This morning we expected to be packing up for a drive to meet Sole - she would take me on to Guanacaste and the beach hotels while Cuca returned to San Jose and her family who had expected her a couple of days ago (and then her son Ignacio went and broke his collarbone just to make the point!). But as we were going to breakfast Sole called from the road - those rains in Guanacaste we keep shrugging off were not going away. Oh those nasty hurricaines.
The region is declared a Yellow Zone, about to turn Red, the rivers are beginning to flood, and it's time for Plan B.
So Cuca will drive me back to a hotel outside of San Jose, and Sole tried valiantly to return home -- but alas she cannot get back over the bridge and is stuck looking for a hotel for the night. Cuca and I begin the long crawl down the wet and slippery mountain to San Jose...
... It takes us over two hours down the unpaved road to get to the PanAmerican Highway. Our most tense moment is documented in this photo - a big beer truck, stuck solidly in deep mud and having churned up everything in its path (not to mention how it hogged the narrow road) We were not quite sure what to do next. After some conferring with the locals we decided to try and make it - and with Cuca's *Expertise* behind the wheel we spin our way through the mud and beyond the stuck truck. I am sure I saw sweat trickling down Cuca's forehead.
Once on paved road it was more about traffic and rain - it was almost 5 hours before we finally landed at this nice hotel where I will spend the night before flying out in the morning, a day earlier than expected. It's also a couple of adventures earlier than planned, and I am so sad to not have my time with Sole on the north Pacific coast (I've promised to come back soon, sorry Jim).
But this last adventure today was pretty hair raising! Not the kind of family adventure we advertise, but an authentic experience for sure.
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