El Diario

Dlouho jsem zvazoval o cem bude muj dalsi prispevek, protoze se toho tady v poslednich dnech az tak moc nedeje, a rozhodl se popsat jednu z mala velkych odlisnosti, ktere tady na me cihaji.

Uvozovky v nadpisu jsou zcela zamerne. Pokud jste nekdy slyseli o Italii a pravu rychlejsiho pri projizdeni krizovatek, pak tady je tento system doveden do jeste vetsi dokonalosti. Vzhledem k tomu, ze temer vsechna mesta maji pravouhly system ulic (aby mohli urcovat adresy podle svetovych stran), drtiva vetsina krizovatek je tvorena 4 ulicemi – jeden smer je urcen jako hlavni a ze zbylych stran jsou stopky. V pripade, ze krizovatka je na dulezitem miste (nebo mnozstvi projizdejicich aut prevysuje bezny provoz), pridaji se do toho vseho semafory. Nyni prichazi ono slavne “ale” – nikdo a nic vam nebrani projet krizovatkou, kdyz mate cervenou: pokutu za to nedostanete, ostatni ridici jsou na to vicemene pripraveni a i policejni auto me prekvapilo projetim cerveneho svetla. Problemem je temer neexistence prechodu pro chodce takze i bezna prochazka po meste se stava adrenalinovym sportem Jako prevenci pred silenymi ridici a taxikari (kterych je tady mimochodem jak nasr.. tedy velmi mnoho) pousti jedna z mistnich televizi porad o nejhorsich bourackach, jejich podrobnou analyzu, priciny, rozhovory se zachranari a zabery na zbytky tel pod plachtami. Kazdy vecer, pul hodiny. Mam pocit, ze tohle by pres nasi RRTV neproslo..

Co se tyka vozoveho parku, kazdy den jsem ohromovan mnozstvim offroadu a obrovskych kamionu krizujicim silnice. Neni se co divit, cesty tady stoji za starou backoru a kazdy pruvodce na to upozornuje. V drtive vetsine jsou v prevaze vozy japonske (Nissan, Toyota, Honda) nebo korejske (Hyundai, Daewoo/Chevrolet, SsangYong) vyroby, z evropskych znacek semtam Fiat nebo Renault (ale ty jsou beztak taky nekde z Asie Kamiony tady nemaji unifikovany evropsky vzhled, ale poradne robustni ‘chlapskou’ vizaz, MACK a Freightliner jsou nejcastejsi. Prumerne stari osobnich aut bych tipoval tak nekde kolem desiti let (coz je hodne dobre, v CZ je to kolem 17..), kamiony kolem patnacti. Zato autobusy, to je bida. Pocitam, ze tady se autobus stava vyrazenym az se na ceste rozpadne za jizdy, nektere z nich mozna zazily druhou svetovou..

MHD tady taky neznaji, v podstate tady fungujou pouze mezimestske linky, kde se plati predem stanovena suma pri kazdem nastupu, nezavisle na vzdalenosti, kterou pojedete. Cestovani je pomerne levne, za 30 minut cesty zaplatite priblizne 7 CZK. Jenze, neni pulhodina jako pulhodina. Linky funguji tak, ze vsechny zastavky jsou na znameni (provazek nad okny nebo tlacitko nahore) a to i tam, kde zadny oznacnik zastavky neni. Zvenku proste staci zamavat na autobus a on zastavi, vetsinou. To pak bohuzel vede k tomu, ze autobus stoji kazdych 30 metru, nastesti jenom v obydlenych castech linek.. V San Jose k tomu ‘pro zmateni nepritele’ pridali fakt, ze autobusy do ruznych mest vyjizdeji z ruznych mist, vzdalenych treba i nekolik bloku..

Na druhou stranu, cestovani tady je sranda – ridic stiha odbavovat cestujici, komunikovat vysilackou s dispecinkem, ladit radio a jeste si povidat s matkou a jejim ditetem, kteri sedi hned za nim. Uz jsem slysel vyrok, ze ma v podstate dvoji zamestnani – rizeni autobusu a DJ

A na zaver jeste neco k taxikarum. Zatim jsem nezazil neprijemnou zkusenost. Sice se snazi nalakat lidi na predem smluvenou castku bez taxametru, ale o te se da smlouvat, takze to v konecnem dusledku vyjde nekdy i levneji. Nejspise jsou radi za kazdeho zakaznika/cestujiciho, asi jako ti autobusaci, kteri zastavi uplne vsude..

