The Easter Party

Cahuita's downtown core in full party mode

Let's get together and

feel all right

-Bob Marley

It's Easter week as we've mentioned and this is a serious celebration time. This morning the police sealed the beer coolers in the grocery stores - sale of alcohol is prohibited between midnight Wednesday and midnight Friday. It's lucky we have pina colada ingredients in the fridge in case of emergency.



Cahuita has swollen to at least double it's population, and street vendors are coming out of the jungle. A bandstand has been set up near the bus terminal, and we can't wait to see what sort of tunes will be played - and when. (O.K. we're pretty sure it will be Bob Marley the local hero, or calypso, the other local hero, but who knows?) There is even a first aid station, complete with ambulance at the national park entrance, and bug guy has macheted his field and set up a parking lot. Given the influx so far has resulted in nearly 10 cars since most folks travel by bus, he is either wildly optimistic, or there's way more going on this weekend.



Given we mastered the bus system with our road trip to Puerto Viejo, yesterday we decided to do a road trip to Limon. I had 3 reasons for the journey.


1) Limon is a fair sized city now on the stopping list for Carnival Cruise Lines, so we could do some shopping. I'm the only person in Cahuita without sandals, and I own all the socks in town.


2) There is a sloth sanctuary about half way to Limon and I wanted to see which stop to get off the bus so we can visit it on a future excursion.


3) I have to go there on my way to a school on Monday. The instructions are that I'll be met by Ernesto when he gets on the bus at the crossroads before the last stop. Hence it would be good to know where the last stop is.



After a bit of a false start, we had an excellent ride and saw amazing country that we missed when we came through on our way to Cahuita after dark. It also seems the concept of a bus terminal is unique to Cahuita. The bus stopped and everyone got off, so we did too. Then the bus drove away, and we saw no place to get on a bus to go home. Oops! So much for our mastery of the busses.



I set a waypoint on my GPS so we could at least find this spot again, and set out on foot to find where we might get a bus home, going on the assumption that the bus terminal must be not too far away, and people get off here because this is the shopping area. First things first, and this did not look like a place to be after dark. Dianne said she saw the bus turn right at the next corner, so we went in that direction.



Dianne & I have been together nearly 25 years and she is famous for her sense of direction. In fact, if you say "do you think we should go this way or that", then choose the exact opposite of what she says, you will ALWAYS get to your destination. It's uncanny, really, but despite this knowledge I chose to follow her instruction because after all, she was going on what she saw, not on what she felt, right?



Well, suffice it to say we now have seen all the sights of Limon, found the hospital, saw a couple neighbourhoods that made me nervous, and wore out most of a pair of shoes before we finally found a sign with "Autobus para Cahuita" on it - one city block from where we got off, you guessed it, just LEFT of the intersection where we turned right. Some constants are universal.



That problem solved, we proceeded to do some shopping in an area that reminded me of Asia and the Middle East - packed with people, street vendors, small specialty shops and food food food. Noise, vehicles, singing for coins, - the sights, smells, and sounds are an assault on the senses, especially after a few weeks in a small village. It was a blast.



When we tired of shopping, we bought tickets for the bus and poked in a few more shops as we had 40 minutes to kill. With 30 minutes remaining, a line was forming, so we go into it, just in case. This line grew, and grew. With 10 minutes to go we started loading and being near the front of the line, we got seats together. The seats filled, and people were standing in the aisle, waiting for the bus to leave. Street vendors wandered in the front door and out the back door flogging sweets, drinks, frozen treats, and even singing songs.



Finally we pulled out and just like the other busses, every few hundred meters we stopped, and more people got on. And more. And still more. With packages, and shopping and gifts and coolers and babies. And strangely good spirits. Smiling, joking, very little complaining, and standing holding treasures for 40 or 50 km of potholes and hairpin turns.
Clearly, Dorthy, we are not in Kansas any more. But I love it.



An update on the shower



Sometimes I'm an idiot. I freely admit this. I love to solve problems, but occasionally, I'll decide a problem is not worth the effort of solving, and just live with it. Take my shower (please). I'm a morning shower person, mostly because I don't want to be entered in a Phyllis Diller look alike contest by Dianne when I'm not paying attention.



The shower here, despite the electrocuter, is tolerable in the afternoon after the sun heats the ground, but a tad on the cool side circa 6 AM. The other day, Dianne, in one of her fits of making trouble, turned on the faucets while I was in the shower. At home this would have frosted my already chilly shower, but here, the drop in water pressure resulted in it actually getting warmer a little. A little longer for the water to pass through the heater - makes sense.
The next morning, I was in the midst of an icy rinse and thinking about flushing the toilet to get things just a little warmer, when eureka! It struck me... I could simply turn the water flow partly off, to just a trickle, and it might get warmer. Warmer it got - almost hot in fact. By playing with the faucet, I could achieve the perfect temperature.





Duh.



O.K. Now I really might never go home. I wonder if I can telecommute from here? If we ever get internet, that is... *sigh*