Beautiful buses!

This weekend was amazing! I visited my cousin, Elizabeth, in Bambu down in Talamanca. Elle and I left on Wednesday evening at 4:00 to go to San Jose. We stayed the night in Casa Yoses, a hostel in San Pedro. A lot of the others had stayed there already. We got up at 4:15 am Thursday morning to get to the ticket office early for the 6:00 am bus to Bribri. We got on the bus and immediately fell asleep. We awoke to a stopped bus, never a good sign. We learned that there had been an accident, so there was a long back up. Here there is no going around the accident. You wait until it is cleared, then everyone can go again. So we were waiting for over 30 minutes when Elle and I decided we needed to use the restroom somewhere. So we found out there was a soda near-by so we walked the half block back to the soda. As we are coming out of the soda, a man from the bus is running toward us yelling “venga, venga” meaning, “come on, come on!” the accident had apparently been cleared and the traffic was starting again. So we ran to the bus, locals yelling at us to run fast, and laughing at us. Silly foreigners, haha.
So, we were on our way. The next unexpected stop on the trip to Bribri occurred after we turned a corner to face a loooong line of semi trucks. We passed all the trucks on the wrong side of the road, as there were no cars coming from the opposite direction, also not a good sign. So the bus stops toward the beginning of the line of trucks, and I overhear someone saying that he was going to walk. I thought, haha that’s funny, hopefully he lives near-by! Then I learn that we were all supposed to walk. Mind you it was raining, had been for days. I put on my jacket, get out my garbage bag to put over my backpack, put my purse in a plastic bag, and enter into the rain. We walked over a bridge of which part had apparently collapsed. There was one “lane open” (cars could drive over a pile of logs and gravel that filled the hole). So we crossed the bridge through massive puddles of water, poor Elle wearing Chucks which became completely soaked. We probably walked a quarter mile to where everyone else was getting on a different bus. Most of the passengers made the trip across the bridge, but I felt really bad for a lady who was traveling with her little daughter, probably 3 years old, and luggage. She didn’t cross the bridge to the new bus. Once on the new bus, we completed the trip to Bribri, another hour.
So, the 5 hour and 20 minute trip took 6 hours and 20 minutes, which considering all the events was rather fast. We made it to Bribri and found Elizabeth and friend Sarah who had come to meet us (they said nothing of waiting for almost 2 hours for us). It was great to see them!A missionary friend, who was staying in Bambu for the week, took us the rest of the way, from Bribri to Bambu. By this time, when we drove through flowing water a foot deep, we did not bat an eye. What a fun adventure!!! We thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the Costa Rican bus system at its finest!