Another series of bus adventures. Up early and outta Quepos around 7:30 am, and it was a pretty unremarkable journey back into Puntarenas, dreadful bus music notwithstanding. If I hear the Spanish version of "Gloria" one more time... well, I´d better just grin and bear it because apparently Ticos just LOVE this song. Bleccccccch. At least I had a seat, even if it was next to a young pregnant woman who would occasionally sing along with the bad Muzak and weep a tear or two.

We got into Puntarenas around 11am, and I took up residence on a bench near the Monteverde bus, which wasn´t scheduled to leave until 2pm. Lovely. The rumpled man who had been sleeping on the other side of the bench woke up and asked me where I was headed. When I told him, he mumbled something about leaving my bags behind so I could walk around for a while. Um, I don´t THINK so, mister! First of all, there´s no way I´m leaving my bag with some random homeless guy on a bench. Second, why would I want to wander around Puntarenas and probably get mugged? No thank you, I´ll just stay right here. Turns out he was the bus driver. D´oh! But how was I supposed to know that? Before he put his little uniform on he was just another sketchy dude in a sketchy town.

My 3ish hours in Puntarenas were spent catching up on my journal entries and familiarizing myself with Monteverde/Santa Elena. At one point this super-creepy old lady sat down next to me and started hacking up a lung. Nice. I amused the two boys waiting with their mom by taking some digipics of them and showing them the results. And I made friends with the local snack vendor who joked that he was going to make my boyfriend very jealous by spiriting me away to his Costa Rican love shack. Or something like that. He did buy me a slice of watermelon, which may mean that we´re married now. Good times!

The ride to Monteverde was absolutely stunning, especially after we passed Las Juntas. We started up this tiny winding uphill path that just seemed to keep going up, up, up... And the most amazing part was that people kept getting ON the bus, even as we approached what seemed to be the top of the world. Astonishing views of hills, valleys, mountains piercing the clouds, cows, horses, the occasional shack, and ever upward. Best ride yet, for a mere two bucks.