The road to Monteverde in Costa Rica

The road to Monteverde is rough gravel, deeply rutted in places and exceptionally stony. Only accessible by the locals, the brave and the foolhardy (certainly not a local so I must fall into one of the two other categories) it is a bone shaking two hour drive from Tiliaran, the end of Tarmac roads.

Our four wheel drive Hyundai Tucson is an impressive vehicle. Not quite the ground clearance I would have liked but it had the grunt and permanent four wheel drive....and boy was it needed. Throw in steep mountain roads, tight curves with ravines on the inward down sloping curve and gravel which had a tendency to slide sideways and it was an interesting and at times exhilarating if not downright scary ride. As we ascended high into the central spine of Costa Rica, open fields of grass and ranch land turned to cloud forest; mists and fogs descended with bouts of drizzle fine rain. The wind at times buffeted the car. We passed through small villages, with a little school and not much else....mainly rural agrarian economies or ecotourism activities. Although rough tracks, roads were well signposted on the whole. We drove for an hour and a half in second gear......no truly......I never got above second gear and on the entire 40 km route I think I reached third gear once! Oh the excitement that generated!

 

You have to pick your route along every metre of track, at times weaving criss-cross from one side of the road to the other, at all times keeping an eye on the roadsides......ditches covered in crass or filled in with leaves....how deep? How secure? During our drive out of Tortuguero only a week ago we had seen the hazards of gravel roads.....an English couple in swerving to avoid a recklessly driven tourist bus, had come off the side of their road and into the ditch....the car resting at a precarious 60 degree angle and one set of wheels firmly entrenched in the deepest part of the ditch. No attempt at pushing it could get that vehicle out and fortunately our bus drive, very good naturedly, attached a chain and gently towed them out. But it took time, care and skill on everyone's part. Miraculously, no damage had been done to the hire car. But it was a salutary lesson for all we self-drive people......watch the roadsides like a hawk.

 

On the road to Monteverde we did just that and also held our breath. Breath holding moments were when exceptionally large Mack dumper trucks or juggernauts came careering around tight sloping bends on our side of the road and we had nowhere to go. We held our breath several times on the road to Monteverde!

Rattled around like peas in a pod we bounced along in second gear. Only once did we encounter a section of road which almost defeated us. On a steep slope but straight section of road we encountered a rut two feet deep that spread a Ross much of the road. There was no going around it. Two feet deep and about four feet in length it was an awkward one for whilst the front wheels may have gone through it the back wheels would be descending into it.....it was a potential grounding job. In addition the rut contained lots of fine gravel and when the front wheels went in......they spun wildly trying to get a purchase to drive out. No amount of four wheel drive was going to help.

But perseverance paid off and on the fourth attempt I managed to ease the car into the rut and engaging very low gear, we found sufficient traction on two wheels to gain enough momentum to inch our way out. I was pleased to see that even the locals behind me had problems...so I didn't feel too bad keeping them waiting for ten minutes. And throughout the four hour journey from Arenal to Monteverde the car bottom only scrapped the road once. Not bad driving if I say so myself. Not bad driving at all.