From the top of a Mountain

At on Sunday at 7:25am, Greg walked me down to the hotel reception to wait for the "bus" (van) only to find that it was also 20 minutes early, and that I was the only passenger on it! The driver, Wilbert, was thrilled that I spoke Spanish, I sat up in the front seat with him and we chatted the whole way about anything and everything, and even showed each other our drivers licenses (he had about 5 of them, they're very specific). We stopped about an hour in and I bought him breakfast as a crazy sounding idea popped into his head. He turned to me and asked "quieres conducir?"

Now me driving wouldn't ordinarily be a crazy idea except that (a) this is Costa Rica where there are pretty much no rules of the road, (b) I had never driven stick before in my life. In fact, even after asking repeatedly, my dad still won't teach me because he says I'll wreck his car, and (c) Wilbert would be teaching me in Spanish, so my frequent habit of smiling and nodding when I don't understand could quite possibly spell disaster. Oh dear. He kept insisting, so I convinced him to turn onto a dirt road devoid of anything, to decrease my chances of killing something. You know what? It wasn't that bad, especially after he moved my seat forward after I explained that the clutch was "muy lejos."

Eventually we got to a pitstop that all of the Interbuses use, and I switched into another bus. The second driver was amazing as well, and offered to call my friend Miles so that we'd know exactly where to meet. Lucky we did, because otherwise he would have dropped me off 7 km away from the right place which would have meant a looooong walk.

Spending the last couple of days with Miles and his parents was a really nice way to end the trip. Their farm is absolutely surreal...on top of a mountain with an amazing view of Gulf of Nicoya and the whole world. Gappers, you'll be glad to know that there are people out there who welcome stray dogs, they had three of them, along with two cats, three chickens, and one crazy rooster. It is an amazing way to live, and they grow most of what they eat - cucumbers, tomatoes, sugar cane (the juice is really sweet), mangoes, lemons, tangerines, peppers and many more fruits that I can't even recall the name of.


View from the house...imagine waking up to this every morning.

At night when it got dark, we went onto Google Earth and showed each other the aerial views of our mountain/suburb, turned on his keyboard and, and sang along to each other playing classical and pop music. It really hit home just then, how people living completely opposite lives can share so many similarities...I would never have believed it before.

The next morning before I took the bus back to San Jose and the plane ride home, we hopped onto his motorcycle and rode to to a mirador, a viewpoint, with a small structure housing a battered couch. We sat for a few minutes, kicked our feet, and stared out at the amazing view.


Miles on his motorcycle.