Libby_or_Bust

We were waiting for a bus to Ciudad Quesada in the Alajuela “bus station” (i.e., two covered benches in front of a few bodegas) when something of interest happened. The bus was late (!) — so unlike all other buses in Latin America — and we were early (silly, silly Americans), so we were waiting for over an hour. At first the benches were full, but as buses came and went, so did people and we were able to get a seat. To the right was a woman whose crotch must have been hungry because it was eating her pants; to the right was a tiny, tiny, ancient man. It was lightly raining and the people around us were quite stoic. Jen and I finally stood to let a woman and her son sit, and soon after we moved behind and to the left of the bench to stay dry. I was watching for our bus when Jen indicated that the woman who had been our neighbor was now silently retching into the garbage can between the two benches. No one else seemed to notice, all of them going about their business: waiting, buying soda, selling snacks to bus passengers. The woman retched for a good fifteen minutes, periodically putting her whole torso into the trash can, leaning and heaving. When she had finished, she moved to the far side of the benches and continued to silently wait for her bus. Our 2:30 bus arrived at 2:50, we boarded, got the last two seats, and rode to Ciudad Quesada. ¡Pura Vida!

Tags: Alajuela, Bus, Costa Rica, Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 11:24 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.