Wet season in Costa Rica; current road conditions? Advice/recommendations?
 

¡Hola!

On the road for awhile now, I just arrived in CR last Saturday from Nica. Currently on the Nicoya Peninsula, I've been getting dumped on everyday since my arrival - and this is supposedly the driest part of the country! From here I plan to go to San Jose and then either head northeast to Puerto Viejo or continue on the Panamericana through Cerro de la Muerte. I've heard amazing things about this section of road, but if the visibility is poor and rain continuous, it may be a better idea to avoid it completely and go straight to the Carribean since my next full stop is Bocas in Panama. If anyone is familiar with roads in CR and/or its current conditions, any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Also, if y'all know of a good place to rest my head and my ride, before I take on that 10+ hour ride through the mountains, please share that info too.

¡Muchisimas Gracias!

A buddy and I rode north through Costa Rica during the rainy season in 2008. We tried to follow the coastline along the Nicoya peninsula from the ferry terminal across from Puntarenas and didn't succeed - but we had a fantastic time trying. Scroll down on this page:

SF to Panama... eventually - Page 21 - ADVrider

If I were back there again with a knobby tire (as opposed to a bald Scorpion) and my (MUCH improved) dirt riding skill, I would probably have braved the deeper water crossings and pushed forward. That road was a mess but it was by far the most fun I had riding in CR.

As far as routing to Panama - I went through the Sixola (eastern) crossing on the way south and through the Panamerican crossing on the way north. The Sixola border is WAY more fun and you'd really miss out if you skipped it. Crossing that rickety old railroad bridge is a hoot. On the other hand, a couple friends of mine (sp4ce & nina, "2up to Ushuaia" on advrider) got stuck for a week in Bocas when the roads on either side washed out. You're headed to Bocas anyways, so take the fun road.

My RR has a variety of recommendations for hotels and hostels up and down Central America if you're willing to wade through it. Nearly a year's worth of material :biggrin3:

Can't help you with current conditions though. Good luck!

Jeff

Knobbys a MUST for CR, fortunately the Scorpions are holding up fine, for now...
 

Exactly... those waters crossings sure do look familiar... ain't rain grand? FYI they are even more 'fun' lugging a surfboard on the back as it functions as additional flotation for the bike ;)

Great RR/pics and thanks for the input! The road along the coast from Jacó to Manuel Antonio and beyond was always in the back of my mind, but if it's anything like the Nicoya Peninsula, I think I'll pass.

You make the Sixaola crossing seem more appealing than ever, but I am still drawn to the mountains. How were they on your way back North? Still rainy?

Heh, a bulky surfboard would definitely up the adventure level by a few notches.

The west coast road is in pretty good shape and if I recall correctly is paved, certainly as far as Quepos. Nothing all that exciting either way, and even the unpaved parts are gravel. Not fun like Nicoya's coastal roads :-)

Sixola is the eastern border crossing; to get there you must go over the CR mountains, so I'm not sure why that's an either or thing. You can take the road that goes across through Turrialba. I ended up trying to take a dirt road that didn't go through and got stuck up against the actual volcano... I have some great pics of my bike being rescued in an ox-cart, but in retrospect I probably could have gotten it running by draining the carb. Sigh.

Jeff

I spent end of April/start of May riding around Costa Rica (weather was lovely, but I guess these things change). There is a brand new highway from the west coast to San Jose. I think it starts in Puntararenas but I stumbled upon it near Caldera. It's a toll highway and so smooth you could rollar skate on it! It's so new that signage sucks and it's not on any maps.

The highway down the west coast is newly paved almost the whole way (Caldera to Palmar Norte). I'd recommend Quepos (Jaco is a bit of a dive). Dominical is also nice.

You can also head from Palmar Norte up to the mountains and cross into Panama via San Vito.

I went through Costa Rica in early May 2010.


The road from Near Puntarenas down to Palmar is entirely paved. The pavement looks fairly new and I've been told that it was recently all dirt/gravel. Watch for cops on weekends on that road. They're all over the place. That road is pretty flat, relatively straight, very hot and kinda boring. But the beaches along the way are nice.

Once in Palmar the road meets back up with the Pan American.

Option 1:
Turn right (south) and you end up at the major crossing of Paso Canoas into Panama. Shortly before the border you can head left (east) to head into the cooler mountains to San Vito.

Option 2:
Turn left (northeast) and you arrive in Paso Real where you can either head north on the Pan American to backtrack if you're interested in Sixaloa. The Pan American north from here, to San Jose is up in the mountains, nice and cool, and very twisty and winding.

Otherwise turn right (south) and head into the cooler hills to San Vito. It's a nice little paved road, albeit a bit narrow and bumpy in spots.


From San Vito you can continue to Sabalito on a paved road. Here the pavement ends and it's about 10km's to the Panamanian border at Rio Sereno. Open 8am to 4:00pm? 7 days a week. It was my favourite crossing, with very friendly people and not a single helper or money changer in sight. The road on the Panama side is beautifully paved, very pretty, winding and one of my faves.

You could cross here (if Panama is part of your plans) and come back via Sixaloa across the Panama Highlands, which are very beautiful.

The road was bumpy dirt/gravel and it had been raining quite a bit before I arrived. Even though there was no rain when I went through, it was in pretty good shape and easily passable. Mini buses go along that route and there were no old truck ruts to be seen, leading me to believe that it wouldn't get too soft and muddy in the rain.

There is no signage to the border from Sabalito. When you arrive in town (from San Vito) there's a gas station on your left. Keep going straight a very short distance and the main road makes a 90 degree turn to the right. Just keep going straight onto the gravel road. Follow it until it comes to a T intersection and then turn left. Once you enter a little town (Rio Sereno) there will be a 90 turn to the right. Shortly before that turn is Costa Rica Immigration on your left. Panama Immigration and Customs is straight ahead into the fenced compound just where the road turns to the right. If you accidentally miss the compound (as I did) you'll just drive into Panama illegally and not even realize it ...like I did.

If you're crossing the country further north for Sixaloa, I'd suggest heading up to Arenal. The road is paved and in good condition. It's narrow and twisting and the scenery might as well be somewhere in Switzerland. From there you can drop down to San Jose and pick up the road to the Carribean side ...or do it on the way back.


...Michelle
www.scrabblebiker.com

Good description from Scrabblebiker about Rio Sereno. When I went, however, their dialup computer connection was down, and I couldn't enter Panama there. This made for a mad scramble in torrential rains to get down to the main crossing before dark....so leave sufficient time just in case.

I've also heard, probably here on HU, that there's no place to buy Costa Rican insurance coming in the other direction (from Panama to C.R.), so if you haven't got it, you need to use the Paso Canoas crossing (which was one of the more irritating ones on my trip south).

Enjoy!

Mark

(from Cartagena, on the northern verge of the southern world)

That's probably correct since there's no Costa Rica Customs here, only immigration. No customs equals no vehicle import. So no market for anyone to sell insurance there either. But if you still have your insurance and vehicle import permit for Costa Rica, hang on to them when you leave and they'll let you back in through that same border even though there's no customs.

This came straight from the very friendly Costa Rica Immigration offcer when I left the country. Of course, don't be too surprised if a different officer tells you otherwise :-)

Take your time in Costa Rica, I wish I had spent more time there... I loved the Lake Arenal area (watch the wind in the mountains!) and found a good hostel waaay up with a volcano view. I think it was called Essence Arenal.

It was soaking with rain during the dry season, I can't imagine it now!