09 January 2025

Day 10-11: Vanilla and Traffic; a flight home

Our last full day in Costa Rica started with an early wake-up and check-out of the hotel.  On the way out of town we stopped at Villa Vanilla (LINK), an organic spice/herb/vanilla farm.  Our guide Joyce gave us a terrific tour, showing us aspects of growth and harvest of vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, pepper, hibiscus, coffee, passionfruit, cardamom, ginger, kefir lime, chocolate, clove, and turmeric. Some toucans came to visit and snack on bananas.  We saw a big blue morpho resting on a leaf, and when we had our cameras ready, Joyce approached it to try to get it to open its wings.  It did, but it flew right into Joyce’s face before fluttering away!  Towards the end of the tour, we saw a mama hummingbird sitting in her nest protecting two eggs. We also tasted traditional bitter chocolate drinks, ice cream flavored with spices from the farm, and we got to taste a cacao seed.  The sun stayed mostly hidden behind clouds, so it wasn’t as hot as it could have been.


Vanilla beans drying in the open air

Cinnamon bark drying


mama hummingbird

Blue morpho butterfly



Peppercorn!  We got to try one. They were hot!




After that, things went downhill fast.  

At 11.30am, we got in the car to drive to the airport hotel (which had been estimated at a 3 hour drive), the GPS told us that it was suddenly four hours.  Not a big deal, since we had read about how you have to build delays into your car trips in Costa Rica.  So, we left the farm and turned left on the road out of town.  In about a mile, the road became unpaved.  No big deal – we had driven on lots of unpaved roads in our car, and we had 4WD and full insurance coverage.  But, what we expected to be a few km of unpaved roads turned into about 20, including deep mud, crossing creeks, steep climbs and drops, tight switchbacks, huge ruts, narrow lanes and steep drops.  It was 90 minutes of white knuckle driving, and by the end of it, the muffler was dangling 3 inches off the ground.  Every time we hit a speed bump, we’d hear it scrape.  Drivers would honk at us and gesture to let us know that we had a problem.  Once we were on the pavement, we tried to find a mechanic to tie the muffler back to the chassis, but it took us two towns and four attempts before we found someone who could do it.  

Back on the road and mostly complete, we immediately ran into a 30-minutes standstill on the highway, where traffic was clamped down to one lane (alternating directions) while workers repaired a section that had washed out in the rains.  After that, we stopped at a restaurant to eat and use the restroom.  By this point, it was about 4pm, and we were still 2 hours from the hotel.  So, we canceled our dinner reservations in San Jose, called the rental car company to let them know that because we’d be arriving so late, we’d have to return the car in-person (they offered hotel pick-up if we arrived before 5), and buckled in for the last leg.

As we got into San Jose, the traffic got gnarly.  Costa Rican driving is messy and chaotic everywhere, with cars weaving on the road to avoid potholes, motorcycles zipping every which way, and pedestrians and bicycles that are both on the road and not wearing reflective gear.  But, when you add to that the congestion of the city, it gets terrifying.  Not nearly as bad as the 25+k off-road experience, but close.  We finally got to the airport hotel, and I helped S & H get our stuff into the room.  Then, I jumped back in the car to drive the 3k to the car rental office. 

When I was about .5k from their offices, I got into an accident.  A motorcycle and my car collided, and the rider flipped over my car into the street.  Per Costa Rican law, we left both vehicles in the street where everything happened and got to the side of the road.  The motorcyclist (Rick) was very lucky – had had some abrasions on one shin and a cut on his thumb, but was otherwise fine.  He was a nice guy, and we chatted while we waited for an insurance officer, the transit police, and some agents from the rental car company to come down and inspect.  I had to fill out reports for each of those groups, and 2.5 hours later, I was able to leave the scene.  I followed the rental car folks back to the office, where I turned the car in and caught a shuttle back to the hotel.  By the time I got to the hotel, H was already asleep.  I showered, calmed down chatting with S, and then knocked off myself.

Wednesday morning brought a 5am wake-up.  We caught a 6am shuttle to the airport and got to our plane on time.  I’m writing all of this from the plane, flying back to LAX, where the fires are very scary!

LATER:  As we were flying into LAX and getting ready for landing, S grabbed my arm and told me that some of our dear friends lost their home in the LA fires.  So, instead of having a calm afternoon settling back in, doing laundry, etc., we quickly unpacked our bags and then went to where they were staying, giving them some support in their time of need.  We got home later than we wanted, got H to sleep, and then collapsed in bed ourselves.  I slept well for about four hours, but then anxiety dreams woke me.   So, I’m up!

We're home, kind of unpacked, terrified and heartbroken for our friends, but we're safe.






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