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For a long time I was thinking about the next topic, because actually not a lot of things happened during the last days, and then I decided to describe one of not-so-many big differences that have been awaiting here for me.

The quotation marks in the headline are purely intentional. If you ever heard stories about Italy and the right of the faster when being at the road crossing, here this system has been advanced to a new level. All cities have rectangular blocks of houses (so that they can give directions) and so that a vast majority of road crossing is composed of 4 roads – one route is set as the major and from the other roads there are stop signs. In case that the crossing is in an important place (or the traffic density is higher than usual) traffic lights are added. And now the famous “but” – nobody and nothing restrains you from driving through red lights: you will not be fined, other drivers are more or less prepared and I was even surprised by a police car by passing on red. The problem is almost inexistence of pedestrian crossing which turns an usual walk in the city into an adrenaline sport As a prevention for people behind the wheel, especially crazy taxi drivers (by the way – there are sooo many of them) one of local TV channels is broadcasting shots about the worst accidents, their analysis, causes, interviews with rescuers and also shots on the bodies lying on the road and being covered. Every day, half an hour. I don’t think this would be possible in our TV channels..

Concerning the cars itself, every day I’m amazed by the amount of offroad cars and giant trucks cruising the streets. No wonder, you just need them on these roads, every guide warns about this fact. A majority of cars have its roots in Japan (Nissan, Toyota, Honda) or Korea (Hyundai, Daewoo/Chevrolet, SsangYong), from european marks only some Fiat or Renault (but they are most probably from Asia as well The trucks don’t have this unified european look, but a robust ‘manly’ visage, MACK and Freightliner being most usual. Average age of passenger cars could be around 10 years (which is quite good, in CZ it’s around 17..), trucks around 15. But the buses, that’s a different world. I think the bus gets displaced only after it falls to pieces on the road, maybe some of them even could tell us something about WWII..

Local transportation is different as well, in fact there almost only lines between cities (not inside them) where you pay a set price every time you enter the bus, independently on the length of journey that you go. The travelling here is quite cheap, for half-an-hour ride you pay around 0.2 USD. But 30 minut is not the same everywhere. The lines here have only bus stop on signal (a string above the windows or a button in the roof, both producing a sound), even at the places without specified ‘bus stop’ sign. When waiting for the bus you just have to wave and the bus stops, usually. But this leads to the fact that a bus stops every 30 metres, luckily only in places with settlement.. In San Jose another ‘tourist trap’ is added – bus to different places depart from different places, sometimes several blocks away..

On the other hand, travelling here is sometimes fun – the driver is able to dela with passengers, communicate with dispatching center over the transmitter, tune the radio and talk to the mother with a child behind him, everything together. I even heard a saying that a driver should get double salary – for driving a bus and being a DJ

And at the end a small word about taxi service. I don’t have any negative experience yet and I have already been driven more times than during those years in CZ. They are sometimes trying to attract people to a ride without a taxametre, but you can bargain about the price and sometimes it gets even cheaper. They are probably glad for every customer/passenger, as the bus drivers that are willing to stop anywhere..

Minuly patek, 15. zari, slavi stredoamericke zeme Den nezavislosti na Spanelsku, kterou ziskali v roce 1821. Narozdil od naseho 28. rijna, ktery bychom ani nezaregistrovali nebyt to den pracovniho klidu, se obyvatele a skolaci na mistni oslavy obyvatele pripravovali velmi svedomite – dva tydny tady na kazdem dome visi aspon jedna vlajka, obchodni domy jsou jimi ovesene a vlajecky ma samozrejme kazdy autobus a taxikar na prednim skle (tady bych to ale na jejich miste az tak neprehanel).

Samotne oslavy probihaji dve hodiny, mezi desatou a dvanactou hodinou dopoledne, a zaci mistnich skol prochazeji slavnostni okruh mestem, drtiva vetsina z nich zurive bubnuje do rytmu (taky to byl poradny randal, kdyz nejmin tyden predtim nacvicovali) a ostatni jenom mavali. Nase skola mela vysadu, ze jsme nemuseli bubnovat, ale kazdy student mel za ukol privezt svou vlajku a nejake narodni obleceni. Nekteri to vzali velmi vazne – a vypadalo to cele vazne dobre. 110 lidi z necelych 70 zemi.. Pochod si vylozene uzivali a mistni taky, bylo jich na ulicich nespocetne! (i kdyz, co je to proti obrovskym vojenskym prehlidkam, jake jsem videl na zaberech z Mexika)

Na jeden den tak mohl kazdy ze studentu byt patriot, hrde nest svou vlajku a naoko “opovrhovat” ostatnimi. Ale naslo se i nekolik zajimavych momentu, napriklad kdyz si kluk z Izraele a holka z Palestiny na chvili vlajky vymenili..

