I slept hard. I was dreaming about this weird fight between a young dude and an old guy with a soft voice. Then I finally woke up and realized that the dude above me was yelling at this old fat guy on the other side of the room. Apparently, old fatty was snoring really loudly, but I was sleeping right through it. The dude above me wasn’t in the same boat and he was not happy. He woke the snorer up and yelled at him as if he could control his actions while sleeping. After trying to pay attention to the dispute, I passed back out. Then I woke up and both of those guys were gone. It was only 6:30, so I wonder if any of that was real.

I checked the weather and it didn’t look good. Forecast said storms all day, so I went and used their full-functioning computer to really make some headway on the blog. About 5 hours later, I was still on the computer and starving. I went across the street to a little Mexican place and enjoyed a killer breakfast as the only patron in the joint.

I climbed up in this crazy tree and did some reading. This place was so cool.

I shot the shit with a bunch of other people and eventually found my way back to the computer room. The weather wasn’t good and the upcoming bridges didn’t bode well. I decided to stay another night since it was super cheap. I also wanted to use their computer to keep working. I researched the best strategy to go home. It was the weirdest feeling, but it had to be done. After speaking with a car rental company (I had originally planned to rent a car one-way and throw everything in the back and drive it all home), I realized how expensive it would be, especially since I wasn’t 25. Plus it’s a hike. I researched bike/trailer shipping and shopped around for flights. In the end, I decided to save money and time and just fly home. I found a super cheap flight a week from then, and it was settled. The journey was officially coming to an end on December 19th.

I figured if I was gonna stay again, I better be productive while I can. So I hogged the computer some more. The TV room next to me was blaring Cops for the majority of my computer sessions. I found out later that a lot of the stuff on Cops was filmed about 5 minutes down the road. Gators and snakes weren’t the only things to worry about around here.

After making some solid progress, I went to the local supermarket and bought a six pack to celebrate. It was dinner time, and I watched as the hostel regulars chopped up avocados, baked their own bread, and cooked a bunch of things, none of which was Ramen. With the finish line in sight, I didn’t want to put my massive grocery bill to waste, so I cooked up a thing of soup and figured I’d at least get to smell real meals. Some of the people were super nice, and they let me “borrow” some of their meat and spices to fit in with the rest of the group.

The rest of the night was full of interesting travel conversations: I caught up with the Aussies–they told me about surfing Margaret River in West Oz and their latest trip to Hawaii where they caught a few at Pipe. The guy from Hong Kong was convincing me to go to Hong Kong. This motorcyclist from Canada told me I could go to his place up north, and from there I could fly to Cuba. He insisted on it, and said I should do it before it’s innocence is lost. He thought the invite was worth two of my beers, and I didn’t mind. He was also riding a two wheeler (Kawasaki); however, he’s been from Canada through the states down to Costa Rica. And Cuba six times. I also chatted with this Norwegian couple who was spending their university break hiking from Tampa to Key West. This jolly lady from Finland had tried to bike from Miami to Key West, had gotten to this hostel, and decided to stay for the past two weeks. There were also quite a few Americans from around the country: I found out that people spend weeks working on projects on the hostel site, and in return, they get to stay for free. No wonder the place had gotten so neat. Every inch is a random project created by a hostel patron who was working for their own shelter.

I went up early and met a kid from Germany and a kid from Finland who both just finished their semesters in America and were trying to catch some sun before going home. The beers knocked it right out of me and I fell asleep talking to them.