Yesterday, we decided to rent a Quad and check out the area. First we went to Mal Pais to check out the surf spot at Mar Azul. The tide was too low and it wasn't breaking...just as well because there are lots of rocks in the water and lava reef sticking out everywhere. Then we took the 45minute trip over the hill to Montezuma which is on the other side of the Peninsula. It is probably the worst road I have ever seen, very rough, tons rocks and ditches to get stuck in and a few river crossings...definitely not fun in a car, but in the ATV it was a total BLAST!
edAfter we got to Montezuma we had some lunch at this place over looking the beach. Here is Tracey drinking her first Pina Colada in Costa Rica and wondering why she hasn't been drinking them every day. Not much in Montezuma, but the water is a beautiful turquoise blue and there are some waterfalls but we did not partake. There is no surf to speak of so what is the point?
Here we are riding back to Santa Teresa on the Quad....soooo much fun! We drove back to our place then headed north to check out Playa Hermosa and Playa Manzanillo and then back again...we covered alot of ground. Quads and motorbikes are the most popular ways of getting around down here. The locals and expats living down here have them rigged up with surf racks. I wish we could have one in Santa Cruz if they were street legal. It is like the Wild West down here, haven't seen a cop in our whole time being here and 12 year olds are zooming around on motorbikes...there are no traffic lights or parking meters or any of that crap...just dirt roads and dust. We were planning on renting it for 24 hrs (around $70 plus gas) so we could take it out at night and the next morning, but things did not go as planned.
Of course, on the one day we decide to rent one happens to be the day when the transit cops show up all the way from Puntarenas! We were driving down to Carmen around 4pm and passed the grocery store by our casita when people all over start waving at us trying to tell us something. Then we pass a cop busting someone. Oh great, we think..we have no idea what the laws are but there are no plates on this thing, we don't have our driver's license, and we have no helmets, we're driving around in a swim trunks...the rental place never told us we needed any of this of course. We keep driving, happen to pass the rental place when someone passes us on a bike and says "better turn around, transit cop ahead." Then we see them busting some poor guy on a quad like us. Shit! So we double back to the rental place and realize we are sandwiched between two check points...they are probably all over town. We go inside and tell them that there are cops everywhere and what do we do, and the guy says that is crazy and he hasn't seen any cops in over a year come down here. Then, the guy we saw getting busted bursts in the door (happens to have rented from the same place as us) and says the cop is giving him the shakedown and took his drivers license and let him come back here to get the papers for the Quad but has to be back in 5 minutes. So it became this whole ordeal and the owner had to come and go with him to talk to the cop who spoke no English and had the guys ID...have no idea what happened with that.
So we narrowly escaped being caught ourselves, and took it as a sign to return the Quad early, and got some of our money back. We have been here almost a month and nobody wears helmets and there are no cops and everyone drives around all crazy in swim trunks with like 4 people hanging off a single Quad...and of course there is a crackdown the day we rent one...no thanks. We walked back to our Casita and went surfing. But it was fun while it lasted! So much for the Wild Wild West.
Just Gringo Luck, but better than no luck at all.
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