A Hitchhiker's Guide to Tenorio National Park

Don't let the title fool you, it's just a title.
Last week saw me working away, learning how to further decipher the code of the locals, in an attempt to be able to communicate with the savages and learn their ways. I have already been accepted into one of the families here, by skinning a local and wearing it's hide. The mother treats me like one of her own.
Hahaha I hope none of them read that...
Anyhow, I had no plans for the weekend as of Thursday morning. I recently worked out a budget for myself for the remainder of my trip here, and was thinking that a weekend in San Jose would probably be pretty easy on the wallet. Especially since the long weekend is next week, and will probably be an expensive one.
But my buddy Trevor came up and asked me if I wanted to go camping on the side of a volcano instead. That kind of invitation doesn't really come along in one's life all that often, so I felt obliged to accept. Not to mention the crazy river that is present in that park that he described to me. More on that in due time.
He told me that he's got a 2-man tent, that could probably squish 3 if we could find someone else to come along. Our friend Leigh was soon talked into it as well, even though (or perhaps because the fact) she'd never been camping before. So we went on down to pequeno mundo (small world) to pick up some supplies, hit the grocery store to pick up some food for the weekend, and got everything packed up and ready to roll. I found a sweet Spider-Man sleeping bag for like 6 bucks, so I had my sleeping arrangements!
We caught the bus on Friday afternoon. We hopped on a bus bound for Upala, knowing that we need to get off in a town before that called Bijagua. Pretty uneventful ride up, but we played a game that involves coming up with random things to bring to a picnic. You have to come up with one thing for every letter of the alphabet, and repeat them in "12-days-of-Christmas" style. We had an Axe-Murderer, Barack Obama, Coombiyah Music, etc... The Ticos that knew english were giving us some really strange looks, but it sure passed the time!
We got off in the proper town, one of those "we have a main street... that's about it" kinda places. But we were able to find a cabina for the 3 of us, plus some fried chicken to eat! Next, we followed the sound of music to a bar up the street that seemed to be the only rockin joint in Bijagua. We wandered in and it was just like in the movies where the record scratches to a halt and the whole bar is sitting there staring at you. It was eerie. So we wandered up to the bar and grabbed some beer, and watched our first evening of spanish karaoke! It was freakin awesome! I was reading the screen and laughing because I could actually tell what the lyrics were saying. It's weird, but my spanish seems to get better every time I have a couple beer (I first realized this talking to Jose Alberto, the owner of Pescadito, our neighborhood watering hole).
We headed to bed early that night, since we knew we were gettin up early the next morning. Apparently, if you want to catch a taxi in Bijagua, you have to be on the street and looking by 7am. And since the park is 18km away, most of the locals definitely recommend taking a cab. So we ended up rounding one up, but he told us the trip would cost 15,000 colones (30 bucks). *Just a sidenote, this is really expensive. San Jose is a big city, but you can get around most of it for 10 bucks or so. So 30 was ridiculous.
Well we told the guy thanks, but we were gonna walk. He just smiled and kinda shook his head, and we were off. We wandered down the highway, with the knowledge that it was 6km to the dirt road, and another 12km up some sketchy roads to the actual entrance. We walked about 4 of the 6, throwing out the thumb every time a truck went by. Then one picked us up and took us to the dirt road! That was a nice little start of good luck. We then proceeded up the dirt road, and didn't get far, when that cab happened upon us. He couldn't believe we'd gotten that far that fast, so he said he'd take us the rest of the way for 5,000 colones (10 bucks). We'd done our bit to save money, so we were all over it now!
