While driving along Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast to Playa Avellena in Guanacaste Province, I came across some very conspicuous signage along the road advertising El Mapache (in Spanish, the Raccoon), a café that specializes in falafel sandwiches, shawarmas and Mediterranean food. Driving past the very funky little roadside café with its colorful hammocks and eclectic tropical wall mural, I made a mental note to myself to stop there for a bite to eat on my return trip to Ostional, some 35Km to the South. I was really looking forward to a tasty falafel and pita bread sandwich.

Stopping at El Mapache upon my return in the late afternoon, I was indeed rewarded to a very delicious lunch. As I was eating, I happened to overhear the proprietor talking to some of her friends in a foreign tongue. It sounded a lot like Hebrew, so being the inquisitive person that I am, I asked the proprietor - her name is Karen - what language was she speaking. Well, I was correct - it was Hebrew. Complimenting her on the delicious food, I started a conversation with her in English and inquired how she happened to live in Costa Rica. I admit that I have always been fascinated with the stories of expatriates – especially people from highly advanced Western cultures who relocate to poorer, less advanced countries in the tropics.

It so happens that Karen and her husband, Isaac are from Israel. Over two years ago, Isaac and Karen, upon the advice of some friends, vacationed in Costa Rica. Falling in love with the country, they decided to relocate (along with their young son, Daniel) from their native Israel to Costa Rica and start a new life. When I inquired why they chose the relatively obscure community of Playa Negra/Playa Avellena as the place where they would settle down, Isaac said “We liked the relatively wild, rough-around-the edges parts of Costa Rica and really wanted to avoid living in tourists traps-beach towns like Tamarindo, located about 45 minutes to the north or Manuel Antonio to the south.”

After moving to Costa Rica, they had to learn Spanish from scratch, as prior to their vacation here, they didn’t know one word of Spanish. The small café, El Mapache, materialized shortly thereafter, and over time they have developed a thriving little business - both the Ticos and the Western tourists love El Mapache’s tasty Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food. Karen handles the cooking chores, while Isaac takes care of the marketing and promotion. As evidenced by the very colorful wall mural and the very effective signage on the road, Isaac is quite an artist and a very savvy businessman.

The café is highly recommended, and Karen and Isaac are absolutely wonderful and humble people who have blended in seamlessly into the Costa Rica fabric. PURA VIDA!

There are over 300 Israelis living in Costa Rica, most of whom live in Central Highlands and in the greater San Jose metropolitan area. Israel and Costa Rica have a history of close diplomatic ties.

In Costa Rica, road signs on major highways can be somewhat confusing or even absent. I had an unusual experience the other day when I discovered the exit sign on the highway to my hotel in Heredia Province (San Jose Area) had been hijacked.

I was returning from the small town of Tibas about 4KM away. There was no signage whatsoever for the exit to Santo Tomas, the town where the Bougainvillea Hotel was located. As I stayed at the same hotel four years earlier, I distinctly remember an exit sign on the highway for Santo Thomas, but I couldn’t remember exactly where. Stopping at a roadside restaurant, I asked a gentleman how do I get to Bougainvillea. He told me to go back to Tibas and take a route through town. So I headed back along the highway to Tibas, got off at the exit but in last a minute change of heart, I decided to get back on the highway again, retrace my steps and try to find the exit sign that existed 4 years earlier.

After passing over the bridge located only 200 meters from the restaurant where I had stopped previously, I approached the first exit on the right. Slowing down as this turnout looked familiar, I looked quickly over my right shoulder and saw a small sign nested within the turnoff itself with directional arrows pointing to Santo Tomas. To say the least, I was relieved as I knew this was the right way. Following the familiar twisting, winding road I navigated the car safely back to my hotel. When I told Omar, the front desk receptionist at the Bougainvillea, about this driving adventure, he laughed out loud and said to me “Senor, the road sign on the highway was hijacked. Welcome to Costa Rica.”

Do yourself a favor – If driving a car in Costa Rica, you’ll save yourself a lot unnecessary aggravation, if you get a car with GPS. Most car rental companies in COSTA RICA, will provide with the optional GPS device for about $10USD extra per day. Well worth it!

