..... but gorgeous men !! Honest to god I don't think I've met so many gorgeous men in such a short space of time ! Unfortunately no photographic evidence .... grrrr !
So, on Friday I opted for Puerto Jimenez on the Peninsula de Osa, south Costa Rica, very south, in fact nearly at Panama. The journey was due to take approximately 8 hours, a tad long but I know it's the last chance I'm going to get to see this part of CR, next week I'll be in Panama and I'm going via the Caribbean coast instead of the more popular (and incredibly busy) border crossing on the Pacific side. When I saw the bus (back in the ol' Coca Cola area of San Jose) it looked like it would be an achievement to get it out of the city, never mind all the way down south. It looked like it was being held together with sellotape and it proved to be somewhat delicate as we had to abandon it on a road outside of San Isidro de El General and swap it for, I think, it's twin sister. But this bus was obviously designed for Costa Ricans or those of Central American birth as I spent the rest of the journey with my knees up in my nostrils. There was no conceivable way my thigh bones could fit in my seat space without it involving bending or breaking a femur ... been there, done that, never again thanks. Anyway, we picked up some more passengers in San Isidro including 3 x Bjorn Borg types who were hanging around the bus station, topless and showing off their quite impressive tanned six packs ! Certainly gave us muchachas on the bus a bit of a giggle when they got on and there was some definite ogling going on, not by me of course !
So, ten and a half hours after leaving San Jose we chugged into Puerto Jimenez at about 11pm. I don't like arriving at places so late because it's difficult to find somewhere to stay, I was planning on finding Hotel Carolina (not because of the name but because it sounded ok in Lonely Planet). When we got off the bus there was a slightly inebriated Canadian guy who was asking all of us gringos (including the 3 Bjorns) if we had anywhere to stay, he had rooms at a place just round the corner - a genuine place and some of the German girls on the bus and the Bjorns went with him so I tagged along just to see if I could get a room without having to traipse all around trying to find Hotel Carolina. The dour woman who ran the place sorted out the Germans with a room and then she tried to shack me up with the Bjorns !!! I tried to explain to her that I wanted a single room but she just said she had nothing and what's the problem with sharing with the Bjorns ?? The boys were ok with it, yeah, no problem, it's cheaper sharing .... hmmm, a night in the presence of 3 six packs or should I try and find Hotel Carolina .... My common sense prevailed and I told Bjorn 1, 2 and 3 thanks for the offer and I may be back if I can't find another room !
Found Hotel Carolina round the corner, looked closed up but a couple of guys in the bar next door saw me looking and came over and bloody hell if these 2 - Juan and the other one weren't just stunningly gorgeous ! It turned out that Juan is the night watchman for the hotel so he got me a room no problem, kept calling me his "amor", bless him. Obviously Puerto Jimenez is the town for the beautiful people. Actually it's a really friendly small town, very dusty due to no paved roads and it's got a beautiful beach overlooking the Golfo Dulce, an inlet off the Pacific. You can see over towards Golfito on the other side and it reminded me a little bit of the view from the Wirral over towards North Wales, except of course for the clear blue sea and the sun !
As I arrived very late I had no idea of my bearings so I didn't know where the beach was but the next day I found it no problems, it is beautiful - and empty. I had the place to myself. Before I took a dip I had to ask myself why I had the place to myself ... was the water polluted ? It certainly didn't look it, then I saw a local lad further down the beach go in and he seemed to be catching some fish for himself so I went for it, considering my skin hasn't started falling off and I haven't turned a shade of nuclear green I assume it was ok. In fact it was more than ok, the water was so warm and clear and calm I could have stayed in all day ! I took a photo from the sea to show my clothes where I left them on the beach with no-one else in sight, memories of Reggie Perrin !
I forgot to mention, apart from the dodgy bus the views on the journey there were amazing, part of the road went alongside the Rio Grande de Terraba and it is quite simply beautiful and the road between Cartago and San Isidro was pure, 100% biker heaven, tarmac and twisties for about 100 k's.
Unfortunately the bus back to San Jose left at 5am on Sunday, yep 5am. I tried to buy a ticket for it on Saturday but was told I could pay on the bus. For those sort of journeys that translates as "you'll be standing all the way back, I've sold out". So at 4:30am I duly left Hotel Carolina, said goodbye to Juan who was standing guard outside on the road, and prepared myself for standing room only.
There were about 6 of us towards the back of the bus standing in a space that could probably comfortably fit 1 person. One of the guys, was, you've guessed it, gorgeous ! We all glanced at the pile of bags piled up in our area and I think we all silently agreed with a bit of bunker mentality that those bags were our seats for the journey so Mr. Gorgeous offered for me to sit first which I quite happily took advantage of. I kept offering to stand and swap places with them but being typically Cantral American macho guys they all refused. Eventually though, after San Isidro again I insisted that one of them take my place and then for the rest of the journey we all swapped around every 20 minutes or so.
So, an interesting weekend ! Probably a bit too far to go just for a couple of days but I'm glad I saw the peninsula.
Anyway, it's my last week here in Costa Rica and it's the first day of the new school year today so most of the kids at the guarderia were in their uniforms today (except for the real young ones). Here in CR they don't go to school all day, they either go in the morning or the afternoon, so the other time the kids are at the guarderia. This morning Tania (the boss) had all the kids together and was teaching them all the National Anthem. They all have to stand solemnly with their hands by their sides and sing very loud. Most of them don't know the words yet but interestingly Nayeli knew them all. Nayeli is from Nicaragua and finds it difficult to make friends with the other kids because she is "Nicaraguan" apparently. The Ticos in general (not all I have to state, but generally) have a real problem with the Nicos, some veering towards real unpleasant opinions. From what I can gather it comes down to immigration. Familiar problems the world over eh ? Anyway, I watched as Nayeli powered out all the words with such pride and I made a point of mentioning to all the Tias that she was the only kid who knew all the words, not bad going for someone from Nicaragua eh ?!
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