Missed it by THAT much...again

The remainder of our stay in Montezuma was relatively uneventful. We just chilled the first two nights as Rivers and I had some Imperial on the beach each night. The last night we each had a couple of liters and played cribbage. Here are some of the other highlights: We had a bum hang out by our hostel every night, drink of choice: Guaro and Imperial. One afternoon he was walking around with a noose around his neck looking for people to pull it. I hope I never have to resort to that. We ran every day in Montezuma, Chris and I went about six each day and Luke did his own thing. It was very difficult to do much more since it was extremely hot, humid, and hilly. Chris and I also raced the cops one day while they were on their motorcycle. They liked us. We also created our own drinking game for cribbage for all you cribbage enthusiasts such as ourselves:
When someone plays to 31 the other players drink
The losers of each hand drink the difference between the highest hand and the next highest hand
If someone pegs more than two points in a row during play the other players drink that many drinks over two (if someone pegs six, thats four drinks for the others)
If the crib is over 5 pts, the other players drink the difference. If it is below, the player with the crib drinks the difference.
We also ran into a girl staying at our hostel that also made the waterfall jump. She said, ¨I jumped and I forgot I was wearing a tampon, it felt like I was just railed by a black man. Then I threw up.¨ boom.

Fortunately the atm was fixed on Tuesday so we were able to get money and make our way to Tamarindo. We were about bankrupt at that point.

Now for our travel day from hell (Wednesday):
Our goal was to end up in Tamarindo, also on the Nicoya Peninsula and really not that far away. Upon asking around, we could have payed $35 each for a shuttle to take us there in about 3 hours or take the bus. Our little buddy who looks like he was no older than 14, but apparently ran the hostel told us we would have to take the bus to Paquera, ferry to Puntarenas, bus to Liberia, and a bus to Tamarindo. shit. But seeing as this would be cheaper we decided to do it. We love adventures, and riding the winds of fate.

6:00 am - wake up and go for a run. Ending a run in the ocean is about the best thing ever.
8:00 am - bus arrives to take us to the ferry in Paquera, when we were told it leaves.
8:25 am - the bus finally leaves, because they decided they had to clean every square inch of it only to see it turn into a pile of dust after our ride. The road into Montezuma is maybe the hilliest and dustiest road in Costa Rica. Only to be rivaled by our later ride into Tamarindo.
10:15 - arrive in Paquera for the ferry
11:00 - ferry leaves for Puntarenas. Highlight: Listening to ¨I'm on a boat¨ while actually being on a boat! Take a picture trick, I'm on a boat bi$%h! And we ate some tasty ham pastries of some sort.
12:15 - arrive in the shithole that is Puntarenas. The only reason to be here is to be taking the ferry or a bus out of town. So we got off the bus and took a short taxi ride to the bus stop in hopes of catching a bus to Liberia.
12:35 - arrive at bus stop. Last bus left at 12:20. Next one isn't until 3:00 pm. fml. So after standing around in complete dismay for a few minutes we decided to make the best of the time. The bus stop was right next to the worst beach in Costa Rica. So we wraped our towels around us, got naked, and put our suits on. Hung out on the beach and played ¨Cliff 'em¨ for and hour or so. If you are wondering, ladies, you were probably involved. But our answers shall never be revealed. And if you don't know what that is, don't worry about it.... We wandered for a bit, had some ice cream, and were serenaded by Mario the bum and his harmonica. ¨Me llamo Mario. I play nice song for you. I have 62 years. Merry Christmas and happy new year.¨ We gave about 40 cents to gtfo.
2:40 pm - taxi driver comes up to us and chats. He tells us not to go to Liberia because it is like a 4 hour drive as it makes lots of stops. So he convinces us to let him drive us the an intersection on the pan american highway and wait for a bus going to Santa Cruz (near Tamarindo). What the heck, we might as well. So we did. I was able to chat with him in Spanish for a bit, surprising myself.
3:00 - arrive at intersection, he tells us a bus will be there at 3:30.
3:24 - sure enough, a bus shows up. One lady gets on with no trouble, then we try and board and the driver tells us there is no room. f that. we're gettin on this b. So he told us we could stand. We later discovered that was not a scheduled stop and we were on a charter bus from San Jose to Santa Cruz. The lady he picked up was his wife. We might still be at that corner if not for her...So we stand for the next two hours. Luke counted 19 people standing and couldn't see everyone. The limit on the front of the bus said 10 standing only. We got radar gunned by the po-pos and pulled over, so the driver got out with his cash bag, exchanged a few words with the cop, and it was all good.
5:25 - arrive in Santa Cruz and catch the Tamarindo bus as it was leaving. Stand for another 30 min. We wonder if we are actually going there because this bus is weaving in and out of towns making stops everywhere, and it's dark. We thought the Ticos were gonna take us to a back alley somewhere and kill us. I believe we were the only gringos on the bus.
6:30 - arrive in Tamarindo after about 10.5 hours of travel. Followed a bum to a hostel, which actually worked out well. We have ac, a big screen tv, free internet, kitchen, and hookers (not really) for only $12 a night. We didn't give him any money. We've given our fair share to the bum population.
7:45 - got a deal. Cheeseburger, fries, and a coke for $7. Came back to our hostel and went to our drink of choice: Guaro y Fresca...yumm. We also realized our hostel owner is a womanizer.
He was cuddling on the couch with a girl that is about 15 years younger than him and claimed not to drink. What a skeeze. Then we just went to bed after riding the bus a couple times each.

So was the bus adventure worth it?
yays:
We each saved about $17 on travel fare.
We got to listen to ¨I'm on a boat¨ while on a boat.
Serenaded by a bum.
Got some beach time.
Saw two big cruise ships. Why a cruise ship would dock in Puntarenas is beyond me.
We know we can stand for over two hours.
We rode the winds.
Nays:
About 7.5 hours of our lives we will never get back.

Shout out to SB '08 Panama City, there is a Sharkys less than a block from our hostel. Maybe we can dream up some tasty shots, Mike D.

Today we booked our tickets on Tica Bus for our trip to Nicaragua on Sunday. Then we headed to the beach to tan our beautiful bodies. Luke and I made a dike just in time for high tide. It held out pretty well, but eventually was overpowered by the water. We made some exotic marinara hot dog sauce to go with our spaghetti for dinner. More Guaro and Fresca tonight? There is a Bob Marley party tonight down the street, we'll probably go and get a second-hand high.

Until next time. Stay classy, cuz we aren't.