I am going to try and go back to Tortuguero this morning. I spent yesterday resting and I seem to be felling fairly well ……..at least so far. I get tired very easily but other than that I feel pretty good.  The weather sounds pretty good for the next few days and if I can muster up the energy I plan on getting the boat out for some fishing.  Maybe a good feed of fresh snook will get me going. The water should be cleaning up after the heavy rains from last week. The fishing should pick up.   

Travel Advisory

When travelling to Tortuguero thru Pavona be aware that you do not need to pre buy your boat ticket. Yesterday July 15th I took the 9:00A.M. bus from San Jose to Cariairi and then the local bus on to Pavona to catch the boat to Tortuguero.

Before the San Jose bus departed there was a gentleman that boarded and was going to the tourist trying to sell them tickets for the boat portion of the trip To Tortuguero. He was implying/saying that you had to buy from him and that he was cheaper ect. This was/is not true.  

When buying my ticket for the Cariairi to Pavona bus I was pressured to buy my boat ticket as well. I had to insist on bus only fare.

Upon arriving in Pavona and as soon as I departed the bus I was aggressively set upon by several people selling tickets for the boat. I was able to bypass these and while walking to the ferry landing a fellow approached me and I told him I was taking the CKIK CLIK boat and would not be buying a pre sold ticket. I should mention CLIC CLIK collect on the boat and do not pre sell tkts. He then told me that the CLIC CLIC boat had mechanical problems and would not be going and I should quickly buy my ticket from the “other” company while they still had room. This was a lie. And it made me mad. I got on the Clic Clic boat and made the trip into Tortuguero in a new boat with a 100HP+ 4 stroke motor while the rest of my fellow travelers (that I met on the bus) went with “other” company in a leaky overloaded boat with a 40HP 2 stroke motor.

I have been coming to Tortuguero for 3 years now and have watched this company go from “aggressive marketing” to straight out lying. I feel obligated to tell my fellow tourist/travelers that you do not and IMO should not pre buy the boat tkt. If you do you will pay more and be on an older/slower and probably leaky boat.

The reason that I post this is that I do not want people’s first impression of this absolute piece of paradise to be tarnished by a “questionable” operator. I have deliberately not mentioned there name because I don’t want to give them even negative publicity.

If anyone tells you that you have to pre buy the boat portion of the trip they are lying to you.

Here is the Tortuguero Village web site and there is some very good info on getting to Tortuguero …..As well other neat stuff.  And remember it is now Turtle season.  www.tortuguerovillage.com

 This is a post that I made to my support group that I  have not been going to since last year. Since writing this I have thought about it a lot and have realized that another and probably the biggest reason for not going to the support meeting is that I gained weight since I saw the group last. It is really hard to admit that I failed at this “last chance”at being a normal weight. Well…..I have not given up and I continue the fight.

 Thanks for asking about me.  I am back in Costa Rica ….. San Jose till tomorrow when I will go into the jungle. I came down last Saturday.

I have not kept in touch with the group because I came to the conclusion that I was not a good influence to my fellow bandsters.  I do think that the band works for a lot of people but it did not help me with my obesity problems. I will try and explain. The reason I am obese is because I am hungry….. Simple as that. The band does not control hunger , it controls the intake of food.  To control my obesity I need hunger control not volume control. We (Drs and I) tried to control my hunger by going tighter and tighter with my band. Twice till I couldn’t “swallow spit” ( Dr. Ds words). The “problems” that I was expressing to the group were from trying to make the band do what it was no designed to do. If your band is too tight you will have problems …… guaranteed. I was fortunate that I did not do serious damage to my stomach.

I need to mention that I have been diagnosed with Hemochromatosis. This is a hereditary blood disorder that affects the iron levels in your body.   My body does not “flush” the excess iron that I take in; instead it stores the iron in my organs. If untreated this is fatal. The treatment is simple enough ….. Draw a pint (500cc) of blood a week till the levels of iron get down to normal. Unfortunately this might take a year or two.  I have arranged for this weekly procedure to be done in a hospital in San Jose while I’m in Costa Rica. First one today in Costa Rica; 6^th overall. The medical term for this procedure is phlebotomy. This is just a fancy word for giving blood.

But this is a WLS forum not a HH (Hereditary Hemochromatosis) forum. I can only hope each and every one of the group is in good health and are having a great summer.

P.S I have started a blog that I will try to update regularly. The primary function of this blog is to try and share the feelings that I have for the jungle.  I have a section in my blog about my WLS but I have not written much. Maybe I should try and share my defeat with WLS.  The address is www.airdriecomputer.com   My blog is not fancy ….. Come to think of it, it is pretty poor but my expertise is with hardware not web design. There are some decent videos of the jungle (crocs and monkeys) that I took last winter if anyone is interested.

Left my hotel and took a 5 minute cab ride to the hospital.  Was able to walk right into the International billing dept and talk to my rep. She took me over to admitting and got me signed up for my treatments and I could of had a phlebotomy right then. I chose to go in tomorrow morning as it will be a week Wednesday since my last treatment. Don’t want to push things. Was back to my room in less than hour total time. I hope tomorrow goes as well.

Well …. I am back in San Jose and am going to the Clinica Biblica Hospital in the morning to line up my treatments.  Will try for a phlebotomy (blood letting) for latter in the week. My last one in Calgary was on Wednesday and I don’t want to get much under a week apart. I feel pretty good ……much better than a few days ago. I’m a little tired but that is to be expected.

San Jose seems to be a little quiet compared to when I was down here before. I think school is out for a couple of weeks and it is the weekend. There doesn’t seem to be as many Gringos around either. I guess it is off season.

I will post again when I find out more about my treatments.