Carried on down the road to Liberia which the guide books
said was a “charming colonial town with the most interesting town square in
Costa Rica, although the modern church in the centre might not be to everyone’s
liking”. As we entered town, there were
so many major road works on the main road that we actually missed Liberia, and
were heading out of town before we realised it ! So we had to do a U turn over
the road works to get back to the town so we could have a look. Well, we actually think the guide book was
talking about a totally different town, maybe on a different planet. Liberia is NOT a charming town – It is positively
horrible, and the town square was th worst we have seen. And as for the modern church – whoever
designed and approved it to be built should be shot – it really was a
monstrosity. We couldn’t even find a place to buy a cup of coffee or some
breakfast – Just nothing. Costa Rica
was not scoring very well so far !!
So we went back out to the main road and found a hotel right
beside the road works that did desayuno (breakfast), and finally got something
to eat !! Then we got back on the road – Our “punishment” of only being allowed
2 days in CR ,might not be too hard a sentence to serve at this rate !! Maybe
we could get through the country in one day if we tried harder !!
Winding SE down through the country side, it was the
usual jungle scenery, and hilly roads, with increasing numbers of coffee
plantations visible from the road. Some
12 kms out of San Jose, the capital, we decided to go and search for a campsite
we had heard about in the hope that if it was good as the internet said, we
could stop there for the night, even though it was only early afternoon, and
have a bit of a break. After about an
hour of following our Garmin around the airport perimeter, making enquiries,
and generally looking everywhere, we found out that the campsite had closed, so
we set off through the middle of San Jose to have a look at it before heading
on down through the country. The weather was looking a bit threatening as we
headed into the city, but we are getting used to that now – Wet
season down
here usually means afternoon thunderstorms.
San Jose is your pretty usual big Central American city – Lots of
people, lots of cars, lots of (in this case red) taxis, and lots of buses
belching out lots of black smoke as they constantly stop and start every time a
potential passenger is spotted or wants to get off (bus stops are not required
to be used !). The bus system here is quite interesting – drivers (and their
very active and vocal “conductors”) are paid on the basis of how many
passengers they carry. So if two buses
are travelling the same route (ie imagine two number 9 buses, for instance),
then the bus behind will try to overtake the bus in front so he can pick up any
passengers wanting to go on his route before the other bus !! As a result they
drive like crazy, barely stop when letting passengers on or off, and will
overtake anyone or anything that gets in their way ! Given that they rarely indicate, it makes for
some interesting experiences, but once you are used to “the system”, it is
actually quite easy to avoid them !
Anyway, on through the heart of San Jose at about 3.30
pm, through narrow streets, past the main square filled with the usual crowds
whiling away the day, got eyeballed VERY closely by a police car that due to
the stop / start traffic was right beside us for a while, and finally, about 2
hours later, we got out of the city and on our way. Interesting city, but it doesn’t have a lot
of things one would want to spend time exploring, so I don’t think we missed
much there. The next part of the road
down towards San Cristobal was just stunning.
Winding tortuously up over 300 metres, this is the main Pan American
Highway, so there are lots of big trucks as well as all the other traffic – And
when drivers here have suicidal over taking tendencies, you REALLY need to be
on your game if you are to survive. Semi
trailers will overtake each other heading into blind corners, and cars will
always pass if there is 5 feet of clear road ahead. Torrential rain or thick
fog slows no one – If there is a foot of space in front, they want to fill it
! How there are not more accidents I
just don’t know – But there are quite a number of crosses beside the road from
past incidents ! Unfortunately a lot of
the time we couldn’t see the view, but from the few glimpses we had, it was
spectacular.
As it got darker, and I got tireder after our early
start, we started to look for somewhere to stop for the night. Maybe a restaurant where we could eat and
they would then allow us to park in their parking lot ? Or even just a large area where we could pull
over for the night ? Then we saw signs
for “Mirador de Quetzals – Cabins and restaurant – 19
kms”. It looked ideal – so we plodded on along the
winding road and as soon as we reached it, we knew it was perfect. We dropped
down a steep dirt track following the signs, and suddenly came to this divine
place in the middle of the Costa Rican jungle with cabins, a central hotel
unit, a fish pond stocked with trout, and as soon as we stopped one of the guys
came over and welcomed us. Yes, we could
camp in the grassy parking lot. Yes, we
could have hot showers. Yes, we could
eat supper in the restaurant. And did we
want to go on an expedition in the morning to try to spot an elusive Quetzal
bird ? – One that is hard to find and of
almost mythical significance in the region with its bright colours and long
tail feathers. Well, in the end we
stayed in a little cabin because they were so gorgeous and they gave us a good
price, we had a hot shower, and we had fresh trout from
their lake for dinner. During dinner Jason bought us out some bright
Quetzal tail feathers to see so we would know what we were looking for in the
morning ! And when we went back to our
cabin, the outside light had attracted hundreds of moths and bugs – One
enormous moth was about 5 inches across – A fine fellow. Luckily he didn’t get into the room like so
many others when we opened the door, or he could have been a nuisance during
the night ! We went to bed exhausted and
set the alarm for 5.15 am for the unexpected Quetzal hunt. What a day of contrasts – And I am pleased to
say that Costa Rica was definitely looking better by the end of the day than it
had been at the beginning !!
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