The trip back to the Central Valley
To make the quick exit from Cahuita, I ended up calling a friend of my friend, whom Molly and I had enjoyed taking a tour of an indigenous Cocao farm with during our visit last year. Peno, is "Italian by way of Germany" and speaks fluent, Italian, German, French, Spanish and English (and maybe more). He has lived in Cahuita for 8 years and works as an independent taxi service. He agreed to pick us up within the hour and drive us back to the Central Valley. While it is a luxury to hire a private driver, after being up all night, I was in no shape to travel for hours on the bouncy, dusty, hot, public bus (which is often delayed for long periods because of searches by the border police). When we approached the first police check point with Peno, I asked what they would want to see and Peno said, It's OK. I know this guy." After a brief, friendly conversation Peno just said, "Chao" and pulled around the cars in front of us and went on his way.
Later, we were delayed because of road construction. First, Peno honked the horn and yelled "Let's go!" When it became apparent that this was not going to make it happen, he got out of the car to investigate, as did all the people who were waiting in line. So, for about 10 minutes a small group of men just kind of hung out by the road worker and chatted. When Peno returned to the van he informed us that the workers had just painted a symbol on the road and we were waiting for it to dry before driving on it. Imagine this happening in the US. The road is blocked so people just get out of their cars and visit with each other for a while! You can see why I have become so fond of this country and its wonderful people.
Midday, when the heat, exhaustion and confused emotional state I was in all combined to bring on a crying jag, Peno promptly found a spot where I could splash cold water on my face and eat the comfort food (beans and rice). He even sat with me and patiently nodded while I lamented at being misunderstood and mistreated by (our) friend. He felt that it would be best for us to stay in Alajuela because it is safer and quieter than in downtown San Jose and also is very close to the airport. He called some familiar hotels but all were booked. He didn't give up and finally found us a very nice spot. He didn't leave us until we were safely in the hands of the person in charge of the hotel. He even agreed to stop in the Cahuita post office to check on a package of medicine that would need to be rerouted to the US.
His final fee was $30 higher than he had originally quoted because of the extra time and miles he took to set us up in Alajuela, he said. We both knew that it was really to cover the $30 he had had to pay out of pocket to bribe a policeman who had pulled us over for crossing over the double passing line. This was a very funny thing to be pulled over for as several times during the trip we observed people pulling into the far lane of opposing traffic to pass the other two lanes of cars. Driving is not something I ever imagine myself doing in Costa Rica!!