Driving in Costa Rica: Real-Life Frogger!

They say that "getting there is half the fun" and that is certainly true in Costa Rica, if they consider harrowing, life-threatening transit to be "fun". The two words that best describe driving in Costa Rica are: Oncoming Traffic, because you need to use the oncoming traffic lane aggressively to advance along the country's many single-lane highways. Alternately, driving in Costa Rica can be likened to the 1980s video game Frogger, where you are the frog charged with navigating the space between oncoming semis, snapping crocodiles and flooded roadways. 

Over the past ~two weeks in Costa Rica we've driven an approximately equal number of well-maintained main highways and derelict semi-paved one-lane backroads that function as two-way highways in much of the country.

Our most-notable observation would be that driving in Costa Rica makes us appreciate how rational and functional our infrastructure is in the USA. Whereas the US typically makes four lane highways (two lanes in each direction), Costa Rica has invested only enough to make two lane highways (one each direction) that occasionally widen into three lanes for about a 1/4 mile on one side or the other, presumably to allow faster cars to pass in one direction. 

These expansions are woefully few and far-between; however, and we regularly found ourselves stuck behind a convoy of semis, oil tankers and lumber-hauling big rigs that made it impossible to use the "passing lane" at all. Only the occasional local would try to leap-frog around the big trucks by darting into oncoming traffic just long enough to pass one member of the convoy...

On our way into San Jose, the two-lane highway widened into 14 lanes to accommodate payment of a cash toll of 430 colones (~80 cents). After the toll, the 14 lanes converged back into two lanes in a mad free-for-all of cars jockeying for position in the no-lanes / no-lines traffic jam. Pure Madness!

 

Separately, on our way out of San Jose after our initial arrival we got stuck in a three hour traffic jam caused by a minor accident (very tough to clear when there is only one lane in each direction). During that time, dozens of vendors setup shop walking between cars on the highway selling food / drink and even souvenirs. When traffic ebbed-and-flowed in 25-40kph bursts, the vendors simply stood in the highway while cars and big-rigs drove past them.

In the mountain towns (Monteverde and our hillside hotel in Quepos), the access roads are largely unpaved and exceptionally steep (30-40 degree grade) and the width of the roads are roughly equal to two SUVs + four inches. This means that there was about a fist's-worth of clearance between cars making their way up-and-down the winding hillsides with 40kph speed limits. No curb or pullaway on either side in most cases as one side was typically a steep cliff falloff and the other side was a solid rock wall. None of these roadways had a marked center line so you just had to trust that there was not an oncoming car when you made your way around blind turns.

US GPS applications like Waze and Google Maps are kind-of mostly accurate, but they don't take into account the quality of the roads that they put you on. For example, Waze may see that a small windy dirt road is shorter than the paved highway and it will recommend that you pull-off and "take a shortcut", but these can be deadly traps with hair-pin turns, slick muddy runoff and 40-degree grades that require epic use of 4-wheel drive. If you're looking to drive for the first time in Costa Rica, we would recommend NOT trusting any of the optimized paths suggested by your GPS mapper. 

We could go on, but you get the idea... (This was our trip below)

Pro-Tip for Parents: Bring a waterproof, re-sealable sack that is typically used to keep contents dry when sailing or kayaking (like this!). The sack is excellent at keeping wet vomit from escaping after a bout of kids' car sickness. This is a new-and-inverted purpose for an existing toy and a lifesaver in Costa Rica.

Found this one particularly interesting. Waze said there was a pothole in 0.4 miles, but there were potholes every 0.1 miles virtually everywhere we traveled off of the primary highway in CR (and even on the main highways in many cases)