Another Bus Experience (or two, or three)

I went out to Escazu the other day to do some reporting at the MultiPlaza Escazu, a giant mall which apparently expreiced some chaos during the quake last week (they did). To get there, since its a pretty nice suburb outside of San Jose (Avalon's going to be working out there, so I expect she'll blog about it) I had to take a bus. While I've seen some guys bring guitars on buses and perform, there was an old man on the Escazu bus who took mass transportation entreprenurship to a whole new level.

He got on with a variety of stuff, ranging from Dora the Exporer stickers, to sewing needles, to children's pencils with the big, fancy erasers, to some sort of toolkit. Then, he gave some long schpiel which I couldn't really understand. But, surprisingly enough, the Costa Ricans loved it. Or at least liked it enough to purchase some of his wares. I guess he had something for the whole family.

It may be a cultural thing. I remember in Chile, whether it would be kids who came and performed some odd tricks in the middle of traffic, or simply an old woman begging for spare change, my host mother would always give some monedas. It could be the strong religious affinity for helping the poor, or simply the realization that their governments don't provide much in the way of social welfare--or maybe they're just entertained and figure these people provide some sort of service. Either way, I've yet to hear a Costa Rican yell, "Get a job you lazy bums!"

Speaking of bus experiences, yesterday, I went out to the airport for an interview (and I won't get into the fact that once I got there they told me I needed my passport to get in, and once I finally came back with my passport, they didn't even check for it...).

Also, I took the wrong bus home on Monday, and, while we passed by my neighborhood, I couldn't tell because, well, I'm still new here and the bus was filled with people so I couldn't really see out. Long story short, the bus simply stopped in some random place and everyone got out. I had no idea where I was, but luckily a nice family approached me in English, told me I wasn't far from my destination, and pointed out a nicely-lit corner to wait for the next bus or cab. See, not all bus experiences are bad!