Nov 19th, 2007 by WanderingDawn |
Today we began our journey from the northern part of Costa Rica to a town south of San Jose called San Marcos. Look how light we are traveling!
We began our trip at 6am on the chicken bus out of Bahia Salinas. There was nowhere to sit, so I stood with my pack on (those of you who have seen my pack will laugh at this visual) for 30 minutes, uphill. Which is like a cross between skiing and surfing to keep your balance. We got to the top, and the bus started to slow down, coughing its way up to the top. It got up to the top, smelling like the engine was burning something fierce. It sputtered to a stop, and we jumped off, thankful that we did not have to hike up to the top with backpacks, before we even got to the bus stop. Well apparently the bus was fine, because as we rounded the corner to the bus stop, our bus passed us and the driver beeped, waved and laughed.
Our second part of the journey was a 5 hour bus from La Cruz to San Jose. For the first hour we stood, as there were no seats when we got on (packs under the bus this time). Funny, because we actually had to get tickets for this bus (usually you pay on the bus). We found out later that our tickets had seat numbers (who knew?) and someone who should have been standing was sitting in our seat. Oh well, now we know.
We got to San Jose around 1:30pm and met my very good friend Josette. Josette is in the Peace Corps and is stationed in Costa Rica. I have not seen Josette since June so it was so fantastic to see her friendly face. We had lunch in San Jose, and then had another bus ride to her town (3 hours).
We are currently in San Marcos. Josette is in the neighboring town of San Pablo. We are a mile up right now, so our sea level bodies are huffing and puffing on the hills. The scenery is fantastic here…..this is coffee growing country. We met Josette’s host family, and tomorrow we are off to her prior host’s home to learn to make empanadas. Clarification for those who know me best, Sean is going to be learning how to make them, and I will eat them. Yummy!
Our plan for the next week or so is to head out towards the Caribbean coast, spend a few days near Puerto Limon, return to San Marcos on Sunday, and spend a few more days here. Next week we will help Josette move to her new location in Guacimo (northeast of San Jose). From there we will probably finish out our time in Costa Rica on the Pacific Coast, with the plan to be in Panama around December 15. Until then, Pura Vida!
Filled under: Uncategorized |
You can follow any responses to this entry through the
RSS 2.0 feed.
