Today was an eventful day that started with taxi scam in Costa Rica. As I made my way to the bus station to transport to Puerto Viejo. I went to the main station for Caribbean transfers and was directed by the ticket lady to take a taxi to a different bus station up the road which I did.
Upon arrival I was about to walk into the ticket area when a different taxi driver at this bus station flagged me down. After speaking with him he gave me this spill about a bus strike for buses coming and going to Puerto Viejo. So I took his advice unfortunately and got into his taxi where he was going to take me to another bus station. During our 5min ride around he was showing me phone numbers of a few different bus companies he would call to see if they had service to Puerto Viejo. In short, none of them did except for one.
The one he called was for the Interbus which is a private shuttle. I asked the price since he told me there were only 4 tickets remaining and he quoted me 186,000 colones ($350 USD) so I said “nah man”. After this, I told him to take me back to the other bus station where I told him I would get a connecting bus to get to Puerto Viejo and we made some small talk about my soccer team playing in Costa Rica. I reluctantly paid the scoundrel 4 colones since I did not have time to waste arguing with him when he dropped me off at the bus station. Traveler beware!!!