Osa peninsula bound

We got up early so that we could pack, grab breakfast and make the 10:30 bus towards Puerto Jimenez on the Osa peninsula. We arrived at the bus station promptly at 10:15 but weren't sure what bus we would need to get on. An older local woman sensed my confusion and asked me (in Spanish) where we were headed. Once she had an idea of where we were going, she would look at each bus that came to the terminal and tell us whether it was our bus or not. I was very grateful to her, because the local buses can be sort of confusing. We have experienced a lot of unsolicited kindness from the local people.
Once on the bus, it was about a 3 hour ride to Chacarita, which is basically just a gas station where you make the transfer to the bus that takes you to Puerto Jimenez. Locals often get on the bus selling plantains and drinks so Alyssa and I decided to try a horchata- it was pretty good (yes, it comes in a bag)!

Once in Chacarita, we only had enough time to quickly grab a drink from the gas station before we were hustled onto the next bus. It was again a few hours drive, which normally I would have spent reading or listening to music, but Lars insisted on talking the entire time and repeating the same stories I didn't care about the first time I heard them. He means well but is starting to annoy the hell out of me- too much energy all of the time!
We arrived in Puerto Jimenez and were immediately greeted by a Canadian man at the bus stop. He was probably in his 70's and clearly had a mental and skin disorder. He was telling us about the hostel he owned ("Cabinas on the corner") and trying to persuade us to stay there. I had actually read about this hostel and it was one of our possible options, but after meeting the owner we decided not to stay there. He followed us to where we ended up staying at "Cabinas Backpackers" and told the owner that he had brought us there to collect a "finders fee" from him. It was all very strange.
Cabinas backpackers was very nice and clean but we were the only people there. Puerto Jiminez is definitely not a touristy place and no one spoke English. We walked around in search of a snack since it would only be a few hours until dinner. I got a "bastido" which is basically just blended fruit with ice. Alyssa on the other hand, went searching for her usual bottle of wine.

As we were walking back in to town, it began to rain. We ducked into a coffee shop so that Lars could get a cup of coffee and then it began to absolutely pour.

We were trapped there for about 30 minutes and finally just decided to run for it. We got soaking wet but luckily our hostel was only 3 blocks away. We spent the rest of the evening, reading in the covered hammocks in front of our hostel. This was when we began to notice that the guy who owned our hostel was an OCD nutbag. He cleaned constantly; even though the rain was going to get everything wet again regardless, he hurried around drying everything. At one point, he told me I could not sit a certain way at the table because my shoe was getting to close to the table surface. Lars looked at me with a hilarious look of horror as he listened to the man. To make matters worse, the guy would follow us around, watch us, turn on lights for us etc. It was like he was possessed. We began to feel very uncomfortable around him.
For dinner, we ventured to an Italian restaurant that someone had recommended for us called "Il Giardino". We weren't exactly sure where it was located except that it was on the beach so finally after a lot of wandering down dark streets (thank god Lars was there) we found the beach and the Italian restaurant. It is owned by this old Italian man who had moved to Puerto Jimenez from Italy and made delicious food using his grandparents recipes. We had the pumpkin ravioli, lasagna and pesto gnocchi- amazing! He also brought us out a basket of rosemary bread which was so delicious. We lounged there for a while drinking wine and although we refused to go out drinking despite Lars insistence, we did have shots of grappa as a "digestif"- not my idea of delicious.

Posted with Blogsy