gps devices are awesome. navsat’s is no exception…and is definitely worth the extra money if you rent a car in costa rica…and are planning on visiting san jose…especially, if you have to travel to 3 or 4 random offices spreadout throughout the city….like i had to do today.for those unaware, the darian gap is a 100km stretch of jungle separating panama from colombia. it’s supposedly very hard/dangerous to drive through.
so, the first company i went to (evergreen) seemed a little less professional than the second one: hapag lloyd. either way, it doesnt matter too much….since you end up doing almost everything with a immigration agent. i found one, who seems pretty nice….although we’ll wait and see. she just sent me quotes for a number of ports (leaving from puerto limon, costa rica). here are a few to consider:

cartagena, colombia = $1,700 (6-8 days)
guayaquil, ecuador = $1,775 (8-10 days)
rio haina, Dom. Rep = $2,006 (3 days)
london, england = $3,166 (22-24 days)

so why so much? well, ~$250 for loading/warehouse, $350 for paperwork and another $250 for unloading. the shipping itself costs about $1k. i always knew it would cost around that much (i was hoping about 1-1.5k), but now that i’m here…i’m starting to question whether it’s worth it. it’s not so much the money ($2k is affordable for most americans), but whether that money could be better spent somewhere else….like building a library in nepal (www.roomtoread.org). i’ve already learned a bunch…and maybe i’ll get more than 2k of value out of the remainder of the trip. what should i do? i just enabled comments, so please leave your feedback on the site! (…there may be some bugs still)

the last couple days have been long, but good…i guess they’ve been like a nice weekend from my vacation. saturday morning i drove around san jose a bit (escazul and rohrsmoser). highlights included a small street market selling produce and replacing some girl’s flat tire. perhaps the best part of the day, though, was not driving….as larisa took me around most of the day. it was nice to not have to deal with driving and the problems associated with it (….like scratched rims….sorry larisa). we went to an art exhibition featuring 100 spanish designed lamps, posters and chairs (300 total). then, we went to a nice little art cafe/store where we had dinner and listened to a musician (guitar/voice). we also swung by larisa’s office and parent’s place. aside from not driving, it was really nice that just about every place we went had style. they were all different, but all nice; and it made the day much more pleasant — and unique from the rest of the trip (art/style is a luxury…and often hard to find….even in the us…but much more so in the poorer economies of central america).
the next morning, i drove up to volcan poas…about 1hr north-west of the city. it’s a nice drive up, with a cooler climate and great views. there were also a lot of bicyclists….those guys are in incredible shape. unfortunately, the volcano was mostly covered in fog….excet for a few moments when the fog would pass, and you could see the steaming crater below.
right now, i’m at santi and annette’s place in santa barbara. and guess what? it’s on a coffee plantation. it’s like portola valley, ca….only with more incredible views (i.e.– the city, a volcano, etc). they also have dogs, a soccer field, fruit trees and a horse here. pretty sweet, eh?
well, today i head off to san jose to track down shipping agencies for the sentra. luckily, santi works for a gps startup…so i’m using their product to guide me around the city. navsat is putting together innovative software for gps devices that is tailored to costa rica (remember, costa rica doesn’t have many addresses….instead they use landmarks….like the old fig tree, or the cafe britt factory).

staying at larisa and isabelle’s place in san jose (the place is much too nice to say i’m crashing there). it’s a really cool blend of modern/traditional design, with modern furniture, plants and a bunch of patios. really cool. we also went to a very good argentinian restaurant here (la equina de buenos aires)….although they did mess up larisa’s steak twice (the first time was rare, the second time was raw) — but the service handled the problem well.
in other news, my muffler fell off. not exactly sure what i’m going to do yet. leave it off? patch it again (temporary)? replace it? replace the whole exhaust system?….having a rusted exhaust system is very very frustrating.
finally, getting directions to places in san jose is a bit ridiculous, as many houses lack numbers. for instance, to get to larisa’s….i looked for a 3-story house next to a yellow house for sale. on monday i search out some of the shipping agencies in the city….the address for evergreen shipping in san jose? \\\\\\\200 metros norte de la rotunda de paso ancho, edificio improsa, 2d0 piso\\\\\\\” (http://www.evergreen-shipping.us/egsweb/jsp/officelist.jsp) perhaps one of the most ridiculous ones….the directions to larisa’s old house were to go 20m up the block from the old walnut tree — which has probably not been there for 50+ years. so how do people get mail? po boxes. ”