Koneckoncu posudte sami, odkaz na fotky je nahore a popisky budou odted primo u nich (na prani ctenaru ..

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Last Friday, September 15, central-american countries celebrated their gaining of independence from Spain (1821). As a contrary to our October 28, which you wouldn’t notice at all if there was not a public holiday, the locals had been preparing themselves very well – for two there had been at least one national flag on every house, the supermarkets are full of paper flags on the walls and railings and a flag on a windshield of every bus and taxi is a must (but I wouldn’t exaggerate it so much being in their place).
The celebration itself took two hours between from 10 to 12 in the morning and the local school pupils form a parade around the whole city, a vast majority of them drumming like crazy (and it was really loud when the practised the whole week before) and the others only waving. Our school didn’t have to practise drumming but every student was previously asked to bring a flag and a national costume. Some of the kids took it very seriously – and it was really ‘cool’. 110 people from almost 70 countries.. They really enjoyed the parade (me as well) and also the locals filled the streets completely! (but it’s still nothing compared to military parades that I saw on television shots from Mexico)

For one day every student could be patriotic, hold his flag proudly and to feel “above” the other countries (bot of course not seriously). But some interesting moments occured as well, for example a guy from Izrael and a girl from Palestina exchanging flags for a while..

Well, see the pictures, the link is above and the comments are added directly to them (readers’ wish ..

Ne, nezblaznil jsem se z horka Nadpis je totiz uryvkem z pisnicky (“jedeme na plaz..”), kterou jsem sice jeste neslysel v originalnim zneni, ale holky si ji zpivaly cely vylet. A pritom to zacalo pomerne nevinne..

Ve ctvrtek probehl po MSN tento rozhovor: “Ahoj, Yvonne kupuje jizdenky na vylet, mas 2 minuty na rozmyslenou, jedes taky?” – “Jo, jedu.” – “Fajn, jedeme v sobotu rano.” – “OK.” Taky vam v tech vetach neco chybi? Spravne, cil vyletu jsem se dovedel az v patek o pulnoci a na mape to vypadalo svinsky daleko. Na moji otazku, jak dlouho to tam trva, jsem dostal odpoved “To je kousek, asi 4 hodiny..” Ok, fajn, za 4 hodiny se busem nedostanu ani z Prahy domu, pri ucpane dalnici mozna ani do Brna, ale tohle misto vypadalo jako na konci sveta. Ptal jsem se dal: “Myslis tady tohle Puerto Viejo, to na konci tehle cesty?” – “Cesty?” a hlasity smich.. Radsi jsem nepokracoval ve zjistovani dalsich podrobnosti a sel spat..

Mobil (ktery byl nyni na nejaky degradovan na pouhy budik) nezklamal a ve 4.40 jsem pln nadseni vstal a s usmevem na tvari sbalil posledni veci na cestu. No dobre, tak jsem to zkusil.. Pomalu jsem se zvedl, oblikl, vzal batoh a stale jeste v polospanku jsem nasledoval Karinu smerem k mistu, kde by mel zastavit autobus. Po dobu cesty se nic moc zvlastniho nestalo. Az na fakt, ze poslednich 15 kilometru jsme absolvovali na necem, co ani pri nejlepsi vuli neslo nazvat silnici a menilo sedadla autobusu v masazni kresla – po asfaltu nebo sterku ani pamatky, udusana hlina plna vymolu nabadala k opatrnosti, ale nas ridic nedbal na vyrazy obliceju svych zakazniku a sinul si to s nebojacnosti sobe vlastni

Samotne mestecko ale nezklamalo a nabizelo spoustu prilezitosti k ubytovani, vyletum do okoli i nocnimu zivotu. My jsme se sli ubytovat ale mimo mesto, do penzionku blize plazim (a sli jsme je hned vyzkouset). Barva more volne prechazejici mezi modrou a zelenou, na horizontu nic (i kdyz tam asi nekde jsou ostrovy) a temer prazdne plaze. Co vic si prat – vitejte u Karibiku mimo sezonu. Jidlo i piti (i mistni pivo) byly velmi dobre, ale o tom urcite bude nektery z dalsich mych prispevku. Odpoledne tradicne prisel dest a ten mi muj pocit z vyletu trochu zkazil, jeste dva dny jsem ty veci susil :-/ Chteli jsme si koupit jizdenky na cestu zpet, ale narazili jsme na ponekud sverazny pristup prodejce za okynkem, ktery pote co dohovoril s pritelkyni zjistil, ze po nem neco chceme a rekl, ze prave zavira. Tak pred nasima ocima provedl smrtici kombinaci “Start – Vypnout..” a ujistil nas, ze kdyz prijdeme rano, tak mista na odpoledni autobus urcite jeste budou..

