Day 8 – Day of the Lizards

Time to return the car. Today was to be our last day with a vehicle for quite some time. Needed to take one last advantage of that. We determined the best would be to drive back to Cobano (about 30 minute drive) and hit the bank and main grocery store.

Went to Banco Nacional first to exchange some money into the local currency, the colon. 500 colones (sounds like “co-loan-ez”) equals $1. Banco Nacional was like any other bank, with granting one way in and one way out. But, it only let one patron in or out at a time. You had to walk into a small chamber, which the front and back were really thick electronic glass doors. Once inside, it would either grant you access in or open to the outside. This bank is the main bank on the Northern tip where we are staying so it was the focal point of the town. You can bet your bottom dollar all currency moved one way or another through this bank. Because we are in the middle of nowhere, the currency exchange rate is to the advantage to the merchants. All the merchants except American dollars, but the value may be anywhere from 445 – 490 colones to the dollar.

The MegaSuper is the only real supermarket in about a 40km or 1 ½ hour distance to us. Their MegaSuper is like the Piggly without the Wiggly. However, it lets us purchase items like cold whole milk and wine. Not really available out where we are at in Cabuya. We have a very small market without the Mega selection. Super David does carry all the necessities though. We packed the back of the RAV4 with the groceries and headed to Cabuya. I needed to get on my way to return the car.

My navigator and I headed out to Tambor at 12:30pm this afternoon to put the RAV4 back in the stable. Hats off to the Toyota, because it drove like a dream. Took a pounding and will be surprised if it has any shocks left. As we were almost out of Cabuya, we stopped to take a picture of one gigantic tree. Not sure what the name of this tree is, but will definitely do some research. It was absolutely beautiful. Bustling with life all around it, we noticed some bats took refuge in some of its hollows. I took a picture of Thomas standing by it so everyone can see the true size of the base of the tree.

We drove along the coast and stopped once or twice to take some pictures. It was just a perfect day today. The sun was out in full force today and to our knowledge no rain in sight.

Tambor is a small town about an hour from Cabuya (sounds like “Ka-boo-ya”). The Toyota car rental was another 3 to 4 kilometers out of town at an all-inclusive beach resort called Barcelo. We arrived at Barcelo at around 2pm. We dropped off the car and decided to look around. We found out the bus back to Montezuma would not come until 3:30, so we had some time to kill. We walked around Barcelo and viewed the native Garros (Lizards) and Iguanas. Thomas was actually able to get about two feet away from healthy size Garro. The Iguanas here are extremely large. We saw several that with their tails, extended 4 feet.

At around 2:30 we ventured to the front of Barcelo and started to wait for the bus. I know, I know. I said 3:30 the bus would come (theoretically). Everything here is on island time, so we definitely did not want to miss this bus. Thomas got tired of waiting pretty quickly so we decided to start walking back to the main town of Tambor. We figured we would either pick up the bus in town or catch it on the way in while we were walking. After about a mile, a local taxi stopped and I was able to barter a pretty cheap fare. AC kicking, we enjoyed the 45 minute shuttle back home.