So, I survived the bus journey along the mountain of death. I mistakenly said in my last post that it is 3300 feet. It's actually 3300 metres - 11,000 feet. The bus set off in San José in very sunny weather. Over the next hour and a half, as the road went higher and higher in to the mountains, the sun dissappeared and the fog crept in and it was quite thick in some parts and it was very cold. When there were breaks in the fog, the view was magnificant. Green trees and mountains as far as the eye could see. Which as I said, wasn't always that far because of the fog.
The trip turned out to be rather fun and exciting. The driver wasn]t a maniac and whilst the road was very winding. it wasn]t narrow or ridiculously close to the edge. You could tell who hadn]t been on the trip before becasue they were the ones looking out the window at everything passing by. The locals, who had obvioulsy been there, done that, tried to get some sleep. I was allocated a seat in the back row and so it was a very bumpy ride sitting over the back wheels. How people were able to sleep, I don]t know.
(I've only now just found out which is the ' key. The keyboard here is different to what I'm used to.)
The funniest part for me was arriving at the top of the mountain to find a restaurant there called Everest.
So I'm now in a small town called San Isidro and living with a local family. They're pretty cool and have been very welcoming. The husband and wife, Heiner and Marianna and their two children Jorge, 15 and Marianegela, 7. The children are a lot of fun but it can be pretty frustrating when they talk to me and I have no idea what the fck they're saying. They must think I'm a complete idiot, sometimes. Heiner has two sons from a previous marriage and I met one of them last weekend. He's about 18 and he had a broken jaw and could hardly talk. He could speak a bit of English and explained that he'd had a fall. He told me he hasn't eaten for three weeks. I asked if he was hungry and almost with tears in his eyes, he said a simple, "Yes." He's going to be seeing the doctor later this week to get the wiring removed from his mouth. Poor lad.
I started at the Spanish school last Monday and everything is going well. The location is awesome. Up on top of a mountain overlooking the lush, tropical, vegetated valley below. I have classes in the garden of the school and I have a crazy Uruguayan woman teaching me and a young couple from North Carolina in my class. It's very peaceful in the garden with just the sound of the rain and the birds to be heard.
I've been spinning out the Americans by telling them how big red kangaroos are. I showed them a picture on the net of a red kangaroon standing just as tall as a 6 foot 7 tall basketball player. They were blown away.
My classes are in the afternoon from 1pm to 5pm which is usually when it's raining so that leaves me with free time in the morning during the beautiful weather. Today i went to a nearby mountain for another zip line canopy tour. It was pretty awesome, zipping through the forest in the sky along cables looking way down below at the trees. The best bit though was at the end. I totally wasn't expecting it. We had a 25 metre freefall. I thought I was going to be lowered down gently but it wasn't gentle at all. As the name suggests, it was free fall and as I fell my stomach rose. Good fun. Especially watching the other riders come down jusrt as surprised at the unexpected speed.
I've got some photos of all this shit but somehow in trying to upload some, I've lost the fuckers which has pissed me off a bit. I don't have the correct cable with me now, but will try and upload some photos at somepoint soon. Innit.
Cheers
Spaceman ☺️
