Pura Vida: Adventures in Costa Rica and Beyond: San Jose, pt. 3: Tico weekend

Friday after classes got out at 3, Tessa, Stephanie, Rukhshana, Francesca and I headed out to visit Chesca at her home in Heredia. We wanted to take the 6:00 bus, but as usual traffic was bad after school and we didn't even make it to meet up again until almost 6. The bus leaves from the UCR campus, so we found the bus stop and then went to a little bodega to get dinner. Since it's right near the University, food is much less expensive, and we got dinner for about 1,000 colones ($2) each. After we ate we headed back to the bus stop to make sure we'd be there on time, and it's a good thing we hurried! It was only 6:40, and the 7:00 bus was about to leave. We made it into some of the last empty seats, and were in Heredia 40 minutes later.

Heredia is a small city inhabited by mostly college students since it is where the Universidad Nacional is located. Chesca and Miguel both attend UNA there, and Chesca has lived there her whole life because her father teaches there. When we arrived, Chesca and her boyfriend Macho (his real name is Esteban, but "Macho" or "Macha" are nicknames for people with light hair and eyes in CR) were waiting for us at the bus stop. We were all very excited to meet Macho, since we had heard Chesca talk about him a lot. All of us took a five minute cab ride to Chesca's house, where we then got to meet her parents, her siblings, and her adorable dog, Jack Daniels. We put all of our stuff in Chesca's room and got ready to go out for dinner and drinks, and while we were preparing Macho gave matching bracelets to all of us! It was so kind of him, considering he had never met any of us before. Needless to say, we were already swooning over Chesca's perfect boyfriend and their adorable relationship.

We took another cab ride back into town to go out, but as soon as we got to the bar that Chesca wanted to take us to, Tessa realized that she forgot her passport photocopy, so we couldn't go in. Instead we went to a takeout place and brought some food back to Chesca's house, where we hung out for the rest of the night. It was so nice to be in a home again with a family! My host family is incredibly kind, but their kids are already grown so it is a different feeling than sitting Chesca's house while her brother's watching a movie on TV and her dog is running around. It was a really refreshing experience.

The next morning we had to wake up pretty early, because all 28 people in our group were taking a trip out to Miguel's hometown, Santa Maria de Dota. It's about 2 hours away and you can get there by public transportation, but with a group so large we wouldn't have been able to fit on the same bus. So, we chartered our own bus! Our private bus was leaving from San Jose at 9 am, so we had to make it back from Heredia by then. Chesca's father kindly offered to drive us since it took less time than the bus, and we were actually some of the first people there.

(Almost) all of us waiting for our bus to go to Dota

We arrived in Dota around noon, and the bus dropped us off directly at Miguel's house. His father had thoughtfully bought lots of baguettes, cheese, jam, juice, and coffee, and had snacks waiting for all 28 of us when we arrived. We then all walked to the river together so people could swim. Once again many of us did not know we were going to be needing bathing suits, so some went swimming in their underwear and everyone else just hung out on the massive rocks lining the riverbank, relaxing in the sun. The scenery was beautiful, as Dota is up in the mountains a bit and a small, very green town.

Dota is beautiful!

Hanging out by the river

They are famous for growing some of the best coffee in Costa Rica! So, after we had finished swimming, we walked to the local cafeteria to buy coffee that we could take back with us as souvenirs. I got a bag, and I can't wait to drink it when I get home!

The cafeteria where we purchased what Miguel calls the best coffee in the world.

We also stopped at a grocery store and bought food for dinner, which we would all be cooking together. Again, since we were such a large group, we couldn't sleep in Miguel's house and decided to rent out his friend's cabin for one night. We had another bus pick us up from the supermarket and take us up to the cabin, which was about 30 minutes out of town and farther up in the mountains.

By the time we got to the cabin, it was already almost dusk and we had to make ourselves dinner. There was electricity in the cabin, but only in a few places, and there was no good light in the kitchen, so people started cooking by headlamp! And, since there wasn't enough cutlery, we were chopping vegetables with pocket knives. Classic OTS moments.

Inca organized the dinner, and with help from about 10 other people cooked pasta with a spicy mushroom-tomato sauce and a salad with almonds and mustard dressing. Francesca also made approximately 3 or 4 pounds of guacamole, which was AMAZING. Overall, dinner was a huge success and everyone was happy.

After dinner we hung out all night listening to music, and eventually went to sleep. There was one real bed and one mattress on the floor, so almost everyone was scattered throughout the house in sleeping bags. Because we were at a higher elevation, it got cold at night, but not as uncomfortably cold as Cuerici. In the morning we made breakfast, and then some people hiked to a lake to swim.

Waking up in sleeping bags!


Making breakfast in the morning

I stayed back in the cabin with some other people because you had to pay to swim in the lake and I was tired from staying up late and waking up cold a few times the night before. We had a really pleasant day in the cabin hanging out, doing nothing in particular. I also took the best nap of my life with Tessa and Chesca in the one bed in the cabin, since we had all slept on the floor the night before.