Eager to leave the smell behind we opt for the 6am bus to Puerto Limon (we are on our way to Tortuguero). Slight flaw in the plan the bus left at 5am, after a series of interesting exchanges of words Maja and Adrian retreat to a cafe and wait for the next bus at 830am.
11.30am
We arrive in Puerto Limon, a random guy jumps on the bus and starts rounding up people for a taxi to Moin (this is where we are catching the "boat tour" to Tortuguero)
As usual Adrian needs a wee before we proceed and in the meantime Maja starts chatting to a French girl called Mano. Mano is from Brittany and is travelling Costa Rica for a month. All 3 of us jump inot the cab and head for Moin.
We arrive in the arse end of nowhere, and are taken to the marina for our boat connection. This is where the fun begins.......
1. We are told by "the old man" that we need 6 people for the boat tour, there are only 3 of us.
2. We are assured by "the old man" we will definitely get the tour at 3pm if 3 other people don't turn up. So we hand over $35 each (big mistake) and wait patiently.
Hour by hour there is no sign of any more travellers, we are resigned to the fact we will not be leaving before 3pm.
2.30pm
We are told by a large rotund Tico woman (who thinks the whole thing is hilarious) that we will not be getting the tour - its far too late it will be a straight water taxi ride to Tortuguero.
Maja and Frenchie take on the woman, with reference of the promises made by "the old man". She takes no notice and continues to laugh at us and then leaves for the day.
To add to this debacle there is now ocnfusion over who has our money and whether we have paid, "the old man" is long gone.
We manage to get this sorted at the last minute and we jump on the boat and head for Tortuguero.
Icing on the cake
The boat captain looks about 15 and once out on the water he proceeds to send texts and read the newspaper.
As it it turned out the speed boat ride was pretty cool and we got some great shots on the water - check it out!
5.15pm
We arrive in Tortuguero we are then met by yet another rep who asks us whether we have paid we advise we have. And he says "can I please have your receipt" we say "we didn't get one" and he responds "when you pay for something you get a receipt". Maja steps in " Yes, we know that but we don't have one" rep asks" "who did you pay then?", Maja resplies "the old man". As this point the reps patience is starting to dwindle and stares and Maja in disbelief "which old man?" Maja cases the boat and points to one of the woman who was with us at the boat dock "she knows, don't you?, you know the old man", after a various exchanges in Spanish between them we are finally allowed to disemabarke.
NOTE TO SELF.....always get a receipt!
Frenchie decides to travel Tortuguero with us, so we all go in search of accomodation for the next 3 nights.
We are chffed wtih our choice "Princesa resort", we unload and head to the Buddha cafe for dinner. Frenchie loves it cause there are crepes on the menu
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