Liberia: 28th - 30th October 2025
28th October – Tuesday
This morning, I got the bus to La Cruz and then a second to Liberia, which is where I am now. I don’t know why I get so nervous about taking the bus, I suppose part of me fears it not stopping for me, especially after my experience in Ometepe, but that was a one of. The second bus was packed and I was lucky to get the last seat at the back between these two guys, neither of whom had any qualms about pinning me in with their arms. I closed my eyes and dosed for the journey which made it bearable.
After dumping my bags I had only one mission in mind – a new laptop. The manager of this hostel told me that Walmart was my best bet, it was only 20 minutes away so off I marched only to be very disappointed by the range they had. I came back and refreshed before heading into town where I ended up in Tienda Monge, the same store that I tried in La Cruz. There are two Monge stores in this small town, about 100 meters apart from each other. I didn’t really have much luck in the first even though they had a better range of Lenovo computers and the guy that was helping me was quite useless. I had to convince him that there were more specifications than those that were on display and even after that he was reluctant to bring them up on his computer. Anyway, we finally went through the specs of all the computers in my price range, and they were all single language, so I went to the second store. The guy in this one was so lovely, and he pointed out that a couple of the laptops where single language Spanish and some just single language. Using G translate he convinced me that he could change the settings on the ones that didn’t say Spanish and asked me to at least let him try. I pointed to this one, which is a 14” HP and said if he could I would buy it. There was also the Lenovo that I tried to buy the other day but I preferred the look and feel of this one, and it is a little bit smaller and lighter.
Well blow me down with a feather, it took him bloody ages, and he had to get some help to update Windows 11, but he did it, well he at least got it to the point that I had to take over as everything was in English! I think I had been in the store a good two hours by then so decided to buy the laptop and leave even though it was still installing stuff. I explained to him that if the settings were in Spanish, which I was convinced they would be, I could download a Windows 11 onto an 8GB memory stick, set the language to English and re-install it. I took my time coming
back to the hostel and stopped at a Soda and got dinner and even had a little look around a fruit and veg shop that also sold meat. By the time I got back the installations had finish and much to my delight and surprise, everything, even the settings are in English. I am so bloody happy. The only problem now, and this is minor, is the keyboard is a Spanish one, but he set it to English. This means that all of the symbol keys, full stops, commas etc, are where I expect them to be but the signs on the actual keys are all wrong. So, for example to get the £ sign I have to press the FN + # key. It will take some getting used to but as I said it is minor.
This afternoon I went to the square opposite the Monge shop to have a vape and was approached by an officer and told off for vaping in the square – uhm, I didn’t notice the huge no smoking/vaping sign right in front of me – lol. And this evening I went to the supermarket and used the self checkout, the machine would only let me scan one item then it stopped working, I had to get G translate out to read the instructions, I needed age verification as it was alcohol, then the machine would not accept my money, turns out you can only put it in one way and finally I forgot to take my change. Thank god the Costa Rican moto is Pura Vida, the people in the queue behind me just smiled, some actually laughed, and one kind man called me back and handed me my change. I think I’ll stay in now and have an early night – tomorrow is another day.
29th October – Wednesday
This morning, whilst making coffee I saw a humming bird, it was so beautiful, hovering in mid air with it’s wings batting at god knows what speed. I took my camera out but it flew off before I had a chance to even try to take a photo. It was at that moment I made the decision. After breakfast I went to the Monge store (the first one) and bought a Samsung Galaxy A56 5g 12 GB Ram phone.
So, guess what I spent the majority of the day doing – yes, transferring data from my old phone and setting up my new phone. I must say I am rather over the moon with it. I haven’t taken any photos yet but I did have a quick look at the zoom facilities and WOW – zoom is clear and crisp, not like my old phone which, the more you zoomed, the more unfocused the image became. I have always loved a Samsung, it was my first phone, and now I remember why. It is so smooth and easy to handle compared to my cheap Vivo. I will keep the Vivo, not wanting to tempt fate, but you never know when a spare phone could come in handy.
Being yet another technology day, I thought I’d do a couple of entries to my website – uhm – there is something wrong with it. I kept getting a 404 error. I really didn’t have the inclination or patience to deal with it today and I have promised myself a day out tomorrow. I am sick and tired of all this technology. I have been at it for days, if not weeks, at least it feels like weeks. Tomorrow I am going to do something nice. There is a museum in town and a few scenic points of interest, I will re-focus my mind and do some ‘travel’ focused activities.
Having spent hours in the gloom of this room, and feeling quite claustrophobic from it, this evening I waited till I had 50% charge, which only took and hour, and then went to find a bar. I walked into town looking for a particular one which I always seem to pass on my way back from town, but I couldn’t find it. However, I did find a phone shop and bought a case and some plastic film for the screen of my new phone. I feel so much happier knowing it is now secure and that I can hang it round my wrist, making it more or less drop and thief proof. I did find a bar, thank you G Maps, and had a couple of beers and some rather crispy meat tacos with a coleslaw salad that was caked in mayonnaise and ketchup, they were not very good, but did the trick. I spent a little while setting up a few more bits on the phone and then watched the baseball! I now feel relaxed and very relieved to have a new computer and new phone and although I still have a lot of technical sorting out to do I can take my time and enjoy my new purchases.
30th October – Thursday
Fulfilled my promise to myself and didn’t spend all day sorting out my new technology. Obviously, I did do a few bits to my phone, and it is now almost up and running as I want it to be. I also changed the passwords of some of my hacked accounts but I still have about 45 left to do.
Before I got to absorbed in my phone, I went to the museum. On route I stopped for a coffee and indulged in a slice of cheesecake. It was not as nice as the cheesecake back in the UK, it was heavy and not very creamy, at least it was only a small slice! Talking of small the museum was miniature, two rooms! The first was full of written displays explaining the history, culture, education etc of Costa Rica. It was all in Spanish and I really couldn’t be bothered to translate it all. The second room contained lots of artifacts and photos, and some of the display had English explanations to them. The main displays were of old farming equipment and cooking utensils. The old saddles were quite interesting and there was also a beautifully painted cart.
After the museum, and once Starling was installed on my phone, I decided to book my shuttle bus for tomorrow. Yesterday there were seats available but when I looked today the only available ones were from the airport. I messaged the hostel to see if they could book something for me but I got no reply, so I returned to see if I could speak to one the guys in person. Lol, one of them was outside smoking weed and tried to hide it from me until I told him I didn’t mind. Anyway, the other guy, the one I messaged finally came through and got me a seat on the 9:30 am bus 
He also put me in contact with another solo female traveller that is staying here, Amelie, she is Chinese but has been living in Canada for 20 years. I was hoping to meet up with her for a drink this evening but after meeting her this afternoon I changed my mind. She is probably very lovely once you get to know her, but I found her very distant, she didn’t smile once and it was such hard work getting any form of conversation from her. After 15 minutes of trying I gave up and went for a walk. I tried to find the old colonial church but had no luck, I even had a paper map which one of the hostel guys gave me but that was just as bad a G Maps – lol. So I ended up siting in the town square for a little while before I headed off to a vape shop and then, to fulfil a craving I had, I went to a burger bar and ordered a big fat juicy burger called a Gringa, which I just about managed to eat, but left most of the fries. They were delicious but my belly was bursting at the seams.
I haven’t been out this evening, instead I stayed in my room and played games on my phone! At one point I contemplated going to buy a beer, but that thought didn’t last long, which is unusual for me. So, it’s an alcohol free evening! I think I’ll watch a film and then have an early night
