La Cruz Town: 20th - 23rd October 2025
20th October – Monday
Today have been very stressful, having tonsillitis has made it more so than it would normally have been. Checking out was easy and the lady even had my change at hand. I thought I had the right cycle taxi but when I saw the safety bar I realised it wasn’t and just on cue my guy arrived. The chancer guy looked very perplexed that I didn’t take him as he had arrived first, but such is life and I’m not one for going back on a booking. I was going to give him 100 c but ended up giving him 80, he was still very happy with the tip.
I was quite relieved to find a few other backpackers at the bus stop, however they informed me that they were due on the 8am bus and mine was the 9am bus. They also informed me that at 8am a Tica bus to Costa Rica went flying past and didn’t stop. They were still in a very light mood and already indulging in cans of Tona – lol. However, I started to get quite concerned, luckily mum and dad were there for me and kept my spirits up, dad even suggested seeing if anyone had good enough Spanish so we could phone Tica Buses to find out what was going one. We were a group of English (me), French, German and Danish and none of us had good Spanish! I tried phoning but there was no answer. At 9am a bus finally turned up. If your name isn’t down, you’re not getting on! It was the 8am bus, but the driver reassured me that the 9am would be along soon. Ha ha, the drinkers left 6 cans of beer at the bus stop, I was hoping to pocket the lot but there now a guy from Brazil with me, so we gave 2 to his taxi driver and shared the remaining 4 between us 
Some of the guys friends then turned up and they proceeded to get stoned – OMG – I am so glad they didn’t offer any to me – can you imagine ill and paranoid going through customs – no thank you!
Our bus didn’t actually take long to arrive, I think it was at about 9:40, but regardless I was so relieved to see my name was down this time. The drive to the border was quick, no more than an hour and a half and getting out of Nicaragua easy and quick. My problem came with getting into Costa Rica. Not only was the queue of people waiting to get through long there were only 3 customs booths open, T one point there were four but this soon dwindled down to two! I thought I’d take my chance with not purchasing an exit ticket, as I didn’t need to show it entering Nicaragua, but no chance. When I finally got there the customs guy was not letting me through without one 
So I had to do a quick search for emergency flight tickets and selected the first available flights ‘Onward Ticket’. It took a little less than 10 minutes but I managed to booked a reservation flight to Rio de Janeiro, via Houston, for just $16, it expires in 48 hours. I was a little nervous but the customs guy smiled when he saw my booking then gave me 180 days stay in the country. I was the last passenger back on the bus! I will use this company next time now I know it actually works
The journey to La Cruz took about 40 minutes and I was dropped off and had a 5 minutes walk to my hotel, which is stunning and luxury compared to the hostel I have been staying in. But so it should be for £50 a night! And the view from the restaurant over Salinas Bay is to dye for. You would have thought all of my troubles would be over now, but no. I paid for the hotel via my card but needed cash (colones) and a SIM card. So after a quick shower off I went. There are two ATMs, one next to and one opposite, the hotel. I tried 4 times but neither would give me any money and kept telling me to contact my bank – OMG – no money, no SIM and the guy at
Starling said he could see nothing wrong with my card! So off I went to try again, it turns out the ATM next to the hotel only takes visa, so I tried across the road and this time it worked Not sure what I was doing wrong last time but what a relief. I then found a phone shop and a supermarket, both within 5 minutes of my hotel.
Uhm, walking around Las Cruz was certainly an experience, all of the old guys were giving me dirty grins and winking at me and staring me as I walked past them, and there were a lot of them all around what I think is the main square. I even noticed guys in their cars giving a second look – new girl in a small town!
On my back to the hotel I bought some rambutan and was merrily sitting on the restaurant terrace contemplating eating some when this humongous howler monkey came lurching at me with it vicious teeth bared. I grabbed and protected my fruit. The monkey could see I wasn’t going to give in lightly but kept baring it’s teeth at me in a very threatening manner. Luckily I have monkey experience form Cambodia! The trick is to show no fear, I jumped up and made a quick escape and locked my rambutan away safely in my room. Ye shall not have my fruit!
