Does every bus journey create a story? They certainly seem to.
The first thing I have to say is that despite the difficulties, I have thoroughly enjoyed the bus trips we have taken. I have stayed awake through most of them (excluding the over-nighters) and been rewarded with magnificent views. The roads are often so narrow, the immediate drops so precipitous and our travel at such altitude - that one can easily imagine you are looking out of an aeroplane window. We see clouds and birds below us, bays and moutains in the distance and its only the jolts from the holes in the road that remind us we are still on terra firma.
To get to Monteverde we had two choices - pay for a hotel transfer, circa 45 bucks or take the local bus for circa 4 bucks. We did recieve warnings about breakdowns and the length of time it takes, but the cost difference is so vast it seemed worth a little hardship. On our around trip to Monteverde two instances arose that well highlight these hardships.
On the way up: We have already driven for 4 hours on a 3 hour trip - not sure why - its just seems to be taking longer than expected. Nicola and I are both thinking the village must be just over the next hill (we have been driving up almost vertical roads for 1.5 hours already). It is starting to get dark and we are on big gravel roads (small roads, but big gravel - do you know what I mean?) - the tarmac finishes 35 km before our destination. All of a sudden we come to a halt, we sit in the middle of the road, the only place the bus can be, and stare in to oncoming traffic´s headlights. We remain in this position for a couple of minutes - nothing happening. The Costa Rican´s noses on the bus start to twitch and they want to know whats going on. The gringo´s sit there quietly - asumming the best! Then the bus driver throws his hands up in to the air, turns off the lights and engine and places them behind his head. The Costa Ricans get animated and an off duty police man goes to sort the situation out. The gringo´s continue to sit quietly assuming the best. It turns out this road aint big enough for the both of us. There is a queue of on-coming traffic, who do not want to make way for us and the the bus driver can´t really do anything bar drive in the middle of the road. Our driver´s tactic for resolution is to wait for the local police to come. We sit and wait for 30-40 minutes - ongoing negociations by all parties, a number of the drivers in the queue, a number of the bus passengers, the bus driver, the off duty policeman, but to no accord.
The intra-national incident was finally resolved peacefully by police intervention. Whilst my spanish is improving it was not good enough to translate exactly, but I get the impression the local police told both drivers to stop being so bloody silly and got the cars to pull-over.
On the way down: 05:00 get up for 06:30 bus. Depart 10 minutes late after we pick up the villages mail and a few extra travellers. All goes well for the first hour (more magnificent views, more slow driving, more pot-holes, but progress). Then in distance we see a small crowd of people on the side of the road and a bus with a flat tyre. Our bus was flagged down (the only timatabled bus for the next 7 hours) and we took on board the survivers(no one actually hurt). Our bus for 40 suddenly became a bus for 80, standing room only and some of the angles it was dirven at down the moutain, I am surprised it did not over-turn. It turned out that the broken down bus had got a flat tyre, about 5 km before where we picked it up, the tyre was inspected, but it was decided that it was okay to continue down the mountain! After 5 km the brakes on the wheel with the flat tyre decided as they had not been included in the discussions about whether or not to continue and decided they would go on strike. The work stoppage presented itself in the form of heavy smoke! and clamping shut.
As our new travelling companions piled on to the bus, the temperature and body odours increased - all windows were opened, letting a 50:50 mix of diesel fumes and warm air. There was a temptation at this point to get a bit miffed, however the thought that "thank god it wasnt us that broke down" managed to maitain our spirits for the next 2 hours of travel.
Two small instances on consecutive bus journeys. My only conclusion is that every bus ticket sold includes a free story.
