how annoying rules/regulations get for certain parks and roads. I don't go to browntown though.
>>2915131Appalachia is not part of CentroAmerica, anon. Did you fail georgraphy class?Took my first bus daytrip today under lowering clouds to visit the beautiful Catarata el Paraíso. By mistake I took the Carbonal bus instead of the San Miguel one; Carbonal leaves on the half hour while San Miguel leaves on the hour. So O had to ride back to the junction and then walk 5 km up a steep village road to get to the falls trailhead. Fare was ¢550 or $1.20, payable with cash or card. The road was very bumpy and we stopped everywhere. This hilly region at the base of Poas Volcano is very populated, with roads running up parallel ridges separated by deep ravines.
Beautiful green vistas under heavy gray skies. Once I climbed high enough the city of San Jose was visible sprawled out in the distance. Most households had cars, so there were quite a few vehicles passing me by.
Houses were mostly small and simple. Trash is collected regularly from bins all along the street, so litter is as scarce as in the US. I found the people to be friendly and placid, not outgoing or exuberant. They speak kindly to each other and to me as well. It's worth noting. None of my conversations here are in English. Here in the highlands I don't get the feeling of a stark divide between myself and the locals like in so many other countries. After all, I am an Amerimutt of European descent just like they are, and I speak Spanish at a passable level. Of course this experience is unlikely to apply in other parts of the country where tourists are much more plentiful and locals are much more dark-skinned...the coastal resort towns, for instance. Tbh I'm not even sure I want to visit more than one or two such places. Grecia has really charmed me, much like San Agustín in Colombia's Huila department.
Dogs roam freely in the villages; some of the little yappers come up barking at me, but I snap my bandana at them and they desist. Others like this collie want to walk beside you and wait for the bus with you. They are obedient as a general rule, nothing like the feral pariah dogs of many Asian countries who only respect violence. While most households have a car, the man often uses it for work and errands, while the wife and kids ride the public bus if they need to get to town. On the way back half a dozen pretty young moms with small children boarded from the roadside. Feminine gentleness predominates in the rural areas; it's a woman's world, we men only live in it.
What a delicious meal! The municipal market stalls really serve some top-quality food...this special included carrot juice, a cheese crepe, fresh salad, fried plantain, rice, beans, and a greasy flavorful pork chop with onions. Cost ¢3500 or $7.70. After an outing, it really hit the spot. Not all food is good here. Yesterday I went to a standalone soda (diner) and the fried fish meal I got for the same price was flavorless and disappointing, with no bebida natural either. Service is kind, and they love it when you complement their cooking. Robotic indifference is not the service norm here like it has become in so much of the rest of the world. Customers chat and joke with the staff like they're friends. And nobody hustles for handouts either; good riddance to tipping culture. Increasingly I've begun to appreciate the quality of food here, the diligent cleaning of the premises, and the pleasant atmosphere instead of griping that lunch is $8 instead of $3.
While sitting in the park right across from my hostel (picrel) a middle-aged guy came around with a tub of fresh home-baked goods. A slice of delectably moist carrot cake with almonds and some homemade icing cost ¢2000. $4.40 USD was not cheap, but the quality was impeccable, and I respected the hustle of carrying that big bin all over the city. Likely he was a migrant. There are lots of Venezuelan and Colombian migrants here in Costa Rica. Some of them beg and steal - I saw an old man grab a small food item in passing from a shop in Alajuela - while others strive for legitimate success.
Live music comes to my hostel. Pregame with a cacique (1 liter) bottle on the terrace, then go down, feel bad for the low turnout and buy two $4 beers from the hostel bar. The chick is not cute, but ehh, handsome? She looked better wearing the booty shorts earlier today cleaning the hostel. I went to Sarchí on a bus today, took an aimless walk, threw a rotten branch at some aggressive guard dogs at a dead end gate, then ducked into a soda for lunch just before the skies opened with a torrential downpour. The owner's attractive 14 yo daughter was wearing an athletic shirt and tight stretchy underpants, no actual pants. We exchanged looks a few times while I waited for the interminable downpour to end. She wasn't hostile or aversive, but she was not interested. Everywhere you go here there is an attractive single girl, it seems. It's pretty nice after weeks in USAland hardly seeing a single female worth looking at. Daily budget will trend above $30 even with cheap hostels. I hate being constrained by budget to a few destinations instead of being free to stay wherever I like. But so be it. Costa Rica is a very high quality travel destino. Arguably it's worth the price.
