This bus station, Caribenos, was a large bus station with many busses, but they were well-marked and easy to find their destinations. My bus left at 9am on Saturday so I left the house at 7:30 to make sure that I had enough time to get there. I usually walk to the bus stations when I leave in the morning since it's a nice walk and nice to get some fresh air and see more of the city. The walk to the Coca-Cola station for Jaco was about 45 minutes, and the walk to Caribenos was about the same. On the first bus, I met a husband and wife from Spain who were going to Tortuguero as well, so we decided to stick together. They only spoke Spanish, so from the beginning, all I spoke was Spanish.
At the bus terminal, we met a tour guide that was heading to Tortuguero as well and he informed us that the second bus would pick us up from this station before heading to the station a few blocks down. So, throughout the second bus ride (which was an old school bus), I listened to the guide give us information about the island and activities that were available there as well as about the areas that we passed. We passed banana plantations, coffee plantations, chocolate plantations, and plantations of many other fruits. The bus stopped many times to let locals get off, but stopped twice to let merchants come onto the bus to sell their food. The first was selling small sandwich bags full of meat and yucca which I bought for $2. It was delicious! A home-made meal right from the farm! The second was selling bread and cheese, but I didn't buy any.
Banana plantation -- All of the blue bags are protection for the bananas.
Chocolate Trees. Chocolate comes from trees. Chocolate is healthy.
Finally, we arrived at the last station which is where the boats were. We walked down the shoreline to these long boats that had to hold 30-40 people; 3 people wide by 10-15 long. The motors on these boats were anywhere from 18 to 140 hp motors, depending on whose boat, but even the locals' boats were long skinny boats like the one we were on.
The boat ride itself was an adventure. The captain drove from the back and his first mate was in front with a long 14' long stick (it was huge!) making sure that the boat didn't hit anything and helping it get unstuck when it ran aground. On a number of occasions, the first mate had to jump out and pull or push the boat along when it ran aground. One time, the boat spun 90degrees and both the captain and first mate had to jump in the water and un-stick us. It was cool to watch (and comforting to know that I didn't have to go in with them).
Just one of the many beautiful rainforest pictures.
And another beautiful picture. Oh, what it would be like to live on this water.
Not a day goes by that I miss the water just a bit. Glad I got to spend this time with their rivers.
When we finally arrived at the island, I said goodbye to the guide and Spanish couple and met the man from my hotel that met us at the dock. There, I found that the Tico family of 8 people that we had seen on the first bus was staying at my hotel as well. Keep in mind that none of them spoke English, either. The mother asked me where my parents were. I laughed. She thought the Spanish couple was my parents! I told her that I was traveling alone and her immediate response was: "It's ok. We'll adopt you for the weekend."
Their sheets were so prettily made at this hostel. I had to take a picture of it.
There was a girl, a daughter, and her boyfriend who were my age and went to University in Heredia, which is near San Jose in the next province (about a 40 minute bus ride). The three of us hung out all weekend. It turns out that the girl was a Processing Engineering major just like me! That was amazing to find out. We met up with the guide from earlier while we were having lunch together and decided to go on a night hike with him. I thought the Spanish couple would be going as well, but their plans had changed, so it was just the three of us and the guide. We walked in the forest looking for snakes and spiders and tarantulas. I learned about their turtle watching system when it is mating season (October) and heard some funny stories about some of their past snake finds. It was very interesting.
I found this crab! Photo courtesy of my Tico friend.
Ew. Bugs!
I found this snake as well. The only snake of the night. Just curled up on the leaf while we took photos.
It rained that night. Hard. But, thankfully that was after we just got back from our late night excursion. The next morning, we got up early to watch the sunrise, although it was too cloudy for a perfect sunrise, we still enjoyed taking pictures and enjoying the waves.
This was at sunrise; too many clouds.
So, we took creative pictures.
And documented our adventures.
Our initial plan was to leave on the 11:00 boat, but then the family decided to stay until the last boat of the day at 2:45. Now, I was very conscious that if we left too late, we'd miss the last bus to San Jose that according to the schedule left at 5, and I'd be stranded somewhere. We asked a bunch of people if the 2:45 boat would connect to the next two busses. One person told me that the third bus wouldn't connect but the second bus would wait for the boat, but I wasn't sure if I could trust him because he gave me bad information about the times that the boats left. Other people said that the third bus would wait for the second bus, so I decided to enjoy a few hours with this Tico family. I figured they could help me navigate the bus system so I didn't have to ride on my own.
Saying Goodbye to Tortuguero.
Half the family decided to stay another night while the two people my age and the two younger brothers (11 and 3 years old) left with me on the 2:45 boat because they had work and school at 8 the next morning. We got to the boat at 2:15 (some people told us that the boat left at 2:30 and we didn't want to miss it if it did leave at a different time then was posted). It rained again while we were waiting for the boat, so I was very glad to have my umbrella. The boat ended up coming an hour late at 3:30. Then, the 1-2 hour boat ride took 3 hours (our captain decided to take a 2 minute smoke break halfway through). He didn't hit anything on the way back and didn't run aground, so I think he must have been traveling a lot slower than the boat to the island.
Same beautiful rainforest.
With interesting trunks of their downed trees.
And cows chilling on the banks. One bank had dozens of cows.
So, the bus was 1 hour late and it was a 3 hour boat ride. We arrived at the dock at 6.
The second bus did wait for the boat, as many people had said. As we were boarding the bus, the bus driver was running from the drivers seat to the engine in the back trying to get it started. It wasn't working. Finally, just as the last people were boarding the bus, he was able to get it started. And we were off! We arrived at the next bus stop at 7:30, where we were supposed to catch the bus to San Jose. But there weren't any busses to San Jose there. Uh-oh. After a talk with the station chief, we discovered that the last bus to San Jose did, indeed, leave at 5. We were 2 hours too late.
So, what did we do? We had an adventure! We went from this station in Cariari to Guapiles (40 minutes by bus) that would take us 40 minutes closer to San Jose. We would only have an hour bus ride in the morning and the earliest bus that left from Guapiles was at 5 in the morning. We asked this bus driver to drop us off at a hostel for the night in Guapiles and he did. We arrived at the hostel at 10pm, got a room with 3 beds for the 5 of us, and called it a night.
We then got up at 4 the next morning, walked the three blocks to the station, and arrived at San Jose by 6:15. I was home by 6:45, with plenty of time to relax before breakfast at 7:30 and school at 8. I'm pretty sure that my Tico friends made it on time to their work and school at 7:30 as well.
What an amazing adventure!!!!! The things I learned from this experience:
1. Travel alone. Explore. Take calculated risks. Meet new people.
2. Speak only the foreign language. You'll be surprised just how much you really know.
3. Take a chance. If you miss a bus by going to a new place, you just have to find a hotel for the night. No big deal.
4. Always take an extra change of clothes with you whenever you go anywhere, just in case.
5. Take extra money and snacks with you whenever you go anywhere.
6. Check and double check. And even then, be aware that not everyone knows what is going on. Relax and enjoy the adventure.
7. Pura Vida!
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