A $140 Cab Ride with a Side of Groping: Costa Rica Week 5

I traveled throughout Costa Rica this week so get ready for some seemingly super jumpy reading.

Jaco Beach

Day 1

Mom and I left Quepos in the morning and traveled up to Jaco. We spent the night at the same Room2Board hostel Jacqueline and I had stayed in the week before. It was a different and more relaxing time with my mom. We mostly just read and talked while sitting on the top of the roof swinging in hammocks. It was our chill and mellow day, which was nice because we had been going at a really quick pace for the majority of her trip here.

Day 2

In the morning, Mom and I woke up early and got picked up to go to Isla de Tortuga (turtle island). We rode in a shuttle for about an hour and a half and drove up to Puntarenas. Puntarenas is one of the most famous tourist towns in Costa Rica and I'm not really sure why. It's not the nicest place I went in Costa Rica and I didn't think it was anything special. However, if it keeps people away from Manuel Antonio and the places I think are much prettier, I guess that I am okay with it. Less people for me!

View from the hammocks of Room2Board

Once we got to Puntarenas, we boarded a catamaran with about 60 other people and took the hour-ish long boat ride to Isla de Tortuga. While we were riding out, I asked my mom why they kept saying everything twice when we obviously already understood the first time. She had to tell me it was because once was in Spanish and once was in English so obviously my Spanish had come leaps and bounds from when I first arrived in Costa Rica.

On the tour, we went for the quickest snorkel ever and there were about a billion people there. Because my family has been on sailboats in a ton of secluded places (more on that later when I get to the pre-college travel), I'm kind of spoiled and like to snorkel by myself. The snorkeling wasn't great either. It all turned out fine though because we ended up being able to ride a banana boat and spending a lot of time just chilling on the beach. The island was absolutely stunning and covered in white sand and palm trees. We had a delicious lunch and rode the catamaran back to shore, where we boarded a three hour long bus ride back to San Jose.

People think I'm crazy, but I honestly don't mind bus rides. You can look out the window and see so many pretty things if you pay attention. You can read a book, listen to music or a podcast, or just nap.

After our bus ride, Mom and I made our way to our hotel. There we packed up and swapped around some things. Mom was headed all the way home and I was headed to the eastern coast of Costa Rica in the morning alone. I wanted to only take my carry on backpack, so Mom was kind enough to take my luggage. I packed wayyyy too heavy for this trip. Since then, I have learned to pack a lot lighter. The highlight of the night was when Mom got diarrhea and the bathroom was mostly open so we could both hear and smell everything. We were laughing so hard because you can either laugh or cry about it. That's one thing my mom always drilled into my head and I love her for it.

Bus ride to Puerto Viejo

Day 3

In the morning, Mom and I split up. She went to the airport and I went to the bus station. Unfortunately, my taxi driver took me to the wrong bus stop. There are two Puerto Viejos in Costa Rica. He took me to the bus station that took people to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. I wanted to go to just plain old Puerto Viejo. When I realized the mistake, I took a new taxi to a different bus station and ended up watching my 10am bus pull away from the station. I waited another 2 hours before I got to leave.

The bus ride itself was absolutely beautiful. San Jose is set up in some mountains, so to get anywhere, you have to go back down to sea level. It was rainy and foggy and absolutely stunning. The drive to the eastern coast is even prettier than the one to the west.

When we finally made it to Puerto Viejo, I took a taxi to my B&B where breakfast apparently cost extra (???) and unpacked before going to the beach. To get to the beach, you had to walk through a secluded rainforest and then you ended up on a private beach. Unfortunately, I ended up staying at the beach until it started to get dark and had a hard time finding my way back at dusk. I ended up getting kind of lost in the rainforest. I could hear howler monkeys all up in the trees screaming at me. One even threw a coconut at me and almost hit me in the head. Eventually, I made my way out of the forest and back across the street to my B&B.

Road to my B&B

When I made it back to the B&B, I couldn't get my key to turn in the lock. I ended up being locked out for 45 minutes before finally getting in. I said three different prayers before I made it into my hostel. It was quite a day of travel, beautiful beaches, and some frustration.