>>2915496>The owner's attractive 14 yo daughter was wearing an athletic shirt and tight stretchy underpants, no actual pants
>>2915501I have hair but it lies flat instead of sticking up in lush curls like the zoomermutt broccoli heads. Too bad.My hostel blanket reeks of somebody else's BO. Thankfully I travel with a miniblanket for my upper body so I don't have to have the stink right in my face. It still smells tho, and the traffic noise is loud outside my window. Might as well move on in a couple days...
As someone has probably said traveling around the country is a nightmare of windy roads, irregular transit, and fucked up solutions. But on the plus side the country is a good version of green hell. Too bad the food is some of the worst on the planet.
>>2914958Is all the food 90% cheap carbs, or can I find places selling steaks and roast chicken and other mostly meat meals?>>2914776So in other words perfectly on-topic for /trv/.>>2914772As much as I hate to see animals in distress, shitbulls should all be killed.
>>2915663Cheap lunches have a bigger portion of meat than what you get in Asia - the quality is much better as well. You don't get hacked up bits of bone and gristle passing as chicken; you get a nice piece of meat even with the $5.50 pollo a la plancha special. Additionally, veggies are always part of a set meal, and fruit based beverages are often included as well to balance things out. The coffee-growing region of Costa Rica has a ton of landowners with big piles of easy money from their harvests, so there are plenty of eateries serving steaks, roasted/fried chicken, crispy pork and other meat-heavy entrees. If you want a proper hunk of animal to chew on, 200 grams or so, you should expect to pay $12-20 per plate.
On today's bus & pedestrian trip to Poas I stumbled upon this tremendous converging falls located under a highway bridge. Due to the high suicide barrier, you could easily pass over the bridge by car and have no idea that there is a twin waterfall down below plunging into a misty rainforest abyss.
Like most Costa Rican towns, Poas doesn't look too pretty. It's practical, compact and walkable. Lots of patching in the infrastructure here; rural roads have lots of bumps from all the different patches. If you come from newly built suburban USA it might look rundown by comparison. But the hilly nature of the region makes everything squeezed together, with no room for grassy landscaped verges, and erosion is constantly washing away the crumbly volcanic soil. The climate seems perfect, but the terrain is a challenge - not quite on the level of Nepal's Himalayas, but still nothing like the vast flatlands and spacious valleys of the USA.
This trail along a ruined aqueduct spooked me out. It was the kind of place you venture down and mysteriously go missing. The river looks small, but is deceptively deep and fast. Eroded muddy slopes offer no way to stop a slide. When I came out of the forest, the cafe owner across the street was watching anxiously. Hiking in the bottom of a rainforest gorge is super cool; hopefully there will be more such opportunities. At the same time I'm in no hurry to check off a big list of destinations. This hostel has almost no guests, so it feels almost like I am renting an entire guesthouse for the price of one bunk. Traffic noise is very bad tonight with some outlaw dirtbikers riding in circles around town revving constantly. I've used earplugs every night here do far; it's the price of staying right in the middle of town.
Walking in the tall wet grass of the coffee plantations was more relaxing; many of them are unfenced and unposted. Should I be paying the owner for a tour? Perhaps. One plantation I snuck in the back way instead of going through the tour entrance. If nobody notices me, then there's no harm done. People aren't Karens here. The hostel staff even told me I can bring outside beer into the bar for the live music show. That never is permitted in more uptight countries.
Up top you can see the slippery wet rocks on the brink where I could get a view of both waterfalls...the other cataract is out of sight under the highway bridge from this POV. The cafe ladies were nonchalant about me walking back to the edge. No handholds or safeguards have been constructed. Only a gigantic four-trunked tree clinging to the dropoff has kept the soil from eroding away to the point of collapse.
