Last night we crashed the car. Nothing serious. Just into a wall. We've been having some minor brake troubles for two days. But as of last night you had to push the brake pedal all the way down 6 times before the car would stop. It made for an interesting evening. This morning we woke up and went to the mechanic down the street. He let some air out of the brake and drained some kind of fluid. He got the brakes working in the front at least, but he said that the back ones weren't working, and only one pump was working on the front brakes...so before we make the 7 hour trek over the mountain tomorrow back to esterillos that we should get it looked at by a bigger mechanic, in limon, and perhaps have a few parts replaced. This cost us 5000 colones, $10. We headed back for a surf...it was, eh. Ate an empanada and then hopped into the car to head to LIMON. Limon is 50 KM from our cute town of Cahuita. It is dirty and smelly. In the travel book under "sights" for limon it lists prostitution, garbage and crime. There is one park that they mention where you can see sloths, but they said that the crime is bad so be careful. We drive all the way there, the mechanic drives around for a while, slamming on the brakes, and poof - they are fixed. Nothing is broken any longer, and we dont need anything replaced. Wierd. Anyways, we hop back into the car to leave Limon with headaches from the diesel fumes and in about an hour we are back to town.
THAT is my brake story. The car that Thoralf rented is kinda a piece of shit in the sense that nothing works the way it should *windows, locks, doors, brakes, etc.
This morning I had coffee with Michele 'me-shell', my new fabulous swiss friend. She has traveled all over the world. Very cool. We started to plan a trip through Sri Lanka and Thailand. She has family there. She has been to Sri Lanka before...and her story of being there is magical. She saw some documentary on the TV about a monk living in a remote cave in sri lanka. He's also an artist, who created the most beautiful paintings that she'd ever seen...michelle is an artist by the way. She contacted the TV station for information on the person who created the documentary and then contacted that man for information about the monk. Then she began corresponding with this monk. He was happy to have someone so young being so interested and determined in meeting him. Mostly he was contacted by the elderly and dying. She went to visit and he showed her all over sri lanka and took her with him to hospitals, broken and beatdown hospitals, filled with the dying. She couldn't understand what they were saying to one another, but she said that she felt something so powerful that she has never felt before.Michele is not religious, but she said she certainly feels a tie to buddhism, this monk in particular. He has since died, but every year on December 20th the other monks and people in town celebrate his life on the date of his death with a full day of chanting and prayer. We are hoping to get out there this time next year and be a part of it. All in all, Michele is kickass. Her parents are sailors. They sail. On a sailboat. All over the world, all year round. So she has grown up on the water. She plans to be a dive instructor, working and traveling her way around the world. I'm definitely excited to have become friends with her, and I'm sure that we will meet up for travel adventures throughout the years to come.
Have to go now, want to Skype call Shawn before they close the internet down.
Oh yeah, ate in Puerto Viejo last night at the same place we ate the other day, Jammin Jerk and Juice. BAH. It's so amazing. So cute and the best best best food. I got the same thing I had the other day, the Mid Eastern Rice Salad. It's brown rice with tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley and other seasonings with a spicy peanut, thai dressing and pitas. MMMM. And I had Sorrel Iced Ginger Tea. MMMM. This woman makes the best stuff.
We are headed back to Esterillos tomorrow. So wish us luck and pray to the brake gods. Sometime in the next few days I will be posting Caribbean photos. xo pura vida.
I think you will miss the food when you head back over, but not the prices. I suppose you can still go to that place we went to for dinner on your first night in CR....can't pull up the name, bah.
ReplyDeletePlease call me as soon as you get into Oeste.
Good Luck, and sit in the right rear seat, that is the safest, and leave the door unlocked in case you have to abandon ship.
Good luck, and don't forget to tell the German that your life is in his hands.
shawn