San José, the Ugly

04.02.17-07.02.17

In Granada there isn't much to do, so I'm already on my second blog entry. Besides, the one about San José won't be too long, as we only planned to stay for one night. In the end, it turned out to be three nights, but not because we liked the city. But more about that later.

It's Saturday and we finally leave Puerto Viejo. No, we didn't become friends. That was probably also due to my health condition, but not only that. I hope the rest of Costa Rica will be better. We have breakfast at the hostel and make our way to the bus stop. Our plan was to take the bus at 11 am and we arrive at 10:45 am to buy the tickets. Unfortunately, the bus is already full. The one at 1 pm as well, so we have to wait for the 4 pm bus. Great... Another five hours hanging around in beloved Puerto Viejo. At least we can store our luggage in the café at the bus stop. Here we have a big smoothie and I find some time to write on my blog.

At noon we want to go back to our favorite soda from the first evening, but it's completely full and we look for another one. On the way there, I mention that I have a slightly queasy feeling in my stomach, and strangely enough, Maren does too. I don't think much of it and we go to eat. After the meal, we walk around the town a bit and at 4 pm we finally leave.

In the bus, I feel like my stomach doesn't like what I just ate and at the next stop, about half an hour after we started, I decide voluntarily to get rid of it. Okay, better, I think afterwards and we continue towards San José. After another estimated half an hour, the next stop. Maren wants to stretch her legs and asks if I want to come out. Since I feel slightly dizzy, I decline, but then I get out anyway. There are some chairs in front of the bathroom, I sit down, but immediately feel nauseous, manage to dig out some colones, throw them to the bathroom attendant, take the offered toilet paper in return, and rush to the toilet. Just in time! The cabin door lock is broken and when I vomit, I push the door with my butt. Aaaah!! How pathetic. Well, after that, I feel a bit better. Pale as chalk, I meet Maren on the bus again and tell her what happened.

And the vomit tour continues. It's dark now and I doze off. I never sleep on the bus, but I'm really exhausted. Oh, by the way, today is the first day I feel like the bruise is getting better. It still hurts when I vomit, of course. San José is located at 1,170 meters above sea level and the bus winds up curvy and bumpy roads. Great with an unstable stomach. I hope we'll make another stop soon. But somehow nothing happens and we're not far from our destination anymore. Damn! I realize I have to vomit again. As a standard, I always take the barf bags from the airplanes with me, also on the last flight. So, I start looking for them in my backpack. Head down, stomach clenched, curvy road. It's no surprise that it's not pleasant when you're about to throw up. I can't find the bag, notice that it's time, luckily sit by the window, open it, and decorate the bus from the outside. Man, I'm glad it's dark outside. After I'm done, I'm really exhausted, but I feel like it was the last time.

Maren next to me sleeps through the whole thing. When she wakes up, I look at her with a crooked grin, tell her what happened, and we laugh our heads off. When stupid things happen while traveling, sometimes I feel sick during them, but afterwards, when you've overcome them, they're just a great story. So that it doesn't get embarrassing at the bus terminal because something is sticking to the bus from my window, I clean it a bit with my water during the ride.

Half an hour later, we arrive at the bus terminal in San José. We take a taxi to the hostel. We chose the Selina and agree not to move on again tomorrow. We get two beds in a 6-bed dorm, but there are only three of us, so we each have a lower bed. Yeah! Besides, the mattresses are great and I'm looking forward to sleep. Our roommate is from Poland and we can't remember his complicated name. So, from now on, he'll be called: the Pole. We all chat a bit in the room and go to sleep early. I'm really tired.

The next morning, we have breakfast at the hostel. I can eat again and the breakfast is really great. It's not cheap with $5, but it's worth it. There's homemade bread, which doesn't compare to German bread but is really good toasted, fruit, homemade coconut yogurt, muesli, scrambled eggs, pico de gallo (tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime juice), and tzatziki. Funny mix, but really delicious. After breakfast, I lie down again. Man, yesterday took it out of me. Maren goes out with some people and the Pole is on some mountain. So, I have the room to myself, listen to "The Three Investigators" and doze off until 3 pm.

Then the Pole comes back and asks if I want to go to the town with him. Since Maren hasn't returned yet and I feel like I need to get up and move around, we go together. Wow, San José is ugly. Well, it's also mentioned in the travel guide that it's nothing special and has nothing to offer, but so miserable?! Maren and I agree that the only beautiful thing about the city is the view of the mountains. But a little movement is good, even though I quickly realize that my circulation is still pretty weak. On the way back to the hostel, we stop by the supermarket to buy groceries for cooking. We actually wanted to cook today, but then decide to do it tomorrow. Maren and I decide to stay one more night so that we can go to the post office tomorrow to send a package of clothes home.

The next morning starts at 8 am with yoga on the rooftop terrace, followed by the delicious breakfast, and then exploration of the city. We ask at the hostel about public transport, but they tell us that there isn't any in San José and we should take a taxi instead. Very surprising. Well, we walk to the bus terminal where we'll be heading to Sámara on the Pacific coast tomorrow and get a ticket. Now the big task for today: sending our unnecessary clothes to Germany. We each have a bag, but no box yet, but we think we can buy one at the post office. I even found a DHL branch on Google Maps. It would cost $10 by taxi from the bus terminal to DHL, and that's really too much for us. We also see buses driving around everywhere and think that we can somehow manage to take the bus. And, what can I say, we brave girls manage. When we arrive at the DHL branch, they tell us that they only offer express shipping, which would cost about $170 for our package size. It's cheaper to use Costa Rica's post office. So, we use Google Maps again and walk to the nearest post office, about 1.5 km away. When we arrive, we unfortunately realize that it's just a huge pick-up station and you can't send packages from there. Maren is getting a bit grumpy by now, doesn't want to walk anymore, and we take the bus to the next post office. By now, we're really good at taking the bus. In the post office, yay, we can send our package. The only problem is that we only have our two bags, no box, and you can't buy one here either. Aaah!!! By now, I feel like I'm on a scavenger hunt. Well, we still have an hour until the post office closes. In plain sight, there's an outlet mall, there must be something like that there. So, we go in and ask a guy behind a knick-knack stand if there's a store here that sells that kind of thing. Of course, everything is denied in our top-notch Spanish, but then he wants to take us to the underground parking garage. We're skeptical, but we follow him and he takes us to the room where all the packaging boxes that accumulate as waste paper in the mall are collected. Ha, perfect! The guy who is currently sorting boxes there is also very helpful and together we pick out two boxes to choose from. With these, we go back to the guy at the stand, try a box that fits perfectly, and stuff our bags into it. The nice vendor even finds some wide tape and helps us seal the box securely. We thank him and rush back to the post office. It weighs almost four kilos and shipping costs about $70. That's fine because we'll split it. When we finally fulfill our daily task, we're really proud of ourselves. It wasn't easy.

We go back to the hostel by bus, of course, because we're already experienced. When we arrive, we cook dinner with the Pole in the really cool hostel kitchen. We have patacones, guacamole with nachos, and a vegetable stir-fry. And then early to bed again, because we're moving on the next morning.

Conclusion: San José, you're really not a beauty, two days with you are more than enough, but we still had fun.