Holiday, day 1 - coffee stop number 1: Cafe del Barista, Aranjuez, San Jose. Cafe con leche ... mmmmmm

This is my/our first visit to Latin America and it's difficult to say what my expectations are about coming to Costa Rica. it is one of the few countries without an army and which has tried to maintain a policy of cooperation with its neighbours for the last 50 years or so. It doesn't allow its President to serve more than one consecutive term. President Arias in 1987 won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in trying to bring peace and stability to a region suffering Cold War and American neocon interventions. Costa Rica is also one of the few countries in the world to have a border dispute with Google Maps!

The main reason I am writing this blog is to reflect on the need for holidays. I need to do this because I have a history ... ask my partner! I have often found it hard to leave work behind and get a bit stressed by the lack of activity that some holidays can promote. So this is a blog to me ... with the rest of you listening in ....

Holiday foibles:

1. I take too many books and devices on holiday - I think I have too much of a fear of boredom, so I bring lots of books and downloads in order to give me choice and keep me busy. I am sure I am not alone in this, nor in the fact that most books come back unread and there is often a tinge of disappointment that I didn't 'achieve' enough!

2. I work right up to the deadline - this means that I am often still doing work emails on day one of the holiday, or at least in the airport en route. It also means I don't give myself enough headspace to read and prepare to go on holiday.

3. I set holiday goals - this often involves number of activities per day, or vocabulary in the local language, or knowledge of political history, or archiving of old emails.

So holidays are a bit of a must, but maybe I also need a class on how to holiday well. What do you think?