apparently costa ricans have a different impression of what makes up a good road than i do. or at least the parking lot owner in liberia does. the road from volcan arenal to monteverde started off good…then was dirt….then dirt with stone….and then finally mud (it started to rain). the pic shows the road and on the hillside you can see a small coffee farm. they grow trees in grids around the coffee to protect it from the wind.
it’s still raining here. however, i did manage to score a nice $7 hostel (shared bathroom, but private room) in the center of town. unfortunately, they’ve blocked file transfers on their router. and….unlike 3/4 of the other hotels/hostels…they also changed their router password from the default.

NEXT MORNING (06/19)
this morning i went on a canopy tour. i went for the aventura company which is supposedly the most adventurous one (now that they have the superman canopy experence, where you hang like superman across the zipline). it was fun and cool scenery. i was also very impressed by how efficiently they handled the group. the only time i experienced a sensation of fear/adrenaline, though was on the tarzan swing….where you swing down from platform 50 feet above the ground….into a valley of trees. pretty cool.

Canopy Tour Videos:

• http://youtu.be/1rReaPLNm2A
• http://youtu.be/nPLduSw-_cI

note: gps position is off (volcan arenal is east of here)
today i picked up my clean laundry, then drove to volcan arenal from liberia. becuse the volcano is active, you can’t climb up. unfortunately, the volcano is not active enough that you can see much during the day (especially with cloud cover). you’re better off googling it.

note: this post was written by patrik. mileage (dates) range from 151,699 (06/11/09 at 8:30am) to 152,520 (06/16/09 at 3:30pm). gps point is a bit west of the nicaraguan airport (patrik’s departure). pictures will follow soon hopefully. enjoy the post….it’s definitely the best written one so far:

Having just returned to Berkeley after riding along with Beto for a week, I wanted to say a few words about the Sentra experience from a passenger point of view.

First off, traveling through central america by car is quite different from going by bus. When going by bus, you miss out on adventures such as fixing a starter motor, or repairing a tire. You don’t experience the slight difference in the police checkpoints from country to country: do they care about your papers, your fire extinguisher, or do they just want to take your money? What about running into giant potholes, or almost hitting some pigs or cows on the road? While it may seem like such experiences are best avoided altogether, they make for some of the more interesting memories and stories, and become an integral part of the trip.

It will be a while before I forget the expression on the face of the police officer in Honduras after Beto produced a warning triangle, spare tire, and fire extinguisher when asked. I was impressed myself on more than one occasion by how prepared he is. Three spare tires, two car jacks, two flashlights, two driver’s licences, not to mention the jerrycans and the gps unit. The timelapse camera is a great idea, the hidden compartments in the doors filled with granola bars and other things add a nice touch, and the kill switch preventing unauthorized persons from starting the car even with a key completes the picture.

Thinking back, we went to a lot of places in those few days. Some of my favorite moments on the trip include watching fireflies and chatting with peace corps volunteers by a lagoon near Alegria, and later watching thunderstorms from afar near the top of a mountain. I enjoyed fixing the car in santa ana, the food fair in Juayua, walking through the university campus in Leon, and our failed attempt to drive on dirt roads to the back entrance of parque el imposible. I was amazed by the intensity with which people in El Salvador described the flavor and depth of their coffee; they’d give any wine grower in Napa or Barossa a run for their money. The ghostly deserted Area Monumental in Managua was a surreal experience. I never got tired of seeing volcanoes pop up ever so often along the road, and Granada was beautiful yet a tad touristy.

