If you have ever talked to someone who has been to Costa Rica they have certainly spoken to you about the driving conditions of the country. Although few countries can rival the majestic views you are bound to see while driving in Costa Rica, few also have such bad road conditions. Thankfully the government has recently made fixing the roads a priority and improvements on bridges and roads have drastically improved in the last few years.

What makes driving around Costa Rica even more complicated is the fact that the country does not name their streets. So as you can imagine, finding a place that is 300 meters south of the National Bank in Barva of Heredia can prove to be quite the adventure.

My advice for those who decide to drive themselves around the country: Be as patient as you should be safe. As long as you do not mind making a wrong turn or having to ask for directions often, you should not encounter any problems. Of course, you should also avoid making any passes in any area that could in fact be dangerous. Costa Rica is fully of mountain roads that are anything but wide. At times larger vehicles even need to pass into your lane in order to make a turn, so be careful.

So why drive at all? For the freedom and the special moments that happen in between destinations. Some of my best memories have been on these wonderful roads. My favorite drive is along the roads less travelled on the Pacific Coast. I strongly recommned it. As for roads to avoid, the only one that comes to mind is the road into Monteverde. Those 30 kms that take three hours to cross are just not worth it. Much easier to just that a boat across Arenal lake and back.

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My friend and I got picked up at our hotel early in the morning and headed out to the Venado caves. Now I must admit there were warnings given to us by the activity provider that read ¨if you are afraid of six inch spiders or are claustrophobic this activity is not for you¨ Afterwards I realized no warning could prepare me for this place. We were told to wear rubber boots and a poncho along with a hard hat, flashlight, and air filter to place over our months due to the amazing foul and potent smell of stagnant bat manure.

Our guides were great, as they took us deep into the caves. I could see thousands (yes, thousands) of bats as many of them flew right by my head. It was an unreal sight, straight out of a batman movie to see so many. We were led through many difficult paths, but none as difficult as the tunnel section. This was basically a two foot wide tunnel that ran for about 10 meters that required us to squeeze through on our hands and knees with our flashlight in our mouth and the nasty water running into our boots and soaking our pants and shirts. At this point one of the guys from our group actually lost his cool and said he had enough. Unfortunately for him there was no where to go but back.

Costa Rican guides like to tell jokes, and lots of them. In fact, I heard the best joke with these two guides who told us to look high and notice the light coming in. They followed that comment by telling us that the light coming in was actually our exit. HA! I actually laughed out loud, until they assured us they were not joking, it was going to be our exit. So here we were, climbing massive rock formations and helping one another reach the top. It made me feel like I was in an action movie.

So did I enjoy this activity? Absolutely! Would I do it again? Never! This is the type of activity that is amazing to do once, but is only suitable for those who really know what they are getting into. So do you think these caves are for you as well?

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What makes this place so amazing is that it has yet to be inundated with resorts and has managed to keep a somewhat rustic vibe. It is still untouched beauty that can be seen by all. Wonderful empty beaches are everywhere, but if you want to see people all you have to do is go to one of the beaches where hundreds of surfers can be found.

A cursory warning to anyone wanting to swim on some of the more dangerous beaches in this region (which are usually those that have the most amount surfers attempting to ride the massive waves): Red flag means danger.

A more thorough explanation will follow in a future blog post.

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Let me preface this story by stating this is not altogether abnormal for my friends and I as danger and trouble seem to follow us around when we travel.

Three of my best friends from Canada were visiting me for 10 days shortly after I had arrived in Costa Rica to start my life here. Luckily both myself and George spoke Spanish reasonably well and we decided to rent an SUV and drive to Arenal to see the Volcano and experience the hot springs the Friday after they had arrived. To give you an idea of the type of absurdity that normally surrounds our trips together, up until this point of our trip we had already destroyed 2 of our 4 digital cameras in various ridiculous scenarios involving two unforgiving basic elements: sun and water.

