Last Thursday, my Danish hostelmate Zoe suggested we make chocolate fondue and enjoy it with some of the exotic fruits of Costa Rica. So after I finished classes in the afternoon, we caught a bus down to town to purchase the supplies for our delightful evening meal. It was raining a little bit while we stood at the bus stop, but nothing too crazy. We waited and waited for our bus, when one finally came around the corner. We boarded, but after we got on I realized it was the bus directo (direct from one place to another) rather than the bus colectivo (makes multiple stops). This meant it cost twice as much and only brought us to the bus stop on the edge of town, rather than the stop in the center where I usually end up. We got off at the end of the line and ventured into one of the small shops at the bus station, and purchased some jocotes and a watermelon, but couldn't find suitable and affordable chocolate. We traipsed around the corner to the Turribasicos supermarket, and purchased some starfruit and a pineapple, utilizing the assistance of an employee to make our selection. We asked multiple people where to find chocolate en barra, no en polvo (in bars, not powder), but still couldn't find a large enough quantity for an affordable price. We kept walking through the rain until we reached the bus station in the center of town, where the larger Turribasicos is located.
Inside this supermarket, we found bars of chocolate available in 1 kg packages (!!) for only $8. We made our purchase and returned to the bus station to wait for our bus back to the school. By this time, it was more or less a downpour, and getting dark. We boarded the bus with a bunch of others, and I chose a seat on the left side of the bus.
Bad decision.
I usually take the bus back to school in the daytime, and ride on the right side of the bus in order to locate landmarks so I know when to signal the bus driver to stop. From the left side of the bus, in the dark, in the rain, with the windows fogged by the mass of people inside the vehicle, I couldn't see any of my landmarks. I craned my neck and scrinched my eyes and stuck my tongue out a little, but it didn't help. After what seemed like a very long time of not knowing where we were, I told Zoe that I thought we had passed our stop and we should get off to walk back. We walked to the front of the bus, where the driver told us "Se sienta. Su parada fue hace 2 km" - Sit down. Your stop was 2 km ago. We did as we were told, and rode the bus all the way to Juan Viñas, a small town up in the mountains. All of the pasajeros, excluding Zoe and myself, exited the bus, and the driver turned the bus around and headed back down the mountain.
"What is your names?" he asked. "You should speak to me in Spanish."
And so, Zoe and I found ourselves in conversation with Victor, el conductor muy simpático, on a dark and stormy night in Costa Rica. He stopped at the school, stood up and offered us a hand off the bus, and wished us well.
We went inside and made our fondue without further incident, and ate, and ate, and ate. ¡Que rico!
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