Roy Fox.: Archive

May 29th

Jurassic Park

Most of the ocean cargo has shifted from Puntarenas to the nearby port town of Caldera, but there is still plenty of life in the town, and there are still plenty of boats. The fish market, on the northern shore of Puntarenas’ thin spit of land, full of fisherman and their haggling buyers, seemed as good a place as any to start my search. My Spanish is decent, so I didn’t have any...

May 26th

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Rain

This is the story of a tropical storm. For most people, that isn’t maybe as dramatic or exciting as it sounds. I woke at 5am to the sound of heavy rain clattering the thin, plastic roof. As I set out from the hotel it was raining hard, fast streams gushing along the storm gutters. When I climbed aboard the 6am bus from Monteverde to the coastal town of Puntarenas, it had eased, but it was...

May 26th

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May 22nd

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Jeep-boat-jeep

Monteverde, like Volcano Arenal, is one of Costa Rica’s top tourist attractions. Though only 15km away as the crow flies, it takes a disappointing six hours to reach by road. Well, there’s a big lake in the way, after all. Strictly speaking, I guess Lake Arenal is actually a reservoir - a dam was added in 1979 to expand the existing lake to three times its original size. We tourists...

May 21st

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Heat And Paying For Waterfalls

The locals in Costa Rica often talk about their tiempo loco, or crazy weather. It could be a baking thirty five degrees, it could be torrential rain, it could be both on the same day. Their are microclimates everywhere, and different parts of the country have their own weather and their own rules, but, to someone accustomed to the changeable British weather, it all seems quite predictable. ...

May 18th

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Zona Norte

After more than a week in the largely-derided-by-tourists-and-guide-books-but-actually-not-all-that-bad capital city of San José, I’d exhausted all the day trip options. I struck out for the rest of the country. Heading north to La Fortuna I passed though the town of Naranjo. It won’t feature in many guide books, but it’s worth mentioning because it looks like the town planners...

May 17th

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May 16th

Photos from Costa Rica →

May 16th

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May 14th

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Some anecdotes

Backpackers sometimes do things that might seem a little crazy. Back home, it would seem pretty ridiculous to get three forty-five minute buses just to reach a little village because a guidebook said it was pretty. When abroad that it totally normal behaviour. Orosí, south of San José, sits in a little valley and it kind of pretty, though I’d rate it’s prettiness as worthy of only two...

May 13th

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More tedious travel writing

OK, two hours in an internet cafe and I‘ve just remembed another thing about travel journals. Writing a journal eats time like a hungry catepillar eats a bad metaphor. Let’s rattle though the last few days like a simile rattles through a, well, you know. I moved to Guadalupe, in the suburbs of San Jose, for a week staying with some Costa Ricans -essentially for a bit of Spanish...

May 12th

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Costa Rica - First Days

As I said in my previous entry, I am not a huge fan of travel journals. So here is my travel journal. My flight from London, via Madrid, survived the ash cloud that was dancing around northern Spain, and I picked up my first new Spanish phrase - nube de ceniza. Long flight, about 12 hours, mostly boring, except for spotting a few Caribbean islands, and the final descent into San Jose. From the...

May 10th

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Costa Rica - Intro

I‘m in Costa Rica. I am not huge on travel journals, as they can be self indulgent - look at me, I’m having a great time, I discovered the new world! - but I’ve noticed that when you’re travelling, you tend to keep busy. You fill up your brain with new memories every day - older ones, even from a few days hence, simply don’t have time to bed in. I’m going to...

May 9th

Heybaloo for (hyper)local writers and bloggers →

Heybaloo is now out of private beta, and available for everyone. One group in particular we think Heybaloo will be great for is local and hyperlocal bloggers. Heybaloo is designed to help you…

Mar 8th

Usability in the cloud: why remote usability... →

Truth be told, I am a bit of usability freak. I love it when websites work well – it’s a thing of a beauty. Of course, it’s an art, not a science. No matter how much we learn about the right way to…

Feb 25th

Burglars using Foursquare to lure other burglars... →

credit: dpstyles™ LOS ANGELES. A new twist emerged this morning in the ongoing debate surrounding mobile social network Foursquare, after it was revealed some burglars…

Feb 25th

News anchor feels personal responsibility to take... →

LONDON. A television news anchor from London feels a deep personal responsibility to ask everyone in the entire world tough questions, it was revealed today. In a frank interview with himself, John…

Feb 24th

Man in old clothes accidentally fashionable →

LONDON. A mature student, well known amongst his friends for never bothering to buy new clothes, became briefly fashionable today after he accidentally put together a new season outfit from some old…

Feb 15th

Local couple respond to low ice cream prices by... →

credit: Swamibu SHEFFIELD. A local couple have been making the most of the cold weather by enjoying low prices on a variety of ice cream brands at local supermarkets….

Feb 14th

A new way of sharing local news →

On this blog in the past I’ve sometimes talked about technical issues or hinted at new features we’ve developed, but today I realised I’ve been missing the bigger picture. I’ve never stopped to…

Feb 12th

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Commuter aghast at 6 minute wait for tube →

credit: [phil h] LONDON. A regular rush hour commuter was left open-mouthed earlier today, after learning the next tube would not arrive at the platform for 6 minutes….

Feb 3rd

Human rights to be rebranded “rights for nice... →

photo credit: Alan in Belfast WESTMINSTER. Conservative leader David Cameron today unveiled plans to rebrand human rights legislation following the next election….

Feb 3rd