I went back to California to share in celebrating my Grandmother's 95th birthday. Then found out my buddy, Soop, was headed to Moab, Utah for a week and last-minute changed my flight so that I could ride along and share the adventure.

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Like any great road trip, we started ours A) Late (almost 6 instead of almost 1) and B) looking for some electronic gizmo so that we could listen to music. Road trip without music? Are you crazy?	The first morning "on the road" we awoke at my sister's place in Nevada. Great mountain views from that neighborhood. Curious absence of photos of the people in the house, Brian and I were exhausted after 4 hours sleep.	My Sister's home in Sparks, NV. She was kind enough to let us roll in at some ungodly hour (1am? 2am?) and sleep.	Hwy 50. Desolate.
This is a "major landmark" on Hwy 50 according to the sign. So major that they named it.... "Sand Hill". Lots of imagination those Nevada explorers.	Shoe Tree.	Not sure what an L is. Or why it has its own sign. But there is one out there, somewhere, apparently.	Quaint little towns pepper Hwy 50. Ok, maybe not "pepper". More like, once in a great while, a little town pops up.
Mom's Cafe. Looked like a good place for coffee and pie. It was.	Morning 3. Our campsite in BLM. I'll call it Camp1	The first of many, many photos of rocks	There were also wildflowers, really beautiful ones, not infrequently.
More rocks. These were stacked by someone to create a little cave in a natural crevice.	rocks, sky. Lots of that out in Moab.	This is the view to the west from Camp1	Camp1 was pretty much on the trailhead for Kane Creek Canyon. So instead of driving back into town to run a trail with a bunch of folk, we just started driving eastward.
This is just before we started out, the two cameras that I used weren't synched to the same timezone, so there will be occasional chronometric anomalies here.			stopping for a beverage and for the dogs to frolic in the cool water
	I don't know what makes the black face on some of the rocks, I assume minerals, but it was really beautiful and refracted the light into an almost oily-looking sheen.	The predominant feature of Kane Creek Canyon, not surprisingly, is Kane Creek	Thus the trail involves many crossings of the creek
Soop is kind enough to frame the naturally ocurring S in the rock face	If you look carefully, you can make out the upper trail, it is at about the 2/3 height on this image. The lower trail is where you fall if you fall off of the upper trail (and an alternate route). Long ways down.	One of the toughest spots on the trail, big stair step.	More amazing geology
Waiting for some folks to get through the tough spot	Seth. Waiting.	Another time problem... this actually came after the next few shots. A pretty creek.
Here you get a better perspective on the size of the stair steps.	Soop went first. Two tries and he was through.	Requires a little articulation from the truck. Those are 35" tires, by the way, it wasn't small bumps. There was also a dropoff to the right that went about 400 feet down.	We finished off the evening in downtown Moab, decent meal at Slickrock Cafe, then back to camp.

Labels: 4wd, camping, landcruiser, Moab, Utah, vacation

I just spent some time putting together thoughts re: a six day travel-intense trip to Costa Rica. The author specifically wanted to see Samara, Nosara and Montezuma as well as Rincon and Monteverde. He asked about a rental car vs. public transportation.

Here are some of my thoughts on that trip, for everyone to enjoy. Please keep in mind that these are just quick thoughts dashed out and that I reserve the right to rethink them without further notice.

As an aside: Do keep in mind that driving in Costa Rica takes more time/effort than in the States. 50 miles here isn't a quick jaunt. It'll take two hours or more. Four hours of driving here isn't just a morning drive, it is about as much driving as you are going to want to do in any given day.

With that in mind and without further qualification, here is my response:

A decent 4wd car will run you about $75/day, taxes, insurance, included. A very small one can be had for slightly less. A Prado or 4runner (very nice) will cost around $100/day.

Sounds like you are thinking of spending 6 days here, so call it $450.

Taxi/shuttle/bus trips are often per-person and frequently over $25 for longer distance. So call it $300 for 6 transfers.

I'd pay the extra $ for the convenience of being under my own power and schedule.
If you where here for two weeks.... then I would suggest using public/taxi transport as it would save you a bundle and the time you spend organizing your trips wouldn't take away so much from enjoying your destination(s).

The roads in July will be rough, but not impassable.

If you are flying into Liberia, You could drive straight to Nosara on your first day, and get there with plenty of time for sunset.

From there, Samara is a very short drive (half hour? 1 hour? depends on roads, locals will tell you if the beach route is doable).

Samara to Montezuma is an moderate drive. 3 hours or so? I think.

From Montezuma to Monteverde isn't all that short. I've never tried it, but I would leave really early in the morning to do that one. It shouldn't take more than 4 or 5 hours, total. Six if you stop for lunch (not a bad idea).

