Breathtaking Trips in Costa Rica--$3 Friday, May 25, 2007
Quepos, Costa Rica "Go to Coca Cola," the hotel desk clerk said when I told her I wanted to visit the Pacific Coast for a couple of days. Anyone who knows Costa Rica will immediately understand this, but the clerk could tell from my blank expression that I had no idea what she meant. Let me back up. A few minutes earlier I had phoned several car-rental companies. Like many other visitors to Costa Rica, I got a shock--nearly $100 a day for a mid-size vehicle, including a minimal amount of insurance. That's about the same price as a round-trip airfare to Quepos, the city on the coast where I was headed. But on this trip I wanted to see some of the small mountain towns along the route. I explained this to the hotel desk clerk who suggested an alternative that few visitors to Costa Rica consider--taking a bus. The vast majority of expats who live here own cars, and the roads are generally good, at least in the Central Valley. For trips elsewhere in the country, you fly. The most expensive domestic round-trip fare is $164 on Sansa, one of Costa Rica's two major airlines. But an airline doesn't give you a close-up view of the countryside, and that's what I wanted. I asked the desk clerk for directions to the Quepos bus. "Go to Coca Cola," she repeated, finally explaining with a grin that the one-time bottling plant is now the major bus terminal in San José. Costa Rica has 300 privately owned bus lines. Competition keeps the fares low but often makes it hard to check on schedules. I used a copy of Costa Rica by Bus, a book with detailed information about routes and prices. Written by John Wood, an American retiree living in Costa Rica, the book is available from Amazon.com and other retailers, including many shops in Costa Rica. Eight buses a day travel from the Coca Cola terminal in San José to Quepos, and the fare is the equivalent of about $3 for the 3.5-hour journey. The trip was breathtaking. After leaving the Central Valley the bus slowly made its way up the mountains and then started a descent down the winding highway to the coast. En route, the bus skirted cliffs where the drop was more than 1,000 harrowing feet. In only a couple of hours we had gone from chilly spring-like weather of the mountains to the sultry tropical coast. Don Ediger
For International Living P.S. I wouldn't recommend Costa Rican buses as a general way to travel around the country unless your goal is to save money. Buses simply take too long, and airlines are inexpensive. But for short trips--and now and then for a close-up look at an exotic country--buses in Costa Rica are hard to beat. | 
