There are many people wearing uniforms or nice clothing who are on their way to work. Once in San José, I exit the bus and take a look at my surroundings. The streets are packed with vehicles. Large buses and small cars line the narrow roads while motorcyclists weave in and out of traffic. Every so often, I see pedestrians scurry across the street. This is just what I expect from a crowded urban area.
For the weekend, I decided that I want to spend some time in Tortuguero on the Caribbean side of the country. To get there, I took an intercity bus from a station in San José. These types of buses go long distances to other parts of the country. After a few hours, the bus pulled into an open station where I could see lanchas, or small boats, floating on the river out in the distance. I rode in one with about 15 other people to get to the nearby town. In the town, there wasn't a car in sight but there were plenty of bikes and people walking around in sandals. It was very different from the city where everything is motorized and noisy.
Learning how to use public buses has definitely been a challenge. The bus stops aren’t usually clearly marked, and sometimes the buses will stop just about anywhere. Also, there aren’t schedules that are readily available for the city buses, so I would sometimes have to just wait at the stop until one came along. Getting around requires asking a lot of questions and being very aware of my surroundings. I will say that the good thing that came from my attempts to use the bus is that my communication skills have gotten a lot better. I made an effort to learn common phrases to ask about directions and fares.
