Sunday, December 21, 2014

Costa Rica - A Traffic Jam, Then Lunch

It would be impossible to overstate how narrow the roads can be in Costa Rica. Two lanes, thick foliage or lush farmland on either side. No easements as we are accustomed to in the United States on even the most rural of roads. Although it can make for some spectacularly scenic drives, if something goes wrong....well....things can get ugly fast.

We are traveling through the cattle ranches, farms and small towns of the Pacific Coast. We pass a monument to marimba players, a statute of 3 boys playing the percussive instruments. Later we are treated to marimba music over the buses sound system from our tour guides I phone. A few miles outside of a restroom and ice creme pit stop the traffic along the country road slows, then stops. There is a line of cars and trucks ahead of us, a growing line of cars and trucks behind., Word comes that there is an accident ahead. We are stuck, glass half full, at least the bus was in an area that was tree shaded so we didn't roast inside it's metal shell. We sit and wait, and wait. There is nowhere to go. Although there is an alternate route to our destination 5 miles behind us there is no way to turn the long bus around on the small, narrow road. Kindles appear, I pull out these blog notes and write, people take out cell phones or try to nap, after all, at this point there is no passing scenery to view.

Eventually traffic begins to crawl forward. Although an accident we're told caused the initial back up, a stalled truck exacerbated the already exasperating situation. Traffic regains it's normal pace and soon we are at our lunch spot for the day. We file out of the bus glad to finally be released from it's confines.

We have lunch that day in a beautiful open air pavilion surrounded by meadows and mountains draped in Costa Rica's rich mantle of vivid, varied shades of green.

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