About an hour or two into a trip, the air conditioner stopped working in the shuttle and something in the engine started making a strange humming sound. We stopped along the very narrow, steep road so our driver could check it out. Coincidental (or maybe not) there was another shuttle van following us with a MUCH friendlier driver! We happily got in the nicer, bigger shuttle and left the grouchy, not-so friendly driver behind! Since no one in the van spoke Spanish, I decided to hop in the front seat and attempt making conversation with our driver (Marisimo). He was very helpful by speaking slower and repeating anything I didn’t understand. He was surprisingly easy to communicate with. I was really excited! By the end of the journey to the volcano I ended up being somewhat of a translator for the other passengers in the van.
Another perk of having a generous Tico (Costa Rican) as a driver was that he drove us all the way to Linda Vista Del Norte (our hotel at the volcano) for free even though his company wasn’t supposed to go that far. We understood why after we rode on an EXTREMELY terrible road for about 30 minutes going probably no more than 5-10 mph. The other grumpy driver was going to try to rip us off and charge $30 or $40 to drive us there when the taxi’s only charge $20. Marisimo got a good tip!
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