Mount Arenal and Costa Rican Driving

Please see the first post on Costa Rica for important details about this post.

One of the problems with Costa Rica was the lack of good ATM availability in small towns. That eventually forced us to leave Puerto Viejo and go back up the Carribean Coast on the way to Arenal. We stopped along the way in Puerto Limon, the major Carribean port which did not seem very safe and did not look very welcoming. It did have easy to find ATMs though. Continuing on we eventually made it to another town called Puerto Viejo - although this one is more commonly referred to as Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. Stopping in town to eat we got to watch a tope, which was essentially a parade of horses and cowboys showing off (with lots of music the and like). Leaving Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui we eventually made it to La Fortuna where we spent the evening and did a bit of souvenir shopping. That night we drove out to Mount Arenal to take pictures, with the best one being

There's also a park there where you can hike up Mount Arenal, but we decided not to spend any time on it since the views from outside seemed much better. The following morning (after doing laundry and some more souvenir shopping) we set off for the northwest portion of the country, driving around Lake Arenal. Unfortunately, those plans were cut short due to a combination of the very winding road, a crazy dog, and an even crazier motorcyclist.

As I've mentioned, Costa Rican roads are horrible (winding mountain roads) and Costa Rican drivers tend to consider any road a race track. I was driving at a safe speed on this particular road while a motorcyclist behind me was trying to pass (and not doing it very well). This went on for quite some time, until a dog suddenly ran out into the middle of the road, forcing me to hit the brakes and slide off to the side of the road. The motorcyclist did not react fast enough and ended up clipping the car and ending up on his back (luckily with only a slight leg injury). However, we needed to wait for over an hour for the police to arrive, and only made it as far as Cañas tha tday.