I've never driven Monteverde to Rincon but imagine it'll take 4 or 5 hours. Rincon is about 2 hours from the Liberia airport.

If Samara has rental car agencies (I think that they do) you could land & take a shuttle/taxi to Samara. Then get your car the next day and set out on your trip. End up in Samara, drop off the car, and take a shuttle to the airport the next morning.

I think you could basically do the same using Nosara as your point of entry/departure. Not entirely sure about rentals down there.

Another alternative is to use Tamarindo as a jumping-off point. Shuttle from the airport to here is $40 for the two of you ($18/person plus tip. Includes cold water and/or cold beer). Spend the night on the 5th in Tamarindo. Get up early and see Nosara on the 6th. See Samara on the 7th. Montezuma on the 8th. On the 9th Monteverde, leaving late(ish) to arrive Tamarindo for sunset on the 10th. Catch shuttle on the 11th to airport ($40). this same plan works for Samara or Nosara, but I don't know shuttle info for either of those, nor car rental. If you choose Tamarindo, email me (steve [at] bbcostarica [dot] com) and I'll help you get a rental car and a nice place to spend the night(s).

This plan cuts out Rincon de la Vieja, but makes for fairly reasonable drives on the rest of the days. A 4 hour drive here takes a lot more toll on you than a 4 hour drive down the interstate in the USA.

You could do that plan in reverse, perfectly well, which would give you beach, mountain, beach beach beach. Whatever you do, definitely plan to get up very early in Monteverde to do a tour of the cloud forest. I think that the first tour leaves at 7am. That's the one you want. Less chance of heavy rain, more chance of animals, less crowded. Buy your ticket the night before at the gate to the cloud forest preserve. Get a guide. They are excellent and informative. Afternoon in Monteverde is a nice time to visit the butterfly garden if it isn't raining. If raining, go to a cafe and enjoy excellent coffee and some relaxation.

FWIW: you could spend 2 nights in either Samara or Nosara and just do a daytrip to the other town. It really isn't far and sometimes it is nice to drive around without all of your stuff because:

Whatever you do. Don't leave your bags in the rental car, unattended. Whenever your bags are in the car, it is the same as if they are sitting on the hood of the car. Seriously. Many of the thieves here have keys to the rental car fleets. It sucks, but it is true.

One option to mitigate the potential problem is to pack stuff in a hard-side case (pelican is excellent, but heavy) and then padlock the case closed with a chain/cable through the seat of the car. The thieves are usually grab n go, not going to take a long time to steal your stuff.... but a much better way is to not leave your gear in the car. Which makes daytrips a good alternative as you can leave your car and hit five or six beaches without worry.

Labels: 4wd, Costa Rica, tamarindo, vacation

Ooops. I haven't even mentioned that we have a new 'Cruiser!

She's a 1991 fj80 into which someone transplanted the motor and dash from a 1993 hdj80.

In English: it looks like a regular old 80 series, but has one of the best turbo-diesel motors that Toyota makes.

One of the first things that I had/got to do with it was a round trip to San Jose. Wow! Instead of lumbering up hills in 3rd (or even 2nd), I was zooming up them in 5th (sometimes 4th, just to pass). Passing is now a convenience instead of something that requires advanced planning, good luck and more than a little chutzpah.
The noise level inside is much, much lower than in Louie and the handling, overall, is more car-like. I'm sure that once we lift it and throw some larger tires on it'll reduce the handling a tad and slow the uphill a tad, but I'm sure it will still be faster/smoother than old Louie. The ride quality is so much better that after driving five hours to San Jose, instead of spending the night, I drove five hours back. I don't think I would have even considered that in the 60.

The only bad news about the whole affair is that Louie is probably going to be put up for sale. Which tugs at my heart a little as we've grown very accustomed to driving around in a 60 series, it really forms a larger part of my self-image than I realized.

Having said that, the simple fact is that the 60, while capable, durable and good looking (in a rough and tumble way) is an inferior vehicle for on-road travel and less comfy for clients. We've done all we can with the suspension- but leaf springs just aren't as cushy as coil springs. The 80 has a better braking system, that can be upgraded relatively easily to an even better system. The 80 has a cushier interior with more modern lines and a much, much better A/C system. Last but certainly not least, the turbo diesel motor, in stock configuration, puts out 165 HP and 268 ft-Lb instead of the 103 HP and 177 ft-Lb of Louie's motor. That's a lot more oomph. For those of you familiar with the gasoline-powered 80 series sold in the late 90s in the USA, that motor (1FZ-FE) puts out about the same torque, but about 40 more HP than the 1hd-t. Of course I get between 26 and 28mpg while the gasoline motor expects about 14mpg.

