21 hour roundtrip to Puntarenas

I originally wrote this for the Volunteer Experiences section of the SCLC website at work, which is a blog describing the various events and experiences living here in Sarapiqui Costa Rica, but I wanted to share it here too. So I have changed and added a few photos for here, but unfortunately many funny, sometimes hilarious, but always incriminating details and moments of our trip had to be omitted from the original article. Such as, the many people passed out drunk on the beach when we arrived, or how delicious Coconut rum was drunk with coconut water, or Cena throwing her hot dog and Chinese food on to the hood of the car for me to watch so she could get pulled up on stage to dance, or later handing me all of her possessions in a cowboy hat so she could run off in to the ocean after dancing up a sweaty storm, or the very drunk people on the bus scarfing down boxes of fried chicken with a beer still in hand. 

Puntarenas

The alarm went off at 2:30am. It can’t possibly be morning yet. Why would we leave at this god awful hour. This bed is so comfy. Can we hit snooze once more? All of these things flashed through our minds as we slowly and begrudgingly got out of bed, put on our pre-laid out clothes, grabbed our pre-packed bag and headed out the door across the street to Ana Jancy’s.

Much to our surprise, when we got there at 2:50am, everyone was already there. In fact, we were the last 2 to arrive. Mental note, when it comes to the beach, Ticos are extremely punctual. Everyone was already in beach wear, sipping coffee, coolers and bags by the door, patiently waiting for the bus to arrive. 3am on the dot the bus arrived, everyone piled in, and we took off on the 3 hour sleepy bus ride through the biological corridor, through Northern affluent San Jose, to the Pacific coast and the peninsula of Puntarenas.

Shortly after 6am we arrived. Passing small groups of drunk people still returning home from the night before ,we found a place to park among the empty stands and booths of the Carnaval and unloaded the van and all the coolers and bags Ana had brought to feed us all. Within minutes we found a table and she had set up her ‘kitchen’ and started making coffee, pulling out enough containers of sweet bread so that we would still have leftovers on the ride home 14 hours later.

Once we had absorbed enough of the magical healing powers of coffee, we soaked up our surroundings, taking in the beauty that is the early morning beach. Complete of course with tents, people waking up, and people still sleeping off the night before.

The next 6 hours passed like any other day in a beach town. People laying on the beach, swimming in the ocean, playing cards at a table in the shade, checking out the stands, listening to drummers, and then music from the grandstand. Not to mention the downsides of beach towns that include paying 1$ to go to the bathroom, 2$ for every bottle of water, 3$ for every coconut water, 4$ for hats to protect from the sun, and 10$ to rent a plastic table and chairs to move in to the shade.

About 3-4 o’clock is when things started heating up. The music started pumping from not only the grandstand, but several other booths, bars, and huts. People started drying themselves off from the ocean one last time, changing out of swimsuits in 1$ change rooms (or quickly for free in the sweltering bus), and wandering off in to the crowds of el Carnaval.

Shortly before the vaguely discussed time to go, everyone from Ana and her husband, to Yazmin and Jasmin, to Elena and Caitlin who had been on the ferry and at a separate beach, found themselves around the same place on the street near the bus either listening to or dancing to the intense beat of the drum group that first appeared earlier in the day.

Later around 8pm, after much dancing, the drum group finally disbanded and wandered off to find their own fiesta, and everyone slowly made their way back to the bus for the 3-4 hour trip back. As the bus managed to break itself free from the party that had surrounded it and we departed Puntarenas for Sarapiqui, some were already soundly sleeping in their seats, some still wet from the ocean, some eating fried chicken and passing around the leftover sweet bread from the morning, and some still chattering away about the excitement of the night.

Magical moments around every corner

Today marks one month since we left Bogota and set foot in Costa Rica (still another day until we would arrive here), and what a month it’s been. Absolutely flew by. The days here aren’t always magical, but there is always a magical quality to them.

Take yesterday for example. Cena and I spent a wonderful morning together enjoying her favourite morning food and relaxing in the hammock. As we were finishing she reminded me that it was Valentine’s day, and had a surprise for me later in the day. We then went to work and it was our turn to cook lunch for everyone so we headed to the kitchen to do recon on our stock and start preparing. Between then and eating, I managed to give myself a 2nd degree steam burn on my left thumb as well as a blister on my right finger. I spent the entire rest of the work afternoon, which included teaching, with sterile gauze wrapped around my thumb and latex glove with ice inside as a cold compress. But then, rather than enjoy a peaceful lunch as per usual, the Smiths (names changed for my protection) stopped by.

