Well, it’s easy. If you are in LIberia, just drive down the Panamerican Highway and you will end up in San José (Costa Rica, not the one in California unless you drove north). Our navigation sent us a bit around, but as the roads are generally of high quality that did not pose any problem. On the way over, we saw already some beautiful volcanoes and coast lines popping up at the horizon.

We made it safely to the capital city and we found our hostel ‘Castle Tam‘ for tonight quite easily. We went for lunch at ‘La Pomodora’, which was a bit pricey but a nice experience with only locals in the restaurant.

After lunch we dropped our towels off at the laundry around the corner. We then unpacked the car and headed for the Toyota dealer to provide some much needed TLC for Rodrigo. We explained the car history to the service rep, started the engine to reproduce the funny rattling sound we have been hearing and signed off for a full maintenance. We have driven 15.000km in 2 months – that would average around 90.000km a year – and that takes its toll on a car – especially an old buddy like Rodrigo – on these roads. Some of the dealer’s process steps appear a little odd to us. Like, they put a little blue flag with number nine on the car and the interior was wrapped up in plastic. We are looking forward to see the results tomorrow! 🙂

On the way back we did some grocery shopping and landed back at the hostel to plan a bit for the next few days.

You can tell by a lot of things that Costa Rica is a very developed country in Central America

• You can buy Coke Zero
• There are signs on the road announcing that there are signs further down the road (for example “hombres trabajando en 300m”)
• So far we have not seen farm animals crossing the road
• There’s McDonald’s and Burger King and both have free internet
• Toll roads are back in business, although it’s very cheap (maximum €1 each time you pass a booth)
• We saw a speed camera on the road
• Most people will respond to you ‘en ingles?’ resulting in a big smile on your face
• We haven’t spotted any tangled electricity wires

Not that all these things are necessarily good things or signs of civilisation, but it is strange, the things you notice after 2 months. The drawbacks are of course that life here is much more expensive than in Nicaragua. It’s not only the currency that makes it look expensive (we paid about 1.500 colones on the toll roads today, which is about €2) but it is generally more expensive.

On another bright note, we have been looking around for shipping the car from Panama to Colombia and our current target is to have the car on a boat that leaves Colon (on the Atlantic side of Panama) on 4 or 5 October. We’ll see how that works out but it means we have some time to enjoy Costa Rica and Panama!

Do you know the way to San José

I’ve been away so long, I may go wrong and lose my way

Do you know the way to San José

I’m going back to find some peace of mind in San José

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqWt49o7R-k