Nuevos Amigos

We had to wake up very early to get the public buses to take us to Jacó so at least we could have more time on the beach. We waited for the first bus after walking down the red dirt road to the corner where it was supposed to pick us up. There at the corner was a local man waiting for the bus too. Apparently, it came 45 minutes earlier so a taxi driver droves us for a great price directly to the town where we needed to catch the ferry which would take us to Puntarenas so from there we could get on a public bus to Jacó. On the taxi ride we met a guy traveling from Paris, France on a vacation and we chatted with him for awhile until he got off at the stop to head to Montezuma. Everything worked our beautifully as far as traveling by the public buses and ferry system. We only had to wait 30 minutes at each stop. The ferry ride was interesting and also a great way to look at all the scenery. We met a new family that was sitting behind on us on the ferry. They had an eleventh month old daughter who was completely content and happy. She was easily entertained by wearing her dad’s sunglasses and eating a bag of cheetos. We actually also met a girl who just graduated from Carolina on the ferry too! She is from Aiken! Who would have thought we would meet a girl from our part of the country? She had been traveling with friends and was heading back to Carolina Friday before she moved to Colorado. We arrived in Puntarenas, the one place that I said I did not care for around 10:30 am. It was so miserably hot outside. It was a different kind of hot than what we are used to in the south; much more intense and the humidity that was involved didn’t even compare to what we experience at home. After walking 3 blocks to the station to buy the bus ticket and then the three blocks back to where the bus picks us up we were drenched in sweat from head to toe. Thank goodness that I had my bathing suit on! When the buses arrived a few minutes before to head to Quepos/ Manuel Antonio and the other to our destination there was major chaos occurring accompanied by mass confusion. Through all of this chaos and confusion we didn’t know that we were about to make two people who would have made the rest of our time in Costa Rica much more memorable and become great friends in the end. This new friendship all started with one man who seemed a little bit out there that works for the bus station, told us to get on the bus to Quepos because it was going to Jacó as well. Unfortunately for him, he was wrong. He gave us looks like we were stupid for just sitting there and not getting on it but then after we put our bags under the bus and proceeded to get on the driver said no you have to get on the other one!! With that said, I was getting pretty perturbed, and I could tell that two guys that seemed around our age appearing to be local tico surfers felt the exact same way. We ran around to the other side of the bus grabbed our bags, for them surfboards saying some things in Spanish that were not so nice. They helped us shove our bags under the other bus and then presented our blue bus tickets to the driver having to hurry to sit in a seat before he jolted off down the road. The surfer boys sat directly across from us I don’t think quite as out of breath as Emily and I and before we were in 10 minutes of the trip us four were having a conversation. This conversation to our surprise would last for four days. Matt and Carlos, good friends from California were dressed in your typical surfer outfit, the surf shorts, flip flops, a sleeveless shirt, with very tan skin, and a very carefree attitude. We found out that they were from California; about an hour from L.A. Matt is my age, 22 and Carlos only 20 he did not look 20 by any means. He would eventually get mad at Emily and I for teasing him for being the youngest out of all of us. Matt, who is tall, had longer shaggy hair, and two tattoos; one on the inside of each arm that stood for his religious beliefs. At one point he was in seminary school because he wanted to become a priest. Now he has changed his mind and wants to be a history professor at a University. Along the way to Jacó we exchanged stories of things we’ve done, people we have met, and places we have been along the way. They by far have some of the best stories out of anyone that I have met traveling in Costa Rica. They lived in Jacó for about a month in an apartment and after that traveled to different places on a bike with their two proud possessions: surfboard and skateboard in tow. One place for example was Witch’s Rock. To get to Witch’s Rock takes quite the endurance and a knack for adventure. They hitch hiked, crossed rivers, rode bikes with handmade racks found from a landfill if I can remember correctly. At one point they were unable to cross so they sat and camped out until the river had better conditions. They lost some things along the way, but nothing really important. When they finally reached Witch’s Rock, they were literally by themselves on this secluded beach and had to camp out on the sand. They said at times they didn’t sleep while being there because of all of the animal noises and crabs crawling on them and pinching them in the middle of the night. They ate food they caught and surfed some of the most amazing intense waves they had seen. The pictures Emily and I were shown had some incredible sunsets. Compared to our adventure I would have to say that the boys’ adventure tops them all. I was stunned by their stories and at some points almost somewhat jealous because of their adventurous, spontaneous side. Half way through the bus ride, two people sitting in front of me decided to move to the front of the bus. I’m guessing it was due to our great conversation and loud laughter that was taking over the area the four of us were occupying. The time flew by and before we knew it we arrived to Jacó around 1:00 pm. The boys had to go check to see if they could get their apartment again but decided to meet Emily and I at the Pops Ice cream store because we were all craving it, more for the cold air conditioning of the inside than the ice cream. The ice cream was just a bonus. After our treat, we all decided to look for a hostel together because their apartment didn’t work out. We started walking down the road and came across a cabina. It was only forty dollars for the night and so Emily and I decided to get a room and they decided they would get a room. It turned out that Emily and I got the room next to the laundry mat so our room was muggier and more humid than on the outside. After we dropped off our stuff, Em and I went to the beach for a while to relax and get some sun. it was so hot out that we didn’t stay very long. Maybe 2 hours at the most. Along the way, we had about 10 different people come up to us or yell out to us if we wanted surf lessons. I started to get pretty perturbed because they