Dec 5th - Granada - San Jose, Costa Rica

We were unable to have a tour of Granada as we had another long day of nearly 500 kms driving to the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose.

We left Granada driving along the shore of Lake Nicaragua which is a very large lake. A strong wind was blowing and the lake waters looked more like an ocean than a lake! We reached the border with Costa Rica after about 100 kms. Once again we had to endure the petty officialdom of customs officials, especially those on the Costa Rican side.

For the first time in several days we had our first really rough section of roads as we drove through the wonderfully green and lush Costa Rican countryside.

The first section of gravel road in Costa Rica, with the clouds descending before the heavy rain started.

Costa Rica really lived up to its billing as a tropical paradise and once across the border you immediately see that this is a much wealthier country than its neighbours to the north.

We drove across hills to Lake Arenal for a lunch stop at a German bakery. The food was OK but nothing special and did not live up to the description in the road book.

Members of the group having lunch at the German bakery near Lake Arenal. My car is on the right in the background.

As we left the bakery the weather changed. From the bright sunny weather we have experienced for virtually the whole tour we now had low clouds and heavy tropical rain.b We managed to see a small botanical gardens with a few butterflies, but the poor weather made the visit pretty unrewarding.

About 20 kms further on we came to the famous Hanging Bridges park in the rain forest. Even though the rain continued we had a great time walking through the forest via a succession of suspension bridges strung out across deep ravines. It was a wonderful walk, especially as you looked down onto the tree tops.

My navigator/co-driver enjoying the walk across one of the many suspension bridges through the Costa Rican rain forest.

By now the weather was really very poor, and with over 200 kms to go to San Jose we decided to skip the nearby hot springs and waterfalls.

A very slow drive on winding roads to the crowded city Cuidad Quesada made us decide on taking a different route to San Jose than shown in the road book. It turned out to be an inspired move as our route took us into San Jose on a six lane motorway as opposed to small roads through the outskirts of San Jose. With the aid of a mini-bus driver to help us negotiate some terrible traffic jams, we reached our hotel before nearly everyone else.

San Jose is not a particularly pretty city as most of the old colonial building have been destroyed in earthquakes that have hit this region. Still, our drive took us past some interesting places and buildings.

We have only one night in Costa Rica before we enter our final country of the tour, Panama.