so this weekend was columbus weekend here - and therefore we had today (monday) off. so what else could we possibly do on such an occasion? go to the beach, i guess. if we must. ;)
so we left right after classes for the bus station on saturday. which is when the first snag in our plan occured... carol had gone ahead to get the tickets sorted out and jasmine, laura, and i were going a little later. but when we arrived we found out that when carol arrived there were only 2 seats left on the bus we wanted, and she had to get 2 more for the next bus, which was 2 hours later. it seemed strange, because we had never had trouble before just showing up and getting tickets. but it wasn't a travesty, carol and i were going to go on the first bus and try to sort out accommodations for all of us when we got to puerto viejo.
the bus ride seemed to take forever (it's possible that it didn't, but it sure seemed like it). when we got to puerto viejo we headed straight for the place we stayed last time. but they were full. he said maybe check back in an hour or so, in case one of his reservations didn't show. so we headed off to check out some other places. well, each and every place we checked was full. in one place we ran into a guy (who became our best friend this weekend), juan, whose job it is to ride around on his bike and find rooms for people (apparently). so juan knows a place. there's a couple of dorm beds and a tent. so we go and have a look. well, it wasn't exactly outdoors, but it wasn't really indoors either. it was a covered patio with walls on three sides and inside there were some dorm beds and a tent on the floor in the middle with a mattress inside.
we were not really excited by the idea of staying there. so we sat for a while and the two other people we were with (in total there were 10 of us) went off to investigate other places. well, we were sitting and waiting and texting our friends saying maybe you should get off in cahuita and see if there are rooms there. after a while we're kind of starting to realize that there is truly no place to stay in puerto viejo. and two girls come strolling into the place and we jump and make the decision - we'll take it. the others luckily get some place a little bit farther out of town because a reservation didn't turn up. and we all have beds and have a great evening out.
the next morning our man juan tells us he knows a place that we can stay for sunday night that is a little bit nicer. so before breakfast we go there and have a look. we originally thought that maybe we would all be moving to a different place... but that turned out to be full as well. breakfast was a little bit of a fiasco as well. we found the faraway group sat down for breakfast and went in to join them. well, we're told that they are no longer taking orders. alright. so we find some other place and meet up with the rest of the team after.
we rented bikes. not my idea of a good time. but everyone was doing it... so that was a bit rough, since i'm pretty out of shape and the roads are for the most part dirt and filled with potholes making biking a slightly less pleasant experience. but we spent the day at a beautiful beach in punta uva, about 10k south of puerto viejo.
after the day at the beach we go back to our new room and have a really nice shower (i think i forgot to mention that the "shower" in our first place was basically a hose hanging from the ceiling... which did little more than trickle water on you - so this seemed luxurious. in fact the room seemed luxurious as well because it had PILLOWS. such luxury...) and then headed out for another fun night on the town.
breakfast the next day (today) turns out to be another fiasco... we run into part of our group sitting and waiting for breakfast. we're about to join them when the waitress informs them that there is no more gallo pinto - which i MUST have when i'm on vacation. (and didn't get to have the previous morning - after we had found a place to eat i asked if they had gallo pinto and was informed that this was "the carribean, not costa rica". what a snarky wench) so we go back to this other place we've eaten at before... but there are about 40 people in a big group just sitting down... so we decide to try somewhere else. we find a little soda, but sadly they are out of food. yes, out of food. we basically walked all over town and finally found a place with gallo pinto.
after breakfast we had just the morning at the beach before we needed to catch a bus. but sadly all the direct buses from puerto viejo to san jose were sold out (those million extra people really put a damper on our plans). so we end up having to get a ticket to limon and then to san jose. which is not terrible, but certainly a little less convenient. but overall i had a good time. i'm tan. pictures soon.
ps. happy birthday mom!! i love you!!
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