Costa Rica – Coast to Coast

Roberto was kind enough to take us into town so we could buy our bus tickets for our trip the next morning. The ticket office was a little busy, but that wasn’t surprising considering a bus was leaving for San Jose soon. I thought it was nice that the man working in the office first helped those trying to make the 4:30 bus and we didn’t mind waiting. However, we found our patience being tested when we were told that he didn’t have much change and we couldn’t use large bills (I think I had a 10,000 colones note). He then decided to go to the bank to get change and kicked us out of the office. We walked down to a little bar to get a Coke (and change) and then went back to the office to wait for the man to come back. He did hurry back, but said he didn’t get enough change…so we were very happy that we got smaller bills.

Roberto recommended Chili Rojo for dinner. It’s a really small restaurant that seemed to serve mostly Thai and Indian inspired dishes. We decided to get a little bit of everything and share, so we ended up with vegetable samosas, chicken satay, and green curry chicken with rice. The food was absolutely delicious, and the prices were very reasonable. We also had the best mint iced tea EVER:

Chili Rojo had t-shirts hanging up (for sale) and I took a picture of one that made us laugh:

After dinner, we walked around town looking for souveneirs for our family and friends. We were able to find things that would fit in our bags, and had a great time talking to shop workers. We stopped by the Super in order to get snacks for our bus trip the next morning. We saw this:

We knew – from reading Banana Azul’s website – that we wanted ice cream from Las Palmas Lecheria. The owner – Susan – is an American from Lancaster, PA, and from an Amish community (though she is not Amish). I tried the chocolate as well as the chocolate covered macadamia nut, and James had coconut and mango ice cream. All of the flavors were delicious, and Susan was so friendly and sweet. We talked to her for a little while; about life in PA compared to Costa Rica, running a business in Puerto Viejo, and how their products are made. They have a farm outside of Puerto Viejo, and they create the product from start to finish. They know what the cows are fed (because they feed them), they use the cows’ milk for the ice cream, milk, cheese, etc. They also sell organic honey, granola, and jams, and Colina and Roberto regularly purchase items there. I highly recommend checking it out!!

It was dark by this time, so James and I decided to take a taxi back to Banana Azul. We still had to reorganize and repack our stuff, and I know we both wanted to relax and have a quiet night. I know we were both feeling the pressure of having to go back to the rat race the next morning, and it wasn’t a good feeling. Where did the time go? It felt as though we were JUST in Samara and still had five nights left in Costa Rica. It’s really sad that time flies when one is on vacation. That really sucks!

Our taxi driver was great and when we told him we were taking the bus the next morning, he said he would be back to pick us up. We asked him to pick us up at 6:45 (we had a 7:30 bus) and he agreed.

We packed our stuff, threw out things we didn’t need or had destroyed, and cleaned up our room a bit. We sat out in the common area reading and writing, when one of Colin and Roberto’s friends stopped by. Rick had just returned from Panama, and used to live in Puerto Viejo with Barbara (the owner of the dogs who passed away). He’s German, and told us fascinating stories about German citizenship, how he came to Costa Rica, why he went to Panama…it was really nice to spend time with him. He now does tours (mostly for Germans) in Panama and really loves it there.

After our long and wonderful last full day in Costa Rica, James and I crawled into bed and watched TV for a bit. We thought it may prepare us for the culture shock we were sure to experience. We saw that Britney was in and out of rehab, Anna Nicole Smith passed away and no one knew what happened, and various other crap that people care too much about.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 11th, 2007 at 7:21 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.