They’re the owners of the lodge next door, Selva Verde, as well as us, CECOS. They had been here all week popping in for visits, meetings, and tours of the building in which 80 year old Mrs Smith pointed out absolutely everything that she felt was wrong about the building (which turns out is close to everything) and what she would like done (which turns out is so unrealistic that it makes one question her sanity) while her daughter and our bosses followed taking copious notes and restraining themselves from suicide with their keychain lanyards. Yesterday was supposed to be their last day but they announced that they would actually be here for 5 more days... Then scheduled a meeting with Jenny (Boss B) after hours over the weekend, to her delight, before sitting down. Not to eat with us peasants of course, but to symbolically be there when we presented Raquel (Boss A) with a cake and bid her farewell and good luck as she leaves us today to go work in San Jose for the Selva Biological Corridor.

Then after the afternoon icing my thumb I taught my favourite class filled entirely with boys, and spent an hour and a half constantly asking/reminding them to simply speak English. After I finished and the boys left, the last one wished me Happy Valentine’s day, reminding me for the 2nd time. After locking up, oddly Cena wasn’t there to pick me up but had sent me a text telling me she was busy and to just meet her at home. When I walked up the yard to the house I could immediately smell a delicious aroma seeping out of the front door and window. She greeted me with an enormous and delighted smile, as usual, and then presented me with the best smelling rose of life, and a bottle of antibiotic cream for my burn. (True love.) Then brought me to the kitchen where she showed me the real surprise. She had made tapas!! To be specific, homemade beef dip tapas with peppercorn gouda cheese and au jus, and an incredibly aromatic brushetta with garden fresh tomatoes and cilantro. She had also bought the ingredients to make vino tinto to have along with our tapas.

As it turns out, I actually had a little surprise (very modest in compared with hers, but still food related), to give her too, obviously unrelated to Valentine’s day as I kept forgetting, but hers definitely out shown mine. So I have it prepared and waiting to have her taste it today.

Life here is like that though. It’s not all rainbows and sunshine, as is demonstrated by our evening terror scattering and sprinting to the fly swatter from the biggest flying bugs (or crawling bugs) we’ve ever seen, that decide at least a few times a week to pay us a visit. Or the fact that we have to wait along the highway for anywhere between 2 and 25 minutes in the pounding sun to take a hot bus in to town to get some groceries or find an atm. Or again that a downpour can strike at any minute soaking you to the bone, as it did Cena this week while she was walking to work (along a busy highway I might add) and unfortunately wearing a white t-shirt. Or going to the bathroom to find a huge lizard in the shower (as opposed to the little geckos that live everywhere in the house).

However, living here there are always magical moments waiting to be discovered around every corner. Walking back from the store to be invited in to your neighbours house for a cafecito and delicious sweet bread and end up spending the next hour and a half there. Or seeing other neighbours walk by on their way to the river and invite you along, and end up spending the next 2 hours jumping from a majestic looking place at the end of a path, swinging from yet another rope swing, and swimming trying to battle the current. Or those golden moments in the morning when the sun is shining through every orifice of the house, a plethora of birds are chirping away right outside (and sometimes inside), and the air and temperature are perfect. Or finding a lizard in your shower. Or in the afternoon at work taking a moment to look out at the magic that is the river and the rainforest. Or looking up your computer or book at work to see howler monkeys, iguanas having sex, bullet ants, butterflies, toucans, and poison-dart and blue-jean frogs. Or again with all the trips, tours and experiences we’ve been invited along to: the afternoon rafting down the Sarapiqui, the day catching lunch and a receiving a leisurely guided tour of the almost self-sustaining Finca Sura (finca=farm) and spending the next week enjoying freshly picked lime from the tree, the entire day at the beach and Carnaval at Puntarenas drinking water straight from coconuts, or the hours enjoying the breathtaking view and jumping from the bridge (others, not us) and rope swing at the swimming hole.

I sincerely look forward to many more months here.