It was a bit surreal saying goodbye On Monsay morning. We had to leave at 7 so Donald could take me to the rental car place. I didn't have time to do my dishes but got a quick picture with Donald and Xinia. After a big goodbye hug from Xinia I was off. I threw my last rock to Tara and waved goodbye to the rest of the animals.
My friend Caroline, Dustin's girlfriend, had put me in touch with her Uncle Steve who lives in Guanacaste in Playa Negro. We'd been emailing and arranged to meet on Monday afternoon. After Donald dropped me off and gave me a big hug I was working on payment with the car company. There was one big glitch though- I did not pack my Texas driver's license. Without that I was not able to rent a car. Plan B - take the bus to San Jose and figure out the how to get around. I started walking to the bus terminal and gave Steve a call. He was out surfing but I talked to his buddy Gared that gave me some options on how to bus it from San Jose. I was able to get on a 9am bus to San Jose and texted with Dan, who is in India, and he helped me sort out the information I had been given. This wasn't going to be the easiest or fastest way but it was definitely the cheapest. Dan figured out what bus I needed to take so when I arrived in San Jose at noon I grabbed a cab to the next bus station. I was able to get a ticket on a 12:30 bus to Santa Cruz. I was so excited because I thought I was going to have to wait until 3 pm before boarding for the 4 hour ride. I immediately got on and had a row to myself. I was pretty annoyed with myself in the morning but things were looking up. So far I had spent only $26 and would make it to Santa Cruz before dark.
When I arrived in Santa Cruz and got off the bus there were no taxis in sight. I thought this was odd but spotted an ATM machine across the street and beeline it over there for some colones. After getting dinero I walked back and around the bus station but still couldn't find a cab. I started walking down the street and a guy hollered if I needed a cab. It was not a legal cab but a man and wife. I jumped in and they asked if they could stop at the super mercado real quick, which was right in front of us. While the wife was inside I spoke to the husband about the fare. He originally said $60 and I worked him down to $40 before deciding to call Steve and confirm what a proper fare should be. He said $40 would be good.
We set off towards Playa Negra and as we drove through a policia checkpoint they got a little nervous and kept telling me I was the wife's friend. There was no incident at the checkpoint and we did not get stopped. We continued on when I noticed the husband reaching over and grabbing a grande cerveza from the wife. Maybe I should have gone into the super mercado afterall.
Once we got into town we had a little bit of a problem finding Steve's casa. The directions were on my iPad but the battery had died during the 7 hours of busing it North. I did manage to take a picture on my iPhone but with my cracked screen it was difficult to see. We eventually made it after several wrong turns.
Steve has been in Costa Rica for several months staying with some fiends that have been in Costa Rica for 7 years. Their casa was great in a nice neighborhood right on the ocean. They had an extra room so I was able to stay the night. That was a super nice treat since I was tired of traveling and wasnt looking forwars to another cab ride that night. After chatting with Steve a bit and watching the sun go down I had a banana for dinner and headed to bed. I forced myself to stay wake until 9pm and at 9:01 I was sound asleep.
I woke up around 5:30 and hung out until around 7 when Steve was ready to go surfing. I walked down to the beach and watched him for a bit before taking a stroll down the beach. It was a nice beach and walked for about 2 hours collecting a bunch of shells before deciding I was starving. I really didn't eat yesterday and it had caught up with me. There was a hotel on the beach so I stopped and grabbed an omelet before heading back to the house and trying out the swimming pool that was calling my name. Gared and Megan were at the house and i vahtted with them a bit. They said ings had changed quite a bit in the 7 years theyd been there and things weere getting more expensive. Megan said she's amazed when she goes back to Texas how cheap some things are.
Steve got back soon after me and was kind enough to give me a lift to my next destination - the JW Marriott, which was about 20 minutes away. It was great meeting Steve and his friends but it was time for some luxury!