Most businesses seem honest in Costa Rica, but the fruit vendors at the market like to overcharge. Two small guavas for $3; another vendor quoted a kilo of granadilla for $9. It'd be stupid to pass up on fruit while you're here, though.
>>2914764Expensive, crime ridden shit hole full of disgusting goblinas mediocre food and thieving shopkeepers
>>2914764I am curious about Costa Rica, what is the easiest way to get from San Jose to Arenal volcano park? Also, how dangerous is it?
What is the most beautiful and amazing thing to see in Costa Rica? What would be the top two you guys recommend?Also, is it the type of country you should return to your hotel when the sun sets?
Spooky fog rolled in over the city graveyard, leaving the entire landscape a uniform white.One week in Costa Rica is complete! This is the first week in half a decade of travel where I have stayed exclusively in hostels. Minimal social opportunities have presented themselves due to low occupancy. I share the dorm here with a grumpy old boomer rotter who cooks gross food in the kitchen and sits hunched over his phone all day. Current exchange rate is 1 USD : 455 CRC, much worse than it has been over the past few years. If you want to be frugal here, you have to go out of your way to do so, finding the cheapest options for everything. It's not like poor Asian countries where you don't have to try, most of what is on offer is budget tier. Here a jar of Prego pasta sauce in the supermarket is frickin $7+ USD. After seeing that I decided to eat local food and forget about cooking. >Total spending: $226 – $32 per dayThis is a baseline figure which is bound to increase.>Hostels: $89 - $12.72 per nightI've grown fond of this big comfy guesthouse in Grecia - it's basically the only lodging in town. However, hostels are very unevenly distributed here in Costa Rica, just like any other country. If you want to spend a night somewhere that is not touristy, you will have to shell out for a private room in most cases. That will easily triple this figure, if not more.>Food: $102 or $14.59 per dayI eat several fruits, one square meal a day, and either snacks I brought on the plane or a quick bite. While I feel well-fed on $15/day, beefier guys could easily double that figure if they want to eat something gourmet. There are tons of high-end social dining restaurants here, but only a few cocinas economicas serving Latinoslop from a buffet setup. Most local places cook to order and charge accordingly. Working poors can't afford to dine out here, so there is no market share catering to them. Plus, taxes are high and foodservice regs are strict.
>>2915884There's godzillions of beautiful amazing things to see here. The country looks small on the map but it is in fact very extensive. Trying to pick a direction to go is a real challenge.>Drinks & entertainment: $18Bar beers are equivalent to a liter bottle at the shop; both cost just under $4. If you want cheap booze, forget C.R. and go to Panama. If I had to book my flight again I would've split the trip 50/50 between the two countries. Ticos are more polite and business-minded, Panameños are more colorful and casually friendly.>Transport: $11 for nine bus rides covering 114 km and visiting five different places (plus Alajuela)Per km cost is high for short trips, but that's still only $1.20 for a bus going up into the mountain villages, with dependably hourly service. That's objectively affordable while also being a low-stress, low-effort escape from town. Be aware that buses to different destinations depart from different places. >Laundry: $6My hostel offered wash & dry service.>>2915825Why would you be trying to game on walled señoras? Are you trying to get knifed by an enraged husband? Dumbass. Go for the single girls who give you inviting looks. Lots of bored girls looking for trouble in the smaller towns...Night falls around 5:45 pm here, so yes everyone is out after dark. Don't trust people who approach you - most of them are migrants running some sort of scam. Most Costa Ricans keep to themselves, so anyone who bothers you especially in a secluded place should put you on orange alert ready to defend yourself. In the smaller towns they don't seem too worried about robbery, though valuables are definitely not left unsecured in public. In the city people are warier, police are always playing cat and mouse with the troublemakers. Pay with card everywhere if you're chickenshit about carrying cash. Big gringos shouldn't have to fear anything unless they are in a gang controlled ghetto, and even then you just keep moving aggressively.