wouldn’t go away. Our new friends of ours and us went to a small hamburger place that was a few blocks from where we were staying. The place made a great hamburger. We all surprisingly ordered the same one: a small hamburger with blue cheese. That night before we made it to the place to eat a huge rain storm made an appearance. I mean we literally took two steps outside of the gate from our cabina and the sky fell out. Thank goodness for the umbrellas. We weren’t sure if we were going to go out, more or less played it by ear, but for the next couple hours we sat outside the boys’ room since it was cooler outside and listened to music, played cars, had drinks, and got to know each other. They asked us all about the South and if there really are southern belles that movies and books make girls out to be, along with the differences in our Universities, and football and tailgating. You name it, we covered it. I have been to California a couple times in the past so it gave me something to talk about with them and I could understand some of the things they described to Emily. It is really interesting to me because by the end of the night, not even 24 hours after meeting on a public bus, the four of us acted like we have been friends for years. Especially Emily and I together can have an odd sense of humor to other people, but they understood us and we understood them. We could be ourselves comfortably without having to be cautious, sometimes the way you are when you are first getting to know new people at school. After playing countless card games and going through about 3 ipods of music we made the move to venture out to view the night life of Jacó. There was one place called “the Loft” that seemed to be full of people and lots of dancing going on but we decided against that place since the boys would have to pay a cover. We kept walking until we came across a bar called “The Monkey Bar”. This place, along with “The Beatle Bar” were very interesting, not a place with typical tourists or people so to say. The majority of the women in the Monkey Bar were working, and by this I mean many of them were prostitutes. They were all decked out to the nines with the highest heels, lowest cut shirts and either really tight jeans or very short skirts. This is a very common legalized act in this town along with other big touristy towns in Costa Rica. Emily and I were a little overwhelmed so about 30 minutes into just people watching from a high top table in the corner of the place we went back to our comfy seating outside of the room. All four of us talked and laughed ‘til around 3:30 that morning. Emily and I were exhausted and wanted to get up early to be at the beach before it got too hot. Around 8:30 we woke up and then went to wake the boys up to let them know we were heading out to the beach if they wanted to meet us there later. We went to the same spot we were at yesterday watching some of the surfers try to catch some waves during high tide. It didn’t take us long to get into the water to cool off because the sun was intense. A little later Matt and Carlos found us and we just hung out for a while until we decided we were hungry for lunch and we all wanted pizza. I especially did because I started to crave it the night before around 2 am. I was sure glad that we left the beach when we did because in those 3 short hours and many sprays of suntan lotion later I had gotten more sun than I needed. That definitely only made me feel hotter later in the afternoon when we walked around looking at the different souvenir stores and local shops. We had to go buy bus tickets for San Jose early so we would make sure we could make it back that night. We bought tickets for the 6:00 bus so that we wouldn’t be too late getting back since Emma was allowing Emily and I to stay at her house. After venturing out looking at all the different stores it was basically time for us to gather our things and get a taxi to the bus station. Matt and Carlos were so nice by carrying all of our stuff to the taxi and putting it in there. Emily and I told them they should come to San Jose the next day and visit since they hadn’t spent any time there or explored the city; neither had Emily. They actually were all for it and we agreed we would get in touch with us the next morning to let us know what time they would be getting in town. We told them we would meet them at the bus station when their bus arrived. Emily and I made it back into San Jose around 8:00 that night. The bus station we arrived at was not in the best part of downtown San Jose. It was a very dangerous part to be at night, especially for us since we were American girls. We hurried around the corner to get a taxi and a homeless man directed us to a taxi and kept asking for money since he “helped” us find a cab. While I was trying to talk to the driver to give him directions and to make sure he had a meter, the man was on the other side of the cab with one arm inside the door held out asking Emily over and over for money. Poor Emily started freaking out and didn’t know what to do and I kept telling her to shut the door and say “no” “no”. Well, finally I stepped in and told him we didn’t have any money. He slammed the door while screaming “Son of a Bitch” in English. So I said it right back to him in Spanish. The cab ride is another story. We made it all the way across town in about 10 minutes thanks to the crazy, psycho driver that thought he was on a race track and no one else driving while we were. It felt so good to see familiar places along the way, even though trying to concentrate on something happy instead of thinking that we were going to get in an accident. I was very excited to be back and to see Emma and her family. I missed them while we had been traveling. I was also very excited for Emily to get to meet them as well. After ringing the doorbell, Emma came out and at first I think she couldn’t recognize us partially because I think she first saw Emily. Then she saw me and started to make a big fuss. Right away, she made Emily feel like her house was her house to make herself comfortable. Next, I showed Emily around and took her to a room upstairs. While I was doing that, Emma had started to prepare a huge breakfast dinner for us. She made us pancakes, eggs, fruit, coffee, juice, and the best thing that I have had that she has made: an amazing desert. I’m not sure what the name of it was, but I did have her write down the recipe for me because it seems so easy to make. As we sat at the table stuffed from all the food, we caught Emma up on our travels and her past week. After about an hour of talking and watching the newest soap opera on tv, Emily and I called it a night and went to bed. I finished the book I was reading all week before I fell asleep. It was hard to believe that we were at the end of our trip with only one more full day and night in Costa Rica. Hasta Pronto…