No intiendo

I entered Costa Rica yesterday and not in a biblical way.

Getting to and through the border was a piece of piss. My travelling partner decided to haggle on the Nicaraguan side for a bus ticket while I, being of the mental persuasion, thought I'd wait to see what the other side had to offer. Chaos. It had to offer chaos. (But i did save two dollars so: win). Of course, if I spoke more than a few words of Spanish, if I'd learned more than 'que?' in the last seven months in central America it would have helped but hey, I'm English, why would I learn languages?

Me (pointing at a random bus): Monteverde?

Dude: no. (lots of Spanish)

Other dude: (lots of Spanish and pointing)

Me: this bus? Monteverde? Si?

And I got on a random bus. I took what he said to mean "we're going to San Jose and we'll drop you at the junction" because as I'm sure you know Monteverde is just off the Interamericana that everyone and his dad has to drive of they're going anywhere. The bus pulls off within two minutes of me being on it. 'Cool' I think, 'good timing'.

We drive, and drive, and drive....and I start wondering....have we passed it? Maybe the driver has forgotten me....how do I ask...? Aha! We're pulling into services!

"Cuanto tempo...connexion....Monteverde?"

"Spanish Spanish vente minutos Spanish aqui"

Twenty minutes, here....connection is here in twenty minutes? Ok. Off I get expecting him to get my bag off the bus. He doesn't; he goes for something to eat. On we all get, I walk past him and half expect him to tell me to get off again. He doesn't and the bus pulls off.

Somewhere down the road we go past a sign saying 'Monteverde 35km' to the left. And the bus continues. Hold on, I think.....maybe he's forgotten. Again. Awhile later....the bus stops and he tells me to get off. Where the fuck am I?

'Spanish Spanish aqui'

'Cuanto tiempo?'

.....

Erm....

I wait.....and five minutes later the Monteverde bus pulls in.

From this I have learned:

1) I wish I knew more Spanish

2) I'm worried for going forward

3) People understand me more than I understand them

Incidentally Monteverse is much warmer than I was told to expect. Not hot mind you. I still get to wear one of my new one cordoba/four US cent second hand cold weather clothes and I look rather snazzy in my red turtle neck sweater. But it's too hilly to run, the floor is concrete and it's too cold for yoga. I'll hike later to make up for it. I'm waiting for breakfast to start; such is the curse of getting up early.