Anyhow, on the way there my friend George was driving and decided to stop the Toyota Prado that we had rented and fill it up. An elderly Costa Rican gentleman from this small town where we stopped tried to engage in a seemingly important conversation as he gesticulated incessantly and raised his voice as we pumped the gas. According to George what the man was speaking was inaudible, although he felt it was most likely a Costa Rican Spanish dialect he had never heard before so he thanked him for wise advice he did not understand and we continued on our way. Two kilometers later, once our Prado had broken down, we realized what the nice elderly Costa Rican gentleman had been attempting to explain in his incomprehensible tongue: George was filling a diesel SUV gas tank with regular gasoline. After a nice two hour wait baking in the Costa Rican sun in the middle of nowhere, Budget sent us another Prado (this one was Green!).

Once in Arenal FOUR HOURS LATER than expected (the trip is normally 2 ½ hours), we enjoyed the thermal hot springs and went to bed at a reasonable time. We got up early and commence our Jungle river hike without a guide, almost destroying our last two cameras when our friend Long fell down into the river off a four foot drop. We followed that adventure by going Horseback riding and doing an exhilarating canopy tour. Well, George almost broke his toe and I am missing half the skin on the back of my neck, but it was worth the rush of flying down zip lines deep into the Jungle. When all was said and done we decided to head back to Heredia to go out to a nightclub in San Jose that we wanted to see.

On our way back to Heredia in the exact same town, with a population of maybe100, where our car broke down on the way there, we just about killed ourselves.

Essentially our good friend Long decided he would try to complete this portion of the trip as if he was Indiana Jones attempting to escape the Temple of Doom. But unlike popular action-adventure movies, when you drive at 70 km/hr in Costa Rica along a winding Cliffside road in the pitch black of night not to mention through a thick fog (or perhaps cloud cover… we were pretty high up), well… sometimes things don’t work out as the driver plans and you end up thanking God you are still alive. I still contend that the ditch we hit is the only one of its kind that exists in the mountains of Costa Rica. This was the only time I have seen something that can actually stop a car from going over the edge of the cliff when you drive straight through one of the bends in the road.

I swear I will always wear a seat belt from here on out because breaking the front windshield with your head is no fun. But we all survived the crash, except for the SUV of course, and the rental company at this point refused to give us another vehicle. This time it took us again six hours to get back, but we all survived and we still made it to the party we wanted to attend, just as we always do!

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We were shown a quick ten minute video of the hotel and taken to our rooms afterwards. The rooms were not amazing, and we could hear what was being said next door, but this was but a small inconvenience. Trust me when I say that the view made up for any other small issue we could encounter.

The magic really started in the early morning when we were awoken by the sounds of howler monkeys communicating with one another. It was amazing to hear their calls and to be so close to them. We opened the window and could see a group of them in the distance. We followed it up with a walk in one of the many private trails offered by La Cusinga. This land was rescued by an American in the 70´s and has since been protected by the government.

One of the trails led to an amazing natural pool located in the jungle. We swam in the pool that was being supplied by various waterfalls and enjoyed the coolness and freshness of the water.

During the afternoon we decided to head back to the guest area of the hotel to watch the sunset. What we did not expect was to see such a wonderful spectacle as the receptionist showed us two whales swimming in the distance. We watched in awe for the next twenty minutes while the sun was putting in a spectacular show itself. This was definitely a day I will never forget!

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The departure was at 10pm, so it was plenty dark from the start. I told myself this would be the perfect time to get catch some sleep on the 20 hour bus ride. What I was not expecting was to hop on a freezing cold bus with a broken A.C unit blasting cold air all throughout the trip. To add to this wonderful surprise was the bus drivers decision to play some movies to keep us entertained on the way down. Only problem was I must have gotten on the Steven Segal fan club trip as we got to watch three of his films consecutively, until the late hours of the morning.

Upon arriving at the border we were told to get off and go to customs. I expect the customs to be in Panama, but I had to figure out on my own it was actually the Costa Rican customs office. This meant waiting in line for 40 minutes to get a stamp demonstrating that I had registered my departure from Costa Rica.

Then it was off on an 8 minute walk to the Panamanian border. Two more lines meant another hour and a half gone by. By the way, make sure you pay for the $1 stamp and the $5 tourist stamp before getting back on the bus. When I finally thought we could get on the bus, we were told to take our bags out an bring them in a special room for inspection. Each one of our bags got sorted through and we did not have the chance to go through the actual border until 3 hours later.

When I sat back down in my freezing cold seat a horrible thought crossed my mind, “I´m going to have to do this again on the way back!”.

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