Overall, the trip was a great experience, and I’d like to thank Beto again for the ride. If anyone reading this is thinking of taking a week of your time to go join him, I highly encourage it. You won’t regret it.

writing now from liberia, costa rica. the costa rican country side is quite nice. costa rica is relatively expensive. also, whereas earlier, lonely planet overstated hotel prices by about 20-50%….here lonely planet underestimates them by about the same amount. liberia is a nice little town. not much to do here…..but it’s close to the border, and has good facilities.

i’ve said this before….and i’ll say it again. why must all the borders suck? these ports of entry/exit are the first and last impressions of the country….so you’d think they should be nice and efficient. moreover, most countries have less than 10 ports of entry (including land, air and sea)….so it’s not too much money to improve the infrastructure. that said, today’s border was the worst thus far:
leaving nicaragu is a bit of an easter egg hunt. i was forced to get 6 signatures from various people milling around the buildings/parking lot. after getting one, they would tell me the general direction of the next signature…and i’d have to find them. it would have been more fun if i got a chocolate bar after completing my form….but after my experience in nicaragua yesterday, permission to leave sufficed. (note: i actually intended to spend a night at isla omotepe….but a landslide shut down the road between the two ports on the island….meaning i couldn’t end up with my car in the border town on the south side of the lake)
entering costa rica is the worst border experience thus far. it started off fine, with me driving into costa rica.. the costa rican border guard even waved me on. however, after 5 miles, i realized that i probably missed customs….so i turned back. FIRST U-TURN. the border guard who initially waved me on confirmed that i had left without the proper paperwork (….he’s got one job….to collect a slip of paper from cars to confirm that you went through customs….c’mon!). so, i continued to the first customs station (for vehicles). there, they told me i needed to get my passport stamped at a customs station even further north. SECOND U-TURN. after waiting in a line for 1-1.5hrs in the sun to get my passport stamped, i got back in the car and went to the vehicles customs station. turns out i needed to get another form near the same building further north. THIRD U-TURN. i got the forms stampes, paid $15 and headed south again. this time he accepted my papers and i finally headed to costa rica….about 2-3 hrs later.

note:gps is slightly off
today was probably the worst day of the trip so far:
1) patrik took off back to work
2) i woke up feeling pretty sick (i’m feeling better now….not 100%)
3) without an exper navigator, i got lost driving in managua and took a slightly longer road down to rivas. that might have been a good thing (see below)
4) …it finally happened, the police bribe….well, rather, bribes. in-between masaya and the airport, we were stopped twice by the police checkpoints. the first time, the yellow-vested thieves told me that i didnt turn with my signal (i didnt….but in a country where a turn signal is a luxury, what do you want?). i paid him $20. About 20min later, we were stopped again. this time, i was accused or crossing a solid line….and had to pay $40. after dropping patrik off at the airport, i headed north (deciding to take a different road back down to rivas). about 5min later, i was pulled over again. this time, they had nothing on me….but still waited 10min, with my license, documents, etc. they tried to scare me a bit (10 cops hanging around the car…..accusing me of not having all the proper forms….etc), but in the end let me go. so, to sum up. police checkpoints here are pure evil. i think they pick certain days/roads to make their money. the cops with yellow vests suck. the ones in blue are maybe ok.
5) it’s next to impossible (maybe impossible?) to get a nicaraguan soccer jersey. apparently baseball is big here. c’mon!

granada is another nice colonial town in nicaragua. it borders a huge lake and the architecture here is really awesome. it also has some good restaurants, fun hostels, etc. however, it is a small town…so there’s not too much to do here (there are day trips nearby, though). patrik and i enjoyed a 3 course meal at a french restaurant for $25 pp.