We found out that there would be no power on Thursday, so we decided to go to Avellanas for the day. Just to make life interesting, we decided to take the "back road", which is an easy (albeit bumpy) ride in the dry season. It took us a little over three hours to travel to Playa Avellanas. That's only about 3 miles away along the beach, and about a 20 minute drive on the main road. Totally worth it.

Note: one of the many benefits of getting muddy with good friends who just so happen to be professional photographers is that you end up with better-than-average pictures for the site. For more of Michael's work, check out MichaelPisarri.com.

When Costa Rican maps define roads as "seasonal", that probably means that there isn't a road there in the wet season. We've taken this road hundreds of times in the dry months, and thought we would see just how bad it is this time of year. It's pretty bad.

The day's first casualty was Steve's flip flop.	Having fun in the muck. Note the front tire: completely encased in clay	We spent a lot of time facing in a direction other than the one we were moving- back tires stuck in a rut, spinning, front tires pulling us along the trail	"Sure... we can make it through this!"
Notice the size of the ruts in relation to the dog (she's about 50lbs, by the way, not tall, but not tiny)	Winching through the first soft patch		The girls ran ahead to scout out routes.
The ultimate offroad vehicles. They would have made it through the road without incident, but no A/C nor stereo either	Not just muddy, but the occasional fallen tree added some variety	Knowing that the water and muddy riverbank would be a challenge, we decided to set up the winch before we got into trouble this time. Caly was very helpful	Neither of the large trees in the foreground was any help to getting up the bank. Michael did the walking while Steve pays out more line
The river was easy, but we only made it a few feet up the bank, which appears to be made entirely of slimy, grimy, claylike muck	This may not look very deep, but it is	Winching uphill through sloppy mud. The ruts were about 30 inches deep when we were done	Made it to the top of the bank, spinning wheels and pushing piles of mud. Finally got a little bit of traction and drove out from here
Michael the winch monster	Mike and Bb scouting out a "difficult" section ahead, this little puddle in front didn't look like much (note where the stick is located on the right).	Oops. I guess the puddle was deeper than it looked! (again, note the stick on the left this time)
"C'mon Guys! Let's get that winch line hooked up and running!" This water eventually pooched my EDIC relay, which is an expensive part. Fortunately there was no permanent damage.	Here's another angle. This stuck had what I like to call a high pucker-factor. Not exactly a relaxing position.	After that last puddle, we took the scouting a little more seriously	Sitting under a swaying coconut palm, relaxing with good friends after the run
Good food. Good friends (who thought we were a little crazy to take the back road in August).	Nothing like a dip in the ocean to get the mud off	beach. stick. Happy Dog.

Photo Credits: Michael Pisarri and Steve Broyles

Labels: 4wd, Costa Rica, day trip, landcruiser, mud, photo, weather