A crowded bus ride. Stinky, sweaty people crammed into a space too small for half of them. Skin to skin contact, breathing down each others' necks, and the occasional youth sticking his (or her) head out the window to rid himself of the poison he indulged in the night before. Ah yes, bus rides in Central America. The sure sign of the beginning of something wonderful.
This "something wonderful" consisted of some sand and a volcano,
Some cows,
And of course some friends.
Unfortunately for you, the exciting parts of the story are only complete if there are some boring details first, so let me start from the beginning.
One day, I got bored. Normally, when I get bored in Central America, it is pretty easy to find something to do. Sometimes though, it's not. So, on this particular day when I got bored and there was no one around, I decided to start walking.
I started walking through town, past the hostels, past the park, past the little fruit stand with the sweet lady selling underpriced, delicious fruit...
I walked out of town, past farmers and their cows, past construction workers, past Nicos who had nothing better to do than sit on the side of the road and yell, "hey baby! I love you!" as I walked by.
I walked past little restaraunts and banana trees, across the airport and past the volcano...
And I enjoyed the feel of the killer sun on my back, thankful that I had coated on the sunscreen. Even though it was deathly hot, I only sipped my water, wishing that I had brought a bigger bottle.
As I walked down the smooth, brick highway, lizards scurried around in the dead leaves beside the road. It was quiet with just a soft breeze and the occasional passing of a bus or moterbike.
I had been walking for about an hour, wondering when I would feel like turning around but having no desire to, when I came to this sign beside the road.
Punta Jesus Maria. I had remembered someone telling me about it, so I turned right. The black road turned into dust, and the scattered houses and restaurants disappeared giving way to fences, fields, and bovines.
I walked down the silent road, enjoying being the only human being among the lizards and cows, but a little annoyed at the dust that was working its way into my socks, when I saw a horse.
This is pretty much irrelevant, except for the fact that I like horses. And, I was tired of walking, so I tried to catch the horse. Lets just say that I am glad that I was the only human being among the lizards and cows, and I didn't catch the horse.
So, horseless, I continued walking in the hot sun. About an hour later, I was seriously wondering if I had made a wrong turn, or misunderstood direction, and if I was trespassing. About that time I spotted a human. It was a hard working human with a machete. I turned around.
I walked through the hot sun with no water as the sand worked its way in my socks, annoyed that I would have to walk all the way back with no water and sand in my shoes.
But then an amazing thing happened. I saw some humans! Some like-skinned, like-language, bike riding humans! They rode past me. Towards the machete humans.
I turned around and continued walking in my original direction, praying for water and kind machete owning humans. I am not sure I have ever seen a farmer boss man look so happy. Of course, the boss man was sitting in the shade while the young machete humans chopped down trees in the hot sun.
I said hola and kept walking as boss man grinned after me. I commended myself for bravely passing the machete humans while chiding myself for being a baby and turning around in the first place because right past the machete humans and boss man was this building.
I don't know if I have ever been so happy to see a building, but I hurried over, past some more smooching "I love you baby" Nico men, and bought a giant waterbottle.
Then, I headed down the little peninsula.
Ahead of me, thousands of seagulls covered the sand. Behind me, the volcano stood proud and beastly in the distance, and beneath my feet were billions of tiny little shells.
Like a good kid, I made the seagulls fly away and stuck a few shells in my pocket, then, only because of creepy men, I started my walk back to town.
On the way, I noticed everything. I noticed the countless lizards, and the twisted trees.
I noticed the cows, the unbelievable beautiful butterflies of every size and color like you couldn't even imagine.
I also noticed the angry trees, threating to stab to death anyone or anything who tried to eat, sit, or climb on one of them.
I also noticed more people, one of which happened to be a young, clean cut Nico. He walked directly towards me, and as I said "hello", he warned me that a car was coming while simultaneously trying to pull me into a hug. I pushed him away and we both continued walking. They definitely know how to keep life interesting.
When I got back I was lucky enough to catch a dollar ride back to town on a tuktuk.
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