Costa Rica Memoir

I will write down my experiences from my time solo traveling in Costa Rica 2021.

I enter the bus station in San José, sweating as my backpack hangs low on my back, I buy my ticket and sit down on a metal bench, being very aware of my surroundings. I have a sip of water and observe the weathered colors on the walls around me, the concrete is cracked in certain places where the wall meets the floor. A man sits down on the bench opposite to mine, but not directly across. After a while I decide that I wanna try to make some small talk and practice my Spanish. I hunch forward on my bench and ask with a calm voice
"Perdon, sabes que hora es?" He looks at me and a smile grows on his face, he answers
"nueve y cuarto"
still smiling he asks "de donde eres" with a curious voice.
"Soy sueco, estoy aqui por vacaciones" I answer.
"ah verdad, que bueno, y viajas solo?" he asks,
"Si" I say.
While we sit waiting for the bus, I notice that he stares at me, I meet his gaze and he just smiles and keeps looking. I start to feel a little bit awkward, but at last the bus arrives.

I enter the bus and sit down somewhere in the middle of the bus among other people. The driver pulls out of the station, I see dozens and dozens of homeless people on the blocks surrounding the station, some of them lying next to the curb, and others sitting on it, there's bundles of blankets and clothes, bottles and plastic bags. some of them swirling up with the wind into a dance before the wind carries them away.
As the bus drives further away from the city center, the houses becomes more sparse, then the bus drives through a mountain pass, and as we come down through it, there's only jungle, i looked up a steep rock wall on the busses left side, even on the sparse rock wall, some plants and ferns had managed to gain a foothold and were growing.
After a few hours the bus finally stopped at my destination, Puerto Viejo, a small village on the south eastern part of Costa Rica.
As i leave the bus, i feel like a warm blanket of humid sea air embraces me, the small dusty street is bustling with tourists and locals, a short lanky man comes up to me.
"What are you looking for friend?"
"Well, i will meet up with some friends here. Would you happen to know where the ticket office is?"
"Of course of course, follow me, it's not far!"
I walk after the man and follow him to the end of the block and then to the right, and there it is, plain as day and would have been easily found if I'd looked around a little.
"Here it is friend!"
"Oh, sweet! Thank you so much" I say with a smile.
"I was wondering, if you could get me some food?" the man asks with a pleading face, "My wallet got stolen on the beach yesterday and I don't have any money left"
"Sure, I can fix some food, is there a store nearby?"
The man's eyes light up, "There is, there is! not far from here, come!"
I follow the now rather eager man. We enter the store, "What were you thinking of getting?" the man asked, "You can go ahead and take what you need, I can cover 100 colones for you"
The man thanked me and disappeared among the shelves, we later meet up at the register and I pay with some bills.
Afterwords I ask the man to show me where there's an ATM, he does, but as i try to make a withdraw the machine deny my card, the man shows me another three machines, all of them rejects my card, and i feel my stomach sink, I have just spent almost all the cash I had on me to buy groceries for the man. I sit down on a bench near the station and try to figure out how to handle this situation. The man still hangs around me, he asks me for money to buy a bus ticket for San José, I tell him how it is, and that i might be stranded myself, after that the man quickly loses interest in me and disappears.
I send several texts through WhatsApp, trying to get a hold of my friends, but no answer returns.
The hot afternoon drags by, a Rasta man lazily walks by and sits down on the bench a few spots from me. I cannot help but to take a few glances of him. I've never seen anyone like this in my life, his dreadlocks hung heavy down past his shoulders.
Finally i received a text back from one of my friends. *We've rented bikes, but we'll be in Puerto Viejo around six* The text read.
Then at six fifteen they arrive, I see them pulling up in front of the Tienda in the dark.