>>2915831There is a bus from San Jose to that area, La Fortuna or Arenal. It's slow as a tortoise and stops every 2 km. Rent a car if you're a wagie in a hurry to dooo everything. There would also be VIP nonstop tourist buses available from private companies. I see them on the road pretty often.I tried to hike up the dirt road that goes up to Volcan Poas, but it was a wet muddy mess of gullies. Volcanic mud is firm and sticky, but still I had to chicken out. At least I got to dally in this forest and spot a toucan. A little unexpected sunshine after a gentle noon shower brightened everything up.
There was also a dirtbike trail, but it was ruined as well. Up to 5 meters of soil washed away by past torrents...hardly the pristine forest landscape I was hoping for. Goddamn all these 4x4 drivers. To be fair it was a water supply pipeline route, so evidently they need vehicular access...
The road only got awful like that after the last finca entrance. In the village most roads are well-paved albeit narrow. This is where the bus ended after 15 km of torturous climbing along a ridge of volcanic sediment. A retired gringo living nearby with his wife was speaking English to his pet goat while I waited for the bus to arrive.
Less than $5 for this filling plate of food at the popular local place...the serving girl was cute and friendly. Beef chunks were tough but good. Tomorrow I board the bus to either Zarcero village or all the way to Cd. Quesada. La Fortuna is super touristy, but that's where the cheap hostels are, so I think I will go there for a bit.
>>2915663>Is all the food 90% cheap carbs, or can I find places selling steaks and roast chicken and other mostly meat meals?If you want something other than carb based poverty slop you'll end up paying higher than western prices for the novelty experience
>>2916021It's not a novelty; people all across LatAm love eating big hunks of prime meat. But I can't review such places because I don't want to drop $20 on a 10 oz ribeye meal. This is the base price I've seen. In tourist beach areas yes you will pay more. But how much are ribeye dinners in the Anglosphere these days? $30 or more.
>>2916010Broke trespassing walkies crying about vehicle owners using the road they built to supply the goblinas that the walkoid fetishizes with water to wash their stinkholes
First hotel room of the trip in the small mountain town of Zarcero. It's so tiny, barely 100 ft2 including the bathroom. An unpleasant odor of rotting food permeates the room; the dampness of rainy season brings out a lot of weird musty smells here. Single room cost ¢15000 or $33, double room ¢20000 or $44. Hotels are scarce in this area; this is the only lodging option in Zarcero. Resigned to paying such rates, I did not try to bargain the price lower.The bus to Zarcero cost more than expected; a lady in front of me also going to Zarcero balked at paying the driver ¢2100 ($4.60) for the 22 km ride and held up the boarding line for a minute. And here I was thinking ten cents a km was an expensive bus fare! Costa Rica is so different from other countries in a couple ways.>other countries: foreigners flock to the big cities and barely visit the countryside>Costa Rica: everyone avoids the cities and hurries off to middle of nowhere resort towns>other countries: cheap rooms off the beaten path, tourist traps are pricey>Costa Rica: tourist towns have cheap hostels & sharehouses, lodging options scarce and pricey elsewhere
Busy, congested Naranjo has a beautiful forested mini-volcano nature preserve with a road to the summit lookout a few km from town, but there was not a single hotel or guesthouse around town. I would've had to bus to Naranjo from the hostel in Grecia and then take another local bus to where the summit road starts. Today would've been perfect weather for that excursion, with the rainclouds absent for once, but I decided to move on to Zarcero instead. The quarry here makes such a fucking racket, it echoes off all the surrounding hills.
Zarcero does have a showpiece of a plaza with some elaborately sculpted shrubbery. The climate at 1750 meters elevation is delightfully cool. The town is located along a busy highway clogged with truck traffic, but thankfully the hotel is on a back street.
The only friend I've made so far in Costa Rica has been this heavily pregnant mama cat which lives at the hostel in Grecia.
