Costa Rica – Coast to Coast

I woke up first again (I’ve always been a morning person) and went to the ATM and store to get some things for the trip. I discovered the best cookies ever.

I wish I would have had my camera with me…all the school children were walking down the street in their uniforms and looked so cute. The public schools system requires uniforms, and from what many have told us, the uniforms are welcomed. The children don’t have to deal with class systems – at least not by who has the most expensive jeans or shoes – and they can focus on school work. I think it’s great.

One thing I’ve been craving is ICE COLD WATER…so I also bought a bag of ice for our Nalgene bottles – it was going to be a lonnnnng day.

After I returned, James and I went to the bus station to buy the tickets. There was a big sign, warning foreign travelers about theft from the buses…it said that “many, many people steal”. That made me a little nervous, but I knew our big canvas (LOCKED) duffle bags would not be the first choice of a thief. We went back to the hotel, ate a quick breakfast, and grabbed our stuff. The bus was waiting by the time we got there, and it left not long after we sat down.

Let me tell you a bit about the public buses in Costa Rica. They are actually pretty nice, with seats similar to an airplane…there are even air vents that you can turn, but ours didn’t work. 🙁 There is no air-conditioning, but the windows can be opened, and there are thick curtains on the windows to keep out the sun. Unfortunately, we sat on the side where the sun was beating down, and when we tried to close the curtain to block it out, the curtain flapped in the wind and beat me on the head. I had to choose the lesser of two evils, so I picked the beating curtain. Despite the application (3 times!) of sunscreen with SPF 50, I was a bit sunburned from yesterday…so the sun did not feel so good. The bus from Samara to San Jose makes frequent stops for about an hour, and that was a little frustrating, but I tried to just enjoy the scenery and soak in the atmosphere.

There were two younger girls (late teens, early twenties) sitting behind us, and one of them was continuously chattering on her cell phone. Every time I heard it bleep, she picked up and said “ALLO!” about 10 times. I guess reception was not that good, but good grief. I tried really, really hard to consider it part of the experience, but it just didn’t work. My conclusion: loud cell phone talkers are annoying no matter where you are in the world. Period. Thank goodness for my iPod. And Everything But the Girl.

A man got on the bus with some pamphlets and passed them out to everyone…then started talking in the fastest Spanish I have ever heard. I figured out that he was representing a church and they wanted donations (in exchange for candy). I may have donated a bit if I knew what he was talking about, but no one around us spoke English, and my Spanish could not keep up with how fast he spoke. We then stopped at the bus rest area, and James and I decided on fresh pineapple (360 colones for a big piece – about 80ish cents US). We finally arrived in San Jose around 1:30pm, and as soon as we exited the bus, we were greeted by about 20 taxi drivers.

The four of us made our way down the street to a payphone, where I called Leo. We saw him pass by us, but didn’t know it was him at the time. 🙂 He was waiting for us when I called, and met us on the sidewalk. His van was in excellent condition, and he turned on the a/c for us. Whew.

Leo started telling us about himself…college educated, fluent in Spanish, French, and English, owns his own tour company, etc. He obviously loves what he does, and made us feel comfortable right away.

He informed us that we were heading into Braulio Carrillo National Park – it was more like Jurassic Park. The highway curves through the rainforest, and Leo explained that it took 10 years to build the highway. There were continuous mudslides which delayed the process, and we could see evidence of that along the way. He stopped for us to take some pictures:

Leo called these Elephant Ears or The Poor Man’s Umbrella. I wish I would have had my hand in this shot for comparion because it was HUGE.

The temperature dropped pretty noticeably while we drove through the rainforest and it felt so great to open the windows and feel fresh, cool air. I read that this rainforest is home to over 6,000 species of plants and over 333 species of birds. Other common animals and reptiles are the jaguar, ocelot, bushmaster snake (“Matabuey”), or the feared fer-de-lance snake (“Terciopelo”) (source: infocostarica.com). It was lush and beautiful and took my breath away.

Leo continued to answer our questions…we asked why bananas have blue bags over them:

(note the oil pipeline in front):

(The bags are primarily used to protect against insects and inclement weather.)

The four of us were hungry, so we asked Leo to stop for comida tipica. He choose a place with a little moat surrounding it, and said the food is better because it is cooked on a wood stove.

The beans were SOOOO good!

We were driving on the road toward Limon, which is Costa Rica’s main Caribbean port. Because of this, the roads are VERY VERY active with dump trucks, 18 wheelers, and other large commercial vehicles. I don’t know the last time I saw so many large trucks in just a couple of hours! The highways to Limon seemed to be much better than most other places. Well, at least until we were about 60 km from Puerto Viejo.

The roads are awful. What should have take about an hour took closer to two; the large pot holes sometimes meant one-way traffic, and going fast was out of the question. I can’t speak for James, Jay, or Andrea, but I know I am very thankful that we had a driver who was careful and experienced. It started to get dark with about 20 minutes left in the journey, and there was no way I would have wanted to be behind the wheel.

We arrived at Banana Azul around 7pm. Colin greeted us, and we said our hellos while Leo got our bags out for us.

I really must include Leo’s information here. I am referring him because I truly believe he is worth every penny we paid; he is great at what he does and really helped us understand more about the country. Even in a half-day drive, we learned a lot! He does tours and transfers all over Costa Rica and here is his contact information:
Leonardo Rodriguez
Costa Rica telephone number: (506) 378-0001
Email: leratravelcr@yahoo.com
If you would like more references, please visit Fodors.com, tripadvisor.com, and frommers.com. He receives rave reviews from everyone who uses his services.

Tags: Puerto Viejo, Samara/Carrillo, San Jose, Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Puerto Viejo, Samara/Carrillo, San Jose, 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.