Of Costa Rica, where few became many

Ok, so I m in Panama, still trying to catch up with all that I haven't written and that I really should have :P

I'm off tomorrow but my trip is far from over. Although I'll be leaving the Three Musketeers and the Naughty, the adventure is just beginning. I'm heading to Rio de Janeiro for the Carnival and there's a good chance that I will stay there to live when it's over. But more about that when I know more about it.

So, where were we? We left Nicaragua and headed to Playa Tamarindo in Costa Rica. here we met up with the unlikely brothers Steven and Max, surfer dudes that were parked beside us on the beach. Max is short, pale and blondish, Steven is tall, black and build like a brickhouse, but aparently they share a father...


The unlikely, yet extremely funny, brothers

So we settled down for another couple of days of surf waiting for Natxo, Maria and Cata to arrive.

This lead to a quiet night out on the drink which led to sushi cooked by the wonderful and extremely silent Gregory. We sat down to enjoy the music of a completely insane musician called Jose which had a laugh that would made Eddie Murphy fade into the wilderness.

The night kind of evolved from a quiet night of music to a smallmobile party by the van, where we enjoyed the taste of the lasting Nicaragua's finest rhum, Flor de Cana. The night quickly degenerated into what proved to be one of the most fun and distructive nights of the trip. We slept in the Naughty and imagine our suprise when we awoke to find blood all over the van.

Turns out it was just a minor scratch on the hand but moving around and leaning of various surfaces had turned it into a scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

So off we went, several bottles of water later we hit the road and headed to Punta Islita, a tiny and completely unknown location on the Nicoya Peninsula where rich Yankees go to escape from the all seeing eye.

"Hello Sir, have you seen a tall Pakistani guy that looks like Bin Laden but speaks in English?"

Roque had a friend that was staying there in a rented villa and we fancied ourselves in a huge bed being massaged by beautiful women. Unfortunately it didn't quite turn out that way, in fact we spend two days driving around and couldn't find him anywhere.

2 Howling Monkeys and one on the tree

The alpha male obviously felt threatened by my manliness...Hear him roar!

On the plusside we did get to see a tree full of very pissed off Howler Monkeys and a beach covered with lobsters, which of couse we quite fancied in a pot with spaghetti, but who were way to quick for our reflexes slowed by age and the harsh life of the road.

For rent: beachside compact mobile room with great sea view. price: free

The Naughty in sleeping mode on the beach of Punta Islita

So we headed out of Punta Islita and headed towards San Jose, where Txarlie had kindly offered his humble house as a checkpoint for our weary souls.

The Naughty learns to swim! Its now a car, a hotel, a nightclub and a boat

1 hour from Punta Islita we got an sms from Roque's friend telling us how to find him... doh...

We arrived in San Jose and the van regained its ancient mojo when the number of member reelevated from 3 to a much more chaos inducing 6 with the arrival within a few minutes of Natxo and Maria. Naturally by the time Maria had stepped out of the taxi we were through our second bottle of celebratory wine! Later that night we went to pick up Catalina at the airport and by the time she joined the ranks the atmosphere was hot and begging for a party!

We scoured the city looking for Txarlie's secretary's house as the keys she had previously given us weren't working and had called her, very suspiciously to ask her where she lived :P

After finding her in a dark corner of San Jose and her realizing that we weren't out to assault her, we stopped off at a supermarket, and let Natxo's exuberance loose in the lanes. What resulted was a meal and a quantity of alcohol fit for the finest Sorority initiation, I hit the kitchen and cooked up some fine spaghetti al salmone and then we danced like fools all night in the sittingroom of Txarlie's house whilst celebrating Maria's turning 27!

This may seem wierd, but the simple idea of having walls, enough beds for all and the prospect of a hot shower the next morning made us forget about hitting the town.

So next morning we hit the road again and head back to the Nicoya peninsula for another few days of beach and an interesting walk to town!