We got up to a little restaurant, and got dropped off. They told us it was another kilometer to the actual entrance, but you can't camp in the National Park so this place had a field that they let people camp in. We said thanks and told them we'd be back that afternoon. While walking along the road, we saw a calf gettin some milk from it's mother. Just thought I'd throw that in.
We signed into the park and got a little map. It showed a catarata (waterfall), a mirador (lookout point), laguna azul (blue lagoon), and some aguas termales (hot springs). Now I must tell you what is cool about this river.
It is called Rio Celeste, and it is one of the coolest natural things I've ever seen. The river starts as 2 rivers that join up in the park. Thing is, these 2 rivers have some different chemicals in them from the volcano. So when they join up, a reaction takes place and the water turns into a crazy turquoise blue! It turns from 2 clear water rivers into 1 opaque blue river. It's really wild. Just a stripe of intense blue twisting through the jungle! What can you really say to describe a place like that? The waterfall was cool, the mirador was cool, the blue lagoon was cool. The hot springs were... well, hot! Which was cool. Haha
In the middle of the park we stopped and made some peanut butter banana sandwiches, which were delicious. We also packed in some cheez-its, chocolate, dried ramen noodles, and assorted cookies and crackers. Healthy, eh? Good hiking food.
The park itself was great, there weren't many other people in there. It got busier in the afternoon at the hot springs where we spent a bunch of time, but we were the only gringos. Leigh and Trevor had a solid 2 hour nap, while I sat by the blue river in the middle of a jungle and read Animal Farm. Haha sometimes you get these moments down here where you realize where you are and what you're doing and all you can really do is just kinda smile to yourself...
We wandered back out of the park and got back to that farm/restaurant, and grabbed some brewskies. What a way to end a day like that! We set up our tent, and I noticed ominously that there was no rain leaf and if it did indeed rain, we would likely get soaked. By the way, you never start a story like that if it isn't followed with the persons involved getting soaked. And who am I to disobey unwritten (or is it written? or maybe writing) laws like that. So rest assured, we got soaked. Luckily for us, it wasn't until 6am. And they'd given us a key to one of the hostel rooms, so that we could use the bathroom there if we wanted. So after being rudely awakened by water, we holed up in the hostel room for a bit to organize all our stuff. We wandered to the restaurant, had some delicious coffee, and bundled up for the long walk back to Bijagua. I say long walk because we were down to 9,800 colones left between the 3 of us, and we were pretty sure that the bus back to San Jose cost something like 3,000 apiece. Cheers to planning!
We walked about 10km of it, the rain having died off after about a half hour of walking. At this point, we were thinking about how nice it would be to hitchhike and get back to town in time to catch the 10am bus, instead of having to wait until 3pm. Lo and behold, around the corner came a little truck! He happily took us to Bijagua, and we made it there at like 9:30. I love small town folks!
Well the bus came, and 3 tickets cost... 9,400 colones. We made it back to San Jose with 80 cents between the 3 of us. How's that for cuttin 'er close?
All in all, it was a great weekend. When we got to San Jose we hit an ATM, and made our way to Wendy's! How's that for a great end? A classic double for my classic story.

