101 Learning Curves: My Costa Rica Bus Adventures

I’ve been a foot/bus/train person for years now.  I’ve been one ever since I gave up car ownership in 2002 (hopefully for good!) for

• physical health, 
• environmental health, 
• community aspects and 
• the global and personal economy. So a country like Costa Rica whose motto is "Pura Vida" or "the pure life" is my kind of place!  Protecting the great rain forest air I breathe outside my writing view window daily by doing my part by riding the bus system any time I need to get to town just makes sense.

Of course, my lifelong challenges with motion sickness that seem to be at their worst in cars had a little something to do with my giving up car, too! If I had my way, I’d never have to get in another one again.  Plus I have a sense that future generations who find more pleasant and responsible modes of transportation someday will look back on us and say, “Why did they think folding themselves up into small spaces with poor quality of air and sitting for long periods of time in one position was in any way a smart thing to do or the best way they could come up with to get places?”

But…on to my newest bus adventures.

Learning the bus systems in cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, Santa Monica, LA, New Orleans and Grand Rapids in no way prepared me for learning this latest one!

Don’t get me wrong; I love the Tican bus system & am very grateful I can live the way I’m living out exploring and creating in the untamed wilderness and still get anywhere I need to go. It’s probably my favorite bus system so far in certain aspects of it, in fact.   

But a good chunk of my 101 learning curves since arriving in Costa Rica are coming from being a bus person trying to make that work here, I think!

First of all, there is the reality that schedules are posted nowhere.

(Tilaran bus station with waiting area)

• You will not find a bus schedule on the Internet.
• You will not find one in a bus station.
• You will not find one at a bus stop.
• You will not find one posted in a bus.

The Ticans seem to just magically know these schedules, so unless you are fortunate enough to have someone overview them for you so you can write them down…well, good luck!!

Nor is the system intuitive along the lines of say “the bus comes every 10 minutes” or even “every three hours.”

I did, gratefully, have two people help me with the times right away.  I can get from my place at the Aguacate bus stop a block from my driveway

to town (for me that’s Nuevo Arenal) by catching a bus at any one of the following times—and only those times:

7:30

10:30

12:30

1:00

3:00

5:00

(Those are the times at which we all start waiting for the bus, that is.  I was told to expect it to arrive any time between then and 20 minutes later—and it has proven true.)

Getting back by bus to Aguacate from Nuevo Arenal, however, 

does not follow any certain pattern matching those times that I’ve uncovered yet.

8:30

9:30

12:00

3:30

5:30

6:30

are the times that a bus will bring me home when I'm done with my shopping and errands.

Now say I want to go to Tilaran, a city 30 minutes the other direction from where I live. 

(view of the bus stop from the church)

I can figure out what time I can catch the bus in Aguacate by adding about 20 minutes to the above times out of Nuevo Arenal since the bus will go right through here.

And then I can figure out how to get back by subtracting half an hour from the first schedule I posted.

But in the beginning—before that had registered—I just had to ask the people around me at stops or stations who don't speak English with my limited Spanish what the schedule is, which is where one little somewhat costly mistake came in!

I think maybe 4 and 5 are confusing to non-English speakers in the way ses and siete can be to me at times.   Because not one but two people at the bus station told me 5:30 was one of the departure times.

Nope!  Final bus out of Tilaran leaves promptly at 4:30 (actually usually a few minutes before) and if you’re not on it…well, you’re paying for a $25 or so taxi ride instead of a $2 bus ride!  (And in my case, you’re also getting quite sick rounding all those mountain curves in the back seat of a low-to-the-ground vehicle.)

But at least it’s a mistake you only make once.

The fares on the other hand…

First you have to realize that, like the schedules, these are posted nowhere also.

And since three different companies run the buses, the fares are all different as well.

• They differ by what bus system you are boarding.
• They differ by what time of the day you are taking the bus.
• And they differ by how far you are going on each route.

I have not been able to figure out the pattern yet since I don't take most of the bus routes, though I imagine there is one.  But I have learned the hard way after a few frustrated bus drivers to write them down as I learn them on my written schedule I now carry with me at all times—and hope they aren’t dependent on who’s driving, too! (In defense of the drivers, the people here seem very warm and patient by nature, but I am pretty much the only non-Tican riding most of the buses I take, meaning they don't have to put up with waiting for someone to try to figure out the fare.) 

But that’s just one part of the fare challenge: knowing which bus route and time of day and destination charges what.

There's also the money system itself.

Like most everything else about the place, the money of Costa Rica is very pretty. 

And the conversion rate is gratefully pretty simple:  500 Colones equals $1.

