I'm in Heredia, which is a small town located about 20 mins north of San Jose where i'm staying at a friends apartment for a few days. I met Ed (blog photo) in 'Mal Pais' at Tranquillo Backpackers, where his outgoing and cocky personality and excess amounts of banter quickly sparked a friendship like many i already have at home! Ed's from New York but has lived in Costa Rica for a year or so and started up a Language school with a Costa Rican partner, but has now left the company and is bumming around until he heads back to New York for thanksgiving. He has put me up in his apartment since monday and i will be staying with him until thursday morning where we will head to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast for some more surf and sun!!

Since being i Heredia, we have basically been going to a nice cafe in the centre of town owned by Eds friend 'Gato' for coffee and cakes....really really really good cakes......although we popped into the centre of San Jose today to take back some boardshorts and get some lunch.....San Jose during rush hour is rediculous and is sooo congested and there is generally all sorts of traffic and pedestrian conflict all over the place!! I've been eating like a king courtesy of Ed, who really enjoys showing off and showing off his culnary skills, which i hate to admit are pretty damn good....although if i keep eating as much as him i'll turn into a beach whale not a surf dude and i'll also increase the size of his head by bigging him up!! We went out for some drinks ('Imperial' - local Costa Rican Beer..damn good!) last night in Heredia (monday night) but it wasn't very busy so we bought Chicken Casado in a takeaway and took it home to devour!! We played basketball against some students from the local University on Wednesday, where i was actually pleasantly suprised with my skills.....only scored 4 points but will definately be joining a club when i get back to the UK as i've always had a love for the sport!! Went out with Ed and his ex girlfriend on wedsnesday evening for a BBQ at 'Gato's' house, which is located in a really nice part of Heredia. All his friends made me feel very welcome and there were all sorts of delicious meats being marinaded and cooked up for my delight....with the obvious addition of Imperials!! After being there for a while i noticed that Gatos male friends were particularly friendly to me and after confirmation from Ed, who laughed at my position, i discovered that they were all gay......i'm not a homophobic but i felt quite uncomfortable......i ended up pulling out a laptop and showing them all my pictures of Alice and me on facebook confirming my sexual orientation....after 30mins of boredom on thier part i slighly moved my attention to the food...yum yum... they moved thier attention to the other meat available within the room!! We left at about 12am and headed back to Ed's apartment.....there was a condition placed upon me lodging that night, which was that i had to endure either a night of loud music through my ipod or be subjected to a night of listening to Ed having sex with his ex girlfriend......all i will say is Ed you're a dirty bas#ard and you left me scared after my trip to the bathroom.....enough detail......anyway it was back to drain the ipod after that close encounter!! In the morning, after stressing trying to get his girlfriend to leave...Ed and i went to catch a bus for Puerto Viejo De Talamanca on the Caribbean Coast......

If anyone has SKYPE my log in name is: james.u.dell so look me up if you want to chat for free!!

Much love.......

Oodles.xx