As forewarned in all the travel books, the roads were something else. The roads up to Arenal weren't all that bad. They were just very curvy, hilly and no telling what or who you would meet on these paved roads. We learned quickly that people walked on the roads at all times of the day and night. Plus Justin made sure he had his foot near the brake at all times, just in case a crazy would swerve into our lane. Also, I am not sure if we ever passed a 2 lane bridge on our trip.

The road to Mal Pais was less curvy, but filled with potholes and I don't mean just a couple. One book stated that the road had axle breaking potholes. That is one way to get someones attention. What wasn't paved was gravel and dusty. So the roads were always a constant source of entertainment.

The beauty of the countryside made you quickly forget how antagonizing the roads were. In some places, the scenery was as pretty as I have seen. One of favorite stories happened on the Saturday that a few of us drove up the coast just to see what was up there. All 5 of us happened to notice a cow in the front yard of a small house. At each end was a horse with a rider. I thought the cow had escaped and the riders were pulling it back to the pen, since we saw a few cows in the roads at times. The front rider jerked the cow quite hard, (at this time I was thinking wow what a stubborn cow) and then something white fell out the back in and stood up. None of us saw that one coming but we have now all witnessed a Costa Rica calf been born (or tugged out). So yep, the roads were entertaining.