But if you came here just thinking you’d pick up Spanish along the way and only know your numbers from one to nine, and if on top of that you’re writing a book or two in your head most of the time and especially while you wait for a bus that can easily be 20 minutes or so late, well…let me tell you!   2700 doesn’t sound anything like the words for “two” or “seven!”  (It doesn't sound much like it in English either, though, so who knows why I thought it would in Espanol!) 

Even 700 took me a while to get.  Between trying to remember the fare for that time of day and destination plus getting the Spanish number for 700 to stick in my head, I was rarely prepared with fare.

The poor frustrated driver for that particular route, destination and time of day!  I think after about the third time I found myself on his route and he had to keep repeating the fare while I helplessly shrugged and pushed coins at him till he found the correct amount, he looked like he was ready to ask me to walk.

But... 

I’m taking the approach out here that if you want to learn to ride the bike, you’ve got to be willing to fall off plenty before you do.  

So I resisted beating myself up over it, and just kept trying till I got it right. 

The day he picked me up and I handed him 7 100 Colones coins, his face broke into one of the biggest smiles I’ve seen.  Now we’re friends and exchange the few Spanish greetings and goodbyes I know each time I ride.

The buses can also differ dramatically in quality of ride, which is something very new to me in a bus system, and I imagine is a big factor in the wide range of fares. On the ride one direction you may find yourself bumping along in a converted school bus, and even one that picks up a school route in addition to the other passengers.

(two school buses side by side, waiting for passengers at the Tilaran station)

And in the ride back, you may be riding in luxury on a former tour bus—with your own adjustable light and air, curtains at the window, seats that tip back and music playing.

That brings up the other challenge.

Not all of the buses have ways to let the driver know you want to get off!

This has been a slightly terrifying experience a few times, given my challenges with the language.

One of those was one of the few times I took the bus after dark.  I had my arms full of a week’s worth of groceries, and considering that I’d told the driver my destination as I boarded (which you have to do so fare can be calculated) I wasn’t too worried about signaling him.  Still, as we approached Aguacate, I did try to find some kind of rope to pull or button to push unsuccessfully.

“He’ll stop,” I figured.  

I was a woman on her own with her arms full of groceries.  Walking back to a bus stop in the dark didn’t sound particularly wise, and since there were not a lot of passengers on that ride, I assumed he had probably noted the situation.  

(the beautiful little town I live in is right on a curve on Hwy 142; the steeple--even in the dark--let's me know when we're approaching it)

But as we hurtled through Aguacate with no sign of even slowing down, I realized that backtracking through the dark with my arms full was exactly what I would soon be doing!  

I jumped up and started down the aisle, balancing my groceries and myself in the rapidly moving bus as best I could, calling out, “Stop, please!” 

The bus driver did nothing.  No one around me did anything.  In fact, they didn't even seem to notice me.  (It gets very dark in Costa Rica once the sun goes down around 6 p.m.)

Finally, I remember the “Alto” on the red street signs all over the place that are shaped like our Stop signs in the U.S. and called out, “Alto, por favor!”

And the bus magically came to a stop—not too far past the bus stop.

I’m learning that I’m more likely to keep trying till I get my Alto’s and my Stop’s right if I laugh about it.  And I’ve also noticed that if I laugh, others seem to be more comfortable and free to enjoy the fun of the mistake with me.  So that night the driver and I had a good laugh, with him calling out encouragingly, “Alto!” after me as my bags of groceries and I stepped off the bus into the night.

Makes Me Think

Here are a few pictures taken through the glass window of a moving bus on the drive around Lake Arenal into Tilaran to showcase better why—despite all the above challenges—this is one of my favorite bus systems yet.

Imagine sitting in all the luxury of a converted tour bus for a 30-minute ride that only costs you $2 for these views!   That to me is worth putting up with all the above learning curves and then some! 

But then again, I’m writing this after I’m past most of those early mistakes.   

Not 

• while I’m running shouting down a bus aisle in the wrong language, 
• or misunderstanding the word for 700 for the third time on that route, 
• or missing the final bus out of a station for the day and having to take a taxi instead. 

Just those painful parts of the process of not wanting to fall off the bikes of life causing us to sometimes prefer to skip over to save ourselves the embarrassment or cost or feelings of helplessness or stupidity.

But the reward is so worth it! By the time we’re riding the bike—or in this case the bus—successfully, we tend to forget it was ever hard in the first place.

Wouldn’t we be more willing to tackle the hard things in life if we had gentle reminders of other times that we did that paid off? So we don’t forget where we started?  And how far we’ve come?

Which is precisely why I’m recording this learning curve in this blog. 

As an ongoing reminder.