Ridin' the bus.....

Yours truly off for another adventure in Costa Rica!!!
The bus route is printed on the side of the bus. Now, if we could just get them to post bus stops, especially in San Jose. They guard those facts like State Secrets. I have caught a bus at a proper covered bus stop or at an unmarked corner where "everybody has been catching a bus there since I can remember". Keeps things interesting.......

I love mass transit! When I lived in Washington, D.C. and NYC I used it all the time and I use it in Costa Rica as well. Now coming from Southern Alabama, my introduction to "mass transit" was moving Mr. Barnett's cows from one pasture to the next. Quite literally "cattle car" comes to mind.

Costa Rica is wonderful for mass transit, just let me say. There are buses and taxis which can take you anywhere your little heart desires in this county. There are buses for town, city, rural and crosscountry trips. There are comfortable buses, and those not so - like no shocks and hard plastic seats....whoa, Nelly!!! There are big yellow and blue buses, small white buses and big new blue buses. I like those as they are generally more comfortable. Now none of them have air conditioning - you just dont' need it here. If you are on the bus and sitting on the side the sun shines in, well, just get up and move to another seat and open the window. It is just that simple and suddenly you are alot cooler. The only time the buses are miserable is when it has been raining and now it is packed full -I do mean FULL- of wet Ticos and dripping umbrellas at rush hour. Just avoid them at this time and take a taxi.

Then there is the Bus Driver. God bless him!! They drive in this traffic all day long and they are nothing short of artists for weaving in and out of congested traffic, taking a light that is close to red, changing lanes and zipping through neighborhoods like nobody's business. Have you ever had a bus 10 inches from your car door at about 30 miles per hour and somehow, a motorcycle manages to take advantage of this window of opportunity to get ahead of you? Oh, yeah, there is a bus on the other side of you as well as you turn into the rotunda hoping nothing is bigger than the bus on the other side of the bus!! OY! Let us pray......

So, anyway, I had been planning to take the PERIFERICA. This is a bus which goes all around San Jose and into various barrios or neighborhoods. It swings by the college, the lower end of the blue collar life in Hatillos, and by the richest cemetary in the country. I was all over the place and now know a few new neighborhoods and streets which connect them. A day well spent, if I do say so myself.

The bus was moving too fast for pics (imagne that), but I saw some very interesting sights along the way. For instance, this chap was out shodding horses while in the same barrio, just down the hill, was a multi-million dollar sports arena complete with track and field. Then there was the lady at a bus stop, hand on hip, high white hair, dressed to the nines with 4 inch hills, black lace outfit and Jackie O sunglasses, totally ignoring the drunk in the middle of the road playing matador with the bus. I don't if the driver or the drunk swerved but no "speed bump" was noted. Really, I 'm not clever enough to make this up.

A very good courtesy I have found here is respect for the older citizens. The first two rows of seats are reserved (Asientos Preferenciales) for pregnant women and especially the older patrons. However, if all these seats are taken, I have never seen a younger Tico or Tica not give up his or her seat for the senior. The bus drivers give them a little more time entering and exiting the bus as well. Now me or the younger folks had better get on and hang on or get out, cause this bus is leaving the station. Like I said, just keeps things intersting.

So when you get here, the Periferica is on the list of things to do and we can see the city and all its glory. Two hours worth of entertainment, education and cultural diversity for 260 colones. Not bad.....see you soon!