Fuimos a La Playa....Jaco!

Fuimos a La Playa

4:40am – I woke up at my house to a few messages from my friends that I was meeting.

4:45am – I received and sent multiple messages to my friends, each of us letting each other know when we were leaving the house.

5:00am – My dad and I walked down the street to my friend’s house.

5:10am – She and I boarded the bus that we take to Universidad Nacional (UNA, our university).

5:15am – We deliberated whether or not to get off at our normal bus stop. We decided to take the bus to the stop after our normal one and hope it took us to the correct place.

5:25am – We pulled the cable and got off the bus at a random street that we did not know. We walked one block and much to our surprise, arrived at the bus stop where we were meeting everyone to go to San Jose.

5:30am – Only three of the seven of us had arrived at the bus stop for the bus to San Jose.

5:40am – My friend called the others because my phone did not have any minutes left (in Costa Rica, you add minutes to your phone by purchasing a card at any type of store).

5:45am – All six of us were waiting at the bus stop to meet our last friend who was on the bus that was going to pick us up and take us to San Jose.

6:00am – We receive a text from our friend telling us to “get on the bus,” but there was no bus in front of us.

6:01am – Six gringos stood in the street waving our hands at our friend and the driver of her bus as the bus driver laughed at us and waved back.

6:02am -- We missed our bus to San Jose. We talked to our friend on the phone and she told us we were on the wrong side of the corner so the driver would not stop.

6:03am – We asked many different people about where we should be waiting and we walked up and down the street. We stalked every bus that passed us, but we did not know which one would take us where we needed to go.

6:06am – We board a random bus that just said “San Jose” on it.

6:07am – One of my friends sat next to a nice man who spoke English. He had traveled to Texas before and said that he needs lots of helping understanding things and people helped him, so he would help us.

6:10am -- The man pulled the cable and got off of the bus with us. He told two taxis where to drive us.

6:16am – We arrived at the Coca-Cola Bus Station.

6:17am – We saw our friend walking down the street with a woman that walked her all the way to the bus station from the stop where her bus stopped (we were supposed to be with her on that bus and all walk to the bus station together).

6:25am -- We each treated ourselves to some sort of pastry (or hamburger, in Drew’s case, for breakfast).

6:30am – We gathered ourselves and made sure we were ready to go.

6:45am – Six of us boarded the bus to a beach called Jaco. One of my friends did not purchase her ticket ahead of time, so she waited for the 8:00am bus instead of the 7:00am bus.

7:00am – We wrapped our backpacks around ourselves, yet in our laps, because bus thefts are common.

7:15am – Most of us fell asleep and continued to sleep until we were about thirty minutes from the beach.

9:12am – We arrived at the bus stop at the beach! We walked to a store, I bought minutes for my phone, and one of my friends bought sunscreen and a towel.

9:30am – We found a spot on the beach and lathered each other up with sunscreen. We proceeded to take many pictures.

9:45am – We ran into the water and had fun playing in the HUGE waves.

10:15am – We returned to our towels, backpacks, and to a man in a truck with his baby…blasting his American music. One of my friends asked him to please turn it down. He agreed to turn it down.

10:30am – Our other friend arrived and we could not hear each other speaking. The man had not turned his music down. We searched for another spot on the beach.

10:55am – We moved to a spot under a palm tree closer to the cute shops and restaurants and away from the loud music.

The day consisted of playing in the water, walking around the beach town, searching for the cheapest food, tanning in the sun, and then sleeping in the shade because the sun was SUPER STRONG.

We took a long walk on the beach, took some last photos, and then I changed out of my bathing suit on the beach! We walked to our bus stop and my friends struggled to find a bathroom before we left for San Jose.

5:45pm – We boarded the bus back to San Jose.

6:30pm -- Some of us slept and others of us fanned ourselves (we were so hot, but the locals were not) and laughed and talked the entire way home.

8:10pm – We arrived at the bus station in San Jose.

8:15pm – We found our way to other bus station where we would take the bus to Heredia (we almost got run over by a moto, but luckily I yelled “wait, a moto!” so everyone ran across the street).

8:20pm – After asking a few people which bus we should take, we boarded the bus to Heredia.

8:40pm – We arrived at UNA and separated in different directions to make our ways home.

8:50pm – Two of my friends walked with me to our bus and we took the bus to each of our homes.

9:00pm -- My host dad met me at the bus stop and we walked home.

9:10pm – Instead of showering (I have never felt so dirty), I ate dinner and talked with my parents.

Wow…what a day! I have not laughed as hard as I did yesterday in a very long time. I am so proud of myself and of my friends for not losing anyone or anything! We traveled for the first time, in another country, all by ourselves. And the trip almost ran smoothly! Now we know what bus to take, where it will pick us up, and how to purchase the tickets online beforehand. I’m thrilled just thinking about the adventures that the rest of this semester will hold!

Now, onto our first day of classes tomorrow :)