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Published: January 5th 2008
I am in HEAVEN...
I met my friend Steph (who I met in BA a few months back) in Montezuma. I must admit at first I was thinking to myself "why does she love this place so much..." though it only took me a couple of days to realise and now I am in love also. Montezuma is a small town about 7hrs by bus and ferry from San Jose. It is a bit of a hippy town with loads of locals and peops from all over selling there jewellery on the street, a beautiful jungle and stunning beach. The weather is crazy humid hot but though we complain about it often we really do love it! I also met Brena, a gal who Steph met whilst travelling in CR. The three of us have become the ultimate threesome. We have SOOOOO much fun together and get along unbelievably well. It feels like we've been friends for years. We basically do a whole lot of nothing... Relax in the sun on the beach, play a little soccer, hang out at Mochila Inn (the backpackers we were living at for nearly a month), eat hummos, guacamole and bbq flavoured platanos (fried banana
Brena
walking to the waterfallschips) and beans (Brena taught Steph and I how to make the world's most delicious hummos and guac, we basically lived on that the first week we were together), drink and dance on the street and at Chicos (our fave... well the only... bar in Montezuma), chat to the locals and kick back in hammocks! Yeah it´s a pretty sweet life!
The three of us are returning in January (I am in Mexico at the moment and Steph and Brena are at home in the States with family) to live for approx 6months. Steph and I were extremely persistent looking for work b4 we left. We went to nearly every restaurant/cafe, the tour companies and the primary school. Though everyone was super friendly they also stuffed us around a bit and got our hopes up about potential jobs then let us down by informing us they were't certain they would have work for us. We had a few disappointments so decided to put our heads together and come up with something fun we could do to earn money. We sat on the corner of one of the pizza cafes eating beans and platanos while we discussed our options. We
The top waterfalls
so refreshing to swim in came up with some pretty wacky ideas such as: collecting wood from the beach and selling it (so that people didn´t have to collect it themselves for bonfires), singing and dancing on the street, busking with our cup trick (this cup/hand clap thing that Steph taught us), selling hummos and guacamole... later that afternoon I was chatting to Neela (a gal who works and lives at Mochila) about how Chris (an awesome German dude who owns Mochila) should invest in a BBQ. Then it came to me... STREET VENDING!!! It was brilliant, no-one in town does it, the restaurants close early, people always want food when they're drunken late at night, and it is a fun way to meet peops!! I ran up to our room to share it with Steph. She was sold and so our planning for our new business went from there. We spent the next couple of days discussing it and jotting down notes about what we would need, cost and whether we would actually make any profit. We chatted to locals about it and they were super supportive and also helped us out with ideas. We decided we should test it out b4 we return
in Jan just to make sure it works. We hitched a ride into Cobano (a town about 10min away, by car, where we the back and a couple of much cheaper supermarkets are) to buy our supplies. We had decided that we were going to make shishkababs with chicken and onion (just basic to start) marinated in honey soy and garlic! We had some dramas in town... we couldn´t find all the ingredients we wanted, we had trouble finding containers, the bbq was perfect but they told us if we paid in cash we could have 20% off (of course we didn´t have enough cash on us)... Steph ended up hitching back into town with cash and I stayed back and the ranch and started preparing the skewers. Iris, our gorgeous friend from Holland, helped me cut up the chicken and onion, it took a while but was fun and exciting. We (Steph, Iris and I) spent an hour or so skewing the chicken and onion and by the time we had finished we had close to 100 skewers. We were super nervous and excited. We had a few drinks whilst we were preparing the food... we think a few
too many, we were trying to calm our nerves but instead began feeling a little tipsy, WHOOPS!! When we rocked up in town (outside Chicos) to set up our bbq there was another guy doing exactly the same thing. Can you believe it?! We couldn´t! Pablo turned out to be a super cool guy and at the end of the night after packing up his gear he helped us carry our stuff back up to Mochila (and let me tell you, it´s not a fun hill to climb). We had a few locals (Fabio and Pablo, another Pablo, mainly) help us set up. Fabio got the bbq going, because we were struggling, and Pablo gave us tips on where to set up to sell more. It was successfull though we decided next time we would start later at night. We ended up giving a few away too, but it was a good way to become known 😊 By the end of the night we still had about 40 skewers left so we decided to set up the next day close to the beach! It was a hit! We sold them a lot faster, so decided when we return we will
continue bbqing during the day near the beach. Location, Location, Location!!! Also because we prefer to dance in the Chicos at night rather than sitting outside selling food!
Brena is a qualified silversmith so when she returns she will be selling her jewellery, which is stunning! Steph and I will bbq and sell some hemp jewellery on the side. We possibly also have potential jobs at one of the tour companies and all the restaurants and cafes know we are keen so we should be set on our return to Montezuma!!
We also met some other beautiful people who I have to mettion! Iris (who I mentioned earlier) and Sia, our gorgeous Dutch 'Baywatch Babes' (gals, Montezuma wouldn't have been the same without you. We will miss you when we return, can´t wait to meet again one day, Salsa it up Sia... and have a killer time in Aust Iris), Ian (AKA Eby or Ebs) a super fun guy from the States who became apart of the family (Steph, Brena, Eby and Me... AKA the family), a gorgeous couple Michelle and Eddie (Steph and I fell in love with you both... look foward to snowboarding with you both
in Canada this time next yr... you better be there 😊), and many a local (AKA Ticos) they are the friendliest, lovliest people and we have loved meeting each and everyone of them!!
Steph and I had some super funny times in Montezuma and I can´t help but mention a few! Hitching into Cobana. We met some lovely charaters and some speedy drivers, and endured too much time waiting in the bank (I´m talking 2 and half hrs minimum, TWICE). Attempting walking back to Montezuma from Cobano, after an hour we finally got a ride and realised if we had have kept walking it probably would have been dark by the time we reached Mochila (well that´s maybe a lil exageration). "Funday Sunday..." We hadn´t drunk in a few nights so on a Sunday when we were discussing what we would do for the day we decided drinking was a fun option! (Really we are not alcoholics, we just thought we´d see how different it was than drinking at night time!) We had our first around 11am (not quite beer o'clock, then again by Aussie standards it probably was). Earlier we were given a mini (and I´m talking mini)
skateboard from some Aussie boys we had met a few days prior (boys it was so fun to meet you all, you know who you are! Top blokes, and super spunky!) to give to a child in the town. We had done some voluntary work at the local primary school however didn´t think it fair to give to one of the students as jealousy would more than likely break out. We were sitting in Chicos at about 2pm having a tequilla shot, rolling around on the skatie and chatting to a lovely gal we met and befriended, Brooke, when I saw a lil lad who looked like the perfect candidate. When we wandered up the hill we noticed he was playing on a skateboard, it was meant to be. We gave it to him and he and his parents were blown away. He is all of 4yrs young and his name is Salvador and he is a local kid. Super stoked with that give away! Thanx to Andrew (or was it Gavin, sorry meet so many diff peops) from Aust! I must admit b4 giving it away we had so much fun playing with the lil skatie. We rolled into
town on it (sitting on it), skated in the local supermarket (and took out some canned food, whoops, we are such manaces) and rolled around in Chicos bar! Arhhhh good times!! Just love hanging out with Steph and Brena as every moment is funny! All about laughs and having a great time! We chat to everyone and now most the locals... most like us, some think we're a little crazy! But life would be boring if there weren´t a few crazy peops around. In the words of Michael Franti "All the freaky people make the beauty of the world!" Too true!! Big up to everyone in Montezuma!
PEACE!!!
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