Off-road on road and some coffee - Tamarindo to Santa Teresa

Our day started with breakfast, packing and checking out from Coral Reef Surf Hostel. Our road trip trough CR would start today when we have picked up our 4wd Hyundai. We started driving to Playa Santa Teresa where we would stay few days surfing, checking out the town and nearby area. After about an hour of driving, Markus saw a sign about some coffee farm and turned to a smaller road. We were lucky because the coffee farm had a guided tour 1.30 pm and we arrived 1.29 pm so it was a perfect timing. The Coffee farm is Cafe Diria and it's run by a family for decades. Dennis, our tour guide, is in the owner family and he was really great and held a very informative and fun tour on the farm about how coffee is made. He told also fun facts about cashew "nuts" that the cashew fruit is really delicious and the nut is actually a seed ;) and the cashew seed is actually poisonous before it is roasted. We learned about the process and quality of coffee beans etc. In the end we had a tasting test about the coffee quality. It was not an easy test but we made it :D After the tour we got some coffee drink that tasted a bit like Irish cream and some local snacks that were delicious.

 Coffee beans and plants at different stages

After the coffee tour we continued our way to Santa Teresa but decided to take the road along the coast because the map showed it should be a big and normal road. Well…I don’t know about you, but at least in Europe, we have roads that are possible to drive over 40 km/h :P The road we took was in the beginning a normal smaller road but later on it turned to a quite narrow dirt road full of holes. At this point we had already driven about an hour so we did not want to turn back, and we had really nice views :)

Even if the road was bad we continued and the longer we drove, the worse the road got. The road was full of big holes and it looked more like a potato field than a road but we still continued. If we had had a normal car, we wouldn’t have been able to drive even this far. Our speed varied from 5 km/h up to even 35 km/h and we needed basically only gears number 1 and 2 :P The roads are here very steep (in countries with snow, it would not be possible to have that steep roads) and our monster truck does not have enough power to climb them up with bigger gear than 1. We stopped every now and then to admire the scenery. The views and nature is beautiful despite the roads.

A bit before sunset

After this picture it started to get darker and the roads started to get in even worse condition and steeper. We drove and drove and it got dark, and in these areas there is no light pollution or street lights so it is totally dark after sunset. The darkness didn't be the only problem we had. The nice orange color on the gas sign started to glow. We had a navigation app that we followed and it showed that we have to turn right, and so we did. After a while we saw a sign "Peligro- Cocodrilos" and after that the road got really muddy. We drove a bit further in the mud but stopped when we saw a river flowing in front of us instead the road that the map showed. It was totally dark so we didn't see to the other side of the river because we were in a curve so the headlights didn't light the river. We had to back, and that was not that easy in the muddy terrain. On both sides of the mud road were ditches so there weren't much space. We didn't want to get stuck in the area where it is especially warned for crocodiles! With few tries, we got our car away from there. We saw a house close where we were so we went to ask how we can get to Santa Teresa. A young man, Jason, came to open the door and said that mucho dangerous to try to drive over the river where we came from and the other way is only un poco dangerous :D 

We with Jason, our guide trough the wet CR roads in the middle of the night.

Jason said that during rain season the river is too big to cross but we can drive around it another way. Drive straight, turn right, turn right and then back...We looked probably confused so he said he could come to guide us to the next town. We told him that we're low on fuel and asked where the next gas station is. Jason said that it's in the next town and it's only 40 min drive to there. Well, Jason came with us and he told where to drive. Luckily he came, because there were several rivers to cross with our car that is 4wd but not an off-road car. The first river was the worst. First we drove on the beach for 200 m and then we turned almost 180 degrees around into the river and drove trough. If we would have had to do it our self in the dark, we would have probably stayed in the car the night because we could not see the road on the other side. Jason knew where it was so he didn't need to see it :D After this we had to cross maybe 4 or 5 smaller rivers and drive on terrible roads. The whole way to the next town that was maybe around 10 km, took almost an hour. Here Jason jumped off and took a taxi back home (and we gave hi some taxi money with guide extra), we go fuel and drove still about 30 min to Santa Teresa. This route took us about 7 hours, whereas the other way had taken 2,5 hours :P So, what did we learn today? Remember to hire a 4wd car in CR and don't drive in the dark if you have to cross rivers :P 

We do not haw material from the night, but here's one small river crossing from later. This river was much smaller than the first river we crossed with the help of Jason