Well it came time to head back to Alajuela, we knew our time here was growing short and that was met with mixed emotions. On the one hand I was looking forward to getting back to the states and doing my 'norm' again and on the other hand, well heck I was in paradise!
We ate breakfast at the VRM restaurant, and the food is really good. A mix of Tipico (typical or local foods) and American, like pancakes, good bacon, scrambled eggs. It was buffet so we gorged and then hit the road. We decided we needed to find a place to fix the flat tire before we hit the gravel roads. If we had gotten another flat it might be many miles and many hours before we could get the problem solved. So we drove to the gas stations we knew and they did not fix flats, everyone sent us to someplace else. After about an hour we found a little car wash that also fixed tires...go figure that one. At first we drove past it because, well its a car wash, but we noticed a tire stuck in the ground with Spanish words painted on it. We couldn't read it but playing a hunch, we came back and sure enough, it meant, 'We fix flats'
Side note: We had tried the first night we got the flat to buy a tire plug kit at the local everything store in Palma Sur, and I do mean everything. They sold everything from fencing and power tools to a full line of foods. It was owned by an Asian couple who spoke fluent Spanish but not a bit of English, they had one counter girl who spoke enough to tell you she had no idea what you were saying. Anyway, after Kevin played charades for a bit the lady owner lit up like she knew what he was wanting and told the Costa Rican fella behind the counter to go get it. He returned with a portable air compressor and Sterno powered cooking stove. What the? Finally after several more attempts of road flairs and plumbing parts being brought up, she had Kevin go behind the counter and dig through everything himself. I could tell this was gonna take a while so I went to look at food and coffee. It was actually pretty well stocked for so far from no where. Kevin showed up about 20 min. later. They had about everything you could want, except a tire plug kit. Rafa told us later they are not sold there because the cost of fixing a tire is so cheap, but we figure if your out on one of them roads, miles from the local car wash, that repair kit might really come in handy. So if you ever go, you might want to carry one of them just in case...I'll never leave home without one again.
Dude fixed our tire, it cost about $4.00, and we were back on the road. Drove the rough and wild road back to Quepos with no problems, not even a line at the bridge. Just outside of Quepos we hit pavement again, ahhh semi-civilization again. As we wound through town we saw a sign that made us both look at each other and ask 'Did that say what I think it said?' The sign was hand painted with a woman in a top and shorts washing a car and said 'Sexy Car Wash' we thought about going back but since we didn't any more flat tires, didn't really see the need. Can't help wondering what that was really like though. Got some fresh Pineapple water at a local shop and rested for bout 1/2 an hour then back on the road.
Got to Alajuela about 2:30 and we decided to go eat at Taco Bell, that's right Taco Bell. I just had to see what it was like. The building was very new and nice, looked just like the ones here. Went to order and the menu looked the same but just not as big a selection as here. I was about to order a Taco Supreme, Burrito Supreme and drink and noticed there was something else pictured with the drink, too small to make it out but it looked like French Fries. I asked Kevin and he said it was probably Cinnamon Twists, that made sense, so I ordered. No it was fries! And they were actually pretty good. They still cook with lard there so the fried foods do have a diff. flavor.
We then parked the car at a parking garage around the corner from Rafa's house and we hit the streets of Alajuela. The park was full of people, the streets were full of people, 'doesn't anybody work in this town?' Kevin spotted a large opening in one building that looked like it had lots of something in it so we went in for a look. It was a market/shopping mall. Dozens of booths with any and everything, that sprawled out in all directions. Some sold shoes, some clothes, some jewelry, fresh fruits, fresh meats and sea food, on and on it went, narrow aisles big enough for one person at a time to fit though. It was noisy, busy and fascinating. There were old men playing checkers, people haggling over the price of whatever. We took a turn and found our selves back on the streets, where there were street vendors as well as real stores. A couple of shoe stores had speakers out front and a guy on a mic jabbering about something at times they seemed to be trying to sell shoes other times it seemed he was just talking to who ever about whatever. We finally made our way back to Rafa's part of town and went to our new hang-out a local coffee shop about 3 blocks from the house, we got a table where we could watch the intersection and drank Agua Pina (Pineapple water) and watched the chaos. And chaos it was!
Side note: All the streets in the big cities are one way, with a stop sign for the yield side. How ever like always they rarely stop for it. The traffic with the right-of-way will fly down the street slowing for nothing, and then the other traffic will inch its way out there, then shoot across or turn in front of the high speed on coming traffic, add people who are trying to cross and think they have the right-of-way, and man it gets intense just sitting there watching it. The other thing I wanted to side note was the street signs. There aren't any! I asked Rafa about it and he said they have none, as well as no street address for the houses. So how do people find a house they have never been to? They ask around till they locate it or someone comes and meets them and leads them in. Now for the really weird part. How does say UPS find a house to deliver to? He uses the 'address', which is, say in Rafa's case '100 meters east of the Main Bank.' That's his official street address, his next door neighbor's is '125 meters east of the Main Bank' and so on. Rafa said it is very very confusing. I was confused just listening.
We found our host Rafa had while we were gone come down with a bad cold. He was to have some tests the next day so wasn't suppose to eat for 12 hours before, but he insisted on taking us to dinner. We ended up at this really nice looking restaurant (open air of course) Their main fare was seafood. Not finding any seafood on the menu I really wanted I opted for the Fettuccine Alfredo. What a mistake! I was made up of flat wide egg noodles, lumps of white cheese slightly melted (no sauce) and sliced ham! I was only able to force down about 1/2 before I could eat no more. Everyone else's seafood seemed good though. While the restaurant was nice, it was very noisy due to all the traffic just a few feet away, lots and lots of buses. Plus car alarms (they seemed to be going off everywhere we went and I finally found out why. The buses rolling by would shake the cars and set the alarms off) I found my self wishing for a nice quite indoor place to eat.
On the way back Rafa took us through a dark and rough part of town, where we saw 'working girls' on the sidewalks. Now prostitution is legal in Costa Rica but we had not seen any signs of it. Rafa says even though its legal there is still a stigma attached to it in the smaller towns like Alajeula. San Jose I guess is a whole diff. story. Anyway here they were, but it was too dark to really see very well, you could just make out outlines and such. Rafa then told us that those were all men! I guess that's the part of town they hang out in. We say a guy talking to one of them and Rafa said "That's a man can you believe guys even dare to talk to them?" We were all laughing.
We got home and Rafa went to bed early, and I tried to write to you while on Rafa's dial-up.
more to come later,
Don
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