- Just a little note, because what would a ROE be without a kernel of wisdom? This weekend saw us doing a lot of improvisation. But we were pretty relaxed, and just sorta trusted that things would work out. And every time we really needed something to work out, it did. So I guess I would just say that if you find yourself in a stressful situation, just try to take a step back, and trust that everything happens for a reason. If something needs to happen, it will. (And yeah, I know as well as anyone that this is wayy easier said than done. But it's worth a shot, y'know?).



Thanks for reading!

Doce chicas y yo

Buenos dias!
Another week, another trip. Getting to be a predictable formula, but I don't think I need to say that I'm not getting bored of it! Costa Rica may be a small country, but there is no end to the amount of things that you can do here. And each trip is better than the last! (but only if you do them in that order... haha).
This weekend saw me returning to Puerto Viejo. We learned last time we were there that it was fairly easy to do whitewater rafting from Rockin J's, but we didn't have the time or the organization to get it done then. We planned ahead this time so we could be sure to get 'er done!
We left on Friday afternoon after our midterm (got my mark back today, apparently I'm gettin this spanish stuff down! go figure) and made it down the Puerto Viejo around 8. Grabbed a 6er for the walk to the hostel. We got there, and as usual, Rockin J's was awesome. They had live music going again and a bonfire on the beach. Difference was, they didn't have tents this time so I spent both nights in a hammock! If you ever have the opportunity, here's a tip - drink a few before you go to bed. You sleep much sounder by not being aware of the sounds around ya.
I suppose I should elaborate on the title of the post: somehow, in the planning of this trip, it ended up being me and 12 girls going. Don't ask me how. No se.
Anyways, a few of us were sitting around listening to the live band. They were great - a guitar, a ukelele, a bass (not the fish, the stringed instrument), and some bongos. Well they'd played a few, and I sorta knew the guy on the bongos (just a dude that works at the hostel), when they started into "wonderwall." I couldn't resist, I was lovin the music and everything at that point. So I wandered up and asked if I could play for that song. Well good 'ol John, he was all for it. So I joined the band for a song, just kinda sat in the middle and played the bongos. Check that one off the list, I guess!
Through the course of the night I met a girl from Ireland (I love that accent), some people from Argentina and Brazil, and a girl from Calgary! Us Calgarians are everywhere! It was fun talking in spanish to the people from South America, and it seems to be a lot easier when you just relax (see: drink) and just let the conversation flow. That's the thing with learning a new language, I think: you just need to take it step by step, poco a poco.
Saturday was cool, went back to The Beach Hut for some eggs benny, then we rented some bikes and headed down like 8km to a beach called Punta Uva (Grape Point). Didn't see any grapes, but we heard some howler monkeys and saw a sloth. The water was crystal clear and the waves were good for bodysurfing. Rest of the day saw me in a hammock, reading, takin er easy, that sort of thing that people don't seem to do enough of. Que lastima. That night we went to a restaurant called Chile Rojo, and I ordered a salad. That's right mom, I actually voluntarily ordered a salad. There's hope for me yet.
We woke up bright and early on Sunday morning to catch the bus at 7:10. It was a 2 hour ride to Siquierres, where the bus picked us up for rafting. We went down to the river, and the guide explained that we'd be seeing class 3 rapids, since it's the dry season so the river isn't running as high as it normally would be. So it wasn't the death-defying adventure that I'd kinda hoped for, but it was still a lot of fun. The valley that the river ran through was beautiful, straight-up jungle on both sides as far up as you could see. It was pretty tranquilo for the most part, but we did hit some good rapids that threw us around and got the boat rockin. I almost bailed at one point, but managed to hook my foot under a seat and held on. Which is actually kindof a shame, since the rules of the river say that the first person to fall out gets a free beer at the end. Haha maybe next time.
The one thing I noticed, that I really want to try next, is that there was a fair amount of river kayaks in the water. These guys were awesome, jukin and jivin and dippin and divin all over the place (now picture Bill Cosby saying that). You have to take lessons beforehand, so you can learn how to roll in case you get flipped over on the way down. I think the element of danger is definitely higher in these little crafts, and you get way more independence in the parts of the river that you can hit. So maybe that's next...

Random thoughts, etc:

- Shout out to all the keys on my keyboard except the "H" key, which is broken and is a consistent annoyance.
- I like the way they drive in Costa Rica. Everyone is aggressive, but extremely aware of what is going on around them. Not to mention they all have balls of steel when passing in the twisty mountain roads. And, the horn means everything from "hi there" to "watch out" to "what a nice sunny day we have here."
- Shout out to your face.
- It doesn't rain much here, but the day I come back with wet shoes that I set out to dry, it rains.
- Shout out to mother freakin nature.
- It's cool that people from all over the world can travel to random countries and make friends.
- Shout out to MAPS for the chat, Jessie for laughing at almost all of my jokes, and Chelsi for the sweet-ass dreds.
- I want to go golfing. So I think I will. Hahaha I love this place!
- Shout out to: Rhawn. (you owe me a beer for that when I get back, aight?)
- Shout out to Maman y Fazha for the valentine's gift, I had a blast!
- Shout out to "she who shall not be smart"

Thanks for reading!

Back on Top o Things

Baclava!

A Greek dessert, in case you’re wondering.

This weekend happened to be one of my best in Costa Rica. Depending on how you look at that, it’s either not a big deal (since they’re all awesome) or it’s impressive (because it had to be pretty freakin awesome to compare). I choose the latter.

