Local bus travel

We were unsuccessful in figuring out a way to get to Quepos, Costa Rica directly so we found that the only way to do it would be to take a cab to the border and then local busses once we got across. We woke up early so that we could get out of town and across the border with enough time to get the Quepos before it was too late at night. The cab ride to the border was a 45-50 minute drive but the cabs each wanted $20USD for the trip. We knew that this would be way more than it should cost so we walked around town for about 20 minutes getting quotes from every cab driver. They seemed to be tipping each other off on what we were doing and all were sticking to their guns about the $20, but Alyssa was also adamantly saying she would only pay $15. Finally we were able to negotiate it down to $16, which we accepted so we could finally begin the journey.
Once we reached the border, the cab driver dropped us off about a quarter mile away so we had to walk in. Immediately, we realized how shady this border was. People kept approaching us, trying to sell us bus tickets or information. There was one guy we couldn't shake who followed us the entire way in. He did give us the forms we needed to fill out which was helpful but we didn't want to purchase anything from him. Once we finally figured out where to go to exit Nicaragua, we were told we had to pay a $1 USD fee just to use the customs building. This was completely bizarre but what choice did we have. We then got in the line to pay our exit fee. Even though the exit fee was clearly posted on the window in both dollars and cordobas, the immigration guy charged us double what it should have been and tried to refuse the cordobas saying they could only take dollars. I refused to pay him in dollars since I was trying to get rid of my cordobas and we were still in Nicaragua for Christ sake! He finally conceded but I was still bitter about being forced to pay more than we should have and about the wholenplace basically scamming us. We then had to walk about a half mile to the Costa Rican border, which with our heavy bags was not a lot of fun. The Nicaragua-Costa Rica border is hands down the most disorganized, corrupt and sketchy border I have ever been to. We were waiting in line to get through the Costa Rica entrance and we watched them turn down dozens of tourists because they did not already have a bus pass showing they were leaving the country within 30 days (they did all have flights back to the US or Canada from other places though, which the official wouldn't accept). Instead, they made those people go purchase cheap bus passes that said they were going to exit the country that the people just wouldn't end up using. We were nervous when it was our turn but luckily the official accepted our flight from Ecuador to the Galápagos in September as proof that we would be leaving the country.
We then had the very daunting task of trying to figure out what bus we could take to get to Quepos. After being denied by each of the bus companies (they all only went to San Jose or Liberia, neither of which we wanted to go to) we realized that we would have to take a bus to Barranca, then a bus to Puntarenas and then from there a bus to Quepos (all local buses). We boarded the bus the bus to Barranca ($6USD) which was actually pretty nice and settled in for the 5 hour journey.

We hadn't eaten much for breakfast, assuming that somewhere along the road we would be able to pick something up...this was not the case. Once we got our tickets for the Barranca bus, we waited in line to board (left at 11:00). There was absolutely nothing at the border, no stores or vendors, which is very different from most borders. We finally loaded up and headed towards Barrancas. When they dropped us at Barrancas, we were expecting a bus station or town or something where we could buy our next ticket, but instead they just left us on the side of the road. I was shocked by this! There were cab drivers there but they wanted $20USD to take us 20 minutes down the road to Puntarenas so we refused. We asked the cab drivers about a bus and they said they would be very hard to find and were always full (as we'd come to find out, this was of course a lie). Finally we noticed some of the locals just standing on the side of the road and joined them. Sure enough, a local bus pulled up that was on its way to Puntarenas, so we jumped on.
We had no idea when we would need to get off the bus our where the bus terminal was so I asked two of the young passengers on the bus. They explained it to us pretty well in Spanish and some broken English but luckily they looked at us and told us to get off the bus when it was our stop because it wouldn't have been the one I would have thought. Then to our surprise, they got off the bus with us and lead us the 6 blocks down to the bus terminal. They even inquired at the different stations, finding the right place for us to buy our ticket. The bus left at 4:00 and by that time it was 3:45 so there was no way we would have made it without their help. As we dashed off to buy our ticket, we did not get to say a proper thank you to the kids who helped us (we thought they were coming in behind us but once they saw we were in the right place they left). That was one of the nicest things anyone has done for us; it was so clearly out of the way for them and I still have a large amount of guilt about not making sure they knew how much it was appreciated.
We boarded this third bus to Quepos. This was a 3 hour ride and Alyssa and I could both have our own seats since the bus was pretty empty. We still hadn't eaten real meals but had been able to quickly grab a granola bar at the bus terminal before our bus left to try and quell the hunger pains. We passed through Jaco where we had stayed the year before on a family trip and it was strange how much of the town I remembered. It immediately made me wish our parents were there with us again. We arrived in Quepos around 7:00 and were dropped off at the bus terminal. We hadn't seen much in the way of hostels on our way into town so we started wandering the streets in search of a place to stay (something I hate to do in the dark). Luckily, an American man was advertising his band playing at a restaurant later that night and pointed us in the direction of a good hostel called "Wide Mouth Frog". I was once again distraught by the cost of a room ($35 USD) but we had a long day of travel and I didn't want to wander around looking for other options. Luckily the place was really nice although its the smallest room we have shared to date. I just need to adjust to the fact that Costa Rica is an expensive place to travel (compared to the rest of Central America).

After we got settled in, we headed back to the restaurant where the band was playing to get some dinner. A margarita at that place was $9 (which as Alyssa continues to point out would be cheap in LA) but I can't justify those prices now that we live on a budget so we ate as cheaply as we could and headed home to get some sleep.

Posted with Blogsy