My First journey alone!!

I decided I wanted to go visit Erin in Heredia, which is a good 45 min car ride from my house. Erin I met because she lived in this apartment before me. I have never been there by bus, nor knew where any of the buses were. I had school all day from 8-5. Propedeuticos- boring lectures-which if you ask me are a waste of time anyway. I needed to find a specific bus. I had my map in hand and Erin's gringa directions to her house. I was told by several people the bus was in front of the park and church in Tibas, also in front of the Banco Nacional. I know this might sound very vague, but I have learned that these are specific landmarks and very important for directions. Thank goodness I did not trust everyone, as my experiences with Tico directions have not been the best.

A classmate, who is also foreign, lives in Heredia and said he would show me the bus stop. We take one bus to the church and the park and get off. He tells me to go with him and we proceed to cross the street, pass the banco nacional, go behind it and walk about 100 meters down the street behind the bank and stop in front of a specific house. This was the bus stop I was supposed to find. After getting on the bus, he read my directions at least four times and decides he knows exactly where I have to go. I told him I do not need any more help, because I am fully confident with my gringa directions I have in hand. Being a man, he insisted. The directions clearly say get off at the LAST stop, and you guessed it, where the church and the park are. We definitely do not get off at the last stop, and there is no church or park, but he points it out in the distance. I tell him, I only have directions from when I get off the bus, so now I do not know which way to go when we get to the park. He quickly realizes his mistake and asks for directions. We finally walk about 10 minutes out of our way and I find my other bus which he says is right next to his bus after all. I continue alone and read that I will get off at the next last stop, in front of the church and the park. This one was a little tricky, because there was another church and park to add to my confusion. But finally almost two hours later, I made it to my destination and was met at the park to walk to the house.

The next morning we had plans to go to Monte de La Cruz. It is a park with hiking trails and really pretty views. We thought this would be an easy task. I realize that where I live is so convenient because the rest of the country has to be on bus schedules and walk to get to bus stops. We take a bus to the store to get foo and then take a taxi to the other bus stop. We had to make sure we were there early to get in line, because this is a very popular bus and only comes every hour. We were the first in line. Good thing, because behind us about 30 teenagers and young adults all dressed in black Goth clothes lined up behind us. The Goth wasn't the issue here, but it did scare a lot of the people, especially the older crowds. We sat in the front, the Goths in the back. Everything is finally going smoothly until we get closer to the park. The bus is pulled over by the police, who know if this was routine, or because our bus was filled with a mob of young people dressed in all black.

We are all told to get off the bus, line up men and women separately. The dogs were going to search everyone's stuff for drugs. A few of the kids dressed in black were pulled out from the line and brought up the hill to the station for a more thorough searching. Fabi, Erin's boyfriend, lined up with all of the kids dressed in black. Good thing he was carrying all his medicines and acetaminophen, because it made it even more exciting when the dog chose his bag to search! They passed right by me without even looking in my pouch which I was reaching out to give them. After about 30 minutes of finding nothing, we were allowed to get back on the bus. The kids they pulled out of line were still in being searched, but our driver was being told to leave without them, which was a borderline riot causing action. The kids on the bus started freaking out and banging things, I thought there was going to be an uprising, so an officer had to get onto the bus to ride with us in the back and talk to them. The older ladies started to make comments to them and calling them names saying this is their entire fault, that they were animals but in reality they were stopping a lot of the other buses too. We leave, reach our stop, and the other kids were brought by car to meet us there. The bus let us off in front of a long path to the park, luckily this path was all uphill!

The park was beautiful. The trails were fun and the view amazing. Erin, Fabi, and I got to play on the playground. This was exciting to Erin and I because they don't have playgrounds made out of metal anymore in the states. See-Saws, monkey bars, normal swings, etc. The little things excite me. I met a little chihaua and we named her Sun Chip, because she liked the sun chips.

The ride home was not as exciting but that night Erin made the most amazing popcorn ever.

The next morning I found my way home by 3 buses again and also saw that they are building an Applebee's. This is very exciting, but I don't think they will appreciate the Bee here as much as we do back in Tampa!!