The Road to the Volcano is Not Paved with Any Intentions or Any Pavement

Driving to a volcano while in Costa Rica seems like a no-brainer. The center of the country is littered with them - some of them still active. But which one to go to? The one with a ton of hot springs resorts!

My friend Shawn is here for a 10-day visit, and we wanted to do a "vacation while on vacation" with an overnight. We decided the Arenal Volcano would be a great choice.

But how to get there?

We took this route around Lake Arenal which was breathtaking and nerve-racking at the same time. Google tells us it's 3.5 hours. Real time took us almost 6. Yeah. Six hours. The views made up for it and the resort was totally worth the trip. The twists and turns and ups and downs were enough to make an astronaut motion sick.

It reminded me a lot of driving through California wine country but much scarier. People drive in the middle of the road here and expect you to get out of the way. We saw countless near-head-on collisions. All the roads are two-lanes and just enough to fit two cars side-by-side without a shoulder to cry on if you get a flat tire. No problems there! Just stop in the middle of the road. That's what everyone does here.

Now...how to get back? Do we take the same way or try the "alternate route" suggested by Google that is only 90km further but also only 40 minutes longer. Let's explore the unexplored part of Costa Rica!

Look at these views! Gorgeous.

Bad. Idea. Jeans.

This was our return route home. We clearly had our Bad Idea Jeans on. This highlighted section here was were the road simply ended. We're driving along for a couple of hours with smiles on our faces and all "Oh man! We were so silly to take that other route there! Har har har!" No lie, the road ended. It's technically called a "highway" but it's pretty much boulders and pot holes that you must somehow drive over.

This lasted for 25km but the entire drive on that road had the question lurking in the back of our minds "Is the entire remaining 100km like this? Oh dear god I hope not."

By the time we got to Santa Cecilia the relaxing results of an amazing mud massage earlier that morning were worn away. Yet just across that river bridge was a real paved road. We flew the rest of the way home in nighttime which was also scary as hell to drive.

The only remedy for that trip was a shot of Bulleit Rye and a Pilsen as soon as we got home. Safely.