Just a quickie!

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Just waiting for the right moment to get out of here...Tamarindo, a funny little place, been on the map for a million years, you know the Incas came down to surf on stone boards!...well, its been on the touries maps for yonks but still has a sort of unfinished feel to it....the roads are shit, some pavement but huge potholes, ridges, washouts, exposed drains, tree roots, construction crapola, mud, blood and beer, and thats just the main street of the town...it straggles along the beach, lined with contrasting rundown dumps and new shmicko developments, feels a bit like Noosa about 50 years ago crossed with Kuta beach about the same time....and the service, or lack of it, is astounding, so many shop people, even in the boutiquey places is crap...like their all half asleep or couldn't care, bizarro,...wall to wall surf shops, surf clothing, tours/dives/fish trip shops, bars and restaurants.....and a lot of the crap they sell on the street is exactly the same Chinese made jewellry, carvings, batik sarongs, beads, bangles and bows....but some of the places have good stuff as well...I'm sure!.....but there are some great restaurants, last night we went to one back up in the backblocks and I had a fabulous seared tuna, tres fresh of course, like still twitching, just wish I had caught it!...excellent presentation, bottle of Chilean chardy...fcuk, we are doing it tough ...again...there are a few roads, well, tracks mainly and we rode around a bit yesterday, tried to get out to another 'famous' point break and had a hoot ..sloppy, rough and muddy tracks, slipping off the dry bits and down into the mud, wheels spinning, heart pounding, every fibre trying to wrestle the big adventure back on track, one pothole was so big you could call it a lake almost, splashed straight in and a huge wave of red-brown water went right over me, unbelievable, (gotta find a really fresh washerperson to get the t-shirt clean now!...hey, its not that I don't do my own washing, just that for this stain its gonna need Xtra)..and I'm prepared to pay!...and talking of paying...whooa, they know how to charge here, comes from a bull-fighting heritage,..so back to the beach track...we continued for 15 or so kms, thru another couple of water traps..(found out later we crossed 3 major rivers!) well, not quite, we got to the last, about 3 metres across and you had to come in on one angle, turn in the middle and exit onto another steep bank and turn...after careful consideration and an eye on the approaching storm, came to the conclusion (as we have before)..don't REALLY need to be taking this sort of chance...so we turned round and the return trip was even worse, my first real taste of mud sliding, but of course, my faithfull steel steed ploughs on regardless of the monkey on its back...back to town...felt like I'd really earned a beer, so I went and had 3....Gotta say this was the first time I've actually ENJOYED being off-road, some of the dirt riding has been good, and overall I'm more confident, but this was such a hoot!..stoked!..
Theres something about border crossings thats starting to become a familiar theme altho' not sure I can adequately describe it, something to do with getting comfortable in one place and the next is always going to be different, b ut more than that coz theres also the excitement of the new, maybe the first part of a new country, just over the border is never really going to have much and looks depressing, certainly that was the case in Tijuana going into Mexico, and going into Nica was depressing...but then as you get more familiar with it, even this place is starting to grow on me..it all gets better...sorry, losing the plot, time to flee...and this was going to be a quickie!..hehehe.
Did I tell you no phones here or for the last 4 countries..... And with your comments, I've just discovered that I can "approve" them and they are then visible to you all!...I'm not sure thats such a good thing so I'll continue, if you don't mind , to read and enjoy them (I live for them!), and then leave them private...thanks, keep those cards and letters coming in....about to fang off to the Carribean coast...hahaha just like that...from the Pacifico to the Caribe...amazing Grace...more soon...love to youse all...B

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