Detour

I avoided driving in Costa Rica as long as I could. I was certain that the combination of tight curves, deep drainage ditches, pedestrians, livestock and me behind the wheel would end in catastrophe. However, once I faced the challenge, my fears dissolved, and now the condition of the roads, lack of signs and all does not faze me in the least. There are, however, a few exceptions.

I still find it quite amazing, to see roads simply vanish. These steps, carved in the red dirt, are exactly where a beautifully paved road once sat. Unfortunately, it happened to be sitting right on an active fault line which caused it to start to drop. After many attempts to fill and repair, a large section of the road finally floated away to the extent that a permanent detour was required. I had heard about this road falling down, but had not seen it for myself until just recently.

I should know better, but it actually surprised me that there are no detour signs at all. In this particular situation, one must take a quick right onto a road that might easily go unnoticed, and next, a left onto an unpaved road, past this cute little house which leads up past the missing chunk of roadway onto the original road. If all of this sounds poorly written and confusing, then I have successfully duplicated the often perplexing reality of driving in Costa Rica. One must use some sort of intuitive logic to navigate roadways here.

Come to think of it, this intuitive logic comes in handy in many aspects of life here. Costa Rica can seem like an unmarked detour in many ways. If you are not in too big a hurry, you probably won’t end up involved in any seismic voids, and you stand a good chance of noticing something really charming along the way. It is all a matter of keeping a good sense of humor and not getting too worked up over the lack of concrete logic, or even concrete for that matter. Pura Vida.