Whew!

I don’t know how to even start with what happened the last couple weeks.  Most of it is pretty personal so I won’t be sharing.  Sorry.  Ciudad Quesada is a very nice town though, I will tell you that.  It is up in the mountains a little ways, about 45 minutes to an hour to San Ramon, about an hour and a half or so to San Jose.  E opened his taqueria and by all accounts it is going pretty well for him.  For reasons I will not explain, we decided not to go into the business with him and also, not to stay in Ciudad Quesada.  Suffice it to say, we learned a lot, grew some more, through some good and bad experiences and are once again, richer in our lives from the experience. 

We returned to Nosara day two days ago.  A 7 hour bus ride.  We did have a layover in that time.  Don’t trust the bus schedule thing online for Costa Rica.  The times are pretty accurate but if you plot out the connections it does not tell the whole story.  Once again we were dragging two big suitcases, one carryon, a couple backpacks and Annie in her carrier. We started in San Carlos at 5:15 am.  They put Annie under the bus with the luggage which I argued about but the driver insisted it was against policy to have her in her crate in the bus.  First time I ran into this, so poor Annie had to ride down there in the dark for an hour or so.  

The online bus schedule thing showed only one bus change.  We ended up with 3.  We first took a bus from San Carlos to near Sarichi.  Bus change.  Ok, this was not an ordinary bus change and just to warn you if you ever come here, you don’t always get off one but and then right on to another.  A lot of times the other bus you have to catch is blocks away.  This was the case for us in Sarichi.  Luckily, I have ridden them enough to know that when they drop you off on some street, you better find out where you catch the next bus.  So I asked a guy that was standing there, “San Ramon Autobus aqui?  No, he points to a church and tells us it is on the other side of the church is where we catch it.  Oh, great.  We schlep all of our luggage a couple blocks.  Get all kinds of looks from the ticos.  A strange group of crazy gringos, hauling luggage and a meowing cat along the streets and getting on a very local bus.  About half an hour this trip.  These local buses are converted school buses so they are not comfortable.   

We get to San Ramon and we stop at the area where San picked me up when I came into town.  Jacob said, “Should we get off here.”  I said no, I think there is an actual bus terminal here.  But we can’t figure out where we get off at.  Finally everyone gets off so we do too.  On some street.  We ask a few people where the bus to Nicoya is (we have to go to Nicoya to get to Nosara).  We get questioning looks.  I decide when all else fails, get a taxi.  So we flag down a taxi and ask him to take us where we catch the bus for Nicoya.  Pay another $2.00 to find out it is where Jacob suggested we get off in the first place. 

A few buses come and go.  They have signs of the names of where they are going but we don’t entirely trust the signs.  So we ask the first couple “Nicoya?”  No.  A guy sees us ask a couple times and tell us the Nicoya bus comes at ocho y media.  8:30.  Ok, it is 7:30.  Ah hour to wait.  So we don’t really trust that people are telling us the truth and we keep asking each bus.  Finally about three people were telling us ocho y media.  I’m sure they were thinking “these dumb gringos just don’t get it”  LOL.  Sure enough, the Nicoya bus pulls up at 8:30 on the dot.  A few hours ride to Nicoya.  Beautiful scenery!  I truly do love this country.  With all its good and bad!  It is amazing! 

We sleep part of the way because this isn’t a local bus and is more comfortable with cushioned seats.  As we get nearer to Nicoya though, it gets hotter and hotter.  The beaches are quite a bit hotter and more humid than the mountain towns.  Although it is refreshing to see the sunshine.  We got very little of it and a lot of rain in San Carlos.  And most of you know I pretty much hate that kind of weather.  To be fair it is the rainy season and everywhere in the country is getting a lot of rain, torrential rains most of the time, even the beach.  The beach usually gets sunshine in the morning though so I can get a dose of sun at least. 

Pull into Nicoya, which actually has a bus terminal.  Donde es autobus de Nosara?  Oh, awesome, it is the bus right next to us. How much is the bus?  2000 colonies each.  $4.00.  Crap, I only have $4.00 total.  I need more money.  However, the bus driver for the Nosara bus is trying energetically to get us on that bus.  It is pulling out in a couple minutes.  I explain in bad, bad Spanish, no money, no colonies, sin dinero!  He finally lets go of our luggage and we walk away.  There has to be an ATM around her somewhere.   It’s a freakin bus station!  Ahhh, but it is a freakiin bus station in Costa Rica.  “Donde is Banco Automatico?”  Blank stares.  I pull out my ATM card.  “Donde?”  Ohhh, in Spanish he motions me down the road.  I am wondering how far when a guy who speaks English says he is looking for an ATM too and the taxi driver told him it was 200 meters straight down the road.  So Jarred and I head out. 

We go way beyond 200 meters, no bank, no ATM.  The taxi driver and the English speaker drive by us and waive.  Thanks a lot!  We follow the taxi as far as we can see it go.  We don’t see where it turns and we are lost, once again.  Hmmm, I decide I am going to ask someone in a store so I go into a woman’s clothing store.  They try to tell me and finally one comes out and says in her own unique Spanglish way, “See the park.  Go past the park. (arms moving indicating past the park).  Then turn right. (arms indicating turning right).  Ohhh, muchas gracias! 

So we walked down there and found an ATM.  While walking back I decide I need a smaller bill for the bus than the 20 mils it gave me (which is roughly $40.00) so we get a couple pieces of pizza.  We get back to the terminal and sit and wait for the next bus to Nosara.  

I really want to shop at the local food market that is by the bus station but the boys are whining about how we have too much too carry as it is.  Nevertheless, I bought some homemade tortillas and talked Jacob into going and buying some strawberries.  3 containers for $2.00.  I haven’t seen strawberries being sold in Nosara and the strawberries here are delicious.  They remind me of when I was growing up and had to pick berries in the summer to make money.  Well, I didn’t have to but my best friend Debbie Adams talked me into it. (Thanks Deb)  But the strawberries back then were mostly small.   It took forever to pick a flat full, not to mention we ate almost as many as we picked.  However, those small little strawberries had so much more flavor than the big, juicly, perfectly red ones we buy at the stores today.  The strawberries in Costa Rica are like those strawberries of my childhood.  Scrawny and a little blotchy, no perfect color but soooo good!  So much flavor.  And I won’t even torment you with how good the pineapples are here.  Ok, I will.  They are grown locally so they are allowed to ripen on the plant, not picked really green.  So they develop the most amazing flavor.  Even better than the pineapples I had in Hawaii in my opinion, however I don’t know why they would be better here. 

Anyway, we get on the next bus to Nosara, about an hour wait total.  I sat next to this fun girl from Arkansas.  She came to Costa Ricaa year or so ago to be certified to teach yoga (there are two yoga instructor training facilities here, both world renowned.)  She then moved to Playa Grande where she lives with her tico boyfriend.  She is coming to Nosara to help out on another yoga training.  She is now training teachers.  She is also a physical therapist so we discuss my recent hip replacement.  The hour and a half goes pretty quickly and soon we are being dropped off at Five Points.  We have to walk down the road about ¼ mile, dragging suitcases along the gravel, dirt and sometimes muddy road.  Somehow I don’t think the rolling suitcase wheels were meant for this kind of terrain but luckily, they hold up one more time!  Once again we are back at our house.  J