Jaco

Don't go to Jaco! Except for the fact that I just got a big "small" pizza on the table I'm typing on, I don't like the place at all. TOURSIM!
All over the place. Especially after being in the poor stretch of Panama.
I took the bus from Panama to Uvita, then took a bus from Uvita to here, Jaco, pronounced HAW co. The bus ride is all right, but they made a clever trick here. They made the road between Dominical and Quepos really primitive gravel road, and the way around, the way that passes through San Jose (where I don't want to go) is paved and fast. So the direct route up the coast is slow, but if you go to San Jose everything is fast. Go to the main city and then to your destination. Well, I chose the slow route, I guess.
I stopped in Jaco to see about getting a surfboard. They are pretty cheap here. I think I might go for this one that is 280 bucks, its brand new and 5'11" but wide, which I think would suit me well. A no name brand, locally made I think. But then I have to travel with it, and that is tricky. I think I'd need a board bag.
I've changed since I was here last. I remember getting in to Puntarenes, wondering what the country looked like, and where I was on the map, not knowing the map at all, not knowing the names for the places people spouted out, lost. I chose to go south, because it felt easy, like going downhill... So I gave myself purpose by taking the ocean on my right and moving forward. After a while I gained perspective a little bit, I figured out where I was, I knew how I got there, and things started to make sense. Prices were funny at first. How much is a good deal? Then things started to get more reasonable, but now, after going to panama and camping and not using any money for 6 days, I find that it is a funny quantity. Things are too expensive, but at the same time, I don't really care how much things cost. I need something, and I have the money, so thats that.
Now my purpose is to go to Montezuma and find Marla, a friend of my sister, Rachel. I think I'll find her tomorrow, and then I don't know what I'll do, but maybe explore the Nikoya Penninsula.
Its funny how life needs a purpose. I find a purpose, a task to do, and then run happily towards completion, which I think is my whole problem with all sorts of things. Some people can have purpose taht is never achieved, a steady state of direction, but all I can have is like a good book to read that I complete all too soon, or a bite of good food that runs out. The waves don't last, my breath underwater doesn't maintain, and I cycle back into a trough of being lost again.
But the crests of those waves of life are the best in the world.