Transportation

One thing that you can’t look up on the internet about Costa Rica is transportation. To some extent you can find a name of a bus station or taxi company with a phone number. But navigation of buses or finding a house or even a restaurant can prove to be difficult. In Costa Rica there are no physical addresses. The houses don’t have mailboxes. The streets might have names, but there are no street signs. Everything is by landmark! To get to where you are going you just have ‘to know.’

Taxis are easy, for the most part. Just like a taxi anywhere, as long as the taxi driver knows or can get a hold of someone who knows where you want to go, you are good to go. They are honest and won’t try to cheat you (unusual,  I know!).

But BUSES are a different story. My friend Michaela and I decided we were going to cook dinner for my family and were going to take a quick trip to Walmart during the break we had between chapel and class. We asked the receptionist at our school how to get to Walmart, and she told us to hop on the Perifetica and it will be across the highway. This Perifetica was one of four bus routes that run in a loop. This route went to Walmart. We get to Walmart and find everything we need without problem, with the exception that my NO-AD sunscreen was $16… never again…! We cross the street and get back on the same bus that routes the loop that will bring us back to school. Little did we know that this loop was more like a circle around the city! It took us over 1.5 hours to get back to school! It took so long that we had to switch drivers! Turns out there might only be 4 different routes, but each route runs clockwise and counter-clock wise. Needless to say we did NOT buy the bumper stickers that read ‘I heart pedi" on them.

Every day I learn something new I guess :P Learning more and more Spanish daily, slowly but surely. My host family is still as wonderful as ever and I’m having a blast going to the beach or visiting waterfalls or coffee plantations on the weekends! Though I know ya’ll are experiencing a nice transition into fall, it’s still in the 80s here, and I’m getting tanned!