Writings By Date| The Road From Hell Leads To Heaven: Driving to Monteverde | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Our choice looked okay at first, but then got narrower and grassier. We watched a stream of cattle walking alongside the road, almost matching our velocity, and wondered where they were going. Then, coming over a hill, we were stopped by a giant pool of muddy water across the road. We got out in the misty rain and investigated; Kim actually took her socks and shoes off, and waded in to see how deep it got. After several minutes of debate, we decided that it was deeper to the right, so if we stayed to the left and kept the wheel on the track, we should be able to clear it without stalling. However, I started to think that if this wasn't the right road, there was much less chance of our getting back across from the other way.
At this point, we saw the cows had stopped moving, and generally amassed at the top of the hill beside us. Apparently, we were their entertainment for the day.
So we turned around again, and tried the other fork. This one proved better. We ran into some more people, asked the question again, and heard "Si, el camino es paso, si!" Again, not sure they fully understood our question, I nevertheless felt a little better. About 30 minutes later, we actually caught up to another car going our way — a jeep labelled "Safari Trekkers". Now this was a good sign. We stayed behind them as far as we could, and each time we got to a fork, we didn't even think about it: we just stayed behind the jeep. At this point, it was purely holistic driving: our destination was no longer Nuevo Arenal, but wherever the guy in front of us was going. The road continued in its current state, sometimes briefly widening to two car widths, which made us feel even more optimistic. We were still stuck in second gear, but the sporadic existence of a hotel or a sign advertising one cheered us up.
After about 30 more minutes, the jeep pulled off the road into a driveway, but by now, we felt confident enough with the road we were on. Sure enough, about 15 minutes later, we saw (gasp!) pavement! It was the main road around the lake, and we were right at the edge of Arenal. It took three hours to travel a net distance of about 20 km, but we were elated nonetheless.
Of course, it would be short-lived, knowing that the road to Monteverde would be equally as bad — so Kim told us. We drove along the wonderful, sweet, paved road, with windshield wipers going on and off every few minutes, through Nuevo Arenal and on to Tillaròn. We stopped in this two-street town for a break from the rain and some Italian food at a B&B/restaurant where they again spoke English. Even in this town of only a few hundred people!
