Effective immediately, my adoration of driving has temporarily ended. There will be no more 'love of driving' until I am out of construction and out of the city... completely.
No exceptions.
I left the quaint and quiet village of Cahuita at around 8am... determined to make it to San José for around lunchtime, in order to have my computer fixed.
Fingers still crossed.
My new friend, Waze, told me it was just under 4 hours. I found that funny, as previously it had quoted just over 3. Not particularly wanting to argue with a phone app, I hit the highway, convinced I would be able to do 201km in less than four hours. That was absurd.
Or was it?
I took one of the National Road Routes of Costa Rica, Highway #32. Well... if 10kms of this entire road wasn't under construction, then strike me down now. It was grueling. We all crept, crept, crept along... at an alarmingly slow rate. Snails, slugs, sloths and turtles would have beat us. Not once in almost 201km, did my Bird exceed 55km/hour.
There were moments, mind you, when a portion of the road would miraculously open up and what a rush! I would push in the clutch, change from 2nd gear into third, and put my pedal tooth metal!!!! YAY... the freedom of the road was back!
... and then there would be more construction... or a traffic jam... or someone slow in front of me... and like a flash, all at once, I would be going too slow for third... and would be forced to gear back down.
There were times we were at a complete standstill... or merely inching along the highway. I had time to make some videos, check Facebook and Instagram and email, write myself notes, enjoy the scenery/construction, check out other vehicles, sing along to the music, learn some new songs...
At first, I occupied much of my time with trying to find a radio station that could possibly counteract my rapidly increasing construction impatience.
Occasionally I would find a station that seemed... not bad... but I could not help but wonder how they managed to piece together their playlists. A lot of English radio stations here are, no offence, a serious celebration of 80's & 90's A-lister's B-side songs. I know I'm being confusing. I can make it clearer. There are a multitude of songs played, that are performed by famous artists... but I have NEVER heard of ANY of them... and I pride myself on my musical repertoire. These are the B-siders of the A-listers, that never made it big in Canada, I guess.
I'm glad. A lot of them are pretty dumb songs.
It took me almost SIX hours to get to Dr. Mac, the computer fix-it location in San José. That works out to approximately 33 kilometres per hour. I think... I'm not good at math.
Driving for this extended period of time, can be hard on the body in a variety of ways. Even more so when driving in incessant stop & go traffic, with frequent use of the clutch, the gas and the brake. My knees, my lower leg, my heel and the muscles in my feet were all suffering.
But it was all going to be worth it because I was going to get my computer fixed.
That's ALL I kept telling myself. Computer. That was the important part... and the solitary reason I managed to suffer through this entire day of excessive road work.
I kept my eyes on the prize.
When I inched my way into San José, it didn't take long to find Dr. Mac. I was ecstatic... but also nervous about what good or bad news may lie ahead.
I walked in... like a Storm Trooper on a mission... pulled out my computer and set about explaining everything I perceived to be wrong with it. Words like network, hard drive, memory, wifi disc, burnt connection all played a major role in my well-prepared speech. The man was very patience and diligently listened to everything I had to say. Once my spiel was over, I set about showing him exactly where the problem was... and how wifi had been entirely wiped out of my system.
But... there it was. Wifi... right there, exactly where it was before.
AND IT WORKED.
This was ridiculous and ... unfathomable.
How?
Why?
WTF???
I was the lunatic, who'd left the peace and tranquility of the Caribbean Sea to drive six hours into the city... for absolutely no reason at all.
He was kind. He just smiled and did a few necessary updates to my computer. He tested a couple connections... and then sent me on my way, without charging me a dime.
I was very appreciative, especially knowing he had to endure an entire week, filled with a multitude of frenzied messages, emails and screen shots I had sent.
That alone, should have cost me millions.