Today
we left for Cahuita on the Caribbean coast, we being; SL, PS, Ca, Kat, Al, and
myself.
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| Leaving On The Ferry (D.Philpot) |
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| Sticker (D.Philpot) |
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| Passing Time On The Bus - Drawing Game (D.Philpot) |
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| Conditions Were Cramped (D.Philpot) |
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| Colourful Welcome To The Caribbean (D.Philpot) |
18:00 Loveeeeeeeeee this place!
So... in the early hours of this morning I eventually got my laundry done by 03:00am and I got to bed then only because of the power cuts - and I had to be up at 04:30am for the bus which was next to impossible.
So... in the early hours of this morning I eventually got my laundry done by 03:00am and I got to bed then only because of the power cuts - and I had to be up at 04:30am for the bus which was next to impossible.
We walked out to meet Elias who provided
us with a ride to Malpais where we caught the bus to San Jose and I met a girl
named Jodie who was a nice, interesting, girl who had lived in Costa Rica for
2-3 years previously and had been to Cahuita before. There were only a few odd
single seats left on the bus for our group of 16 students (plus TA's) and when
we reached the ferry we said goodbye to the other groups - both of which were
heading to Arenal volcano, one via a return to Monte Verde to re-visit their
host families.
In San Jose our group ("we"
from here on) ended up at another bus station instead of arriving at the
"Coca Cola" bus station which has always been standard, for years…
until now with redevelopments. So that was a little confusing/strange as no-one
recognised this area of San Jose, however we managed to get to the correct bus
station for the Caribbean side. We were
just on time for a bus for Cahuita but after purchasing tickets discovered
there were literally no seats and so the 6 of us ended up huddled up in a pile
in a disabled/emergency exit area for the apparent 4-hour journey ahead of us -
we entertained ourselves and it was fun. We snacked, talked, slapped each other
to death whilst going through long dark tunnels, and laughed at the pile we had
literally formed.
Eventually we passed Limon, and as we
dropped down to the Caribbean I noticed the tree canopy was very different with
a lot more palm trees around. During a lunch break I met the first English
person (a girl) of my whole time in this country - and the break provided a
small opportunity to see outside. We reached what felt like a random town (of
Cahuita) and split a taxi to our "hotel."
What a hotel it was! We actually had an
entire 6-bed guesthouse to ourselves (mostly doubles too), a lovely wooden
spiral staircase in the centre, a pool table at the end of the garden that
opened onto the Caribbean, high ceilings, a balcony with hammocks and hammocks
elsewhere, a hot tub and BBQ - which alone made this the best half-term break
trip already.
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| Reggae Bar Just Up The Road (D.Philpot) |
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| Caribbean Style Meal (D.Philpot) |
We popped to the local Reggae Bar restaurant
we had seen on the way in, shared some food and drink, making friends with the
most typical of Rasta guys you could imagine who was a very cool guy indeed. To
finish off the evening we played some Irish poker before a better game of
"Ring Of Fire" where I made up the rule of "when an even card
shows, everyone has to stand and kiss a shell (on a lamp made of shells above
the table), and last person to do so drinks" - amazing. Quite drunk I then
had an amazing Spanish conversation with Ca for about half an hour almost
fluently, Ca being perhaps one of the best native speakers among the group of
students, which I am still amazed about today. Then I was introduced to the
American-style of a game called "Ride The Bus," I rode the bus… and
it wasn’t pretty.