Day 2: Arriving In San Jose (part 2)

By BobbyRica | October 20, 2008

I stand 6′4” and could easily look over the waves of black, red, brown, and blond heads that surrounded me. I immediately spotted my driver holding a sign with my name on it. I pointed him out to John and we both snaked our way through droves of people to get to him. Sascha, he told us, was his name and he brought along his brother for the long ride into the night down to Puerto Viejo. All four of us easily clambered to his basic but comfy van and headed out of the city. All in just 15 minutes!

Incidentally, there was a local soccer match going on when we hit the road and I’m telling you, Costa Ricans are all suckers for soccer! Unfortunately for us, it caused the flow of traffic to back up for hours but once we were outside the town, we coolly headed up a windy mountain road to our favored journey’s end.

The onset of our trip was a real kick-ass feeling for John and me as we simply sat back with a lit Partagas Series V each. The dead of the night made the rest of the journey a bit slow for the van’s headlights were the solitary source of light and it only got to unveil a few meters of the road each second.

Turned out there was nothing to fret for it was pretty much a straight shot to Puerto Viejo after crossing through the Bralio Carrillo Natural Reserve. But not before passing Limon, a wild and beautiful region with pounding surf and prehistoric rainforests. It wouldn’t be hard to miss in daylight. You would know you’re there when the road runs parallel to the Caribbean Ocean on your left and a jungle on the right. Since it was dark, we only detected the ocean through the palm trees when the lightning would strike over it.

After 45 minutes of this, highlighted by the sight of some incredibly huge crabs on the road, we bumped into a sign that told us Puerto Viejo was a mere 6 kms. away! Finally, the long wait would come to a close.