V nedeli rano jsme si vypujcili kola a vyrazili na ponekud vzdalenejsi plaze, kde bylo jeste mene lidi (odtamtud je druha polovina fotek) a kde se mi podaril zatim nejcennejsi fotograficky ulovek – chameleon. Z dalsich zvirat jsem za tech asi 15 minut na poloostrove potkal jenom spousty jesterek a jeste vice mravencu – byly dokonce poznat cesticky, kudt prenaseli veskere veci do mravenist, jeden proud mravenecku tam a jeden zpatky Cekali jsme jeste, jestli nam treba nespadne na hlavu nejaky kokosovy orech, ale nikde nic. Nastesti – stipancu od ruzneho hmyzu uz mam vic nez dost a to mi prozatim staci.

Na zpatecni ceste se vyskytly tri neprijemne momenty – prvni jeste v samotnem Puerto Viejo. Cekal jsem ponekud benevolentnejsi pristup k casu odjezdu, ale aby ridic pribihajicim cestujicim ujel, protoze bylo 16.01, to jsem nezazil ani u nas.. Druhy moment prisel za pul hodiny splasene jizdy mezi vymoly. Vzhledem k blizkosti panamskych hranic a neexistenci oficialniho hranicniho prechodu je tato oblast pomerne znama pasovanim drog, takze uprostred klidne krajiny nas cekala policejni kontrola pasu a zavazadel. Ze zacatku jsem byl trochu rozladeny, ale po informaci jedne mistni spolucestujici, ze na tom miste pred par dny jednoho policistu paseraci zastrelili, jsem to zacal chapat.. No a posledni negativni moment – sobotni bourka uzavrela dalnici, takze cesta zpatky netrvala 4,5 hodiny, ale rovnou 7.. Zacinal jsem si rikat, ze Ceske drahy na tom nejsou zas tak spatne..

Nakonec, hodina sem nebo tam, jeste tady budu dlouho tak neni kam spechat..

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No, I haven’t becomed crazy because of the hot weather It’s just a part of a song (“we’re going to the beach..”) that I haven’t heard yet but the girls were singing it the whole time of the trip. Although it started quite innocently..

On Thursday this conversation happeden throught MSN: “Hi, Yvonne is buying tickets for the trip, you’ve got two minutes to think about it, do you want to go with us?” – “Yes, I’ll go.” – “Great, we’re leaving on Saturday morning.” – “OK.” Do you also miss there anything? You’re right, I was told about the destination on Friday midnight and it seemed terribly far on the map. As a response to my question how long it take to get there I was told “It’s quite near, about 4 hours..” Ok, great, in 4 hours I can’t get from Prague to my hometown and when the highway traffic is stuck maybe not even to Brno, but this was as at the edge of the world. So I kept asking: “You mean this Puerto Viejo at the end of this road?” – “Road?” and loud laugh.. This was enough, I didn’t ask anymore and went to sleep..

My mobile phone (that has been used only as a simple alarm clock lately) was working well and on 4.40am I got up full of enthusiasm and with a smile on my face I packed my stuff for the trip. Ok, at least I tried.. I got up slowly, dressed up, took the bag and half-asleep I was following Karina to the place where the bus should stop. During our journey nothing special happened. Except for the fact, that the last 15 kilometres could not be called as “road” and changed the bus seat into massage armchairs – no asphalt or gravel and holes everywhere made drivers slow down and be careful. Only our driver resisted the look in the faces of his customers and still held the accelerator pedal at the floor without any fear

The village itself was very nice and offered a lot of opportunities for accomodation, trips and nighlife. We went to get accomodated outside the village to be nearer to the beaches (and tested them immediately). The color of the sea slowly changing from blue to green, nothing on the horizon (but there should be some islands somewhere..) and almost empty beaches. What more could we wish – welcome at the off-season Caribbean. Food and drinks (and even local beer) were very good, but this topic will be discussed in some of my next posts. In the afternoon the rain came (as usual) and my feeling from the trip was a little damaged, I didn’t have my thing dry for the next two days :-/ We also wanted to buy tickets for the way back, but we’ve only experienced a little strange attitude of the reseller. After he finished his phone conversation with a girlfriend he found out that we want something from him and told us that he is closing the office. So he made the fatal combination “Start – Turn off..” in front of our surprised faces and assured us that if we come the next morning there will surely be tickets for the 4pm bus..

