I couldnt quite convince myself to write when I was feeling miserable in Costa Rica... felt like a total ingrate, and whiner. But today... today is all new.

And Im on a computer that apparently doesnt allow me apostrophes or exclamation points or parentheses, perhaps an interesting challenge, no?

Okay, the deal is that my back has been a nightmare, getting increasingly more painful, particularly at night when I can barely move and hardly sleep for fear of moving. The whole experience has been of listing the reasons to go back home early in the night hours, and listing the reasons not to around mid-day when Im feeling slightly better. Not a good experience.

So the day before yesterday, I decided to stop staying in Monteverde, where I was cooped up due to the rain - more on that later - and go to La Fortuna where there are hot springs that I felt might save the day. I did this, went to the hot springs - more on that later - and my back actually felt worse the next day. So I went to the pharmacy and asked for something stronger than advil. What they gave me is part codeine, part somethinge else, and I held out on taking it until last night because codeine has always knocked me out in the past, but then I took it and Im totally converted.

I actually had almost zero pain last night... and kept waking up to feel how good it felt. Heh.

So, pre-pills, post-pills.

Im going to try to be better about posting, although I have a limited time this morning. Its about 715am in San Jose, and my backpack is all re-packed for the flight Im taking in a few hours to the lower Pacific Peninsula in Costa Rica... El Oso Peninsula. The weight of my bag is precisely the allowed amount, and Im planning on eating breakfast for the first time in forever before going... Ive mostly been living on sandwiches for two meals, and one meal out - usually rice and beans and chicken - a day. Its been pretty tasty and I have certainly not gone hungry.

Anyhow, a brief mention of whats happened and I will try to fill in more later.

I flew in to San Jose and went to this place called Costa Rica Backpackers... I hated it the first time I was here, but am enjoying it okay this second time. The mattresses are pretty crappy and that might be partially why I disliked it, but I also thought the staff was rude, and I was irritated they charged 25-bucks for the shuttle from the airport, when I hear the going rate for shuttles is closer to 15-bucks. But they stored my camping gear so I wouldnt have to haul it to the mountains, where I was going the first week with no plans to camp... so you got to give them credit for that. And now that I am back, either they are friendlier, or I am, and the noise level wasnt quite so bad as it was on the weekend. There is a bar right next door, part of the hostel, and it must draw quite the unruly crowd because the noise lasted all night that Saturday. Last night was quieter although there were some folks sitting right outside our room talking until about 3am... considering how large the place is, Im confused why they picked right by the rooms to talk, but although I am a light sleeper, I can deal with noise pretty well. After Chicago, some part of me even finds it relaxing...

Okay, anyhow, I flew in, was at this spot for one night, wandered around town a bit and thought what a friggin hole San Jose is... a bit like Guayaquil only more hilly. I try not to compare though... remembering how Sarah criticized me once for comparing places when we traveled instead of seeing what was there precisely for itself. I have a hard time with that and tend to categorize and connect too much... so far Costa Rica reminds me a great deal of Ecuador, only it is much much wetter and thus greener. But it also reminds me of the Canaries, in the way the hills and mountains are terraced and farmed... although with entirely different crops. In the Canaries, it was mostly potatoes but also bananas and other fruits, whereas here it seems to be mostly coffee, and other crops I cant identify.

But San Jose is a big, noisy dirty city with scads of traffic and honking horns. Flying in, it actually looked pretty green from the air, but on the ground - at least in the part I am at - it is decidedly not green. The cab driver I got on my way back into town, when I asked him what the prettiest or best part of San Jose was, told me he couldnt think of one - Its all ugly, he said. At that time, the traffic was horrendous and he took me through some back streets to get me to the hostel, passing a former penitentiary, which is now a Childrens Museum. He told me all about the horrible people who used to live there - the devils henchmen, he said, who were known to rip out hearts with their bare hands and feed them to the cats. Why the cats, I do not know.

He was a lively taxi driver, and I quite liked him, I must say.

The places outside San Jose were incredibly beautiful though, although it has been absolutely pouring - flooding on the Caribbean coast, so glad I decided not to go there - so much so that staying indoors is the only alternative to getting completely and entirely sopping wet and cold from head to foot, regardless of raingear.

But that is another story, and Im out of writing time for this morning. Ciao.