Up to this point, I had spent every weekend with a group of gringos no less than 15 or so. It’s a lot of fun to do it that way, since there’s always someone around to hang out with or talk to. Problem is, there’s always someone around. And in a group that large, we’re a bit of a pasty eyesore. So this time we endeavored to travel in a smaller group.

It ended up being me, Aaron, Meghan, and Katherine. Me and A-Ron hadn’t really hung out with them before, but when everyone is cool, what does it matter who you hang out with? We all wanted to do a weekend away from gringos, and we all wanted to do some hiking.

We found a place near Chirripo National Park, a nature reserve called Cloudbridge. Chirripo is Costa Rica’s highest peak, and they say that from the top on a clear day you can see both oceans. It’s on the to-do list; check the post in March where I talk about what a great time I had.

Anyway, we left San Jose on a bus (as usual) and headed down to San Isidro. We ran into some friends there who’d been hit by some thieves at the bus stop, and 2 of them got pickpocketed (that doesn’t really have any relevance, just spicing up the writing with some danger. We made it through fine). It took us awhile to find a cab that could/would take us to San Gerardo de Rivas, it needed to be a 4x4 since the town was in the interior and not serviced by decent roads.

The drive out there was incredible. The town soon melted away into mountains and valleys, with tiny villages and random farms. This was the kind of Costa Rica that I had been longing to see, the rural part away from anything commercialized. It was so cool, mostly because it was very easy to tell that you were in the middle of the jungle! There was tons of crazy lookin trees, the valley had a beautiful river complete with waterfalls, there was color everywhere.

We got to the little town and got our hotel room, the lady just walked us to a room and said “come down and check in and pay sometime later on”. And I thought Puerto Viejo was relaxed! This place makes Trochu look like a metropolis! (I hope Jason reads that sometime, cuz that amused me greatly).

The hotel was perched right above the river, so it was easy to just wander down and sit by the water and watch the world go by. We did that the first night, just laid on some rocks by the river and stared at the stars.

We woke up at 5:50 Saturday morning, and made some sandwiches with bread and Goober (do you know goober? It’s peanut butter and jelly mixed in a jar. Phenomenal stuff). With that, we headed up towards the reserve.

We started our hike in there not much after 7. It was a really cool reserve, founded by a couple from New York. No entrance fee or anything, just donations accepted. So we left them some goober sandwiches.

The trail starts and right away leads to a beautiful waterfall. It was great to just stand there and watch the early morning sun crest the top of the falls, really serene. It was off to a great start, to be sure! Oh, and we didn’t actually leave them sandwiches. We ate the sandwiches and left them a donation. Cookies. Hahaha

The next part of the hike was a little meditation garden, complete with a labyrinth. I had never head of one of those before, it’s basically a bunch of rocks laid out in a large spiral pattern with room to walk in the spirals. The idea is to just walk around and around until you reach the middle, then turn around and walk out the way you came in. I think that this is the sort of thing that people with zen gardens would enjoy. I kinda liked it, but I didn’t reach enlightenment or anything. Maybe next time.

Well what else can I say about the hike? I think the reality of it is that you had to be there to really enjoy it, and if you are a person who likes to hike then cloudbridge is certainly for you. It’s hard to describe what was so good about it… the trees were tightly packed and abundant, the views were incredible, the waterfalls and crystal clear water were beautiful and inviting… I’ve always felt really comfortable and at home in the mountains, and this time was no exception. There’s just something about the views when you break out of the canopies that makes you feel like a part of something bigger than yourself. Like I say, hard to describe, but it’s one of the best feelings in the world.

We saw some neat things, a cool suspension bridge, lots of birds, not too much for wildlife tho. That afternoon we stopped at one of the big pools on the way back and went for a swim. It was bloody well freezing, but it felt great!

The entire time we were in the park, we only saw 2 other people. We ended up hiking till about 3:30; all said and done we figured it was about 12km. It felt great to get that kind of exertion going, as anyone who has done similar can tell you. We wandered back to town and we each scarfed down a medium pizza, since we hadn’t really eaten anything other than snacks since that morning. We followed that up with a 2 hour nap, a dinner at Rocka Dura (the Costa Rican equivalent of the Hard Rock Café, someone definitely has a sense of humor there), and another night laying by the river staring at the sky and solving all the world’s problems. If you’re unfamiliar with that last bit, it just means we had some liquor.

