This is my final hour...in Alajuela. At two, my cab arrives and will be dropping me off at the bus stop on the highway where I will be waiting for up to forty minutes in the sweltering sun for the bus to Monteverde. I was not given the room I had asked for here in Alajuela, so it hasn't been as comfortable as before, but still okay. It turns out that the guy in my usual room, which is apart in the garden, wanted to stay some extra days. I saw him briefly this morning while having breakfast. A man of about my age, but appears to have really bad energy, quite scary-looking, and didn't seem at all interested in visiting with anybody. So...I think I understand. Mario, the owner, has been very good about it and gave me a ten dollar USD discount. We had a really enjoyable chat over breakfast this morning, and he was telling me about his trips to Argentina and to Iceland, and I was telling him about my time in Colombia. There was also a pleasant young European couple. He is Italian and speaks fluent Spanish and works here and in other parts of Latin America as a rafting guide. She is German and her parents are Tunisian so she gets mistaken here for being Latina and people often start talking to her in Spanish, a language in which she is not conversant. She is a kindergarten teacher and is studying to be a social worker.
We were also chatting about how much fear and panic appear to have overtaken common sense as people all over the world are being gripped by terror about the coronavirus, and we all seem agreed that a lot of parents are raising their children to grow into emotionally crippled anxious neurotics.
I went out after breakfast and stopped again in the cathedral where I sat quietly and enjoyed the cool breezes. Then I went to a cafe upstairs from the nut roasters where I bought some nuts and dried fruit to sustain me during my long bus ride this afternoon. People are so friendly and I had enjoyable chats in Spanish with two of the workers there. I was the only one in the upstairs cafe and it was like a cool sanctuary and I had a great time doing art.
Then I went to the market in search of a cheese and veggie sandwich to also pack with me on my trip today. The two guys in one of the stalls were super-accommodating and made me something to order. Then I walked around town for a while and on my way back was accompanied by another guest here, who seems to be a personal friend of the worker here at the bed and breakfast. He seems like a very pleasant young man and we walked together back to the bed and breakfast, chatting in Spanish. I was just giving him a geography lesson about Vancouver, and showed him some images on my laptop of our beautiful and very expensive city.
This has been for me a very enjoyable day and a half here in Alajuela, and people have been wonderful, I am also feeling a lot more social and open to people than I ever have before on these trips, and I owe this to my three weeks in Colombia with Alonso who helped keep me open and sociable. (muchas gracias, don Alonso!!!) My taxi arrives in ten minutes.
I'm in Montverde now. The cab arrived a bit early. He is the same guy who has driven me to the same bus stop over the last three years, so you could say we've become friends. He is a very strong Christian and a very kind and engaging man so it's always enjoyable talking with him. Mario, the owner of the bed and breakfast also phoned him to make sure I was okay. Then, at the bus stop, a stranger approached me, also to see that I was okay. He asked me where I was going and I said Monteverde. He checked his phone and assured me the bus would be arriving in around fifteen minutes. These people are kind.
The three and a half hour bus ride was uneventful. As we got near our destination the young couple who were in front of me seemed a bit anxious and confused about where to get off, so I asked them how they were doing and what there destination was. When they told me I recommended that they stay on the bus till the terminal, and if they're still uncertain, to look in one of the many restaurants nearby and ask the staff because people here are very kind, and kindness must always be passed on and paid forward. I am now in the Mariposa and just had a nice visit over orange juice and fried plantain or platano frito with my friend Esteban who is the owners' son, and now I am about to take a walk in the dark while hearing the crickets sing.
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