Mortaine’s Blog

I just spent 15 minutes and about 50 cents typing out a long version of this, which I lost through a stupid keyboard stroke. FUCK.

Let me try to re-create it…..

John and I are in La Fortuna, after a lengthy and somewhat threatening (of property theft, not personal injury) bus trip through the mountains.

We started in Heredia, and had a very frustrating morning trying to find the bus stop for the San Jose bus. In San Jose, we had a frustrating time trying to find the bus stop to La Fortuna. We went to an ATM and it wouldn´t acknowledge that John´s account has any money in it, which may get difficult later in the trip. We ended up walking across San Jose twice to finally get to the correct stop, which was about 2 blocks from where we´d been dropped off from Heredia. Whoops.

I was nervous about putting our backpacks underneath the bus, having heard horror stories of people losing their luggage on the way to La Fortuna, and that crime on this bus line is rampant. In fact, under the bus is the safest place to put your bags on this particular bus line, because they give you a claim check, they check it against the numbers when you take your bags, and according to a local, if your bag is stolen there, they´ll cover the cost of its contents.

Compare that to the couple inside the bus who, while they were right there, had their bags stolen out of the overhead rack. There´s a lot of confusion on the bus, and a lot of people get on for one or two stops (mostly, from what we can tell, thieves; the locals we rode with stayed on for more than a stop). In this case, one guy distracted her with questions while his accomplice robbed them blind (mind you, this was during the musical chairs, where people seem to give up their seats to one another in a show of goodwill– in fact, this particular act of goodwill was swapping seats one for the other so they could carry off the deed). Here´s a tip: if a Tico sitting next to you gives up his seat to a younger man, the two are probably trying to confuse you so you´ll lose your bag.

I was glad John and I got seats together, to sort of protect against this caper.

Anyway, about three hours into the trip, we noticed a lot of traffic ahead. John´s comment was “uh oh” and our bus pulled up to a traffic jam on a one-lane road. It turns out a trailer truck had jacknifed and was stuck in the ditch. It would be a 3 hour wait while the tow truck arrived. We were welcome to get off and return to the bus later. We got off, got our packs, just in case, and headed up the road to a nice roadside bar, where we had several beers and lunch. We met a local woman, Cindy, who gave us a lift into San Carlos, about a mile up the road.

Having had such a call to adventure land in our laps, I was tempted to stay in San Carlos for the night, but since Cindy dropped us at the bus station, John recommended we catch the next La Fortuna bus and be done with our travels for a while. So we did.

When we got on, there weren´t 2 seats together, and I tried sitting down only to be told by some Tica matriarch something lengthy in Spanish which boiled down to why I couldn´t sit there (it was “occupado” by someone who wasn´t on the bus at that moment). John had already found a seat (behind the matriarch– everyone who got on the bus seemed to know her), and he graciously let me sit and he stood for the whole 90 minute bus ride. We were worried still about theft, so we both kept our arms near his pocket, where his wallet was. Unlike the previous bus service, this one carried no guarantees about luggage stowed below, so when we got out, we were quick to retrieve our packs.

We got off the bus and were met by several dozen shucksters trying to get our hotel business. We had already planned to go to a certain Cabinas, so we said “We already have plans” to one of them. He said “Oh, but I´m in the Lonely Planet guide– see, here!” As he points to the entry in Lonely Planet describing the exact hotel we were planning to visit.

It turns out this is Mario, who I´ve read about online in connection with absolutely amazing personally guided tours, so we´re now booked to visit the volcano and hot springs tonight.

We tried to wash some clothes last night, but they didn´t dry by this morning, so we dropped them off at a laundry before breakfast. We´re picking them up in a few minutes ($3-1kg, rush job).

Dinner last night was pineapple pizza and lots of drinks, and was very expensive at the American-style hotel we stopped at for dinner. I think it came out to about $22, with the 23% taxes.

Anyway, that´s the news that´s fit to print.