From Montezuma to Manuel Antonio

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Geo: 9.81586, -84.9322

Sailing from Paquera to rendezvous w 'Costa Rica Craig'

Our time in Montezuma has come to an end and we must continue our adventures in other parts of Costa Rica. We have a friend, CostaRicaCraig that lives outside of Parrita and we are going to visit him at his place for a night before we move on to Manual Antonio. Since we do not travel by car, this is an adventure in itself.

We had gone and checked the bus schedule to travel from Montezuma to Puntarenas where we would catch another bus to Parrita. To get to Puntarenas, you catch the directo to San Jose and get off in Puntarenas. There is a bus at 6:20a.m. and one at 2:30p.m.

The bus arrives in Montezuma, and you travel to Cobano. In times past, we have changed to a modern bus for San Jose. This time there evidently was some kind of snafu and we were told to stay on the bus. Our driver got off and went to talk to some people. He is a regular driver for the Montezuma to Cobano run and he seemed to recognize us after Robert had talked to him.

The San Jose bus pulled into Cobano let some passengers off and then drove off without taking on any of the passengers who were waiting to get on the bus. Our driver came back and started down the aisle asking each one of us where we were going and charged us accordingly. After he had taken care of everyone on the bus, pulled up to where the other people were waiting and started loading them on board. Questions were being asked and no direct answers were being given so we just decided to send positive thoughts out on this part of the journey.

The trip from Cobano to Parquera was without incident and we arrived at the ferry landing and there was a San Jose directo bus sitting there. This was where it got interesting. Paquera to Puntarenas is a lovely ferry ride. As we learned on our first trip, you are not allowed to stay on the bus for the crossing but your luggage does. When you get across THEN you get your luggage off the bus. The other option, which we did not want to do is self-carry our luggage onto the ferry and back off again. This required you to carry your luggage up two flights of stairs and back down again.

When we got to Paquera Robert had gone back to talk to our bus driver while I was standing where the young man who has some duties on this leg was passing out ferry tickets to the people who had paid for a ticket all the way to San Jose. I approached him and asked him for a ferry ticket and he asked me how much I paid. I told him we had paid for a ticket to Puntarenas and he was telling me we were going to have to carry our luggage onto the ferry when I saw Robert and the bus driver hauling our bags over to the San Jose direct bus. Not sure what had happened but the bus driver put our bags on the bus and told us to get them after the ferry had landed in Puntarenas. Crisis averted. We did have to then go and buy our ferry ticket but that was not a problem.

Got on the ferry and the outside seats in the shade were all occupied so we decided to see what the inside seating was like. The seats were comfortable, and we could look at the view from the window and the television was not playing to loud so it was a nice journey once again.

Once the ferry landed in Puntarenas, we headed down the stairs and waited for the bus to come off the ferry and got our luggage. Crossed the street away from the ferry and got a taxi to the buses heading down the coast toward Quepos/Manuel Antonio.

In years past, we have had to go a couple of blocks from where the buses leave from to buy our tickets in advance. Since we have been there they have now moved the bus terminal right across the street from where the buses to Quepos/Manuel Antonio and other destinations leave from.

Robert went and got the ticket to Parrita and was told the bus would be right in front of the restaurant on the same side of the street as the bus terminal. A bus pulled up and we were trying to determine if this was the bus we needed. Two angels arrived to help us out. One was an elderly Tico gentleman who had crossed the street to ask where we were going and was helping with questions to the bus driver and the other was a street vendor who evidently knew the various bus schedules. Between our questions, their assistance we found the bus we needed. Because we bought our tickets in advance, we had assigned seats.

The bus is hot, slowly makes its way down the coast and once it gets to Jaco stops several times to pick up and let off passengers. By the time we were leaving Jaco, the aisles were filled but luckily we had our seats and there was a little breeze coming in the windows.

By the time the bus got to Parrita, the crowd on the bus had thinned out. We got off to go visit Costa Rica Craig and the bus continued on to Quepos.

Just to complete the journey, once you are in Quepos, you catch the bus down the hill to Manuel Antonio or if you are carrying a large amount of luggage or just want direct to your place you are staying, you hire a taxi.

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