Puntarenas, Costa Rica -- night

Right now, its halftime of a soccer match between Costa Rica and Guatemala; Costa Rica's up 1-0. Also right now, I'm sitting at an open-air restaurant on the beach-side of the Paseo de los Turistas.

I got here earlier this afternoon, probably at about 2:30 pm, after which time I walked around for a couple of hours bargain-shopping for a room to sleep in tonight. After a ton of walking (along with a ton of patience), I finally found a room for 2500 colones, which amounts to about 7 dollars, not too bad. However, its literally just a bed in a room, with barely enough extra floor space even for my bag. Also in the negative column is the fact that the guy who showed me the room -- a guy by the name of Albie -- seemed really sleazy. I guess that's what I should expect when searching for the cheapest room in town.

When I checked in, I tried as best as possible to pass off for a tico. I told him my name was "Tay Fallas Quiros" and then I had to give him a cedula number. Luckily I remembered that cedula numbers are made up of seven digits, the first one signifying the province of birth. I told him my cedula number was 1-581-677; first the "1" meaning I was born in San Jose, the "5" being my date of birth, the "81" being my football jersey number at Shawnee, the "6" being my historically (but not necessarily any more) favorite number, and the "77" being my year of birth. I figured it would be easy to remember, but then again I screwed it up writing just now, so maybe not.

The second half of the soccer match has now started. Man, I've gotta say there are so many beautiful women here. Trouble is I'm pretty sure almost all of them are under eighteen years of age. Guatemala just scored to tie the match at 1-1.

After checking into my room, and leaving most of my things there, I've been doing nothing but walking around to get a feeling for Puntarenas. I've easily walked at least a few kilometers, considering I've walked the length of the Paseo de los Turistas at least four times, if not more.

During the bus ride here from San Jose, I struck up a decent conversation with a girl from just outside Puntarenas. She was a marketing major at the Universidad Latina, but was actually studying some worksheets of English on the bus ride. I was kinda surprised to hear that she was studying English of her own volition on her own free time. I was also fairly impressed when she pronounced most of the words without much of an accent at all. We probably talked for at least half an hour, but I fucked up when I didn't ask for her phone number before she suddenly got off the bus. And I've paid for it tonight since I really haven't talked with anyone during my steady perambulations.

But oh well. I look forward to getting up early tomorrow to go swimming in the Pacific, as well as finishing my current book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; that is, if I don't finish it tonight when I get back to the room.

I just asked some guy for the time, and was really surprised to hear that it is only 9:30 pm. I thought it was nearly midnight. I'm still so surprised that I think I'm gonna double-check with someone else in a few minutes. It's really a bitch that I left my wristwatch back in the states. Even if it really is that early, its fine with me; I plan on going to bed early in order to get up early as I said. Now I'm thinking maybe I should get a bite to eat before heading back to the room. Anyway, I'm feeling tired now. Perhaps I'll write again tomorrow.