// Costa Rica… Waterfalls and going solo//
I last spoke about headng towards Montezuma, I have fallen seriously behind on the blog as I’ve aready been to Panama and I’m back in Costa Rica, solo again.
Let me rewind a bit.
We had a really really long journey to Montezuma, we had to get a taxi, two busses and a boat… but we were finally there. As soon as we stepped off the bus there was lady with flyers in her hand advertising her hostel, telling us to go and check it out. It was the first tiem this had happened to me in Central America, it’s quite a regular thing for hostels to do that in South East Asia. We decided that we had nothing to loose by going to check it out, she said it was right on the beach, that she had rooms, they had there own bathrooms, and there was AC. What’s not to love, actually I’n bit a huge fan of AC, but the rest sounded amazing.
When we got there we were not dissapointed, it was the perfect location, we were about a stones throw from the chrashing waves, and about a two min walk to the the beach, and all the places to eat. We were happy, we decided to go for the tripple room, and after drawing ‘who draws the shortest blade of grass’ I was even happier to have my own bed. woohoo!
As we had arrived mid afternoon we went to lunch, mmmm, a massive pizza and headed for the beach. That night we decided we weer to full for a full meal, just as we left to go out and get snacks is started to our down with rain, in a matter of seconds we were soaked through. There’s always something hilarious about running through the rain, unprepared and laughing hysterically about it. We got back, sat on the balcony with the sound of the waves, the smell of the rain and cheap drinks and food to keep us occupied.
The next morning disaster struck… I had to use the loo, so I did BUT then the flush didn’t work. This seems like TMI, but my god the loo breaking when you’re sharing a room is horrifying. Lucky we got over it, and somehow it magically fixed itself a few hours later… not without a bit of panic on my side.
We were heading to the waterfall that day, now to all of us, it didn’t sound like it was going to particularly difficult. I decided that a a skirt and plimsoles would be fine. uh… no it wasn’t. NEVER EVER go on a semi-long walk to a waterfall wearing plimsoles… ever, I felt like i was slipping all over the place. The other problem I have is part of my short person syndrome, where I looked at the space between two rocks in the river and wondered how on earth my legs would be able to make that leap… they just about did, and twice I relied on a complete stranger to hold my hand like a baby. (fail). But we made it, it was lovely, just a shame that the water was muddy brown after so much rain, and that fact that there were a group of girls seemingly trying to out playboy, playboy…weird. It made for a nice afternoon, despite how crappy I was at walking across the rocks with confidence. I prefer to go crab like, stay closer the ground, walk sidewards, hover over things till you know you can make the leap.
The next day I was heading off on my own, since joining up with my new friends ‘T, K, H’ (their initials) I hadn’t done much alone, I thought that for my sake I had to go off and try and do a bit more on my own. They were heading to a national park, I didn’t want to, nor could I afford to do. So I was heading to Orosi Valley. The night before I asked about the bus, was there one that then picked you up and took you to San Jose straight away… yes yes they told me. Uh, no again. I got to the bus station at 8am, confused already, the bus was not departing yet. I asked some ladies about the bus and the told me what I had to do, so I thanked them and got chatting while waiting. One of the ladies had traveled a fair amount, and she was letting me about her time in India. Then she proceeded to say:
Her: “Oh yes, I love India. Such a beautiful country. It’s just so scary how many Muslims are there.”
Me:”Uh, I’m an Indian Muslim, why’s it so scary?”
It got a bit awkward after that.
When we were on the bus, there was another lady that sat next to me, it turned out she spoke English. She was a Christian Missionary from Mexico. She was a lovely lady, telling me about one her Indian friends, and we proceeded to discuss what our shared beliefs are, and then she tried to give me a bunch of leaflets. I politely declined saying I can’t carry them as I’m backpacking. She was a lovely lady, made me laugh.
I plugged into my ipod once we were on the boat, keeping myself to myself. I spotted two other backpackers. Always good to spot them, they might become your allies, but till then I was keeping myself to myself. At the other end I had to work out which bus stop I had to go to, the regular thing is to take a taxi, I thought I’d wait for the two guys I saw earlier and see if they wanted to share one. Turns out they were going to walk to bus station… so I joined them. Without actually knowing if this station actually had the bus I needed. *shrugs* Only I’m idiot enough to do something silly like that, and actually tell the tale afterwards.
