Road Rage in Costa Rica!

Driving in Costa Rica is pretty hilarious, and also pretty hair-raising! Not that I have even got behind the wheel myself yet, but just sitting in the back of the truck is enough! Drivers go where they want when they want and are not particularly bothered about whether they have right of way or not! In fact, it is entirely possible that they do not know what right of way is! There are people wandering down the middle of the road in the dark (seemingly it's safer than walking at the side of the road), dogs running across, goats wandering around in the more rural areas and I have been informed that someone once had to move a cow to get home one night! Brilliant.

And if you think you know potholes - you ain't seen nothin' yet! There are HUGE gaping holes in the road and drivers swerve around them at 100km an hour throwing passengers up against the window without even the blink of an eye. Fully confident English drivers in my car are sitting covering their eyes as we swerve another roadsign which they just place in the middle of the road with no lights in the middle of the light. If you see it too late, you hit it!

Now you have to bare in mind however that I have not yet seen one argument and maybe road rage was the wrong title for this blog entry because actually they are all quite calm, just going about their business in their conked-out pick-up truck. So I'm not actually that concerned about driving because as long as you are relatively aggressive yourself (hesitation will get you nowhere at what they like to call junctions!), you should have no problem! Plus the public transport doesn't appear to be as developed as one may like. I miss the tube already! For those of you that know me, you will find it amusing that I have to get 3 buses to my TEFL course - I don't do buses EVER, because I like to be on transportation that cannot veer off course at any given moment! So, I have at times considered driving, but then again, cars are ridiculously expensive here, I have never driven on the other side of the road, nor have I ever driven anything bigger than a Punto and a Jeep seems to be the elected mode of transport around these parts... the list goes on!

So for now, I think i'll stick to the buses (which by the way are converted American schoolbuses - some are even still bright yellow!)

Stef x