My brother came to visit and we decided to go the beach house in Nosara, on the Nicoya peninsula. Neither of us have ever driven in Costa Rica before, but we decided to rent a car and drive the 5 hours to the Pacific coast. My brother picked up on the stick shift quite well. We only almost died 1 time and the trip was great after we finally convinced him to stay on the main road.

Nosara is a small beach town with only dirt roads. The main road from Nicoya to Nosara is all bumpy dirt roads. About 20 km down the road we reached a huge river running through our path. My brother wanted to go through it in our "safari diahtsu" but I convinced him no after he walked through the roadblock and it went up to his thighs. We found another route.

Everyone in this little town drives four wheelers and motorbikes. It is a very small and peaceful town. Except for all of the monkeys bright and early in the morning. Pancho's is the market where you can get anything from meat products, hair products, to clothes and live entertainment. There is nothing but small shops and houses there. Everything is on back roads it seems and there are not a lot of signs so basically it is just finding stuff as you go and getting lost every time. There are not a lot of cars there and I saw a sign for a taxi, but I am sure it is by request only and only 1. There is only 1 bus a day to the city.

The canopy tour was really great. We had great tour guides who were young and full of jokes and laughter. We hung out in the town and went out with the locals. We went to the bar that was good on Saturday nights. Someone brought their dog with them inside, that was interesting. I rode the bikes home with my new friends.

On the way home, we somehow made a wrong turn and ended up on the other side of the same river and had to back track once again. Driving home around mountains with no rails and in pouring rain was a lot of fun and tested every bit of driving skill, but we made it back.