Sunday morning we got up around 7, had some breakfast, had a good hour or so hack sesh until I roofed it on the restaurant… thought it was gone for good until the owner brought out a ladder so I could climb up and get it. Nice guy, eh?

The return trip was likewise uneventful, just got to sit and relax and soak in the memories from another great weekend.

Random thoughts and shout-outs:

- Hi Grams and Gramps!
- I love Lizano. May you all be graced with this divine flavor at some point in your lives.
- Shout out to Scizames and the Indy’s for a great time in Puerto Viejo. Thanks for the invite guys!
- Hacky sack is now our official event, daily at 10am. Startin to get the legs back again!
- Shout out to Jason, thanks for having a funny hometown.
- Spanish is a cool language.
- Shout out to the flashlight crew, and our honorary member, Meghan.
- Go Canucks Go! (that one will likely elicit a response. Suck it, Rhawn! Hahaha)
- Shout out to the couple from New York that made the Cloudbridge Reserve, you guys did a great job and you have a beautiful chunk of the world to protect.
- I can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen next down here.
- Shout out to anyone who is reading this, thanks for all the positive feedback. I started writing this just to save time keeping people updated on what’s going on down here, but it’s actually fun to write! And it definitely makes it worthwhile when I hear about you enjoying the read.

I reckon that’s about it for now.

Thanks for reading!

Ketchup Post

Hello again!

Unless this is your first time reading. In that case, ignore the “again”.

Well it’s been a solid week or so since I was in Puerto Viejo, but I think I can remember the most of it. T’was a great time, you see. But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I talk about that, I should mention something that happened in the middle of the week. I think this is the first time I’ve done this.

So January 30^th happens to be Rosalba’s birthday. Being the great gringo-sons that we are, Aaron and I went out and bought her a little somethin-somethin. We were advised that at that age, people like to receive practical gifts. So we bought her a makeup mirror and some placemats. Don’t laugh. There will be a day in your life when you get excited about placemats, trust me.

So anyhow, she had a big ol party planned for that Wednesday night, with some of the local ladies and friends of hers to show up. I kinda figured in advance that I would be the only one there not fluent in Spanish, and again my powers of deduction were infallible. Whoopee.

It ended up being a really good time tho! It was pretty late getting started; everyone was just sorta milling around, having some wine, and chatting. I was walking around with Aaron so that if anyone asked me questions that I didn’t understand, he was there to translate. But then he went off with one of the family members to make a liquor run. So I grabbed a seat with some people we had been chatting with, and proceeded to work my way through a conversation. The one dude knew some English, so he helped whenever there was a snag. But surprisingly, I talked with them for like half an hour, doing most of the talking, and they understood what I was sayin! It was awesome!

The dinner was a buffet style that didn’t really get served till like 10, so we were starving. But the food was great, they had some delicious cake afterward, and then everyone gathered in the living room. One of the guys brought out a guitar, and he and his brother started playing and singing some amazing Spanish-style music. It was a really cool experience, I was glad to be down here for it.

Enough about the week. The weekend is where it’s at, no?

I had kinda planned on taking a weekend off, and staying in San Jose. We’d all been going nonstop every weekend since we got here, and a couple days to relax and do whatever seemed like a great idea.

But on Thursday afternoon, I was walking back home from the school and I walked by the park. I was flagged down by my buddy Scizames (Scott-James, cuz they messed up his name on his student ID here). He told me they were hittin the Caribbean side that weekend, and that they were about to go buy their bus tickets. He told me that the bus costs 8 bucks, and the hostel they were going to stay in cost 10 bucks a night for a bed, or 5 bucks a night for a hammock. Said I should come. So I gave them 8 bucks for my ticket and that was that!

We left at 3 on Friday, and got down to Puerto Viejo at 8:30 or so. We didn’t know how many spots would be open at Rockin J’s (the hostel), and there were a ton of us.

