We had a quick breakfast and Stu called us a cab which was going to take a half an hour (9a.m.) Jo went next door to see if we could get someone faster only to find that this cab was the only one servicing Playa Grande. He got there pretty quick and Jo, Soleiha and I headed out the road to Huaca where he dropped us off at the bus stop. The first bus along said Santa Cruz and we thought we were supposed to catch a different one to Berlin but taking a chance we got on and had a great ride to Santa Cruz which took about an hour and a half. Santa Cruz was just beginning a celebration of some kind and the bus terminal is right next to the fresh air market. We took turns wandering through the market taking pictures and seeing all the people in town doing their weekly shopping.
After waiting for a couple of hours the bus showed up at 12:30. I took the big bags to where the side of the bus would take the bags into the lower compartment while Jo kept our place in line. She was around 10th in line and there was a pile of people waiting. When the bus pulled in both of the doors opened front and back and the security guy told me to take the bags on board. Well you talk about a mad scramble! We didn't even get a seat. There were 100# bags of rice, plastic cases of bottled pop, big white bags of groceries the same size as the 100# of rice. Stuff piled everywhere! Jo was given a seat and I stayed over the wheel well on one side where they'd taken out two rows of seats to make room for baggage. The upper windows slid open so I was able to get a breeze. The bus was an old 4 or 5 speed and no one paid. Turns out you pay when you get off. If you can't get to the front of the bus you leave by the back and walk to the front door to pay him. He's a patient driver and waits until you've got all your bags off when your supposed to give him a wave in the rear view mirror so he can close the door.
Some sat on the floor most were standing elbow to elbow. The roads began pretty good for the first hour and then they started to deteriorate. For those of you from Kelowna I would compare it to driving an old bus up Bear Creek Rd. The last 45 minutes would be like getting off Bear Lake Rd onto something rougher and with rocks. The dust was about the same as one of our logging roads but the breeze was more important than getting dirty.
We drove through 3 creeks which are sometimes impassable in the rainy season. I don't know what they do in that case. Jo got a seat near a young boy, Jonathon. He was explaining to Jo what the words were for what she was seeing. Nice little guy. With people getting off I got a seat for the last half hour. Strangely enough both Jo and I loved it! It's all part of the adventure. A guy about mid 20's from Maryland was sitting near us on the bus and he walked us from the bus stop to a bar with "cabina's" but they were booked. We'd tried to book yesterday but couldn't get through. Within minutes though they'd found us this place next door owned by "Melvin". Brian, the guy on the bus then told us how to find the beach, where to eat, and where to find him if we needed any help. I was wondering what he was doing hiding out down here. He said he had two more years to go.
We then walked a few hundred feet down the road for supper and a beer but this soda (the term for bar/grill, restaurant etc.) didn't sell beer. Oscar the owner fixed us up with a great supper of fried plantain (bananas) rice and black beans, a veggie salad and pork. We'd asked for beef but he couldn't find any. Jo also had a large glass of cold papaya juice and I had two pints of tamarinda juice. These are the seeds that fall off the huge tamarind trees and it was excellent. Oscar showed us some pictures taken of the green turtles in Nov. and there had to be 4 or 5 hundred just in the picture and it was taken at 9 a.m. He said they take about 45 days to hatch.
After supper we walked to the beach and right where the path enters the beach are several empty tortuga nests with shells all over the place. Tomorrow I'll get some pictures of them. We're going to try and hit the beach early with the hopes to see some of the turtles or the young getting back to the water.
It looks like we'll be here for at least two nights as on Sundays (tomorrow) the only bus is at 5 a.m. Our trip here took from 12:30 to 4 pm. On Monday there's one at 5, 7,9 and a couple more after those. If we can catch a ride with someone to Nasara which is only 7 km away we can catch a bus to Punta Islita our next stop. If not we'll have to spend another 4 hours going back to Santa Cruz to catch a bus. Our packs are far to heavy to carry 7 km. We are carrying two back packs and a large 3rd bag. The 3rd bag is empty so we've got one of the backpacks in it. Thanks to a remote acquaintance of Jo's we're going to leave the large 3rd bag with everything we won't need for a while at their house. They're in Hawaii but we've been give the name of a driver who will drive us across a creek to their house. We'll leave most of our clothes their as well as our snorkeling gear.
All we need down here is thongs (for the feet I mean) two shirts, and a couple of pairs of shorts or swim trunks so our loads hopefully will be about 1/3 as heavy as they currently are. 20-25 # for each bagis what we're shooting for including our books, computer, camera's etc.
Don't know when we'll be able to update the blog as there's no internet in Ostianol. I'm writing this and saving it as a draft so I don't forget anything.
A couple of notes... Allow a day to travel no matter the distance. Our banyo has a sign saying to put all toilet paper in the garbage can not in the toilet. Todays expenses for the two of us are $20-25 each incl. the lodging and meals. We're eating two meals a day. Breakfast around 7 am and supper around 6 and this is all we seem to require. The banyo at the Santa Cruz bus stop is a couple of outhouses behind the station. Jo went to check them out. One was 150c and the deluxe was 200c. She thinks the cheaper one didn't have a door that closed. The 2nd one that everyone was using had the "overflow" coming out under the walls. ( Jo waited)