Number of sleeps to go: 16
Number of practice swims: 1
Number of essential items located: zero
Ability to speak Spanish: in progress

Yesterday, my copywriting partner-in-crime Rob turned to me and said ‘you’re going to Costa Rica in a couple of weeks aren’t you?’. Why yes, I replied. ‘God, you’re being a bit quiet about it. If I were you, I’d be insufferable by now.’

The man has a point. But here’s the deal: I am very, very excited about the whole prospect of learning to surf and saving a few turtles (that’s right mum, you can relax, I’ve got the turtle saving covered). However, I’m not plaguing my colleagues yet as I have something of a preparation issue. By issue, I mean I haven’t done any.

First up, the swimming. I can swim fine. However, I’m not what you would call a ‘good’ swimmer. In fact some friends have been kind enough to describe my swimming efforts as akin to a Labrador drowning. To this end, I was planning to go swimming like five times a week or something, just to get a bit of practice in. So far, I’ve been swimming once, for half an hour. If I end up drowning, I’ll only have myself and the poor quality of Leeds City Council’s public swimming pools to blame.

Next, essential items. I’ve been emailed a very handy list of things I need to bring with me by the guys at my project. These include a torch, mosquito net, sun-cream etc. I basically looked at the list, went, ‘oh that’s handy’ and moved on to thinking about whether I could justify buying a new iPod, whether anyone makes decent leave-in conditioner these days and which books I’ll take with me. I’ve not even got so far as to finding a rucksack, as my faithful wheely suitcase will apparently not make it across the tidal river I’ll have to cross to get to my project (the whole tidal river thing makes me feel very adventurous btw, like a modern-day Robinson Crusoe, just with better hair)

In fact, the only area I’ve made any progress in is learning to speak Spanish. With the help of Michel Roberts (some kind of language learning wizard) and Quick Start Spanish, I can actually speak a very, very basic level of Spanish. At present I’m excelling at how to order beers, but not doing so well with ‘emergency situations’. I figure this is why I’m travelling with a company that offers in-country support.

So, this weekend I’m going to eat a lot of chocolate (it is Easter after all), perhaps persuade my Dad to go for a swim and have a look at actually working out what I need to take with me. That and ponder one of life’s most existential dilemmas: are short shorts really appropriate attire for Costa Rica…? Answers on a postcard please.

P.S. if anyone’s going to be surfing and saving turtles from 18th April, I’d love to hear from you – get in touch!

• costa rica
• latin america
• volunteer travel
• volunteer with wildlife
• Surfing
• Surf
• learn to surf in Costa Rica