Day 4

I let myself sleep in late before heading to the beach. When I got to the beach, it was absolutely deserted, which was awesome for a while and then scary. A native Costa Rican man named Carlos came running along the beach and stopped to talk to me. He seemed harmless so I talked to him for a bit.

In Costa Rica, you greet with a hug and kiss on the cheek. He gave me the wettest cheek kiss ever to greet me. At this point, I probably should have realized he was creepy. But I kept talking to him. He mentioned that he was an artist and that I should go back to his house so he could paint me. All I could think about was that scene in Titanic when Rose says, "paint me like one of your French girls." I declined going to his house and he asked if he could hug me. I thought that might distract him, so I said yes. When he hugged me, he tried to slide his hands down my bikini bottoms and at the same time grabbed and squeezed my breast. He also grabbed me super close and started pushing his erection into my leg. It was not one of my favorite experiences.

Me right before meeting Carlos

When I pushed him off me, he said he didn't mean to make me uncomfortable. I'm not sure how I could have been anything but uncomfortable but whatever. He also tried to kiss me, which is when I pretended to leave. Once he left the beach, I came back out for a bit. Another native Costa Rican came along then and also tried to kiss me on the lips right after he asked my name. It's times like these when I'm glad I use the fake name of Carlota when I live abroad in Spanish speaking countries.

I ended up leaving the beach shortly after the second man left the beach. Luckily, I didn't get lost in the rainforest on the way back. At the B&B, I laid in the hammock and rested for the rest of the day. It was quite an emotionally draining day and I was grateful for the rest.

Day 5

I left Puerto Viejo via bus early in the morning. The bus ride ended up taking 11 hours instead of 7 because of some sort of riots in San Jose. To this day, I'm not sure what they were rioting. At least the bus ride was just as beautiful on the way back to San Jose as it had been on the way to Puerto Viejo.

Bus to San Jose

Riding buses in Costa Rica is kind of cool because there are often people walking selling things in the median. If you want a snack, all you have to do is unroll your window and yell out what you want. A vendor will run up to you with your snack of choice. All you have to do is pay and they will hand you your snack through the window. Bus drivers also sometimes allow various vendors to actually come vend their goods on the bus if there is enough traffic. It's a somewhat crazy and unique experience.

Once I got to San Jose, I had to take a cab to Alajuela, where the airport is. Normally Alajuela is about 45 minutes from San Jose. However, the riots made it over an hour long drive. I ended up having to pay my cab driver $140 to take me. I had to get money out of the ATM just to cover it. Looking back, I can see that I was totally swindled, but at the time I was just happy to make it safely to my hostel.

Day 6

I woke up at 3:45am to make my way to the airport. Luckily, the hostel had a free airport shuttle. I ate breakfast at the airport and then boarded the EMPTIEST plane I have ever seen. I had a whole row of six seats to myself. It was amazing. The whole plane was like that. Like everyone else, I laid down and took up the whole bench to sleep on the way to Dallas.

When I got to Dallas, I went through customs and then ate lunch before heading to my terminal. I worked for swim lessons for a while and then had a lot of time to burn. My flight was supposed to leave at 5pm. Because of weather, we kept getting delayed and changing gates. To occupy my time, I ended up riding the tram around the terminal 13 times. It's very interesting the kind of people that you can meet in an airport. It's really the best kind of place to people watch.

One of my favorite people was a lady with a Nokia phone. I literally hadn't seen a Nokia flip phone in probably almost ten years. It made me laugh so hard. I also made friends with a bunch of Walmart employees who were in Dallas on business. One of them told me I had the best attitude about being stuck in an airport they had ever seen.

Our flight finally left at 1:30am, a full 13 hours after I had gotten into the Dallas airport. I made it home safely, and my dad picked me up from the airport at 3:30am. Thank goodness he's a night person.

Life Lessons

Groping is no bueno and the best thing to do is to get out of there ASAP.

It's okay to have hard boundaries and say no if you feel uncomfortable.

Monkeys can throw hard and also are very playful.

Leave places before it gets dark if it's unfamiliar.

Private beaches are awesome but also scary.

Don't drink unsafe water or you WILL get diarrhea.

Choose to laugh instead of cry.