Pura Vida in Montezuma, Followed by YET ANOTHER Disasterous Journey

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Yet another early start, and a very stressful one at that. We barely made our bus despite staying just a few minutes drive from the Coca Cola bus station, and collapsed into our seats just as the doors were closing. It was a few hours drive to Puntarenas, where we had to get off the bus and onto a ferry to cross the sea over to the Nicoya Peninsula. It was a beautiful day and the water was very still so we didn't really want to get back onto the hot bus - with fake aircon vents - and travel another hour or so.

Half an hour later, however, the bus stopped and we were told to get off and wait for a smaller Chicken Bus to pick us up as the bus we were on was apparently too big to make it down the small windy roads into Montezuma. We waited around for a while in the boiling sun, and then piled back onto another bus that finally took us to Montezuma. Luckily the hostel we were staying in wasn't too far away, as the town consisted of just a couple of streets and the beach. We found the hostel, which was very cute and right on the beach, and dumped our stuff in the tiniest room we have stayed in so far, before heading into town.

We soon realised that this sleepy little town was possibly the most relaxed place in Costa Rica, and really did epitomise the saying 'Pura Vida'. We decided that we would stay for a couple of early nights and chill out on the beaches. The next day we headed to some waterfalls, although unfortunately we couldn't climb higher than the first set with Poppy's broken arm so that was a shame. Then we went on to a small secluded beach further down the road and spent the afternoon sunbathing a little and trying not to get pulled out by the ridiculously strong tides we had been warned about there.

Although the beaches couldn't quite compare to the paradise island beaches of San Blas, they were still beautiful. We took some lovely photos and that evening went back to the hostel to build our Costa Rican Sandcastle - this time a life size Turtle - as the sun set.

The next morning we head off early in the direction of Nicaragua, but soon realised we were unlikely to even reach the border before sunset. We made it back to Puntarenas without problems, but our luck soon ran out, as we watched our bus to Liberia pulling away just as we walked up towards the terminal and realised there was not another one for 2 or 3 hours. Luckily we met one of the few friendly Costa Ricans by the bus stop, and he told us we could get to Liberia by catching a chicken bus to one place and then another bus from there. So we spoke to the bus driver, who let us know where to get off, and half an hour later we found ourselves sitting at a little bus stop at an intersection in the middle of nowhere praying that we hadn't been conned.

Half an hour later, just as we were preparing to pay a taxi driver to take us there, the bus turned up and we got on asking them to let us know when we got to Liberia. However, a couple of hours into the bus journey, we started to wonder why we still hadn't arrived. Poppy went up to the front to ask the driver and, surprise surprise, we had passed Liberia nearly an hour ago. We asked what we should do, and they just told us to get off at another intersection and wait. Costa Rica was getting worse and worse.

So, there we were in the middle of nowhere and this random guy carrying a mini microwave oven walks up and asks where we are heading. Kindly, he told us he would wait with us and point out which bus we needed to get on. However, just a few minutes later, an empty tourist van stopped and asked if we wanted to go to San Jose. We told him absolutely not, we wanted out of Costa Rica ASAP, but he offered to take us to a town nearby where we were more likely to get to Liberia. So we jumped in and, in the end, got a free lift to this town where we sat at the bus station for another 20 minutes until a chicken bus finally came.

Liberia was not the nicest place in the world, but we were so relieved to get off the bus and not have to worry about getting another one until the next day. We grabbed some dinner at the very traditional Costa Rican eatery McDonalds, and crashed for the night, praying we would make it out of the country tomorrow and that Nicaragua would bring us more luck.

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