WhatsApp *Chicas?

So WhatsApp is a thing here. Almost as soon as we arrived at the treehouse Stephanie suggested making a WhatsApp group so we could ask any questions anytime and get help if needed. Our first tour guide Abel also set up a WhatsApp group with us to share stuff from our tour.

It’s a bloody good idea. We could get tidbits of info and advice anytime, and if we needed a taxi we would generally WhatsApp someone and they would arrange one for us. Then they would message who and what they were driving, when it would arrive and how much it would be. It’s a good way to ensure an uneventful ride to your preferred destination.

So then there was the time we tried to be self sufficient. We finished our Cahuita NP walk with David (amazing, separate post to come), stopped for a bite to eat, went looking for an ATM, thought we’d try catching the bus home. But the next bus wasn’t for a couple of hours so we thought we’d accept the ‘taxi’ offered to us outside the bus station.

Not a metered taxi, but that’s not unusual in these parts, none of the other taxis we’d had were either. "Treinta y cinco" (35) said the driver, which sounds a lot like veinte y cinco (25) when a native Spanish speaking person says it quickly to an untrained ear. We haggled to $21 (or so we thought) because that’s what we paid to get there. He clearly didn’t speak English, and we speak about a handful of words of Spanish, not many of which seemed to be particularly useful in this situation. But I definitely said veinte uno several times, so once he nodded we thought we’d agreed $21.

We got in the car, he pulled away and then started chattering at full speed. "Español español español gas, español español español señora ", he said, gesticulating away. We guessed he was saying he had to fill the car with petrol and maybe pick up another woman, which seemed a little odd, but he was already on the way so we said sure and he seemed happy.

So off we drove in what Margaret said was the wrong direction (I wouldn’t have a clue, my sense of direction is hopeless, don’t tell any of my dive buddies). We drove further and further down a gravel road, certainly not back the way we had come in. While I was madly digging out my phone he stopped at some little corner store to pick up a cylinder, then continued further along this road, with Margaret and me getting more and more antsy by the minute. 

I WhatsApp’d Mauro to tell him what we thought we’d agreed, and what we thought he said, then called and got him to speak to the driver. No - not $21, he thinks he’s getting paid $30 - and flat refuses to negotiate down. But now he’s pissed off and we’re in his car, at his mercy, out in deliverance country. He starts backing into a long driveway. A few large dogs come flying out barking into our wound down windows.

To add to the sense of urgency, Mauro is telling us its best to be in agreement before he leaves Cahuita or wherever we are now, without saying what the consequences would be if not. So sure, leave that up to our imaginations.

It’s no longer a matter of price - we’re a bit nervous about staying in this blokes car. We get Mauro to tell him to take us back to Cahuita town and ask Mauro to do what we should have done in the first place - arrange a taxi to pick us up and send us details by whatsapp. We get out of his car, and even though we had nothing to thank him for, I thank him anyway, seeing as we’re still 20 minutes from being picked up and he’s muttering under his breath in disgust and gesticulating wildly at us. 

I think he’s annoyed that not only is he not getting his 30 bucks, but that he’d left his other chores for some unsuspecting gringas to pay for that as part of their trip, and instead found himself wearing the cost, while taking said gringas on a tour of the backroads and getting nada in return. 

We had a coffee while we waited for our trustworthy ride and congratulated each other on ending this latest adventure intact and unscathed. No more attempts at self reliance for us.

*All the Costa Rican fellas keep calling us Chicas and we’re a bit partial to it