Mal País

Folks,

Sorry my entries have been so erratic. Last weekend I went to Mal País, which is a place I may potentially move to.

The pic of the week is a butterfly on flowers in Mal País, which provided a blast of colour on an otherwise gray and wet weekend.

Craig's List
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I don't know if you know Craig's List. It's a classified listings site very popular in the US. I discovered that there was a Costa Rican section, and I've been looking on it for places to move to on the coast in July. I also put up an ad saying I was a writer(!) looking to move to the coast for 3 months. A girl called Laura in Mal País replied, and said that she had a restaurant with cabins, and she would consider letting me one of the cabins if I looked after the place while she's away in September.

Journey
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Mal País is a small town on the Pacific coast. Just a little further north than Montezuma, where we went for a weekend last year . You need to take a bus and a ferry to cross over to the Nicoya peninsula. I love that ferry journey. It only costs 76 euro cent for the hours journey. You cross this gulf past islands to the other side which is completely lush with rain forest. It was so peaceful and quiet as we arrived on the other side. I had to laugh though, as I was watching the port drift into view I was listening to a Morning Ireland podcast. And my idyllic scene was interrupted by the news that 'a car crash is causing traffic northbound to back up to the M50 roundabout in Blanchardstown'. If ever there was news out of context!

Restaurant Verde
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Laura is from Chicago, and runs a vegetarian restaurant called Verde. It's about 100m from the beach. The location is ideal and exactly what I'm looking for. The restaurant is at the front, with a lovely chill out area that I could use as a living space when the restaurant isn't open (i.e. not between 7 and 10pm). There are kind of jungle type gardens, with a shared house, cabins, a larger cabin and a 'studio apartment'. It's all got a real new agey, hippy vibe. However, I don't want to share, the cabins are very basic, and the studio apartment is too expensive. So that leaves the larger cabin. It's got a living space, with a kitchette, a small bedroom and a bathroom. But there's an artist living in it at the moment, and it's a bit of a dump. Untidy, dirty and with paint everywhere. He's moving out on Tuesday, and she'll have it cleaned up then. It's also a little on the pricey side. So I just need to check out other options before committing.

Russian Embassy Siege
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Costa Rica unusually hit world headlines last week when an Uzbek gunman held the Russian ambassador and his family hostage last week, over a failed property investment. There was a standoff for several hours at the embassy in San José, but luckily it ended without loss of life or injury.

Giving the cellular back!
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I've been using a 'cell phone', or mobile as we'd say, from my landlord. But he wants it back, and given that I'm leaving next month, it's not a problem. But when I was telling people that I wouldn't be on it anymore everyone connected it to my leaving and I got all these sad messages back about how people will miss me. I was quite touched.
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Well, that's it for this week. I promise to be back on a regular schedule from the weekend. We're back in full rainy season here, it's hopping of the roof as I write.

Until next week,

Chao,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nación: One in every three homes use private healthcare