In Costa Rica, it is easy to get lost as signage is absolutely terrible. Navigating within San Jose and most major cities, street names are either nonexistent or very obscure - typically the street name is painted in small letters on top of the building wall at each intersection; however the paint usually fades over time making the lettering unreadable. In general people use landmarks to navigate in the city instead of physical address. Addresses are usually given in terms of how many meters – North, South, East or West – a place is from a specific landmark (for example: churches, stores, large trees). Each block is considered to be 100 meters although some are much longer or shorter.

As an example, I was looking for a San Juan Bed & Breakfast in the San José suburb of Tibas. The address was given as 175 meters east of the southeast corner of the Catholic Church. I found the church all right, but wouldn’t you know it, but I really wasn’t sure which way north or south was, so I had to ask. Then after going the right way, I must have drove by this B& B several times.

In frustration, I parked my car near the main park and walked 2 blocks southeast of the church. Sure enough about two blocks away, I discovered a small courtyard set back from the street with a sign advertising “San Juan”. When I inquired inside an office on the ground floor, the lady told me that San Juan B & B had shut down some time ago and the rooms were now used for business offices. Oh well …

In San Jose, my tour operator is Costa Rican Trails - their address is Curridabat (the name of the town), 200 meters south and 250 meters west of POPS (an ice cream store) and building #328. Taking a taxi to their office, the driver found the right street all right but the building numbers did not have any reasonable order to them. In addition to the numbers being out of sequence, odd & even numbers appeared on both sides of the street. The numbering system so confused the driver so much that he had ask a lady on the street where Costa Rican Trails was located. It was then that we discovered that #328 was preceded by #331 and #325 (or something like that). Both the taxi cab driver and I laughed!

To avoid getting lost, your best bet is to shell out some additional monies for GPS - it cost about 10USD extra per day with most car rental companies. If I had GPS on my current trip, it would have saved me a lot of unnecessary aggravation.

Using landmarks with N, S, E and W coordinates instead of physical addresses is not a uniquely Costa Rica custom but apparently is commonplace throughout Central America.

Driving in COSTA RICA is quite an adventure, however once you become familiar
with the idiosyncrasies of Costa Rican drivers and the way things work here, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem. When discussing this issue with Omar, the friendly receptionist at the front desk of Hotel Bougainvillea, he confided to me with a big grin on his face, that if you can drive in Costa Rica, you can drive anywhere in the world. After all, he proudly said “Ticos are some of the craziest drivers in the world.” Furthermore he pointed out to me that automobile accidents are the leading cause of death in Costa Rica. I nodded and told him, I read that somewhere in a travel book

If you plan to drive an automobile in Costa Rica, there are a couple of observations and tips that I would like to share with you. Having driven a car in Costa Rica on four of my eight trips here, I am definitely speaking from experience. In my opinion, driving around Costa Rica is still the best way to see the country!

• Bad Roads

..In general roads in Costa Rica are not in very good shape; on secondary roads in particular, be prepared to encouter potholes (in Spanish, huecos) of every imaginable size and shape. Curiously enough while driving from Siquerres to Turrialba on Highway 10, I saw road signs warning that the road was in bad shape “Carratera en mal estado”, but much to my surprise there were only a few minor potholes. Yesterday while driving on a secondary road from Guayabo National Monument to the town of Turrialba; over a 7-8 miles stretch, I stopped counting huecos at 50!

• Stop Signs

..In the urban area, you’ll see stop signs posted at most intersections. Alto means stop in Spanish. For most Tico drivers, a stop sign doesn’t necessarily mean stop. Some will slow down as they drive through a stop sign, looking both ways to make sure the coast is clear before proceeding through the intersection, while the typically more reckless driver will go right through the stop sign as if it doesn’t even exist. Apparently this is a unique Costa Rica custom. I have seen only a handful of drivers come to a full stop – they were mostly ladies and tourists. When questioning the representative of the Toyota Car Rental Company about this custom, he confirmed to me that this is how most people drive in Costa Rica including himself. Apparently the traffic cops in Costa Rica don’t enforce the law with respect to stopping at stop signs and issue citations to drivers only if they are directly responsible for an automobile accident. Pura Vida!

In my next post, I will discuss signage, finding addresses and where to park your car.

When renting a car in COSTA RICA, by all means take the full insurance coverage - most car rental companies will usually offer you at least two coverage plans. Better spend a little bit more for full coverage and be safe rather than sorry

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