So that was my day – I am relieved to say, bar the rain, nothing else stressful has happened, and I suppose it wasn’t even that stressful, but it felt it due to not feeling well. After all of that I sat in the restaurant and had a fish dinner which was not half as nice as the two fish dinners I had at Julia’s Comeda, but never mind. One downer of this hotel is you cannot smoke or vape, even in the outside areas. I had to keep disappearing to my room for a quick puff on my vape – there is a smoke detector but it doesn’t look like it is working and I haven’t set any alarms off so I am not worried. I was looking forward to an awesome sunset, but the rain and clouds got in the way, it was still nice though, I hope there is a stunning one before I leave.
I have now locked myself away in my vaping room and am going to watch a bit of Spanish TV before having a couple of Nytol and an early night. I hope the antibiotics start to work tomorrow and my throat is less sore.
21st October – Tuesday
I can’t think of anywhere nicer to be sick. I researched this morning about getting more antibiotics and read that you must get a doctor’s prescription and that most pharmacies have a doctor. I went to the one across the road, it was big, clinical and very posh but the guy was not interested and just kept telling me I needed to see a doctor. Eventually he pointed me in the direction of another pharmacy. This one was small, a little grubby and full of locals. By the time I got the see the lady I had written a message on G Translate asking to see a doctor and the reason why. She just smiled at me and said, no doctor, I have what you need, and sold me 10 amoxicillin, over the counter for £4.45, I couldn’t be happier.
After that I went for a walk around the town, I really don’t think they are used to having many tourists here, although there is another English-speaking family at the hotel restaurant tonight. Just before I got back to my hotel, in fact the road opposite, I came across a miniature restaurant with these pasties in a hot display case – OMG – that was the best chicken pasty I have ever eaten. The pastry was thin, with a slight sweetness to it and the sauce the chicken was in was to die for, and it was full of meat, every mouthful was a delight to the taste buds. So much so that I went back later. I was hoping to get a beef one but she only had rice and chicken left – I was not disappointed.
I spent most of the afternoon on Starling chat sorting out the 8 unrecognised payments on my card. The lady wanted to cancel my card but I explained my situation and it was agreed that they wont cancel it, but I must keep it locked, only to unlock it briefly for any transactions I need to do. Katherine has a friend who lives here, Jules, so I contacted him but he didn’t seem keen on having my card delivered to his address – which is cool. At least I can still have access to my money and survive while I am travelling. I will get it cancelled as soon as I return to the UK.
The sunset this evening has been spectacular and lasted for well over an hour. Like I said, I can’t think of a better place to be ill. The town is as dead as a doornail, which means all I can do is relax. If I feel up for it I may try to get the bus to the beach tomorrow, but on the other hand I may wait and book my next hostel a lot closer. Jules said I am in the right place for beaches, he also suggested a few other places I should visit 
Uhm, next door has just busted some lively tunes, I think there may be a party happening, but I will resist the temptation to be nosey, especially as I am waiting for my last dose of paracetamol to kick in – I’m not feeling great at this moment in time.
I forgot yesterday to mention, when at the ATM yesterday, my successful attempt, I got chatting to a couple of Americans, Dina and Brian. They were my age and so lovely. They cycle everywhere, on this adventure they have basically followed the same path as me. They flew, with their bikes, into Mexico, but didn’t spend long there as they have done that country extensively before, then they cycled round Belize, Guatemala, down though El Salvador, got the boat to Nicaragua and crossed into Costa Rica just before I did. Enough
respect. They have also cycled round France and Spain – I am in awe of them, they said they do about 60 kilometres a day, and usually camp, but as it is the wet season have been using hostels. I mean, how awesome is that, they have been doing this for the last 5 years, usually 6 months at a time then head back to the USA, save for 6 months and then hit the cycle track again. If you were alive Jay I would suggest we did the same but we would have to start off slowly as the most I have ever done in one go is 24 k! But as Dina and Brian said, when you are in the middle of nowhere with no where to camp you have to keep on going until you find somewhere. I wish them both good luck on the rest of the journey – they are heading Ushuaia, and so am I, so you never know, our paths could cross again!
