A few months ago, a couple from the Balearic Island of Majorca in Spain converted their 1999 Ford Transit van into their living quarters for what will become an epic… Read more » Continue reading →
A few months ago, a couple from the Balearic Island of Majorca in Spain converted their 1999 Ford Transit van into their living quarters for what will become an epic 8-month road trip on the other side of the Atlantic. They recently drove into Costa Rica and visited various beaches around Guanacaste. They are only about halfway through their journey, which started in Europe and will culminate in South America.
Malen is an English teacher and linguist of the Catalan language that is primarily spoken in the northeastern region of Spain. Pablo is a small engine mechanic. Furgo is the name they gave to their 14-year old Ford Transit. Back in June, Malen and Pablo flew to the United States on an unpleasant Air Berlin flight and shipped Furgo to the Port of Baltimore. They drove as far north as New Brunswick in Canada before heading back south.
The couple is keeping a graphic and written record of their adventure on their blog Dibujando Nuestro Mapa (Sketching Our Own Map). You can see the photos they took in Costa Rica from October 12th to the 16th on their entry Finding Our Beaches. If you read Spanish, be sure to visit their blog and go back to their earliest entries, which are exceptionally well-written and feature incisive commentary and great photography.
The following blog excerpt has been adapted into English:
Saturday, October 26th 2013 When people of Costa Rica talk to you, say Hi or simply thank you, they say pura vida. This seems to be the brand or slogan of the country (Author’s Note: It’s not); hundreds of bars, shops and other businesses feature these two words as well. We don’t yet know about the phrase’s precise origin, but it is used very often.
After crossing the border checkpoint, still with no map, we drove to Liberia, Guanacaste. Before then, we drove by the Santa Rosa National Park, where the last vestiges of a dry tropical forest, which once extended across Central America until Mexico, are protected. This dry tropical forest did not seem so dry to us.
In terms of development, Costa Rica is decidedly different from the other Central American countries we visited. This is made immediately obvious as we drove in: The highways are in good shape and have traffic signs, there are no loose animals on the road, and in general everything is cleaner and better organized. Costa Rica is still Central America, however, and there are clear issues of socioeconomic divide and income inequality. Although the travel brochures exalt the public health care system and it is evident that the majority of the population possesses literacy and education, there are well-defined signs of inequality.
Perhaps the most apparent sign of inequality is the presence of just about all the major fast-food chains from the United States, and we soon found out why: The cost of living in Costa Rica is astronomical, and these chains can sell their menus at North American or European prices, even though the salaries here do not even approach the levels of those countries.
In Liberia, a modern and well-organized city, we tried to find a tourism information office but there isn’t any (Author’s Note: Yes there is, about 50 meters west of the police station), we were told to go to a hotel where they gave us a regional map and good information. From there we headed towards the Pacific coast and we stopped at the main airport of the Guanacaste region, which is super-modern and functional. We exchanged currency and found a tourism information office where a young girl was too busy checking up Facebook to give us a map or clear information. We finally got a free road map of Costa Rica at a gas station.
Playa Brasilito
This was our first beach, a small village that was too wide open for us to park and spend the night in. At the police station, we asked if we could park nearby, and they mumbled excuses and said no. What we are seeing in Costa Rica is that it is harder for us to rely on the police than in other countries; they tend to scare us by telling us that it is not safe to drive around the country, and it’s almost like they are protecting themselves in case something happens to us.
Playa Conchal
Without knowing where we could park, or if maybe we would have to pay for lodging, we walked about 500 meters to another beach. There are no roads or sidewalks that connect Playa Conchal to Playa Brasilito, but there is an impressive and luxurious resort with a private entrance from another side. This hotel is concealed behind a thick forest patch; we asked the hotel security guards if we could park there and they said we could sleep close to their guardhouse. The problem was the lack of roads, and our van Furgo is not equipped to go fully off-road in Costa Rica and cross the beach and jungle path. We actually had to hurry because high tide was coming, which means that the trail would disappear, but we finally made it.
This beach is truly a small paradise. The water is clear and everything is pristine. The surf is gentle (Author’s Note: Not all the time) and the sand is white. In a small section of Playa Conchal there are millions of tiny shells flattened by the tide, which make the sand even whiter and feel great under your feet. The forest at the edge of the beach cools everything off and makes it enchanting.
It was here in Playa Conchal where we came to understand the meaning of pura vida. Life is abundant in Costa Rica; people here realize it and protect it very jealously. We saw enormous iguanas freely roaming around the trees, birds everywhere, exuberant vegetation, and a colorful diversity of marine species when we went snorkeling.
Author’s Note: Malen and Pablo later drove down to the Central Pacific coast and stopped by Playa Herradura and Playa Jaco before heading across Costa Rica to visit the Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean coast. They were marveled at many things about our country, particularly how expensive everything is.
Tourists from Spain tend to get the most out of their vacations in Costa Rica. You can learn about other driving adventures from Canada to Costa Rica in our archive.