Trip to Quebrada Grande...the highlights

It took me a 45 minute phone call to my dad and 11 pages in my journal to fully explain the craziness that ensued on my trip from San Jose to Quebrada Grande...I´ll just give you the highlights.
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- left the hostel at 8:30 to catch taxi to bus stop
-tried to pay the taxi driver 20,000 colones ($40), it only cost 2,000 colones ($4) good thing he was honest.
- Me and my travel buddy Rosalia unload our 70 lbs suitcases, backpacks and purses and everyone in the terminal stares at us like we´re crazy.
-We load our luggage onto bus...driver looks at us and in Spanish says, ¨You both look like tourists...people steal all the time on this bus. Keep your belongings with you and don´t let them out of your site!¨ I´m scared to death.
- After two hours we stop at what looks like an outdoor convenience store with outdoor restrooms. I pee...there´s no toilet paper. I´m sweating and gross from being on the bus for 2 hours and now...you get the picture.
-back on the bus another two hours. Finally pull into Liberia bus stop.
-We´re told our next bus stop is across from an abandonded field.
-Rosalia and I both take our 70 lbs. roller bags, our backpacks and purses and start lugging them across this abandoned field.
-Rosalia´s stuff keeps falling...we have to stop every few feet. keep in mind it´s 90 degrees, humid and gross...people every where are starring.
-Dozen of sketchy men offer to give us ¨a ride¨ to where ever we need to go. We do not accept.
-Finally at the next bus stop. We´re told the bus leaves at 3. It´s 1:30.
-We decided to ask several people when the next bus to Quebrada Grande leaves just to be sure--no one´s heard of Quebrada Grande...not good.
-we decide to use the bathroom one at a time so someone can watch the luggage. It costs 200 colones to use the restroom. So...we´re cheap and don´t use it.
-We watch buses come and go for 2 hours and none of them say Quebrada Grande. It´s now 3:30
-By some miracle, Rosalia´s host sister (who has never met us before) spots the 2 Americans in the crowd and asks us if we´re from worldteach!! YAY! we´re saved! She tells us the next bus leaves at 4.
-The bus pulls in...it doesn´t say Quebrada Grande because it´s a rickety old, falling apart SCHOOL BUS! this can´t be right...
-We drag our luggage over to the bus and the driver looks at us like we´re nuts. He tries lifting the suitcases through the emergency door and can´t....the suitcases are bigger than he is.
-Finally, luggage gets loaded and we´re off.
-There are no shocks on the bus! We´re bouncing all over the place...the luggage is about to fall out the door and the windows keep falling down with every big BUMP!
-The sky darkens and it starts to thunder and lightening! My worse nightmare. Rickety bus, middle of no where, dirt road, thunder storm, no idea where I am, don´t speak spanish. I´m scared to death.
-Next thing I know...we´re pulling into Quebrada Grande and I have no idea who my host family is or where they live. Luckily a boy on the bus new them and showed me to their house.
-They´re not home! I´m in the middle of NO WHERE, on a dirt road, with 70 lbs of luggage, and no where to go.
-Word spreads through town there´s a white girl (gringa) stading in the dirt road. My host dad comes and saves the day :)
-I drop off my stuff and go with him to the school. They´re holding primary elections for president and my host family is SUPER politically active. They´re all wearing Laura for President shirts. We stay there until the election is over.
-Laura wins the primaries.
-We go to grandma´s house next. It´s her birthday!
-We go home, they give me a Laura shirt and tell me to put it on. I do.
-We get back in the car and they start driving around Quebrada Grande honking the horn and flashing their lights and shouting LAURA! LAURA! LAURA!
-People are running out of their houses and into the streets!
-we start a line of cars honking and flashing their lights! People keep jumping in the backs of trucks and into cars....apparently we´re headed to Liberia (where I just spent a hellish 4 hours) to celebrate....
-This doesn´t seem to be a good idea to me....so, I tell them i´ve had a very loooong day and ask if I can go home....they say yes....seemed disappointed but took me home.
-Wrote about the crazy day in my journal and went to bed at 11 p.m.

That was my first day in Quebrada Grande!