9: Costa Rica’s Death Road

14.10.2012 – 14.10.2012 semi-overcast 32 °C

After yesterday I barely woke up at 9am to have brekky with Ursula. And when I got up.. OMG did I hurt! Every muscle in my legs was sore…. Walking down the stairs to the hotel lobby was pure torture. At least the torture was self inflicted!!! 🙂

Ok, so to be totally frank we did not do much this morning. We had some breakfast, we had another cup of coffee, I packed my bag and had a shower, we checked out and then we had a light lunch (which for me was a coffee and a pastry from the bakery).

By 2.30pm we were all on board the bus and off to Monteverde. Today’s transportation is known colloquially as Jeep, Boat, Jeep. The name comes because ten or more years ago the only way to get into Monteverde was by 4WD. Today there is a road….. if you could call it that!

So our bus took us down to the shoreline of Lake Arenal.. No probs, nice drive, thirty minutes later we are at the boat launch. Trip across the lake, was amazingly beautiful and also no issues. Actually, today I got the first good look at Arenal Volcano.. Incredibly beautiful…. Plenty of clouds surrounding the base and just above the clouds I could see the peak of the volcano poking out… One of those beautiful sites that will stay with me for many, many years… It really reminded me of the time I took the trip across Doubtful Sound in NZ… plenty of mist and clouds with the mountains rising up from the lake… Gorgeous!

The final leg of our voyage into Monteverde, our guide describes well as a CR Massage. The road into Monteverde is rough.. I’ve been over rougher terrain but in a 4WD not a mini van. Ursula and I managed to get the crappy seat right over the back wheel so the first forty minutes was not pleasant. Fortunately some locals got off early so we were able to swap to more comfortable surrounds. At one point we rounded a bend to find a truck stuck in the ditch at the side of the road. For a minute it looked like we were going to have to wait til the truck had been towed to safety but luckily our bus driver managed to navigate us safely around the stranded truck. I’m thinking that this road is the CR version of the Bolivia’s Death Road.. Plenty of steep drop offs on either side of a very narrow road, one misstep by the driver and over we go! I spent most of the journey with my eyes closed trying to go to sleep to avoid car sickness.. The eyes closed worked, I just didn’t fall asleep!

Just after the sun set on another great day in CR we pulled into our hotel in Monteverde. We did a quick change and all trooped downtown to have a bite to eat and a little walk around the town. By 9pm we were all feeling pretty dozy and headed to sleep. A quiet, relaxing but sore day comes to an end on a very comfy bed!

1 thought on “9: Costa Rica’s Death Road

  1. I can feel the humidity and smell the rotting vegetation as I read the article. As a side note a friend of mine mountain biked down Bolivia’s death road!! Crazy, but secretly I want to do it.

    I’m back at Ipswich so I will resume my reading regime. Can’t wait to catch up on all your adventures since I last left you

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