After a couple days in Montezuma, as beautiful as it was, we decided to move on to our original destination, Mal Pais. Mal Pais is not very far from Montezuma at all, but because the roads on the Nicoya Peninsula are so bad, you have to take the bus back to the main town of Cobano and catch the Mal Pais bus from there...Unless you have an ATV....which we didn't.
So we got up and asked a few places in town for the best and easiest way to get to Mal Pais from there. As usual, everyone had drastically different responses. We chose one to go with, and along with a little cross referencing, figured out a rough enough plan to go on. We've found that when traveling by bus in Costa Rica, its really best to just GO and hop on whatever bus you find and figure the rest out later.
The information we got was that the buses weren't coming down to their normal stop in town and we had to walk up the hill to catch it. 300 meters. Which we worked out is under a mile. Ok, no big deal. We gathered our bags, which seem heavier every time we put them on, and started up the hill. We were thinking we'd see a bus stop somewhere, or some other people. Or the bus would drive by and we would flag it down. Either way, up the hill we went.
And up.
And up....
And up.
Imagine walking up the steepest street in San Francisco. Now imagine doing it with a child on your back, a smaller child hanging from your neck banging against your legs with every step you take, and an oven on your head. Now imagine a cinder block on your chest. OH YEAH, who all here knew my lungs were no bueno? Well I'd totally forgotten, that's for sure.
Every time we turned one of the (tightest) corners, we'd think, "Ok almost there..." Only to see another STEEPER and longer one ahead. The sun only got hotter, and the hills only got steeper. After what felt like 100 corners, we passed some men working on the road. They made a comment about how hard core we were, braving the hill, and then informed us that they had been clearing the road for the bus to come....and they were finished now. So it could go all the way down..... Yeah we thought it was hilarious too.
.......
Anyways they said if we waited on the corner ahead, the bus would come by and stop for us there. It was shady, and I literally couldn't catch a breath, so we stopped and sat on our bags for a few minutes.
The men drove off, leaving a nice clean road behind them. Gotta hand it to them, they work fast... We sat there watching the vultures circle (not kidding) and hoping the bus was actually coming down the hill and laughing nervously at our jokes about how it was definitely NOT coming and we were going to die here....Ok the thinking we were going to die part was mostly me....all me. I was kidding. Mostly. A few minutes later a small cluster of people started walking by us toward Montezuma - down the hill.
"Maybe they're coming to join us and are also waiting for the bus in its makeshift stop..." was my first thought.
Ryan said, jokingly, (mostly) "I hope the bus didn't just let all of these people off..."
A couple silent moments passed watching the people walk by and the road workers' truck drove back down the hill.
It pulled up in front of us.
...The bus had just let all those people off and was not coming down the hill. The driver told us to get in his truck and he would take us up the hill. He had come back for us. As we got up the hill, I realized that not only that, but he had kicked his worker buddy out of the truck and left him on the side of the road to 1) Have room for us in his car, and 2) Hold the bus for us.
The miracle continued when we would not accept our money. He helped us get our bags out of the truck and got us on that bus.
We sat there on the bus in total awe of what had just happened.
Looking around, we realized we were the only people on the bus. The others had most likely been waiting for it at the bottom of the hill and it never came.
Had we not walked up the hill, we would have missed the bus. Had the workers not driven up the hill at the exact time the bus was stopping to let people off, we would have missed the bus.
We just kept saying, "I can't believe that just happened." over and over again and thanking the luck and safety charm my uncle gave me before we left.
That bus ride was the most amazing thing we'd encountered on the whole trip.
Pura Vida
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