Day 16, obnoxious afternoon and all, might have been a trip peak. At 6:12 am I heard the first screams of the howler monkeys, later than normal and no less annoying than the repetitive tick of my alarm clock. This was as good a time as any to lace up my running shoes for a jog on the rocky back roads of Uvita, Costa Rica. The run commenced on the beach with stretching before a short walk back to Flutterby, our 'hostel by the sea.' Deciding to be extra hydrated or competitive, K.F.A. and I chugged down full Naglenes. The hostel chef had breakfast waiting, as if he was working directly for us. Our plates did not stay loaded long--this was some of the best gallo pinto con huevos (rice and beans with eggs) to date! And the switch from scrambled to fried egg was a nice touch. Yes, on Day 16 we decided we could not concoct a better breakfast, nor will we tire of this combination. For three dollars this trifecta of food wards off hunger until dinner, not only is this fabulous for the travelers budget, the bikini body appreciates this too.
Following breakfast, we walked to the supermarket for dinner supplies, officially committing to cooking from here on out. Fresh vegetables (cabbage, squash, tomatoes, onion, and garlic) and noodles in hand, we checked out and began the venture home. The groceries were labeled and unloaded. This left us with enough time to catch the (natural) 'Whale Tale' on Playa Uvita, an hour round-trip walk from our temporary home, at low tide.
Returning after 11 am, my feet let me know rest time was in order. Wouldn't you know... the tree house we were sleeping in had hammocks tied up just below. The plan was to finish
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer but instead the hour was spent with shut eyes. To recover from the intense nap, we had lunch. I realize 1000 words ago, I mentioned gallo pinto usually tides us over until dinner, meaning the midday meal is skipped, however, a fruit and veggie truck stopped by the hostel seconds after we got back from the supermarket... and sold us on a pineapple for a dollar and change. Enough on being cheap and eating, except I am almost certain this remark is premature because dinner will work its way into being covered--it was spectacular(!!!). So if pineapple is considered lunch, we lunched.
On second thought, lets continue with budget travel. Part of traveling on what I have identified as the 'student's budget' means asking plenty of questions--to Ticos (a person of native to Costa Rica) in broken Spanish, to hostel owners, to your guide book, to various travelers along the way--and sufficiently researching. Onwards. K.F.A.'s previous jaunt to the supermarket led to the discovery of a Tica Bus ticket counter... which we seeked out after lunch. When I say ´seeked out´ I mean we walked there to ask questions about bus tickets to Nicaragua with nothing in hand. To our delight--this was a place for purchasing the advanced tickets we needed. Since we had no money, we quickly walked back to the hostel to collect credit cards... only to return and discover we needed passports. Had this information been distributed prior--say when we mentioned we were going to collect money--that would have have been nice. Each leg of the journey is 12 minutes, 30 minutes round trip when you include time to dig through over-sized backpacks, fill up water bottles, and use the bathroom. My watch read 3:06 pm when we arrived at The Whale Statue (Yes, the ticket counter was inside a foam-ish whale. Definitely not strange.) on our third attempt. Following the business model of the developing world, the one worker had mysteriously disappeared. Our avid interest in these tickets, coupled with the comment, ¨We will be right back; how late are you open?¨ apparently meant nothing. You can only laugh in these situations. After 40 minutes, we gave up.
On rented bikes we took off to further explore Uvita. The problem being these bikes were priced at two dollars per hour for a reason; one bike had you so hunched over the lower back went immediately numb while the other bike I could only picture my 76-year-old grandmother cruising the beach on--this bike did NOT do inclines of any sort. The Whale Statue was a good turn around spot... and luck would have 'our girl' back--working. The agonizingly slow process of securing tickets flew by, simply because we did not have to ride those bikes. Knowing we have seats on a bus to Nicaragua is a great feeling, days later. The remaining hour of ´bike time´ took us directly back to the hostel, with 20 minutes to spare before our last beach sunset for quite sometime. The sun set well--it did not disappoint.
K.F.A. prepared an epic meal; I watched. We make an incredible team... but I will save those details for another post. (I had to hand-draft this post, making me acutely aware of how obnoxiously long this ramble is. In addition, I am paying money to upload this post. Now I am not only not getting paid to write, I am actually being charged. What happened to ¨free¨ speech?) Luckily after dinner, the typical night--as was the case in Day 16--caps off with dish clean-up, shower, more reading, and bed.
¨We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.¨ (Edward Abbey)
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