Costa Rica- Motorcycles and American Roads

Roxana and I got back early last Sunday morning from a week in Costa Rica. One of my friends has a condo down there and graciously "gave us the keys" for a week. What a country. Such a mixture of beauty. Tropical flowers, palm trees and coffee plantations. From San Jose to Escazu (where we stayed) the houses all had bars over all of their doors and windows and wire on top of their fences. Many houses that were not in gated communities had razor wire on top of their fences. Theft is a way of life in CR. According to our cab driver, Nicaragua has so many people entering Costa Rica that work longer hours and for half the money that jobs are really scarce. Costa Rica only has 5 million people in the entire country so the thousands of immigrants, both legal and illegal are a real drain on the CR economy.ALL of the stores have 24/7 guards and the large mall in Escazu has heavily armed guards with automatic weapons. I felt safe, really. Gas is $4.00 a gallon and many of the cars and trucks are diesel. Very efficient clean diesel but our government will not even admit that is possible. With such high gas prices motorcycles and scooters are every where. I even saw on construction worker with a folding ladder strapped to the back of his motorcycle one morning.

There are no road or street signs in Costa Rica. Everything is known from how many meters from the main land marks in any given city. If you go to CR do not rent a car on your first trip. You will get lost! The roads and streets are filled with curves, hills and there is no such thing as people staying in their lane or not turning in front of you. You don't speed up. Every drivers move is determined by the closing speed of the on coming car or the vehicle next to them. They seem to get along quite well with this system. HOWEVER, after going to Death Valley CA this summer on my bike I can tell you that my worst experience on American highways is better than any road or street in Costa Rica. Great to visit CR but I am glad to be back in the USA.