Tamales in the Rain

October 17th

It's 6:30 am, we are up and packing our bags and getting ready to leave. We got off a bus yesterday, spent the night in a small hostel in San Jose in a room with an incredibly sticky floor--yuck--and are off to catch a bus. Elijah discovered a new adventure to set off on: climbing Cerro Chirripo, Costa Rica’s highest mountain rising 12,533 feet above sea level. On a clear day you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans from the top!

We managed to lug ourselves and luggage to the bus station just in time for the 7:30 bus, but not in time to reserve seats on the bus--our tickets say “a pie”--we board the bus to stand on foot.

3 hours and a snack stop later (best tortilla con queso y natilla I’ve ever had) we are running to catch our next bus and away from a taxi driver trying to convince us the next bus is in three hours and to pay him instead (at this point, we know the ways of taxi drivers here). A bit sweaty and breathless, we are on the bus to our final destination: San Gerardo de Rivas, the tiny town near the base of the mountain.

We finally make it to our airbnb--a beautiful little cabin that made the mile long, uphill, very rainy walk from the bus stop well worth the pain. Only that we realize how hungry we are and the fact we have no food with us means walking back down a mile into town in the rain for a grocery run. At least we aren't carrying all our luggage with us this time.

Motivated by empty stomachs and the approaching dark, we gear up in already soaked rain jackets head back to town, dodging rain puddles and the occasional motorcycle. Suddenly, we heard a car coming down the road behind us. We scuttled over to the side to let it pass, only it stopped right by us.. The driver jumped out and for a moment I thought he was offering us a ride. Instead he ran round to the back of his car, opened the trunk, reached in and pulled out steaming hot, banana leaf wrapped tamales.

“1200 colones para dos”

2 tamales for 2 dollars? Heck yeah! Elijah handed over the money and the man drove on, leaving us smiling in the rain, fresh tamales in hand. We found some shelter on the side of the road and scarfed them down, thanking God for sending us the tamale angel.

Fueled by tamale power, we made it to the grocery store and back before dark, wishing we would have bought more of those tamales.

View from the Cabin