*Just to explain something here. There are 3 separate groups of gringos that attend Veritas. ISA (which I am a part of, 52 of us), CEA, and Independent (or Indy’s, as I call them).*

This trip just happened to encompass some from all 3 groups. Which was cool, since so far that hadn’t really happened. All told, there was something like 30 of us wandering down the street trying to find Rockin J’s. It was a rush to get there, but when we arrived we saw that the rush wasn’t necessary. This place was huge.

Rockin J’s is easily and by far the coolest hostel I have ever seen. There were 2 huge rooms full of hammocks, I’m guessing something like 100 or so. Maybe more. Then there was a giant elevated platform with 50 tents on it, some doubles, some singles. Every surface of every wall and floor was covered, in either paint, or with that broken-tile mosaic thing. It was awesome! I rented a tent for 6 bucks a night, which came with a comfy mattress and a locker for my stuff.

That night there was live music at the restaurant/bar in the front of the hostel, and a bonfire on the beach on the other side. I just kinda spent my time drifting between the two, chattin with whoever came across my path, drinkin, watching the stars and the ocean, etc. You get the picture, it was really chill.

The next day I made a point of sleeping in, and for the first time in Costa Rica, I succeeded in sleeping past 9. So I got up at 9:30 and wandered downstairs. The place was empty, all the ambitious souls who got up at 7ish had left to go snorkeling or left for the beach or gone to do whatever it is ambitious souls do. Me, I wandered into town in search of some breakfast. Stumbled across a place called The Beach Hut. Tiny little place, probably couldn’t fit more than 12 people in there. But they served me up the best eggs benny I have ever eaten (sorry Dad. But these were unreal). I think a plug is obligatory here, so if you or anyone you know happens to go to Puerto Viejo, make sure to pay a visit to The Beach Hut. Except on Sundays, cuz they are closed.

I spent the rest of the day reading, listening to music, and getting some sun. Then some people showed up and we played Frisbee on the beach and swam a bit and such. Saturday night was similar to Friday, another bonfire on the beach and chattin between the three groups.

Sunday was an earlier morning, we grabbed some breakfast and hit the beach a little ways up the coast. Good waves, played on the beach, that sorta thing. A lot of people decided to go home that night on the 4 o’clock bus, but a bunch of the Indy’s were staying so I decided to stay with them and go back on Monday. That left us free to wander to Sunset Sports Bar to catch the superbowl! Great game, as any of you who watched it can likely attest to. Funny thing tho, we started chatting with some gringos at the bar sitting near us, turns out they were 4 guys from Calgary! They were a couple years older, so we didn’t end up finding any people that we knew in common, but they were from Mckenzie Town and Douglasdale, which is kinda nutty. Small world, eh?

Well Monday morning rolled around, spent some more time reading and takin ‘er easy, which was great since that was what I was originally planning for that weekend. Made it home no problem, but with the intention of going back, because at that point I had decided that Puerto Viejo was easily my favorite place in Costa Rica thus far.

The Caribbean side was incredible. The foliage was more along the lines of what I expected to see when I first came to Costa Rica. One morning in front of the hostel, I spent a few minutes watching a howler monkey swinging around in the trees overhead. We saw a sloth chillin in one of the trees, setting the pace for everyone else in that town. Pretty much a tropical paradise, simply put.

Well I won’t really formally close this, since I’m double-posting in order to catch up from being a week behind in my ROEs. But just in case you don’t have time to read the next one…

Thanks for reading!

