Well, I am now as red as a cooked Maine lobster... the title of this entry should probably be naive white boy goes to beach thinking that he can last two hours in the sun without getting toasted, but it was a bit too long.

Dominical is a small little village on the Pacific coast. The place is filled with surfers from N. America, Europe, and Australia, as well as local Ticos that work as surf guides.

Now I have a problem, and I realized it after a few hours in Dominical. When I read a guidebook and it says oceans, waves, small village, etc., it sounds quite appealing. My problem is that I forget how little I have been to the beach and how little it entertains me. Don{t get me wrong, I love to sit down with a book for a little while, jump in the surf to cool down, and retire back to other things. The problem was that I set aside way too much time to be in Dominical (a day and a half) and didn{t realize that surf town meant a lot of partying and boozing at all hours of the day (the beach bars open with cerveza for breakfast).

I left there yesterday, taking two buses to eventually arrive in Buenos Aires, the home of the Del Monte pineapple plantations. It is a small village, and I enjoyed watching a futbol game last night and some kids doing a traditional dance, the toritos (little bulls) in the park this morning. I will board a bus in a half an hour to Boruca and have no idea when I will be able to write again.

Here are some nuggets from Costa Rica to chew on...

- Is there abetter way to learn Spanish than watching a dubbed "Billy Madison" in your hotel room... me thinks not. ¡Muchas Gracias, Senorita Lippy!

- One guy told me that he thought Del Monte pays its pickers 300 colones per hour (that would be approximately 65-70 cents)

- And speaking of money... my mind thinks mathematically, but every time I plop down 1000 colones, I have to do a double-take. Sure, its only worth a little over $2, but I guess I am too conditioned on US currency.

- And speaking of money again... the exchange rate is 466 colones to 1 USD. At the airport they gave me 420 colones per USD. Moral: don{t change money at the airport, no matter what Lonely Planet says.

- List of things that I have parted ways with thus far... my Nalgene (you HAD to know it would happen.. one day all 323 bottles that I have lost will return to me... maybe), six other water bottles that I have tried to replace it with, my swimtrunks (not as dramatic as it may sound), and the power cable for my digital camera (¡doh!). As a result, photos for this site will be few and far between. My camera has a little juice left, but the charger is at Jenny{s house in San Luis. At this rate, I will only return to the States with a carryon.

Paz y Esparanza,

Vaughan