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Jim and I set out from Atenas to go to La Paz Waterfall Gardens yesterday. Although we had a hand drawn map and had put the coordinates in the GPS, we got lost.
Several people along the way tried to help with hand signals to give directions but our Spanish was not up to understanding.
We finally stopped at a policia estacion in a little town – I think it was Sabanilla where we met a young officer who spoke a little English.
After trying to explain to us where we should go, he decided to get on his motorcycle and show us the way. And that is what he did – for almost 30 minutes.
When he finally stopped, we were at a point that we could follow the rest of the way. His name is Adrian, and he gave us his email address, which I used when we got home to again express our gratitude and to let him know that we did finally arrive at La Paz.
He has even replied. Such experiences just reinforce the kindness of the Costa Rican people. Pura Vida!!!!
What a lovely story!
Thank you for sharing …
Scott
PS. Let’s hope he had enough gas to return to the station 🙄
Last year I was in San Jose completing the process for my residencey. I was staying at a hostel in Paso Colon. I had to wait until later in the afternoon to pick up my cedula so I decided it was a good time to get my Costa Rican driver’s license. A young Costa Rican woman who was just coming on shift at the hostel was talking to me. She could speak some English. I was asking her how to get to Uruca by bus since I was running low on funds and had plenty of time that day. She proceeded to take me all the way there by bus. We made a bus change that I never would have found myself. We talked in English and some Spanish the whole trip. When we got there, I offered to pay her for showing me the way. She would not accept anything, not even her bus fare. In fact, she thanked me for giving her the opportunity to practice her English! I was thankful that there are people still willing to go above and beyond to help someone out. I will remember her generousity the next time that I encounter someone who needs extra help.:)
We had an experience similar to HarperAnne’s a couple of years ago when we got lost looking for Doka Estates and their coffee tour. After chasing around for half an hour, a local cop led us to the right road which we would not have taken otherwise.
I’ve rarely been treated as consistently well as by the Costa Rican people we’ve encountered. If there are idiots among ’em, they’re keeping well hidden.
My wife and I had much the same experience when we visited in 2006. Somehow on our way to visit a friend in Jaco we got off of the highway at Orotina onto a road that was badly in need of repair. With all of the twists and turns we ended up about 5 miles off of the highway before we ran into a farmer just coming out of a pulperia and asked “Donde es Jaco?”.
Seeming to know that we were short on Spanish he pointed to his pickup and indicated that we should follow him. From about 5 miles south of Orotina he led us back to the highway and then all the way to the outskirts of Jaco, a total distance of about 30 miles.
He turned around and went back the way we had come with nothing more than a “Muchas, muchas gracias.”
That is what we live with here. I don’t know about San Jose, where life is much more like in the States, but the people in the countryside will go out of their way to help.
Pura Vida! 😀
Well…my story is slightly different but still a story that demonstrates kindness and goodwill:
I was driving up the Costanera somewhere south of Dominical about 4 years ago roughly when I almost ran over a sloth that was about a 3rd of the way across the highway. I swerved around him just in time and then backed up once I realized it was an animal. I was by myself and no one else in sight and trying to figure out how to move the guy with those gigantic claws. Waited around for 5 minutes pondering what to do when a small truck with a couple of Tico’s pulled up. One of the guys walked into the bush and came out with a long stick which we then slid underneath the sloths hands and claws and he grabbed onto then the 3 of us carried him across the highway into the bush and found him a tree a good distance away from the road and hopefully added some years to his life. I’m pretty sure I posted a picture of the sloth in the pictures section.
[quote=”bogino”]Well…my story is slightly different but still a story that demonstrates kindness and goodwill:
[/quote]
Various CR forums sometimes seem to be filled with negative experiences – but there is an equal number of positives as well; and first impressions are important. In my case, I first came to CR as a visiting professor at UNA. My “book learning” Spanish was clearly inadequate for really integrating into daily life, and several Ticos took turns finding a place to live, introducing us to merchants, taking us on family trips to the beach, etc. etc. I never forgot these many kindnesses and, good deeds being self-perpetuating (hopefully!), I tried to repay any Ticos I encountered in the U.S. with similar help. While, in my opinion the quality of living in CR has diminished since the ’80s, most Ticos themselves are still simpatico y agradable.and here’s my favorite all time feel good story. a couple of years ago a woman i know offered to fetch me from the airport and take me home. while she was waiting for me outside, she took her little fluffy poopiedoodle dog out of her big handbag. when she pulled him out her wallet fell to the ground. we did not know this had happened until she went to pay the toll booth in the parking lot and discovered the wallet missing. we immediately went back to the airport, asked around, looked around, and found nothing. she was panicked because she had $500 in cash, all her credit cards AND her passport in there. she took me home and then had to rush back to the city to start making calls to cancel everything. she was REALLY upset, as she had every right to be. several days later she got a phone call from a Tico man who had picked up the wallet and wanted to return it to her. when she got the wallet, every dollar was there as were her credit cards and passport.
I thought i posted a story about my nephew in CR.Must have done something wrong because it isn’t here!
Anyway: My nephew was going to turn out to be a bum. While in CR my nephew wound up broke and walking forever in the rain. A Tico family invited him in out of the rain just at dark. He spent the night with them and was ashamed to eat their food( he did) because he could tell they had very little of anything at all. After that night he said his life changed. He saw what a spoiled brat he was and how his troubles were nothing to what the Ticos he met were facing daily.
My nephew is now a married father of two kids and has a great job repairing giant screen Tv’s in stadiums and churches.
He owes a lot of it to the experience he had in CR and has told me so.Years ago we were robbed here, and our SKY TV box was taken (mistakenly we presume, for a DVD player), plus camera equipment and other items. After returning from the police station where we had to complete the necessary paperwork, a neighbor stopped us and said that the ‘culprit’ his nephew who was visiting, would return the items. Lo and behold, he actually did return everything directly to the police station the following day.
If only the other thieves that have taken ‘goods’ from us, were so thoughtful…:roll:[quote=”bogino”]Well…my story is slightly different but still a story that demonstrates kindness and goodwill:
I was driving up the Costanera somewhere south of Dominical about 4 years ago roughly when I almost ran over a sloth that was about a 3rd of the way across the highway. I swerved around him just in time and then backed up once I realized it was an animal. I was by myself and no one else in sight and trying to figure out how to move the guy with those gigantic claws. Waited around for 5 minutes pondering what to do when a small truck with a couple of Tico’s pulled up. One of the guys walked into the bush and came out with a long stick which we then slid underneath the sloths hands and claws and he grabbed onto then the 3 of us carried him across the highway into the bush and found him a tree a good distance away from the road and hopefully added some years to his life. I’m pretty sure I posted a picture of the sloth in the pictures section.[/quote]
I was just reading your story and it sounds very familiar. We encountered the exact thing in the same area. I am wondering if we may have stumbled upon your ‘rescue’ back then. We were driving through enroute to the Osa back in early Nov 2008 and we happened upon a couple of locals transporting a sloth to a tree from the road. We only got to see the tail end of the rescue but it was the first time I got to see a sloth that close. That would be funny if it was the same event.
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