We walked for a while, man oh man was I tired. Midday heat is not pleasant to walk in, especially when you’re wearing semi thick long trousers with a backpack on your front and back, wearing flip flops. It also didn’t help that one of the guys seemed like a total moron, who kept saying he was going to learn this popular Spanish song that plays everywhere and then get loads of Spanish Girls. I couldn’t help but mentally kick myself in head. Other than that, they were ok.
When we got to the bus station, I separated from them to work out if I could even get my bus from here. I asked a cleaner and he just pointed me in the direction I needed to go rather sweetly. I headed over and got my ticket. Turns out I had missed my bus by about 7 mins (aurgh!), I had a one hour wait on my hands, and I was the only foreigner sitting in the bus station. One of the main problems about travelling alone is when you have to pee. Seriously. I really had to go to the loo, but who was going to watch my stuff? Did I really want to take it all the way over the bathroom with me… not really. So after a few minutes of hesitation I made a quick run for the bathroom, just keeping my day bag with documents in it with me. And made a quick dash back out. I then breathed a sigh of relief to see that it had not been touched. Then I wanted to eat, but I held off, when I finally thought let me get up and grab something, the bus turned up. Guess I was going to stay hungry.
In San Jose, I thought I could be real clever and walk to the next bus stop. You see, they’re all run by different companies, so you’ll get into one place, and have to make your way to another part of town for a connecting bus to the next place you want to go. At first I was fine, following my rather shitty map in the LP, then I realised I was lost and started asking traffic wardens and police which directon to head in, I carried on walking. I wasn’t going to give in and use a cab. I could do this! Then you end up in a slightly dodgy area of town, lots of men, garages, and weird bars… and I thoughts to myself ‘I really should get out of here’. Luckily I did, and I managed to get the next bus.
So to sum up, I had got the bus to the port in Montezuma, then from Puntarenas I walked, then I got a bus to San Jose, then I had to get a bus to a place called Cartago, then I had to take another bus to the actual vally, and then walk to my hostel….which I hadn’t booked.
I managed to get my bus to Cartago, upon getting closer to town I asked a woman sitting next to me where I should get the next bus. I did this by pointing to the location in my guidebook. She didn’t speak any English, so when She told em to get off at the same stop as her, I thought she was saying get off at the next stop. I only realized my mistake as she shouted to me as the doors of the bus closed…shit. Lucky the next stop wasn’t far, and I just had to walk on myself, and then find the next bus. What a mess this trip was, a mess but I couldn’t deny that it wasn’t an experience. I was only worried, because I was turning up in to town, without having anywhere booked, in the dark. It almost reminded me of a time last year in Indonesia.
Two men helped me out, and they told me where to jump out. It was dark by then, I went into a store to ask for directions, which they gave me, but I still managed to get further lost. Then from quite loads of dogs from inside gates started barking at me, I was like ‘shit, i have to find this hostel’. People were super helpful though, people just stopped and gave me directions, and eventually I made it. It was completely dark from the outside, and the dogs started barking. A girl showed up and opened the gate and checked me in. I was the only guest in the whole place. I was pretty sure I might be the only guest in the whole town… that was a somewhat surreal feeling.
The next day I asked about how to get to the hot springs. I was exited about doing the short hike, about 3 hours and hot springs to reward me!
Me: ” Do you have a map to the hot springs?”
Lady: *looks at me blankly*
Me: “A map?”
Lady: “You shouldn’t go, many thief’s. You will get robbed. I can recommend you other places”.
Just great, I had really wanted to go to the hot springs, but I had then decided to go to the waterfall. It was actually a good trip, but I had this dog that followed me the whole way… everywhere. I waled up, enjoying the exercise, feeling a bit more tired. There was a guy who owns the land, he turned out not to speak any English, and as we are well aware I speak no Spanish. Somehow we managed to get along, and he showed me around his house, the land, and the waterfalls. He managed to explain and I managed to understand what he was saying about the fossils that showed how the whole area was all water at an earlier age, and gave me some banana’s. Its funny how two people that don’t speak the same language could actually understand each other. He was a cool guy, and sort of reminded me of one of my uncles.
The next day I headed back to San Jose, on another long bus trip, which was just as eventful, I stayed there for a night. Then I journeyed to Panama. However, that explanation will have to come a little later.
Zaynab. xoxo
