The Road Less Serviced

It was in many ways what I imagined it would be and in many, completely unexpected. The country is much less developed than I expected, except for that of major cities and towns, all of which are extremely small in scale by my Western comparisons. Much of the country is green and untouched; the rest is composed of rolling hills, mountains and farmland.

Roads in Costa Rica are in awful conditions. Consider yourself lucky, should you be driving on anything paved, everything else is rocky, muddy dirt roads which require a 4x4, ATV, dirt-bike, or horseback. The roads are scary in that a great many run alongside high mountain sides with very little to keep ones vehicle from flying over in the event of an accident.

Bridges are also of concern as they tend to allow for only one vehicle crossing at a time. One should practice caution when crossing them and ensure that there are no other vehicles speeding across it or about to on the opposite end. They usually cross rivers and brooks which cause the supporting earth around their bases to suffer the effects of erosion. One can not help but wonder when was the last time that an engineer or land surveyor made it out to the site. You can always tell when a tourist is crossing them as they speed across at glacier speeds and not the gazillion miles per hours that Ticos average.

Costa Rica does not have the best of roads signs in the world, so make sure that you either have a GPS or one hell of a roadmap and sense of direction. With a little trouble and the help of locals, the latter worked fine for us, just make sure that you have a full tank of gas and fill up whenever possible as gas stations are sparse and those you find are charging roughly about $4.00+ per gallon/ ¢2,000+ colones. (¢514 colones to the dollar) Expect traffic delays, mud during the wet season, yielding the right-of-way to horses, cattle, and other livestock not to mention the numerous tropical wild animals you are sure to encounter on the road.

Furthermore, if you are ever planning a visit, be aware of the sky-high rental car insurances and required deposits which the rental car agencies fail to make tourist aware of until they have arrived. Expect to pay an extra $200 to any vehicle you may have reserved, to be given a manual operated vehicle even if you requested an automatic (that’s where some of the extra comes in), then you have wheel and windshield insurance, and a hefty $900-1,500 (refundable…If you are lucky) deposit.

Next stop: Nicoya, Central Highland’s, Arenal Volcano Region.