Day 2

Up early and on the bus. Literally the distance from my hip joint to my knee joint is greater than the distance between the seats of the bus. The Ticos (that´s what local Costa Ricans call themsleves) are generally kind and try to keep the seat next to me free. Still I have no problem sleeping most of the way.

The bus stops at several other bus ¨stations¨ which appear to be semi-official buildings where buses come and go from. Makes sense as most the towns are very small, probably no more than a few thousand people. However the bus also seems to convert to ¨regular city bus mode¨picking people up at random locations, then a fare is negotiated with the driver and they exit the bus a few miles later, often at unmarked locations. Weird. I guess there are probably so few buses that pass through why not use the main bus as a local one too? This phenomenon continues as we get into the more remote and hillier regions. Here people seem to emerge literally out of the jungle from the sides of the road to be picked up and then dropped off at equally uninhabited locations where they walk off the road and disappear back into the jungle.

Soon we start arriving in more defined towns. There are no signs anywhere announcing which town we are in so I keep asking the other passengers. They seem amused and slightly annoyed by my ignorance. Or maybe its just my beginner Spanish. At one such town almost the entire bus clears out. I ask if this is San Vito. ¨No¨I am told. Then as we continue down the road I finally see a sign, stating San Vito airport. Actually it´s just an approx 1/4 mile strip of concrete on a relatively flat surface to serve as a runway. At the next stop I ask if we are in San Vito. ¨No, we already passed San Vito¨. Oh well. I exit the bus and then catch another random bus heading the other direction.

Finally back in town I look around for someone who might be a doctor. Finding no such person I go to a pay phone and call him. He will be there in 5 minutes. 15 minutes later a new SUT pulls up and a woman gets out and waves to me. I get in and we head up the road higher into the mountains.