Some tongue action.

This morning Marc the Medic arrived, and himself, myself and Sarah went for brunch. We went to the market in San José city centre, and saw tongue sandwich on the menu. Sarah dared me to order it. No problem. I ate guinea pig and cow's heart when I was in Peru. It didn't specify anywhere what animal the tongue had come from, but hey, let's not nit pick. Adventure time!

It looks so unassuming. The meat was actually very tender, and a bit fatty in parts. We had a bit of a meander around the shops, played pool back at the hostel, and then myself and Marc went on adventure to a music shop.

I'd been told there was an acoustic guitar at Fieldbase, so I wanted to get a couple of bits like strings and a capo. This is all no bother for me to do in English, but I was undaunted about going into a shop to try and do it in a Spanish-speaking country, because I knew the international language of Pointing would see me through. In the shop, a member of staff saw my Raleigh International t-shirt, and was very friendly, because it turned out he'd been on expedition with Raleigh three years ago! He was very helpful, and told us how much he enjoyed the expedition, and that it was very hard work, but that he'd like to do another one someday. He was extra-friendly when I told him I was Irish. That earned me a handshake. Seriously, everybody loves the Irish. We're awesome. He tried to give me a guitar, but it had so many parts missing, it would have taken so much time and money for parts to make useable again, it just wasn't worth it. Very nice of him to offer though, and he gave me some colones off the total cost of what I was buying, which was already about a fiver less than what I'd pay in the UK. And yes, I did check how much a Gibson Les Paul cost. It was about 700GBP cheaper than the UK.

In the music store, I found the oddly comforting sight of a good West Midlands brand.

Then we sat by the pool and drank beer. In the supermarket buying beer, I spotted these.

Baileys flavoured cream for coffee. Everything else I've seen so far can be passed off as 'Central American', but this can only be described as random. Probably the most random thing I've seen since I got here.

Pizza Hut for dinner, had a nap, and later on some more Raleigh people arrived who we greeted with beer. We got Jennie the Medic, Tess the Photographer, Laura the Administrator, and Lucy the Logistics Manager.

Somebody said I was Mr. Organised, a statement that I know would leave a certain former employer very confused. More than likely I'm organised when I'm working on something that excites me and that I believe in.

A couple of people have mentioned about Raleigh being our family for the next three months. I hadn't really thought of it that way. Sharing the dorm in the hostel with five other people, made me realise that working in the UK and living by myself, three months is a hell of a long time to be around the same group of people.

The wi-fi in the hostel is broken. This makes me sad. I've actually had to double-check the spelling of everything on this post because I'm writing it on one of the hostel's desktops, with a wonky Spanishified keyboard. It also means the hostel has none of the things that made it so appealing - no bar, no restaurant, and no wi-fi. Down with that sort of thing.

Tomorrow, we'll be met at the hostel by somebody from Raleigh, and expedition pretty much officially starts. The end of days sitting by the pool drinking beer is nigh.