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Quepos, Costa Rica
9° 26' N 84° 9' W
Dec 11, 2005 00:16
Distance 107km

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Other entries in Quepos

horrible bus rides and dancing taxi drivers

Text written in: English

it seems like forever ago that we were swinging through the rain forest on sip lines in the mountain town of monteverde. after that amazing adventure, we got food near our cabina and went to sleep knowing that a long day was ahead of us.

at 530 in the morning, we woke up to race to the center of town and catch a collectivo bus for the gulf port town of puntarenas. 5 hours later and with a considerable amount of sweat, frustration, and exhaustion, we stepped from the bus into the confusion and filthyness of puntarenas. to exlpain, collectivos are costa rican public buses that go all over teh country. they are cheap and easy to find and the reasons for both those facts are taht there is a very low standard for conditions on the bus. dont even think about AC cause they never did. the bus stops every time it is hailed making the relatively short distance expand to well beyond its necessary limit. ther is also no limit to the amount of people tehy can fit onto the bus. for the majority of the busride, every seat was filled and about every availbile inch of aisle space was also filled with human beings. add to all that the rfact that the roads here are bumpy at best and the drivers slam on the brakes whenever a car/person/cow, horse, mule/gust of wind crosses teh road and youve got a very unpleasant ride. all in all, you get what you pay for. we could have bought a private rdie with AC for 10 times the price but on top of maintaining our budget, we also wanted to ride like the rest of costa rica rides and that was the point o f this whole trip, to experienec things from teh natives point of view.

we got off the bus in puntarenas and saw how gross the city was. it reminded me of bourbon street but everywhere, even in my racoon wounds. guido and i wisely chose to not ask for help or directions and spent the next hour and a half looking for either a youth hostel or a internet cafe. we eventually asked the right person and found th cafe and tried without success to get information about the city or what to do next. eventually we returne to the very same bus station we were dropped off at and found out that teher was a bus to Quepos leaving shortly and after experienecing what puntarenas had to offer, we were certain that Quepos would be better. again we boarded a collectivo and were off to the south of the coutry. this bus shared all the same qualities of the first one i described but the route was longer and the passenger number was higher. it took most of the rest of the day to make it to Quepos but when we got there, we were very happy with our decision. fatty was finaly able to change out of the long pants he chose to wearr that morning in the colder mountain town and we also addded much needed food to the hearty but not-so-filling banana from taht morning. after the meal, we moved down the road about 7 km to a smaller beach town called manuel antonio. here we were again greeted with offers for lodging and even given a tour of the city by one hotel owner but eventualy followed our wallets to a place that has worked out perfectly. its a place right on the beach, we have our own room with facilities, there aer plenty of young people to socialize with, and on top of it all, the ¨biggest party in manuel antonio¨is shosted by the hotel restaurant/bar and its about 50 meters from our room.

so after we got our room and put down our stuff after a very long day of travel, we headed immediately for the beach and enjoyed the sunset while being immersed in the pacific ocean. after dark we decided to take a walk towards a liquor store not knowing that the liquor store was at the top iof the hill, 3 km away. but at least our legs got a good work out. we came home to find people to hang out with, decided to venture out for our first night on the town of this trip and were met with a few funny incidents along the way. first off, the girls we went out with sucked. american adn young, these specimens needed soem lessons and we soon parted ways. the bar was great with live music and a number of traverls from all over the world. we found some people from europe and although they spoke english, we all prefered to speak spanish to practice and speak the local toungue. we eventually left the bar and were outraged at the price the cabs offered to take us back home. we decided that if we employed the ¨walk away¨ technique they would drop their prices but we were wrong and were wakling home. again, muontains. but because we refused to be gouged, we met with a few more funny incidents. first, e stumbled into a local party hosted by a canadien but were intimidated by the crowd and prompty left. after we left we both asked each other to explain why we left and couldnt come up with an explanation for leaving the free food and drinks. the second funny thing that happened along the way was being picked up by a cab that already had two people in it. apparently they were the drivers friends but he was wiling to take us anyway. they wer playnig latino techno music that i said i liked and the driver turned the volume up to the maximum. from that point on, the whole car was dancing and singing along. then we started yelling and screaming like mariachis. when we got back to our hotel, that restaurant/bar i mentioned earlier was raging and we stoppped by for a look. eventually we tired and retired.

this morning we went to parque national manuel antonio which is a protected resrve of beaches, rain forest, and animales. unfortunately, it was saturday and on top of all the tourists, there were also many locals coming to see the beauties of the park. we desired to quickly get away from all the people so we took a path into the jungle and soon found ourselves surrounded only by the noises adn animals of the forest. very cool. when the path ended abruptly we had to turn back and the went back to the crowded beach. here we finally saw some monkeys and they were enjoying what the tourists ahd to offer. one monkey in particular made me laugh because he reminded me of me and my monkey ways. he came down out of a tree and a bunch of people were taking pictueres of him. but despite all taht, he crept up to an abandoned bag and snatched a whole box of cookies and ran away. he was chased and had to release the box but did manage to take one cookie away from the attempt. what a sly little guy. then his buddies came over to see what he got and even tried to steal some of it from him but he saw them coming and boxed them out leaving them to jealously watch him devour the entire cookie, and a little wrapper too. it was hard to top that hilarious event but we managed to revert to our childood and dug a pit for hermit crabs to fight in. but they are a peaceful race and the most they did was just walk over each other. we eventually tired of that activity and released them all back into the wild. we left the park and retuned to our cabinas for a nap and a snack.

tonight is more good food and close to home festivities.