We got another early start (5:00 AM) that next day, ready to catch the 6:00 bus from the Cahuita townsite to San Jose. We were told that the Hotel Atlantida’s “Morning Man” would drive us into town to the bus stop. It didn’t help our normal travel anxieties that by 5:50, there was still no Morning Man to take us to the bus stop. Well, we thought, I guess we will end up taking the 11:00 bus to San Jose.
Just as soon as we resigned ourselves to that scenario, the Morning Man showed up to drive us and drop us off at the bus stop.
Amazingly, the Morning Man did managed to get us to the bus stop at 6:00, but not that that did us any good, because there was no bus there waiting. So we just hung around at the bus stop looking around and waiting. Downtown Cahuita was not a very attractive place. Around us stood a collection of decrepit buildings, a rundown dumpy-looking park, and about fifteen mangy dogs walking down the gravel-littered streets, sniffing each other.
We waited and waited and it wasn’t until 7:30 that the bus to San Jose finally arrived. The fare was $6.25 each and we got to San Jose at 11:00. We headed straight to our usual accommodation at the Costa Rica Inn, where we had reservations.
After dropping off our bags in our room, we headed to McDonald’s for lunch. I settled for a chicken burger, fries, and Coke, while Joan went for the Big Mac Combo. Our meal cost us $9.50 CAD. Our appetites sated, we headed back out onto the city streets to checkout what souvenirs we might buy for friends and relatives back home, that gave us some idea about how many Traveller’s Cheques we should cash into colones.
We still had enough colones to buy a big Indian pot and a tropical wood sample plaque and an anti-Columbus T-shirt. The big Indian Pot is shown above. Because it was so big, we couldn’t carry it in or bags, so we had to mail it to McBride. When it finally arrived, it was in pieces, and we had to glue it back together the best we could. The tropical wood sampler wall hanging is shown below.
We ate our evening meal at a buffet where I ate a lot of chicken and rice, then back to our hotel room and very tired, by 8:00. As we pondered the day’s events, we were thankful that our vacation’s last chaotic bus ride, featuring wild drivers, speeding, and passing, was behind us. Those rural buses were not a very relaxing way to travel.
Take a look at my paintings: davidmarchant2.ca
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