>>2916341Misery and humiliation day after day. Oh well at least you don't have a home and family
>>2916362Dumbass, I just spent a month with family helping out with yardwork and home projects. American suburbia is very tiresome and soul sucking. >but muh proximity to shartmart, home depot, hospital, only ten minutes driveThat's literally all they care about. Amazon packages arrive multiple times a week, because when you have a huge house and tons of money for only 1 or 2 people, you are a big corporation's dream come true. Buy, buy, buy! For exercise they walk half a mile to the communal mailbox instead of driving. Then it's back inside the house. Miles and miles of generic houseslop and traffic everywhere you go, so why even explore? Even though I was staying for free, the whole middle class lifestyle really rubbed me the wrong way and I was so happy to return to the travel life.
A grueling walk up to a farming village came with some awesome views of Zarcero, which itself is at a very high elevation. The lower terrain beyond was covered in clouds, but up here the sun was shining brilliantly. What a lovely cool day.
Arriving at Palmira, over 2000 meters above sea level. Clouds formed over the high hills and a few thunderclaps sent me inside a local bar for a rich tasty dinner of chifrijo - cost ¢4000 or $9. This one was drowned in gravy, so good! Chunks of salty dry pork with tomato, beans and rice...the portion of pork was very generous. Corn chips on the side, not so much. I had to pay ¢500 extra for ten more chips. The owner presented a menu which stated that all taxes are included in the price, then tried to charge me 10% tax at the kiosk. When I balked, he presented another menu with masking tape covering up the "taxes included" statement and "taxes not included" written on the masking tape. I told him that the menu he showed me said that taxes were included, and he unhappily doled out the change.
This hotel does have a pleasant terrace overlooking the town. So far every place I have stayed here in C.R. has had such an elevated outdoor seating area with a view. Tomorrow I go down the mountain to San Carlos de Quesada, the biggest city in the north-central part of the country. At 650 meters elevation it will be warmer and muggier without A/C...but afternoon cloudiness and cooling rain means that buildings don't soak up heat this time of year like they do in dry season.
>>2916430You seem miserable wherever you go. Just running away from responsibility and putting forth effort and working and as a result living in poverty tier conditions. Then you mock people with homes and jobs and families. You don't have a family, your resent those people you stayed with but they aren't your family, you are part of theirs, a broken branch. Everything is always " I can't live like them or a wagecuck" so I'll be a bum. Like those are your only choices.
>>2916441It's not misery, it's defiance. Fuck your First World privilege, and fuck the system which protects it and doles it out. Choose the difficult path of mental resistance and free thought instead of going with the herd. >responsibilityto WHAT? That's Judeo-Christian brainwashing used by old white women and their wifeguy boomer husbands to put single men – be they white or brown – in their "place" at the bottom of the social order. Obey, submit, pay our Social Security, pay our Medicare, pay for our infrastructure, pay for our insurance policies, pay for our rental mortgages, pay for the police who protect us and our piles of wealth. After you are done getting raped at every turn, you must expend all your remaining energies to snatch at any crumbs of opportunity we see fit to throw your way. If you are servile enough and never ever take more than two weeks off, maybe you can attain our level someday – teehee just kidding.
>>2916467>free thoughtParagraphs of rage and not one original thought. It's regurgitated nihilism you read on some doomer blog. Why are you so angry is it knowing you will be wage cucking again soon?
>>2916476It's been my lived experience in America, dumbfuck. Same with every single post I make here, based on my life experience. Evidently you have no life experience to speak of, else why would the concept of speaking from experience be so alien to you?
