Hola! (Part 2)

Minor, the driver of the shuttle company we hired, drove us all the way to a small village called La Trinidad. He felt the van could make it down the gravel road so we were happy to get a ride to the very end (the initial idea was to phone the workers' son, Nacho, to come pick us up in his 4x4). The van almost made it the whole way, until we reached a very steep slope. Minor stopped the van and looked back and said, 'this van will not make it down and definitely won't make it back up'. He tried to reverse and the van started to slide down, getting precariously close to the edge of what appeared to be a pretty steep cliff. Well, that made our heart race a little bit. So we told Minor to call Nacho to see if he could come help tow the van up the hill. Minor did just that and seemed relieved that Nacho said he would be right there. Within 10 minutes or so, Nacho, his brother Brian and a friend, Charlie, all drove up in a 1972 Land Rover 4x4. They got out, we all said hello and made friendly introductions and the boys pushed the van up the hill. This process took about 20 minutes. We said our goodbyes to Minor and thanked and paid him. Then Kevin, Frankie and I all piled in the small 4x4. Brian sat in the back with all our luggage, hanging on for dear life, I think. Nacho kept telling us not to worry; they do this all the time, and he just smiled (Charlie walked back down the hill). Our first Costa Rican adventure! And we survived! We got dropped off at 6:15 pm and we're ready for bed. Seriously. Goodnight.