A Holiday Lesson
Aitor Zabaleta
2010ko uztailaren 28a
The need to wake her up did not allow her to sleep peacefully. He got up an hour before the alarm clock, prepared himself in a di-da, put the finishing touches on his backpack and left the hostel. He spent five days in this small town in Costa Rica and wanted to move around.
There was only one bus in the chosen direction at seven o'clock in the morning. He was advised to leave for a while, just in case. The station was just a long wooden bench in a small semi-broken shelter, about two hundred meters from the last houses of the village. At half-past six in the morning the traveler was sitting on the side of the road watching the sun rise from the mountains like a ghost hidden in the shadows.
There was little traffic, some car or van at times, a bicycle now, some noisy motorbike afterwards. Not a bus, though. Losing the morning this way made him very angry. Not much impatience, and it seemed to him that from noon the sun fell by tons.
He had friends at the station: a teacher going to the capital, a farmer waiting for a truck, a salesman on his way to the market... In a few places, people as hospitable as Costa Ricans. He didn’t want to be unpleasant to the neighbours, but he had a hard time concealing from them, from that damned corner of the road that he wanted to leave as soon as possible, and that’s it.
He decided to return to the village at five in the afternoon. He grabbed the backpack on his back and made his way to the inn burumacious.
Later, the day spent on the side of the road without being able to calm down and with a bad mood prevails in the memories of the traveler. This is the strongest reminder of Costa Rica, when you think about it you feel the deep thrill of being a traveler. He didn’t see any wonderful volcanoes or beaches that day, but that’s when he noticed the closest people, he remembers the faces and conversations of the time the most. And so, in his patience, he got to know Costa Rica better in the long hours that were supposedly useless, probably more than walking around without stopping here and there in a month. Then he learned that the best way to see the world is often just that: just put it on and see.
As John Lennon said, life is what happens when we think of something else. Although he did not realize it at the time, the traveler took an enriching lesson in that sad corner of the road. And he realized that this happens every day.
There was only one bus in the chosen direction at seven o'clock in the morning. He was advised to leave for a while, just in case. The station was just a long wooden bench in a small semi-broken shelter, about two hundred meters from the last houses of the village. At half-past six in the morning the traveler was sitting on the side of the road watching the sun rise from the mountains like a ghost hidden in the shadows.
There was little traffic, some car or van at times, a bicycle now, some noisy motorbike afterwards. Not a bus, though. Losing the morning this way made him very angry. Not much impatience, and it seemed to him that from noon the sun fell by tons.
He had friends at the station: a teacher going to the capital, a farmer waiting for a truck, a salesman on his way to the market... In a few places, people as hospitable as Costa Ricans. He didn’t want to be unpleasant to the neighbours, but he had a hard time concealing from them, from that damned corner of the road that he wanted to leave as soon as possible, and that’s it.
He decided to return to the village at five in the afternoon. He grabbed the backpack on his back and made his way to the inn burumacious.
Later, the day spent on the side of the road without being able to calm down and with a bad mood prevails in the memories of the traveler. This is the strongest reminder of Costa Rica, when you think about it you feel the deep thrill of being a traveler. He didn’t see any wonderful volcanoes or beaches that day, but that’s when he noticed the closest people, he remembers the faces and conversations of the time the most. And so, in his patience, he got to know Costa Rica better in the long hours that were supposedly useless, probably more than walking around without stopping here and there in a month. Then he learned that the best way to see the world is often just that: just put it on and see.
As John Lennon said, life is what happens when we think of something else. Although he did not realize it at the time, the traveler took an enriching lesson in that sad corner of the road. And he realized that this happens every day.