Road to Cahuita

Tried to get up early so I could be as productive as possible before I had to leave; even though the first part was successful, the second one failed. It was almost check out time (11 am) and still I was trying to decide what goes in the backpack, with me, and what stays in the duffle bag at the hotel; I was so late in fact, that by 11 I simply dragged all my stuff in the middle of the hotel hallway and continued to divide up things. I knew I had until 2 pm to make my way to the airport, so I was in no rush. Eventually I asked the lady at the hotel to call a cab, since it would only be a 2 or 3 dollar ride to the airport. The car showed up almost immediately, and I got in and to my luck, I had a very chatty driver, which made me realize how little I had been using my Spanish for the last few weeks. He really seemed to like Canada and Canadians, and had only positive words to say about the country – in his younger days he was a sailor, so he had been to Montreal and Vancouver many times before. I enjoyed our little chat, gave him a tip though he dropped me off at departures, not arrivals, then made my way downstairs with the elevator. As soon as got off, I hear Donna’s voice and I realized I was late, though a more correct way of putting it was that her plane was early. We had a quick smoke then went back into the airport building, heading to the Budget counter to fill in the paperwork for the rental car. This was definitely going to be ten days of seeing the country from a different perspective, as I had relied solely on buses (or Brendan’s van) until this point. We got everything set, including passport photocopies that the guy at the desk was happy to accommodate, and then we went outside to wait for the shuttle bus. We were told that it would be there within five minutes, but I already knew those to be 5 Costa Rican minutes, so we settled in for a while. Eventually the shuttle arrived and even the driver apologized for the delay, which was not a big deal by any means – we took the short ride on the Inter-Americana and then off it, to get to darling Toyota Yaris that would be our white mechanical horse that would take us across the country. We did the usual inspection, after which we were just about to leave the parking lot without as much as a map. I went inside and got a map, though it was a basic one, it was better than nothing.

So finally we drove off onto the highway, already feeling the adrenaline of being in control of our fates and going wherever we pleased. We drove towards San Jose, only to run into a big stumbling block: we didn’t know how to find the caratera Limon. We ended up driving in circles, hitting dead ends, and just overall becoming frustrated. Often times we thought we were heading in the right direction, only to see the road turn in front of us. We eventually got out of San Jose into Guadalupe, only to hit another dead end, have to turn around, drive past the central park and return back to the capital. That’s when I decided that enough was enough; I stopped by the University of Costa Rica, at one of its campuses, and took the bold step in asking for directions. As a group of men were debating amongst themselves what the best way to the highway was, a young student ran back inside of the building, and returned a few minutes later with a piece of paper and a pen. He proceeded to draw me what ended up being a very good and detailed map, complete with points of reference, which happen to be the only way that I can orientate myself. It was excellent, and though he asked me several times if I understand, and I nodded and said ‘si’ as convincingly as possible, I still had doubts, until we hit the highway to Guadalupe again, though at least going in the right direction. We found all of the landmarks he had marked on the map, and within fifteen minutes we were on the caratera Limon, getting out of San Jose and towards the mountains.

What a relief! It had taken us over two hours to get out of San Jose – it was about time to see the rest of the country. As soon as we got out of the central valley, we drove through Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo, a fantastic drive as it was getting dark; at some points we hit cloud patches where I could barely see the road. After passing through a pretty long tunnel cutting across and through a mountain, we ended of drive through the national park and headed towards Guapiles. It was already dark and the bus station was about to close as we parked the car and bought a phone card. After a brief break and phone call, we were back in the car and willing to get as far as Puerto Limon before stopping for the night; I was concerned that if we were going to push to Puerto Viejo it may be too late to get a room for the night. So after driving down the mountain and through the banana fields (we couldn’t see them but knew they were there), as well as avoiding all the potholes in the road, we eventually arrived in Puerto Limon. This is where the road became unknown since the bus promptly veered to the right when I was here last going to Puerto Viejo. We ended up driving through the town only to see prostitutes and drug dealers at every corner, as well as by-the-hour-hotels - certainly not the type of image Costa Rica would want to project, but it is a port city after all, so what can one expect? After a drive through town the decision was unanimous: we’re gonna keep on driving, not matter how long it takes – too bad that the drive further south from Puerto Limon is really beautiful, we just had to do it at night.

We continued on and didn’t get into Cahuita until after 9:30 pm; the town does close down very early, so by the time we found a cabina to rent for the night, we had to wake up the owners, or at least disturb them from their activities, so that we can get a room for the night. The girl took one look at us and said, in Spanish, you guys are so tired – we knew it but didn’t want to be reminded of it, but we still smiled politely and admitted the state we were in, and of course we took the room. Once we moved our stuff inside, we got back in the car and headed to the super, the only one in town that was still open. Luckily for us, we were its last customers, and they promptly closed the metal door after us. We headed back to the room to plan the rest of our time together and all the places we wanted to cover and see over the next week or so