Costa Rican Cowboy Country

September 17, 2007
Liberia, Costa Rica

After a not-too-comfortable five hour bus ride up from San Jose sitting next to a German exchange student who gave me her blog address and then took it back ("It´s in German")with no end to the pouring rain we arrived at the Libeia bus terminal safely. I´m now sitting at Pronto Pizza where the kid in the kitchen goes out back to fire my pizza in the wood burning oven in this historic building built over a hundred years ago. It's muggy, hot and humid and feels exceptionally comfortable. The only things not antique about this place is the big red Coca Cola machine, the brightly lit television showing first league soccer from Europe and the music coming from the neatly hidden new-fangled speakers - Stevie Ray Vaugh, Lou Reed and now Led Zepplin.

I have no more transport and several shots to nail within the next week before departure. I ask the waitress if she knows anyone with a car that might want to run around with a crazy photographer for a few days. She writes down 'Ronny Centeno' on a little white square piece of paper and tells me to call him in the morning.

After a quick break from the rain it starts up again. Can´t belive I don´t even have a rain jacket... somehow I just haven´t needed one thus far. My personal pronto pizza arrives piping hot as Led Zepplin takes over the stero and is and oh so good. Costa Rican pizza beats Argentina hands down. When will the Argentines step into the 21st Culinary Century and get with the modern food program? There´s more to life than parrilla and pasta.

As I finish the pizza thinking how could this possibly be any better, the waitress waltzess up with a huge platter of cheesecake. "Would you like to try some?" Would I... and its not even my birthday!