12 days to Germany vs. Costa Rica

Folks,

Our visitors are due tonight, but I've a chance to lash off a quick mail because their flight is delayed. It's just about 15 minutes by bus from here to the airport.

Preparation for Germany
------------------------------
The Costa Rican preparation for the world cup had a bit of a setback this week. They played Catalonia (region of Spain) on Wednesday, but lost 2-0. However you can see the world cup fever ramping up here. We're getting flyers from Pizza Hut, and there are lots of ads on TV for fast food, delivery services, as well as TVs, surround sound systems and jerseys and flags, and anything red, white and blue.

Crocodile Bridge
--------------------
I forgot to write that when we were at the beach in Esterillos a couple of weeks back, we met one of my work colleagues, Devon, and her Tico boyfriend James. He works in tourism and has a bus, and they gave us a lift home.

On the way back, we crossed what I call crocodile bridge. It's on the main road to the central Pacific coast. You can often see a few crocodiles in the water from the bus. This time we could stop and get out for a proper look. There were about 20 crocodiles, of all ages and sizes. Some of them were huge. While we were there, one of the onlookers threw down a chicken (from the butchers, not a live one), and it really showed me how fast they can move when they want to. The chicken only lasted about a second.

BBC
------
I listened with interest to a report from Costa Rica on the programme From Our Own Correspondent recently. It's so interesting to hear about somewhere which sounds so exotic when you are actually living in.

The item was about the Free Trade Agreement, known here as TLC (Tratado de Libre Comercio). They made the point that Costa Rica is now trying to walk a tight-rope between the USA to the north, and the South American countries to the south. And they also noted that there are more PHDs in the cabinet of the new government than in any other country in Latin America. I'm not sure if that's a good thing!

In praise of podcasting
---------------------------
I'm not singing the praises here for my own very meagre podcast of this weekly update. But I have become a real fan of podcasts in general. There are quite a few done by the BBC, and the Guardian newspaper in the UK. Unfortunately, RTÉ is running a little slow on this initiative. I can only get the Gerry Ryan weekly highlights. They're just sound files that you can set to automatically download to your PC, and then to your iPod or MP3 player.

The BBC have a daily update that is taken from highlights of their news programmes, and it's excellent. And the Guardian have a daily news programme on their site that's like a little radio station. I have an iPod shuffle, so now I'm never without the news. Which, incidentally, is how I heard the BBC report on Costa Rica.
-----
Well, that's it for another week. We're off to the airport now to pick up the two travellers. They've had a long day, and have travelled from Dublin to Amsterdam, to Miami, to San José. So until next week.

Pura Vida,

Éamon