22nd Ocotber – Wednesday
Well, the plan was to go for a lovely walk into the forest, obviously along a trail, and to a couple of viewpoints, but my plan didn’t materialise. I was actually on my way but decided to do a quick look at some laptops, there are three shops here in town. Well, that was it, I got caught up in reviewing the laptops and trying to decide which one to buy. The choice was between a couple of HPs and a couple of Lenovos, all bigger and about 0.6k heavier than this one. After making notes of make and models and sitting in the town square mulling over them I returned to the hotel and gave Titus a call. He was in agreement with me on getting a new one. This one really has had its day and now that windows 10 is defunct I will need to buy an external SSD to provide the capacity needed for windows 11. As T said replacing the screen may not make any difference to the red and green flickering that is so annoying me. Basically I could be chasing a wild dog trying to repair and upgrade this one, and it was only £200 . I’ve had a good 5 years out of it, s no complaints.
This afternoon, I finally decided which Lenovo to buy: Lenovo IdealPad Slim 3 with a 15.6” screen, 8 GB ram and 512 GB SSD, with windows 11 installed. Which is a bloody good upgrade from this one. I even checked that the Lenovo power cable I currently have, with a UK plug attached, works with it – it does, so I will have no problems the UK. I really thought I would be spending the evening learning all about it and installing my VPN and other software – but no. The guy in the shop couldn’t set it up, the first problem was with Microsoft, it would not send me the two-step verification code. Then he said he needed to install some software on it, but couldn’t due to internet problems. I must have been in there for two hours. I could feel my medication wearing off and I hadn’t eaten for 8 hours. I was beyond grumpy and pissed off and he kept speaking to me in Spanish – lol – which jarred me no end, but he didn’t have any English and even though I know he was trying to do his best, the worst version of me was emerging, so I tod him I’d return in the morning.
I had an expensive dinner here at the hotel, Chicken in mushroom sauce, the chicken was overcooked and really salty – yuk – but it did the trick, and I felt a lot happier with food and
medication in me. Then it rained, torrential rain, I went to my room to have a vape and it was torrentially raining in there too! Huge puddles all over the floor, luckily all my clothes and possessions were dry and so was the bed. I am now in anther room, on the top floor, which is not as nice, it is much smaller, there is no wardrobe and the shower thermometer control is so high the lady had to get a step ladder to turn it down for me!
I am not leaving my new room for the rest of the evening just n case something else happens. I don’t think I could cope with another negative today, although they do say it comes in three and I’ve had three: my new computer (which I haven’t actually paid for yet), my salty chicken in mushroom sauce dinner and my swimming pool dormitorio.
Roll on tomorrow.
23rd Ocotber – Thursday
I got to the computer shop at 10:30 this morning and within a few minutes the guy had me logged on and my Microsoft account installed. Then he spent until 1pm trying to change the language from Spanish to English! There was a note in the language section which I interpreted as saying that the version of Windows 11 was Spanish only, at one I did point it out to him, but he ignored me. In the end I explained, on G Translate that I wasn’t going to buy the computer, that it was no good for me in Spanish. He totally understood and I left. When I got back I did some research, I was right! The Windows 11 installed had a single language license and to upgrade to multilanguage I would have had to buy pro for $99 or uninstall that version of windows and install another – I am just glad I had not paid for it. I will try again when I get to another town, and check the language license before hand.
I hardly slept last night and feel like shit, although my throat is feeling better my back and skin are still overly sensitive and I feel so run down. When I got back to the hotel I had a chicken pasty and what I was hoping would be a watermelon smoothie, it was just watermelon blended into a liquid. After that I had a cat nap. This evening I went down to the restaurant and had a rather delicious mojito served in a half pint Heineken glass. I’m now tucked up in bad and about to watch a bit of Spanish TV.