The Costa Rican commute...

Since I am Since I am now officially “working” here and have an office to go to, I also get to the join the ranks of the local commuters.  Yes, a lot of people do have cars and they drive to work just like we are used to back home, but even more people rely on public transportation – i.e. the bus.  There are certainly no shortage of buses in this part of the world, and of all kinds.  From old school bus style to the latest Mercedes Benz, you can expect to see at least one on every street.  There is a bus the passes right in front of the house, and I can take that to the center of Heredia – the closest large city, only about 10-15 minutes away.  Thus far, however, I’ve had the luxury of having Luisa drop me off at my next bus stop in Heredia after she takes the girls to school.   There is a bus that goes from Heredia to the Universidad de Costa Rica, which happens to be pretty close to the ANAI office where I am working.  

So I wait in line with a bunch of university students for about 10 minutes or so.  If you don’t get there early, you won’t make the bus.  Good thing Luisa knew this so she drops me off about 20 minutes early.  There were already about 30 people in line when I got there, and within the next 2 minutes, about 30 more people.  Popular route, I guess…  So we all pile into this 3 seats per row bus until it’s packed full – all off us riding for the convenient price of 345 colones, equivalent to about 60 cents.  The ride is about 40 minutes, depending on how many traffic “situations” we encounter – i.e. cars that pull out in the middle of the road to try and turn against traffic, or other cars that decide to park themselves temporarily in the middle of a lane of traffic, just your normal everyday occurrences….Ha.  From the Universidad the plan was that Benson would pick me up there and take me back to the office.  Well, when I arrived and called his cell phone it just went straight to voicemail.  No help there.  But since I had been a fairly observant passenger when I took a taxi to the office the first morning, I figured I could find my way on foot.  And turns out, I was right.  

There are two great things about finding your way around in Costa Rica – 1) there are no street signs so giving directions or following directions becomes a challenge and one is left to rely on “landmarks” such as a church or certain mini-mart, etc; 2) a lot of the streets, neighborhoods, mini-marts, shops, etc all look the same (making #1 all the more fun).  But I found my way… up the street about 600 meters, left at the Soda San Bosco and then another left at the Si-Mart.  Easy as pie.     By the time Benson realized his phone was turned off and finally called me, I was walking up to the front door of the office.  I guess I at least proved myself as somewhat of a capable assistant, at least in the department of finding my way around! 

So on my three trips back from the office I have taken 3 different buses from 3 different places.  The first two days I got a ride to a town along the way and found the bus stop for the bus to Heredia.  Today, however, was a different kind of adventure.  I left the office on foot, planning on just heading back the way I had come and taking the bus from the Universidad back to Heredia.  I’m not sure if it was the fact that I was trying to walk quickly to catch the bus on the hour, or if I was day dreaming or what, but suddenly I realized I was in a new place – one that I had not passed in the morning on my way in.  Oops.  Not that I was lost on a dead end street or anything, I was actually in front of a University, just a different one than I had intended.  So when I realized my mistake I decided to just ask for a bus to Heredia since I figured there had to be one nearby.  A security guard told me to turn around and walk a few hundred meters in the other direction and I would find the bus stop in front of the church.  And indeed I did find it; but I also found a sign that said the next bus to Heredia wasn’t for another 2 hours.  No thank you…  So I started walking in a direction that I thought would lead me back to where I had taken a wrong path.  Ask again – this time to a woman who told me that the University I was looking for was 200 meters this way, then follow the train line another 200 meters in another direction.  I followed her directions and soon found myself in familiar territory.  I am still a little confused how I got myself on the wrong path to begin with, but I guess that is beyond the point right now.  I made it to the University, found a lot of people standing in line, and asked what bus they were waiting for – Heredia, indeed.  Success, after all.  I actually ended up talking to a man from Panama who was there at the University while he and his wife were studying for their masters degrees in music and dance – both are professors at the University of Panama.  He turned out to be quite the Chatty Cathy, telling me all about the great places in Panama and people he knew in the states, although I think he was a little saddened that I had no musical skills to report.  

Anyway, in addition to my new Panamanian friend, the ride home was an interesting one.  I’m pretty sure the driver had a bet going with the other bus that left at the same time (there were so many people in line we filled 2 buses) about who would arrive in Heredia first.  He definitely was trying to avoid the heavy traffic areas by taking the side street route – a bit interesting considering the narrow windy streets, chaotic parking practices, etc.  All in all, we made it safe and sound, and I’m pretty sure we beat the other bus by about 1 minute.   From where I get off the bus in Heredia, I just have to walk around the corner and take another bus that takes me to the language school where I meet up with Luisa and the girls.  

Phew, all in a days work....