On Sunday morning we borrowed bycicles and headed for a little further beaches that were even emptier (the second half of photos is from these beaches) and where I was able to get my so-far most precious photo – a chameleon. I also saw a lot of other animals during those 15 minutes on the peninsula – bunches of lizards and even more ants – you could also recognize the paths that they used for transporting things to the anthills, one way there and the other back We were expecting some coconuts falling on our heads but fortunately nothing happened, those insect bites were quite enough.

During our return way three unpleasant moment occured – the first still in Puerto Viejo. I was expecting more easy-going attitude but I think that even in my country I haven’t seen a driver to drive away from the running passengers because it was 4.01pm.. The second one came in half-an-hour of crazy driving between the road holes. Since the Panamaniam border was near (around 15 km) and inexistence of the border crossing this area is known for drug smuggling which meant a police control of our passports and luggage in the middle of a peaceful countryside. I was a little disappointed about it but when I was told that a policeman was shot on this place by smugglers a week ago, I started to understand.. And the last thing – due to heavy storm the highway was closed and we had to take a detour which prolonged our journey from 4,5 hours to 7.. I began to think that Czech Railways are still quite a good service

Well, in the end, I’ll be here for at least another three months so why should we hurry..

Povidani k fotkam jsem presunul primo k nim (odkaz je nahore), takze tady tento clanek necham pouze pro vyjadreni k nim

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I moved the comments to the photos directly to them (the link is above) so I’m leaving this post only to discuss about the photos

Byl jsem pozvan, abych se zucastnil vecere, kterou organizovali mistni aiesecari pro sve rodice, aby se navzajem seznamili, aby vedeli, co delaji ve volnem case jejich deti a taky aby predstavili nas – vysledek jejich prace. Ze zacatku jsem z toho nebyl nadseny, protoze jsem netusil, jestli se ode mne bude ocekavat nejaka rec, ale kdyz mi pak objasnili, ze nic vic, nez kratke predstaveni neni potreba, uklidnil jsem se. Zlatymi hreby vecera pak byly proslovy Kanadana Martina, ktery dokazal ve spanelstine vychvalit svuj pobyt v Kostarice naprosto neuveritelnym a emotivnim zpusobem, a Mexicanky Kariny, ktera naopak pritomnym rodicum precetla dopis sve matky, ve kterem popisovala vecne dilema materskeho ochranneho pudu a podpore detem v jejich cestovani, zazitcich.. (Karina ma za sebou nejakych 6 let aktivniho clenstvi, kdy mimojine vedla narodni pobocku v Mexiku) Na tvari nekolika maminek se pry objevily slzy..
Tri hodiny, ktere jsme stravili v (mimochodem velmi luxusne vyhlizejicim) prostredi tenisoveho klubu, ubehly docela rychle, za coz jsem byl docela rad, protoze jsem jim moc nerozumel, ale na dalsi pokracovani nebyl cas. Rano se muselo brzo vstavat…

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I was invited to join local aiesecers for their evening with their parents on Friday. They wanted to their parents to get to know each other, about their free-time activity and also to present us – as a result of their work. I was not very pleased when I found out that I was supposed to do some speech, but then I calmed down since my presentation was only to be short introduction about myself. The highlights of the evening were two – Martin, the Canadian guy, was talking about his 8-months experience in Costa Rica, his passion for the traineeship, country and local football club, and Karina (the Mexican trainee) with a letter from her mom addressed to other parents – her mom was mostly talking about her feelings and dilemmas between “protecting” their children and supporting them in their travels, experiences.. Both of them were talking with a lot of emotion and some mothers were said to have even tears on their faces..

We spent three hours in that (quite luxuriously looking) Tennis Club, fortunately for me (as I haven’t understood a lot) they passed quite quickly and then we needed to leave. An early wake-up was planned the next day..

Omlouvam se za male zdrzeni pri nahravani fotek na internet a za velke zdrzeni pri doplneni popisku k nim

Fotky i s popiskama najdete po kliknuti na odkaz Fotky (nahore, pod obrazkem)..

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I am sorry for a little delay in uploading photos and a also for a big delay in providing a legend to them

Photos as well as comments are available after clicking on Photos link (above, under the picture)..