The hotel in Puntarenas was very relaxing. It had black sand beaches and lots of pools. The day before we were supposed to check out, I started to plan my transportation to Moravia. Because I had two luggage’s, there was no way I could take the public bus. After talking to three different people in the hotel, they all recommended this taxi driver, Alberto or “Chino”. First, we dropped off my sister and her boyfriend at their hotel nearby. I was sad saying goodbye but so so excited to be moving into my new home. Chino was quite the character and very friendly. As we started driving, he asked me if I had tried to see monkey’s yet. I asked where the best place was so I could take my friends. Chino was literally jumping in his seat and clapping his hands while saying “I have a surprise for you.” So, he takes me to this house, and they have white-faced monkey’s all over their front yard (wild). The family gave us some fruit and I hand fed them bananas and watermelon. When they would take it out of my hand they would make a little noise, as if they were saying “thank you” or “gracias.” Also, he told me to hold on to one really tight, so I did and the monkey pried each of my fingers and bit one of them (it didn’t hurt at all though) to try to get the banana. There were also two moms with babies on their backs, which was probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. It was amazing to be face-to-face with the monkeys like that. They were adorable!
The baby was just clinging to his mommy as I was handing her bananas. It was so precious!
Getting to the house was an adventure within itself. It is in a town called Moravia, near San Jose. However, even though the driver knew where Moravia was, the houses have no addresses. My “address” was: From the national bank, 2 blocks north, and 1 block east. So, every time he drove a block he would stop and ask someone on the side of the road if we were going in the right direction. Then, once we got on the street, we had to look for the second part of the address which was “white house with grey.” There was definitely more than one house that matched this description. Thankfully, we found neighbors in front a house, and asked them and we were right across the street! However, the house has two gates and a door so Chino was yelling for them to come open it. After a while, my lovely roommates came to the door, since my host mom wasn’t there at the time. I immediately felt relief and now I am in my new home!
