Travel and Oxen

6-23-08

So, we have arrived here in Costa Rica, at my uncle Edmund’s bed and breakfast. It was quite a trip; I left from California on Friday the 13^th, with Conor and the cats, and trucked it across our very large country, arriving in New York on the 17^th. Then on the 19^th I took a bus to Boston, and had a great lunch with Kaia, did some shopping, and watched all the Celtics fans going nuts in the streets. That evening I was supposed to get on a plane at 8:30, but in typical fashion the plane was delayed and I didn’t get off the ground until about 10:30, and didn’t get to my hotel in Miami until 2:30 am. Woo! I slept for about three hours and then hoofed it back to the airport to catch my plane to Costa Rica. We took off on time, but had to wait on the tarmac in San Jose because some little plane was in our parking spot. I finally got off and got through immigration only to find that they had lost my backpack in transit. I knew that Antonia was already waiting for me outside of the airport, so I tried to be as expedient as possible—I filed a claim, and the guy said my bag would be delivered the next day, to my uncle’s place in Pueblo Nuevo… I doubted if that would actually happen, but what could I do? I headed over to the ATM to get some colones, but the screen was broken, so I figured I could go out and find one later, before catching the bus.

How great to see Antonia waiting outside for me! We caught a cab to the bus station, and pretty quickly realized that there wasn’t an ATM there either. Luckily Antonia was a lot more prepared than me! She bought our bus tickets, and then we had about an hour and a half to wait until the bus left, at 3:30. Our first bus was pretty plush—air conditioned and with nice seats—and we were on it for about 4 ½ hours to a town called Jicaral where, though we were already on a bus to Bejuco, we had to change to a different bus which did not have air conditioning and had much worse seats for the bumpiest part of the ride. We felt very adventurous, but also a bit like we were in a commercial for those diodes that jiggle your muscles while you sit and watch TV…. After some stops and false alarms, we arrived at Rhodeside at about 11:00. Uncle Ed met us at the bottom of the driveway, and showed us to our rooms. We were pretty beat! Thankfully, Uncle Ed was planning to go in to San Jose the next day, and on hearing that my bag had been lost, he said that he would go retrieve it for me since he was taking one of his neighbors to the airport anyway. Whew!

When we woke up the next day Uncle Ed was already gone on his way, so we were left to our own devices. We decided to walk down to the local store and get some food of our own, and on the way we saw a sign for Playa Bejuco (Bejuco Beach), and thought we would take a detour. It turned out to be a nice walk that ended in a muddy estuary with a whole crowd of black vultures and pelicans, surrounded by fishing boats—the river that runs down from the mountain cut us off from being able to get out to the ocean proper, and so we were stuck standing in the muddy sand, staring at the ocean over a little hill. We learned later that if we had gone the other direction from Rhodeside, we could have come down to the beach from the other direction, and missed the river and the fishing boats entirely! Ah well. It was an adventure. We’re planning to try the alternate route in the next few days. After taking a few pictures of the birds we turned around to walk back to the store. By the time we got there (around 10:30 am) we were so hot and tired that we couldn’t think of buying much more than some cold drinks, but we did manage to think enough ahead that we got some bread and avocado to make sandwiches for lunch.

When we got back to the house there was a note from Uncle Ed’s neighbor Pat, saying that she would come by later, and shortly she did, offering to take us to Playa San Miguel. We went, and it was the beach paradise we had been hoping for at Playa Bejuco! The water was like bath water, and we had the beach to ourselves since the summer—the rainy season—is the off season here. We had a lovely swim, which relieved the heat, and then headed back up to the house. For dinner we tried to make beans and rice along with some stir-fried veggies—the veggies came out great, but the beans were not canned, and therefore didn’t cook as expected. Hence, al dente beans and rice. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds…. That evening Uncle Ed came back by the same bus we had taken, and brought with him my backpack! All was intact, but someone in the customs office had stolen my camera… that’ll teach me to not take it in my carry-on! I’m pretty bummed about that one, but I’m going to try to get a disposable camera when we go back to San Jose, so that when Antonia leaves I’ll still have some way to take pictures. After chatting with Uncle Ed for a while, we all went off to bed.

Sunday morning I had an ATV lesson, and we thus increased our mobility ten-fold. Driving the ATV is actually a lot of fun, and since Antonia doesn’t have any interest in learning how, I get to drive everywhere! After a much more productive trip to the store, Uncle Ed took us down to a beach “resort” (it seems no longer to be in use as a resort, though maybe it’s just closed for the summer… It consists of a single, open bungalow style building with a bar downstairs and a living space in the loft) at Playa San Miguel where we were able to check email, and I could tell Conor that I was still alive! Post our reconnection with the outside world, Uncle Ed went back to Rhodeside and we headed down to El Escorpion Volador (The Flying Scorpion) for lunch, and then back out to the beach for another swim. It was a great day, topped off by having barbecued beef for dinner, a la Edmund. Very tasty! I figure that since it came from Uncle Ed’s friend’s farm over the mountain, the meat’s about as local and organic as you can get.

This morning we got up early for lattes from the Rhodeside coffee bar—WAY better than Starbucks! The coffee bar, in the lower kitchen, is right next to where Uncle Ed is building his new house, so we got to watch his workers pouring cement and digging the foundation over breakfast. It sounds like it’s going to be great addition to this already GORGEOUS property! After breakfast, we hopped in Pat’s truck with Uncle Ed and went to Carmona, a nearby town. To get there we drove over some beautiful mountains and past a whole parade of ox carts—the locals were driving their oxen from Carmona and Jicaral to Pueblo Nuevo for some kind of festival that involved lots of drinking. The carts are all beautifully decorated, and you get an idea of how incredibly powerful oxen are. Hooray for local color! In Carmona we tried to use the ATM, but it was out of commission—something about not being able to communicate with the central computer. So, we finished up in Carmona (a trip to what Uncle Ed calls the “horsey store” and ice cream that we bought partly so that we could use the baño, but also partly because it was delicious) and drove down the road to Jicaral, where we had changed busses on Friday. The ATM there didn’t work either, and the other bank in town didn’t service MasterCard, so we had to actually go in to the bank and have them run my bank card. The banks here are set up a little like the DMV in the States, and by all accounts it can take you as long in the bank as any DMV back home. Luckily, we got in without too much of a wait, but we certainly spent our fair share of time waiting for the clerk to do all the paperwork associated with the desired transaction! I feel much better now though, having some cash. There’s not really anything to buy in Pueblo Nuevo except food, but I’m still happier now after the day’s events!

It’s now raining the most it has since we got here. The last couple of nights we’ve seen some very exciting thunder and lightening, but it wasn’t really raining until last night. Today it drizzled a bunch, but now (when we’re thinking about going back down to El Escorpion Volador for “Pizza Night”) it is, of course, pouring. We’re hopping it’ll let up enough to get down there dry; then we can come home in whatever weather and change.

That’s all for the first installment—I promise the others will be shorter! I felt it necessary to recount the adventure in full though. More soon!