Back at the Soda (small local family-run restaurant … great local food, great prices) Rein and Ricar eventually showed up! Hugs and greetings were exchanged and then I hopped into the backseat of the ‘really packed with stuff’ – including pizza - Land Rover! It was great! Our first stop in San Jose was at Rein’s warehouse where he keeps all of his wheelbarrow parts for his wheelbarrow business. I was informed by Reinaldo that we (and fortunately Otto had prepared me for this), yes we (that means me! who just spent the last 2 days trying to get to Costa Rica) were going to assemble 8 wheelbarrows and then distribute them along the way to the Rancho. Okay, then! Honestly I was still astonished that that was being expected of me – I mean, where is chivalry – I wasn’t wearing assembly clothes! Certainly I should be being given a nice tropical coconut cocktail with an umbrella in it! But, NOOOOO …! Then I remembered my gratitude for being given a ride to the Rancho (plus Rein had had to wait an extra day for me because of my travel blips etc. which resulted in erratic segments of sleep for both he and Ricar). So, I cheerily pitched in and did my part.
After the units were mostly assembled the frames with their ‘barrows’ attached were tied to the top of the vehicle and the wheels with their rubber (the olfactory offending type) tires were put behind the back seat – as in, oh let’s say, behind me (visualize the grimacing …). Now we were really packed! We stopped at two homes, a cement factory, two hardware stores, and a landscaping business to either sell wheelbarrows, or pick up or drop off paperwork, or collect money. These stops were of varying lengths of time and usually for a longer period than Rein mentioned it would take. Ricar, good-naturedly, said that the next time he needed to go to Punta Banco he would choose another method. I had to smile. It would actually end up taking us four extra hours to arrive at the Rancho.
One of the residences we stopped at was Rein’s business partner. Hmmmm … I’ve forgotten his name. But he lives in Jaco. Rein always stops on his way through. So we stopped and had coffee and – we’ll call him Bill – Bill made us some sandwiches for further on down the road. Nice guy. I guess he wanted to buy the Rancho 11 years ago but the ‘boys’ got it first. Supposedly he’s a pretty good chef.
An interesting side-bit Rein and I were made aware of was that Ricar’s grandfather was one of the founders of the town Rio Claro which we happened to be traveling through. As we drove through Ricar gave us a little history. Very interesting! And no, I don’t remember the details. I’ll have to ask him about it again.
The hardest part of this road trip was that Rein decided he also wanted to go into Panama to get fuel for the Land Rover and liquor for a group (Lightning Bolt) that was going to stay at the Rancho for 10 days. Oh, moan! Blessings aside, man, I was done traveling for the day! Not only was this a slightly risky venture he wanted to accomplish it was also, now, dark aaaaaaand it was going to add at least an hour or more to the journey. Sigh. Rein had his agenda and Ricar and I were indebted for the ride. Our sidetrack was successful and we continued our journey on the ‘bad’ roads with singing.
We arrived at Punta Banco safe and mostly sound – thanks, Rein! seriously – and dropped Ricar off at his place. Rein and I continued ¼ mile further down the road reaching the Rancho after everyone was in bed. Britta (one of the managers) got up to greet us and tell us that we were going to have to share a cabina because all of the others were full. Okay, then. We got our sheets and towels, went to the Boat House, showered and went to bed.
Sigh!
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