Escape to...and then from...Tamarindo

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Okay, well i have been told that my lamo blogs lack detail...that is because they are by nature lamo...refer to title. but here goes....
We set of from santa teresa on wednesday hoping to catch the 2-30 bus from malpais...3km up the road. after calling all 20 plus cabs and finding out that none of them were in the area, em, sharron (new travel pal from tofino), and i started to hit hike. we caught a ride on a truck´s flat bed and got some pretty nifty double takes from people along the road. we made it to the bus stop with 20 minutes to spare. but after five minutes of waiting a big 4x4 jeep thingy squeals up and a tico guy hops out and starts motioning to us frantically to get into his truck. neither he nor any of the other 4 random people in the truck spoke english, but he kept saying vamos and talking alot so we made a snap decision to get into the strange man´s ´trunk´. it was so full in there that em and i were immediately glad we ditched our packs with her sister tayler in st. teresa...we are now travelling with a tiny day pack and a fanny pack each. simple is good. simple can also be smelly.
we took off down the half washed out road at a breakneck pace rattling around inside the back of the jeep against strangers and surfboards. and then, fifteen minutes later we see our bus ahead of us on the road. apparently it is totally acceptable to leave 45 minutes early if you are a scheduled bus. so our driver floors it and flags down the bus....he refuses our money (muchos gracias) and then the bus driver also doesn´t ask us for money...somehow you don´t have to pay when you board the bus in an untimely fashion. things were looking good.
and then we let sharron arrange a cab for us that was supposed to take us 5km up tthe road to a connecting bus...it turns out she isn´t so good with numbers and about 7km down some sketch road i ask for more info and it turns out we have been suckered into a 50 dollar us for a 50km ride into the middle of nowhere ot meet a bus that we have already missed. we got out of the cab in a tiny place with about 8 residents..one hotel and one gas station and one ferry terminal...the cab driver kept tellins us about washed out roads and bridges and other such bullshit but we were done paying crazy amounts to drive down not so crazy roads.
so we spent our first night in a real hotel, complete with animal inspired bedding...pictures to come once i figure out how to work the whole photo function on here....only one other couple was staying there...they too had missed the connecting bus. we sat down to an early dinner and proceeded to get good and sloched off the local brew and the costa rican liquior...guaro....basically sweet nail polish remover.
the next morning we got up , slowly and in varying levels of pain, at 6am to catch a bus that was over an hour late. this was not adirect bus....instead it stopped whenever somebody wanted on or off....no matter where! and it also stopped whenever the driver wanted to talk to his friends on the street, in the passing cars, or even to call out ot farmers on tractors in the middle of fields. it ended up takin gus 8 hours and 4 buses to travel 130km.
and now we are here in tamarindo. which is a ridiculously develpoped tourist zone. there is subway and pizza hut and a shitload of resorts. em and i are leaving this morning after only one night. we want to get to nica where hopefully the toilets actually flush.
all things consiered i am still feeling pretty goood. i am exccited about learning spanish in nicaragua and em and i are going to split up and take the homestay option. i hope this is enough detail...LIZ! anyways, i love you all and miss you.
grace

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Comments

[LIZ]

thank you for the detail. it is sufficient.