Again, for those not interested in the motor details: The new motor is more than 50% faster/stronger than the old motor, but gets about the same mileage (maybe better, time will tell).

So this is an exciting new development in our 'Cruiser history. You can see some more photos, but they are mostly of parts that I'm trying to identify/understand, so it isn't a very interesting page. Hope to get some attractive photos up soon.

Endnote: Speaking of diesel motors.... Why? Why? WHY? Isn't this car sold in the USA? Small, 4wd, gets nearly 40mpg, runs on commonly available diesel fuel. C'mon Toyota USA! Get with the program!!

Labels: 4wd, Costa Rica, landcruiser, photo

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, landcruiser, mud

Got up at 5:30 this morning to grab my buddy Brian and go surf Avellanas. We've been working really hard and needed a little time to blow of some steam, but had a busy day planned, so we headed down early.

Along the way, we decided to go "the back way", as it is more fun and scenic. Okay, truth is, Steve decided and Brian quietly accepted with minor reservations. See, "the back way" is a low-quality dirt road that is under construction. It has been raining. A+B=Mud but... we're in a lifted cruiser with mud-terrain tires, a rear locking differential and a good driver behind the wheel... a little mud? No worries!

Right. No worries. No forward progress, either. It probably would have been a good idea to engage 4wd prior to entering the wallow.

I did at least try to winch out, despite the total lack of nearby trees/stumps/rocks upon which to winch. But I haven't finished the winch install (lacking just one cable) and the jumper cable field repair just wasn't cutting it-- they kept grounding out on.... everything. Of course it didn't help any that the solenoids were entirely under water (as was most of the winch). And when I say "water", I mean "mud".

Brian's sweet wife Carrie came to bail us out. Amazing that something so difficult with one vehicle is suddenly made easy with two vehicles.

Adding insult to injury, we ended up surfing in Langosta instead of Avellanas, at low tide, when Langy just doesn't work very well. So we had pretty lousy surfing but at least we washed the layer of filth off and got a little time in the water.

The rest of the morning didn't go a lot better- the power cut off at 11:00 am. Right after we had an hour or so of meetings (which benefit from AC, but otherwise don't require power). So as soon as the meetings cleared out, there wasn't anything to do as the internet and printer and all that stuff was off. Talk about a grumpy office...

A breezy seaside lunch with great new clients improved the day greatly. A deal that has been headed sideways for a few days also looks to be back on track, which also makes us happy. So in the end, another day in paradise (with minor hiccups).

Labels: 4wd, landcruiser, mud, tamarindo

Steve drove up to Playa Hermosa to hunt down some property for a client on Tuesday. It rained. Plenty. The drive was beautiful however, and the trip fruitful from a business standpoint, so all in all, worth it. Days like these are a good reminder of why we still drive a big 'ol Landcruiser on a daily basis. Our roads have awesome views sometimes, but they aren't always all that easy on the vehicle. Could have taken the paved road, incidentally, but it is longer and more dangerous in the heavy rain (I'd rather crash with a tree at 30 than hit a semi head-on at a differential speed of over 100).

Labels: 4wd, landcruiser, photo, weather

Longest Road's author contacted us today to tell us we had inspired him. That's always nice to hear! He's doing the entire Pan-American highway in two different Cruisers. We look forward to meeting him when he gets to Costa Rica in a few months.

Labels: 4wd, landcruiser

While chatting about a great new listing of his (Joya de Lagarto) Steve's buddy Mike suggested that we road trip down to check it out. So we did. After a quick stop to stock up on some sodas, fruit juice and cookies, Steve, Mike, Sawyer (Mike's 3.5 yr old son) and Casey (spelling?) headed down the muddy road looking for a little adventure, some real estate information, and maybe even some surf.
We found all of the above, but by the time we managed to wrap up the important business aspects of the trip, the wind had shifted onshore, so we just sat and watched some house-sized waves come mackin into the beach. Wow. Big day. I would say "Gee, to bad about the wind" but in reality, had the wind been offshore, I probably would have been too frightened to paddle out anyway. I like surfing. I may even love surfing. But drowning.... I'm pretty sure that's something I would rather avoid!
So after watching waves in Lagarto for a bit, we headed down one muddy road/trail after another and ended up on one of Bb's favorite beaches anywhere (playa frijolar) where we threw sand in the estuary (having a 3.5 yr old along adds flavor) and generally enjoyed a beautiful day.

Pretty blue church along the road on the way south	State of Mind: driving through mud to go to the store is a drag, driving through mud to go to the beach is fun	Sawyer and Mike striking a pose by Joya de Lagarto

Labels: 4wd, Costa Rica, day trip, mud, photo, surf