ideas for cheap stuff

Its my niece Nicole’s 18th birthday today. Its amazing that the only time I start to feel my age is when relations get older. Its unreal that the beautiful and intelligent little girl I met when I was only 12 has turned into the woman I saw just a few short months back! I can’t wait to meet up with her in Munich when I get back to Europe in a few months and see what’s changed, though I’m sure the developments will surprise and scare the crap out of me! Also today in Dublin, my wonderful big brother Joseph, the joker who used to trick me into licking batteries among other stories that I can’t repeat as he would be charged, is having his 40th birthday party, though he’s not turning 40 till next week. All this is happening in one day, and I’m missing it to head to Bolivia! Ah well, such is life! Its another fine morning, it´ll probably rain like clock work this evening, but then I won´t see it this time!
We wanted to go straight to Bocas del Toro from San Jose last Friday, but the bus was booked up and none of us was in the mood of standing for 6 hours to get to the boarder before closing, so we went to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca on the Carribean coast of Costa Rica for the night with the intention of heading on early the next morning for the boarder. I was disappointed at first to have to have another day of travelling ahead, but I ended up really liking the laidback town. Liz still wasn´t too well, so after dinner Tonge and I went to bar that I saw was doing karaoke that night. There was bugger all there, only a smattering of Ticos (Costa Ricans). I went up and sang “Summer of ´69″, and we´d the intention of heading back early, course this plan never came to fruition, and the more locals came, the more rum we had, and the more tunes we sang. Fantastic night altogether. We were a bit slow to move the next day, but we made it over the Panama boarder, and over to Bocas in time to spend an hour of a Saturday night looking for accommodation. Finally got some food in our stomachs and crashed, only to find a beautiful puppy in our dorm room, whose owner abandoned him until 07:00. The thing was crying for her and pissing all over the room. Tonge and I got hardly any sleep and were really cursing her the next day. Luckily we got another room, and everything was grand after that. I had the first full night´s good and uninterrupted sleep in donkeys. No noises or nightmares woke me. Total bliss!
Sunday, Tonge had ¨stuff¨ to do, suspicions are that she needed a break from us, hehe, so Liz and I got a boat, to another island, did a jungle walk and hung out on a beautiful beach called Wizard beach. Monday we did a boat tour for the day that took in Dolphin Bay, where the shy dolphins ignored us until our driver got their attention by doing circles with the boat, the dolphins followed in the boats wake playing in the surf, doing spectacular jumps, and trying to out swim each other. After that we did some major snorkeling for 2 hours, then had lunch, before going on to Red Frog beach. Tonge had an absolute whale of a time, as it was the first time she´s had her head under the water for years, due to ear problems. She was so cute out in the water trying to body surf. Liz commented that we´d have to drag her out to leave. We all got major sun that day, and our skin felt like leather due to the salt. We did some more snorkeling on the way back. Tuesday we got a bus out to Bocas del Drago for the day, where we saw tonnes of starfish, and the bay was so calm I just floated for a few hours and finally on Wednesday we went back out to Red Frog beach, but the waves were ridiculous, and it was like being in a washing machine! My big disappointment was that there was no possibility to see any Sea Turtles, which was a major reason that I went there, but I should´ve emailed the companies and sanctuaries before. It just turned out I hadn´t enough time left for it, which is a damn shame. That final night in Panama we went out for a nice meal with a few heads we´d met and bid farewell to our dear friend Liz. We´ll miss her tonnes. We could always depend on her to make situations dramatic!

Quotes
Tonge: ¨Its good to escape the compound/hammock/rocking chair.¨ - a variation of the ¨Its good to get out of the city!¨ that I quoted before.
Liz: ¨Another adventure today!¨ Said at the start of a journey or day before the bus wheel started to come off, or problems ensued of getting food and so on.
Tonge: ¨Can I have a tipple?¨ To which I respond, ¨From my nipple?¨, the response is due to the fact that I was for a few weeks always carrying our water supply for the day in my hydration pack that´s located in my deadly backpack, as the valve where you get the water from would always be tucked back near there. It´s given me quite an inordinate amount of giggles due to Tonge´s ¨oh Therese¨ face, which is a mixture of disgust and ¨what am I going to do with you!¨.
Liz & Tonge: ¨The flannel club!¨ They were only delighted and excited to find that they had flannels, i.e. sweat rags, in common, for those not so fresh moments when walking, eating, opening your eyes, lying on a hammock, in a humid climate.
Tonge: ¨I need to find a strap.¨ Its all about her new hanging chair that she bought in Nicaragua, that she spent a good 3 hours sewing into a material bag in Leon one evening (she´s very domesticated Frank!), but ended up opening at the boarder, though no one looked in it. And no, she still hasn´t found the strap, and I may reach tether´s end before she leaves!

Damn it, have to start writing down quotes when I hear them. I´d loads more, but now find myself at a loss without profit!

Hasta luego amigos!