Montezuma's Revenge

Hello faithful readers!
Please excuse my absence over the past week and a half, I normally write these entries on monday afternoons since I don't have class then. Pero last week I got back real late from Montezuma and was completely bagged on monday, and this week on monday I was on a bus back from the carribean side. More on the carribean later.
Anywho, I suppose I oughta elaborate a bit on Montezuma. It had been the end of 4 weeks in Costa Rica, without even a slight glimpse of a beach. So a bunch of us decided that we should head out to one, and picked Montezuma as it is reputedly one of the nicest beaches in Costa Rica. It is located on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, for those who have an interest in the coastlines here.
Well it sure lives up to it's reputation! It's a bit of a hike to get out there, 3 hours on a bus followed by an hour on a ferry and another hour to close it off. But it was well worth it. We rolled into town at 9:30 or so Friday night, checked into our hotel, and wandered down to get some pizza. We went in a group of 13 of us, so whenever we went into a restaurant or anything we half-took over the place. Seems to be a recurring theme down here...
Well the next morning we headed to the beach. We had planned on sleeping in, but since our internal clocks all seem to be permanently programmed to get up early now, we were up and on the beach by 8:30 or so. Ridiculous, no? The beach was incredible tho, we wandered down a ways in order to get past some of the rocks and such (plenty of space to get around them, they by no means took over the beach). We found a nice spot that was kinda secluded, set up the towels and all, and spent most of the day laying on the beach and playin in the waves. It felt great, especially when one of us said "can you believe it's January?"
That afternoon, we walked up the highway a little ways and into the hills about 15 minutes to where we'd been told there was a waterfall (or catarata, en espanol). It was a beautiful spot, we did a little cliff jumping but nothing really higher than 15 feet or so. Still looking for a place where we can jump from higher (Mom, pretend you didn't read that).
In the evening, we spent some time collecting firewood while it was still light out and then had a bonfire on the beach. This was probably my favorite part of the Montezuma trip, because we just layed there staring at the stars (which are incredible here), drinkin, chattin, singing, and basically just chillin. No agenda, no worries in the world. It was a great feeling, I would recommend it to anyone who happens to be reading this :)
Sunday was a bit of a wreck. Not so bad, since I don't mind adventures and adapting... but it could've gone smoother, to be sure. So we were told by a friend that the last direct bus to San Jose leaves at 2:30. We decided to be smart and double-check, which ended up hurtin us in the end. We talked to 2 different people who showed us schedules and assured us that the direct bus leaves Montezuma at 4, not 2:30. So we went down to the bus stop at 3ish. And there, staring us in the face, was a revised schedule showing the 2:30 bus. So we called the info line and asked around, and it turned out there was one last bus leaving for the ferry at 4. So we waited, and hopped on when it came.
You know those stories about crowded buses full of people shoulder to shoulder, in the brutal heat, no a/c, with live chickens and such everywhere? This isn't one of those stories. There weren't any chickens.
The rest of it is true, I sweated from places that I didn't even know you could sweat from. We sat there for close to 20 minutes, arm to arm, in a bus that kept getting hotter and hotter, and no idea when it was going to leave. When it finally pulled out, people were cheering and whistling (those who hadn't passed out from the heat, that is).
We got on the 7pm ferry, which was all well and good, until we started asking around and realized that the last bus leaves downtown Puntarenas (the other ferry terminal) at 9. That's about what time the ferry was scheduled to arrive on the west side of town. Why the bus wouldn't wait for ferry traffic is not a question that I was destined to know the answer to. Oh well.
So we got off at 9, with very limited options. We all had class the next morning at 8, so one option was to try to find a hostel for the 13 of us and stay the night, and get on the first bus in the morning (the good 'ol 4am transit, don't ya know). Nobody was too thrilled about option number 1. Option number 2, the one we ended up choosing, was to get 3 cabs to drive the 13 of us the 2 hours back to town. Well after a little (very little) haggling, we got 3 cabs to agree to drive us back for 100 bucks per cab. Overall, this wasn't such a bad deal. 25 bucks per person for a 2 hour cab ain't bad, especially when it gets you home in time to get a decent night's sleep before class the next day. Just sucks since had we got on the direct bus at 2:30, it would've cost around 8 bucks per person. So that was a done deal, I sat up front in my cab and practiced up my spanish a bit, which was good. It was actually kinda funny, cuz I was speaking in broken spanish and he was talking in broken english. It appeared we both were in need of some practice!

Sorry to have to post like this, but I'm getting to have a bit of a busy schedule in this place now and it's getting harder to find the time to write for hours. I'll try to put up my trip to Puerto Viejo soon. But now, I gotta run. There are a couple futbol games on, and I'm meeting some people to watch them. True to my form, I'm runnin a little late. Nice to know some things don't change, eh?

Thanks for reading!