>>2916546This isn't your life experience. None of this happened to you someone put all this shit in your head. Lmao ur screeching about imaginary problems living in a roach motel because you jestergooned on incel doomerism>Fuck your First World privilege, and fuck the system which protects it and doles it out. Choose the difficult path of mental resistance and free thought instead of going with the herd.>responsibilityto WHAT? That's Judeo-Christian brainwashing used by old white women and their wifeguy boomer husbands to put single men – be they white or brown – in their "place" at the bottom of the social order. Obey, submit, pay our Social Security, pay our Medicare, pay for our infrastructure, pay for our insurance policies, pay for our rental mortgages, pay for the police who protect us and our piles of wealth. After you are done getting raped at every turn, you must expend all your remaining energies to snatch at any crumbs of opportunity we see fit to throw your way. If you are servile enough and never ever take more than two weeks off, maybe you can attain our level someday –
Zarcero was enveloped in fog this morning. The bakeries here have such rich & delectable pastries, nothing like the dry stale crap you find in poorer countries. Order an item and they will warm it up for you. When you want a quick tasty bite, they are the best option. A good empañada de carne will run you about ¢900 or $2. Bizcochos are also amazingly moist and cheesy. Cheese dough, cheese filling, and cheese on top, all baked to cheesy perfection.
Ciudad Quesada has somewhat cheaper lodging than the other towns; most foreigners skip it over on their way to La Fortuna, but if a place is hospitable and along the route, why not stop and stay. This local hospedaje has a balcony looking out on a green ravine with a rushing river at the bottom. Lovely to be staying in a sizable city and still have a peaceful nature view. Rooms are rustic and simple, starting at ¢12000 ($26). Here you must be buzzed in at the entrance 24/7; evidently it is not too safe here. Venezuelan migrants were begging on the street outside, a common sight in every town here. The friendly joven behind the desk showed me all the rooms and let me check in two hours early.Money does go fast here; the bills are high value and so thin that even $400 worth of colones feels like an empty wallet. I intend to continue paying everything with cash. Vacancies are very high, so I have no worries about being unable to find lodging. With plentiful buses, helpful people, walkable town centers and high quality food everywhere you go, Costa Rica is one of the least stressful countries I have visited.
>>2916559>You're imagining things. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. You are so ensconced in your privilege bubble that you cannot even begin to comprehend what the world looks like from outside it. You think free choice is "what shall I order from Amazon today?" An entire global system of exploitation and extraction exists just to cater to your whims, but you are mentally incapable of seeing past the surface layer.
>>2916620>An entire global system of exploitation and extraction exists just to cater to your whims,Yes. You poors exist to serve your betters and in exchange we throw you scraps. Glad you know your place in the universe
San Carlos de Quesada is a little rough around the edges. Strewn litter and rubbish dumps are plentiful in the poorer areas, and filthy water runs into the town rivers. I was about to dip my feet in one such river under a footbridge when a local guy (who looked like a druggie and was carrying some weird paraphernalia) told me the water is dirty and should be avoided. The weather has been very dynamic, with a breeze blowing clouds off the vast lowland plain up the volcanic slopes. Alternately sunny and overcast, warm and cool, rainy and dry. Various characters spoke garbled Spanish to me, including a crazy strung-out guy who tried to throw a water bottle in the trash can using only his feet. People gave him leery looks when he kicked it in their direction with a frenzied exclamation. Must've been on some paco. This place feels more like a normal Latin America shithole. No eye-catching slender pale girls either; faces are coarser, skin is browner and bodies are fatter.
A rough trail led from this pretty bridge along a forested gorge to a homeless encampment. The premises looked abandoned, but there was so much fucking trash everywhere in the forest. Dismantled appliances and all kinds of junk.
>>2916633you're the one shucking and jiving for a pat on the back and some watermelon rinds from massa. that's why you feel personally attacked whenever someone questions the system
Vacant lots and roadsides strewn with rubbish...still not as bad as India's rubbish tsunamis filling entire creekbeds. At least nobody dumps trash directly into the river here.
"Cabinas" are basically love motels...rooms with attached garages which can be rented hourly. They are very common here, but definitely not desirable places for a tourist to stay. This one looks like a freaking storage facility.
Evidently the girls here aren't rich or pretty enough for the flashiest styles, unlike the white-passing coffee planters' daughters; neither are they disciplined enough to exercise and watch their eating, so they are all kind of fat and short. Ah well. Costa Rica is no different from other countries, in that top tier girls are mainly found in top tier places. Next stop is La Fortuna the backpacker hotspot at the base of a picturesque volcano.
