So I was wrong about this place being without its comforts...

...Because I apparently found an internet cafe! It doesn´t exactly have even 3 walls but it does have an aluminum roof and 3 computers side by side, so it´s ok.

But yeah. Nina and Miguel and Jorge (those were the two guys we rode here with) are at this meeting that they said would be very boring and last 2 hours. It´s kind of a preparation of the presentations that they´re going to do in the next couple days here, and lots of the presenters haven´t really met each other yet. I think. Something like that. In any case, we all decided I would be bored witless and I set out to explore the town of ... I can´t believe I forgot the name of it, but I´ll tell you later so you can look it up on the map. (Note: it may not be there.)

In Nina´s guidebook this town has a population of 1000. That´s an "eh?" figure if I´ve ever heard one. This town has one street. No exaggeration. One short street that ends at the river. The town took approximately 5 minutes to explore. The town is really not that big. I seriously doubt the ´1000´ figure.

But it does seem to have this internet place, kind of back from the road and denoted by an extremely faded sign that seemed to used to say a lot, but I saw this: INTERNET... De SKY! that was originally written with marker, and it caught my eye. Other than that it just looks like every other shack around here. (No offense.)

So remember how I said it would take 7 hours to get here? Within a country about the same size as New York state? well, somebody decided that because of something of a drought they´ve been having here in this part of the country (yeah, what with all the rain just a couple hundred miles away I would never have guessed) that the road that we would otherwise have to bypass by riverboat is indeed passable, so we drove the whole way. It was 9 hours, 2 hours longer than it would´ve been had we taken the boat. Arg.

It is pretty far, but not that far on a map (by american standards, anyway). It seemed like the last 5 hours were all on very, very, let´s say "rural" roads. Poor Nina must have a headache as big as anything because of how many times her head smacked against the inside handles of the truck. (and sometimes her head hit her fingers holding that handle, so her fingers are also probably very sore.)

Therefore it was not the kind of road trip that you can get any sleep on - and when you get picked up at 4:00am, well, you kinda want that kind of trip.

We stopped for breakfast, which were quesillas. They make a good breakfast food in addition to the other controversial things i suggested them for. They also had coffee there, but it was ultra-sugared instant coffee. Not so good.

Most of the ride, despite being jouncy, was very scenic. It turns out that really most of this country is very, very nice to look at. And that when you need to pee, you say that we need a "technical stop." Everybody thought that was pretty funny for longer than we all should´ve, I think.

Now, I told you about the animosity between Nicas and Ticos. I should tell you that the river I am on is either the border between the two countries or very, very near it. (it depends where you are, see.) Supposedly the ´famously ecological´ Costa Ricans have plantations all over where they have deemed protected area, where the always good Nicas have made no such promise, but still don´t have plantations down by the river. From what I´ve seen this isn´t really true, but maybe it is somewhere else along the river. I don´t know.

Anyway. Nicas>>Ticos is a common theme, basically.

Now, this river we are on: has sharks! has caymans! has big ol fish! and shrimp! and didImention SHARKS! Not too many rivers have actual sharks, so this is cool to me. Don´t worry, they don´t really get bigger than a person. But about that big.

There are also hot springs somewhere nearby. We may investigate, time permitting.

There are now several people crowded around me, talking. It´s sunny out. I guess they´re just hanging out here. I don´t blame them though; there´s a nice fan in here.

I decided that the next time I decide to come to Latin America I will definitely want to know about a hundred times as much spanish as I know now. Well, 4 or 5 times as much would be good. I basically understand the gist of what´s being said about 1/4 of the time, what is exactly said much less - and don´t even ask about when it comes time for me to say something. If for some reason I have more time, then I´d want to go to a spanish language school which seem to be everywhere for $190ish/week, which includes room and board.

But those are all just thinkin´s.

(PS: I bet you all are interested in what exactly Nina is doing here, huh? she tried her best to explain to me the whole situation, but that would take patience and concentration for me to repeat. Plus I need to go to the bathroom right now, so that may have to wait. But you know what? My very own pictures may be in a kind of single-sheet instruction manual for fermenting cacao and/or PR thing that Nina is preparing! I need to actually shoot them still, but some of the people in the DED seem pretty excited about my camera being here right now. I´m just happy I have some kind of role on-site, what with my limited communication skills and all.)