Pura Vida

...through hell to paradise on detours

What a journey! I knew it wouldn't be easy to take a long-distance trip to Central America during the time of COVID-19, but that was just too much.

Not only did the journey almost end in Hamburg because I hadn't translated the corona test into English, but also the onward journey from San José to Puerto Viejo was made as difficult as possible for me. At least the flight was without complications.

When I stepped out of the hotel in San José in the morning, I immediately noticed that I was somewhere in Central America. Humid hot air, banana chips on every corner, and already a lot of colorful birds here.

I was disappointed at first when the driver of the shuttle to Puerto Viejo told me that it would be a seven-hour drive instead of the originally planned five because there were roadblocks throughout the country as a protest against a tax increase in the midst of the corona-induced economic crisis. I thought I probably wouldn't arrive before sunset. Later it turned out that I wouldn't even arrive until after sunrise.

The journey itself was more adventurous than anything I had experienced up to that point. We stood at least five roadblocks, each for two hours. At one point, where it took particularly long, I saw a truck driver on the opposite lane who was probably driving too fast out of impatience and couldn't brake in time, and he hit the bus I was sitting in sideways while swerving.

I looked around. No one injured. Thank goodness.

However, the bus was completely damaged. The four other tourists and I called ourselves 'The Survivors' when we finally arrived in Puerto Viejo after a total of 17 hours of driving.

But all of this was overshadowed by such a speed of paradisiacal impressions that sometimes I wonder if it really happened.

After sleeping in Felix's room, a super nice Englishman, for a moment, I saw hummingbirds fluttering outside the window. I got up and went to the beach. So this is what paradise looks like. It seemed so unreal to me that I immediately went back to the house and lay down in the hammock for a moment. Second try. Madness! Turquoise waves right in front of the rainforest and no one is here!

An hour later, Duaro, the campsite manager of the Ara Manzanillo project, picked me up with a quad bike. Duaro looked like a gorilla and was wearing a pink t-shirt. We drove two kilometers on a steep path through banana plants and rainforest trees and finally arrived at the station. He asked me if I wanted to rest or if he should immediately show me where everything is, and I replied, 'Primero quiero ver las Lapas!' - 'First, I want to see the macaws!'. Then we climbed a staircase and could see from a platform over the treetops, and a group of macaws flew past me. I just thought: I'm in the right place.