Costa Rica – Coast to Coast June 2005 and August 2006

We woke up early and had the Orquideas Inn’s famous and wonderful buffet breakfast by the pool. Breakfast included: fresh fruit, gallo pinto, potatoes, fried yucca, sausage, orange juice, tamales, plantains, coffee, juice as well as a made to order omelets and pancakes. One of the hotel’s parrots was out walking around.

After breakfast the driver from Tricolor car rental arrived right on time at 9am. He didn’t speak much English but we finally figured out that we needed to go with him back to the office at the airport (last time they just dropped off the car and did the paperwork at the hotel). We checked out of the hotel, loaded our luggage in the rental and headed to the office near the airport. The paper work was completed quickly and we were on the road an hour later at 10am.

After filling up the gas tank, we followed directions to avoid downtown San Jose on the way to the highway that would take us to the Caribbean coast but took a wrong turn somewhere, got lost and ended up in downtown San Jose. After consulting the map in the Lonely Planet book we were able to get our bearings. The Holiday Inn was a good, tall landmark located near the road that leads to the highway and we quickly found our way out of the city.

The drive to Puerto Viejo wasn’t bad. There is a toll booth just out of San Jose so it’s a good idea to have some colonies ready (I don’t know if they accept dollars). The highway was in good condition, traffic was fairly light and it rained most of the way to Limon. We saw a few trafficos (traffic police) but since it was raining they seemed more interested in staying dry inside their police cars then pulling anybody over. Once in Limon there was a huge traffic jam that lasted for several blocks until we were able to make the turn south to Puerto Viejo.

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