My roommate got up early and plastered himself in Brut aftershave (MAD Magazine did a spoof advert for this with people in a crowded lift (elevator) with the tag line “In a crowded place it’s Brutal”). The room continued to reek of it when he went out.
Brut is the brand name for a line of men's grooming and fragrance products launched in 1964 by Fabergé, and now owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. It was very fashionable and popular in the late 1970’s in Britain.
I strolled into town after washing my faithful “Undress” T-shirt and concluding that hostel restaurant was closed on Sundays as the bars were still up at 10:00 hrs. I perused the goods in a huge supermarket, severely tempted to splash out on some luxury foot items such as cheese, fish, wholemeal bread and yoghurt, but decided in the interests of economy to get breakfast in a local café.
I enjoyed Gallo Pinto with eggs at an efficient and cheap breakfast bar and returned to the hostel to leisurely write some postcards. Later on I went on a photographic expedition to try and capture the essence of San José on film.
I started with the impressive war memorial statue in the National Park which was erected in 1895. It had the inscriptions:
* Los Jefes de la Campaña Nacional Centro∙americana 1856∙1857
* Batalla de Santa-Rosa 20 marzo 1856.
* Batalla de Rivas 11 abril 1856.
* Toma de los vapores en San Juan del Norte25 diciembre 1856
English translation:
* The Leaders of the Central American National Campaign 1856∙1857
* Battle of Santa Rosa March 20, 1856.
* Battle of Rivas April 11, 1856.
* Seizing of the Filibusters' Steamships in San Juan del Norte December 25, 1856
This was near the railway station for Puerto Limón and from here I drifted down towards the city centre. I bought a litre of skimmed milk in the supermarket and sat in the main square drinking it and watching the children chasing the pigeons.
Back at the hostel I gasped in the icy cold shower. No matter how hot it is outside the water is always freezing cold in the hostel. Clean and refreshed, I sat down to write a letter to Pete Willis, a friend of my dad’s who had encouraged me to travel and explore the world.
At a garden party in the summer of 1983 at my parents’ house in West London we got into conversation with our friend’s father, Pete Willis. He had travelled back to the U.K. overland from Australia in a VW Combi Campervan in the 1970s. We were having second thoughts about going overland to Australia, but he said, “Just get yourselves an old Honda 50 each” (we got Honda 90’s in the end – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CT90 for details or Click here). “Ride one each until one packs up, then both get on the other and continue until that bites the dust, then continue by public transport.”
He waved expansively at my parent’s guests in the garden and said, “get out into the world, you don’t want to end up like these no-hopers!” My grandmother overheard him and said to me later “what a wicked old man, advising you to give up your happy family life and careers for a frivolous road trip.” Click here for details of this motorcycle trip across Europe and Asia.
It is really quiet at the hostel today; in fact, all of this side of the town is dead. I got talking to a Canadian girl called Susan and we chatted about Costa Rica and South America. She introduced me to her Peruvian friend, Carlos, and at 18:00 hrs. the three of us went out to eat together.
We went into the Feliz Feliz Chinese Restaurant which was a short way down the road, and I had a huge chicken chop suey washed down with Pilsen beer. We moved onto the Bar Peru Tico for a couple more beers. There were no bocas (bar snacks) on Sunday but an American in the bar offered us a huge bag of monkey nuts to help ourselves from.
We munched on nuts and chatted while a very bored looking waitress cut up serviettes to make beer mats opposite. A group of American ex-pats played a dice game on the bar. We were all tired and retired early at 21:30 hrs. I read my book for a bit but could hardly keep my eyes open.
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