Goodbye Clara

Folks,

Clara and I got back from Manuel Antonio on Wednesday, and she left on Thursday. We had (another!) bank holiday on Sunday, Culture Day, so it's a long weekend.

Manuel Antonio
-------------------
I've been to Manuel Antonio more often than any other place in the country. It's so beautiful down there, with a wonderful beach, and it's also just beside the Manuel Antonio national park.

The only problem is that it's well-established on the tourist map. However, that wasn't so much of a problem on this trip, because we're off season now so it was quite quiet.

Rain
------
We're at the height of the rainy season now – October should be the wettest month. At the start of this season we were told it would be even worse than last year, because of the La Niña weather phenomenon.

But it's been nothing like last year. Last year, we didn't have one dry day in October. This year, we have had some lovely sunny days. It's quite hot too - we've the fan on in the apartment most of the time. There have only been 9 named storms this season, with 5 of them minor hurricanes. The season isn't over until the end of November, but this compares with last year when there were 28 storms, with 15 hurricanes, including Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

American apologies
------------------------
When we were a bar in Manuel Antonio, during (ironically, given my comments above) a really heavy tropical rainstorm, the group at the next table sent us over some shots from a bottle of rum they had. Two were locals, and the third was a guy from California called Casey. He came over and talked to us. About two minutes into the conversation he told us that he needed to make clear that although he was American, he didn't support the Bush government or their policies – I'm from California. We're very liberal. I've never voted for Bush and I don't support this administration. I just want you to know that.

It's something I see again and again here, and find also working with so many Americans. There is a need to apologise and disassociate themselves with their government. It's terrible to be abroad knowing a government that is hated internationally controls your country. It's a sweeping generalisation, and apologies to Americans reading if I'm not correct, but it seems to me that the pro-Bush Americans don't travel. And the people who travel, in particular to work somewhere poor like Costa Rica, are bearing the brunt of it.

Farewell night
------------------
With Thursday being a holiday, and because we don't work on Friday, we decided to go out on the razzamatazz on Wednesday, Clara's last night. The razzamatazz means that it was similar to most nights when we go out after work. We went to Mulo.

Clara got on very well with the teachers, some of whom she'd met before. The bar officially closes at 12, but we had a lock-in and didn't leave until after 1.30.

A few of us decided to come back to the apartment for a few more beers to finish the night off. It ended up being a long one. We got to bed about 7am, and our guests left us the next day at about 2pm.

Photos
--------
I'm moving my photos to the web address picasaweb.google.com/eamon.mcdonagh. So far, there are just the photos of Clara's trip, and a few from Ireland in July. But over the next few weeks I'll be putting more up.
------
Well, that's it for another week. I'm taking it easy this weekend. Even though it's a long one, the funds are down having done so much travelling recently. So until next week …

Pura Vida,

Éamon

Sunday's headline from La Nación: 61% of professionals graduate from private universities.