Costa Rica - rich coast.

Well, made it here last night. Went out of Nicaragua from Granada to Rivas and then to the border which was not great ordeal. Immediately, as I got into Costa Rica things changed, perhaps only very slightly but there was a noticeable difference that there didn´t really seem to be anywhere else with border crossings elsewhere in Central America.

Costa Rica has a much closer alliance with the USA than anywhere else and has a greater mumber of expats living here than any other Central American country. As a result the impact of the US economy is more prominent, Nicaragua having virtually no desire to link with the US multi-nationals and Costa Rica seeming to welcome them with open arms, for example.

The bus journey from the border to Alajuela where I currently am, was not arduous, the roads here in Costa Rica seem significantly better than in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. It was five hours of guessing where I was before getting close to the airport where I fly out of tomorrow before leaving the bus to get a taxi and get the Christian couple up who run the hostal that I´m staying in. They had some form of Evangelist service in one of the back rooms here so I don´t think it´s a good place to ask for mujeres, that is ´women´, as I´ve seen a couple of backpackers do in the occasional hostal.

I didn´t explore much beyond the city centre here. It´s a town of 180 000 and has a relatively pleasant atmosphere around the town which is probably why the place is recommended as an area to stay away from the bustle of San Jose 30 km away. At present it´s being repaved in the centre and was a bit of a nightmare to get through and having a McDonalds when there was a children´s party going on was equally as frustrating.

There was a certain vibe about the market that I walked through which was remarkably similar to the Bull Ring Markets of the 1970´s and 1980´s. I don´t know if this type of comparison created the impetus for having the centre of Birmingham redeveloped, perhaps that is just too paranoid. I quite like the reminiscence of visiting somewhere that reminds me of 1970s Birmingham - it was one of the reasons I liked Coventry, it did have a strong feel of the same type of urban design that Birmingham had - I hope they feel proud of it, I think it´s fine as a city. I assume it would create some disquiet for people in the developed world to see shopping facilities in a country like Costa Rica which are very similar to those in the UK - what the hell it´s only the developed world because we colonised/fXXKed over so many countries all those hundreds of years ago. Maybe the Costa Rican´s would be embarrased to find out their market is like the Bull Ring was, who knows. That old Birmingham-Central America links remains in my mind....

Tomorrow, I leave central america having failed to get through to the offices of Iberia airlines to change my flight. They´ve been constantly engaged for about a week or so. Then Monday, to arrive in Madrid to try my damndest to learn just a little more Spanish.....somehow I don´t think it´s going to happen.