Knowing that we had a long drive ahead of us, we got up fairly early, had breakfast and left the hotel by 08.00. We made the most of the metaled road in town, there must be at least 2 kilometres of it, before heading back onto the gravel road back down the mountain. The Jimny really rattles and shakes, but it does the job, even if we spent most of the time in 2nd gear at 30kph. We stopped briefly to take photos of the stunning views down to the Gulf of Nicoya.
Eventually, after 18 bone-shaking kilometres we got back onto the metaled road and quickly headed down to the junction with the Pan American Highway (PAH or Route 1). The traffic was predictably heavy and sometimes very slow, but eventually we left the PAH at Barranca and joined the Route 23 heading west towards Puntarenas and Puerto Caldera. This road was pretty busy too with lots of industrial buildings and a very busy port. As we turned back south-east, the road changed to the Route 27 which turned out to be a dual carriageway. Much to our surprise when we left it about 25km later, we had to pay toll-charges. I suspect that is the one and only good road we will see in Costa Rica!.
From here, near the town of Coyolar, we joined the Route 34, the Southern Highway, we would stay on this for the remainder of our journey. We passed through the towns of Tarcoles, where we found that the bridge over the river Tarcoles is a tourist stopping point to see the crocodiles - we decided not to stop. The next few towns we passed, Jaco and Parrita are holiday destinations from the USA with lots of resort hotels.
After the next town, Quepos, the traffic really thinned out. We later discovered that the Route 34 from Quepos down to the Panamanian border had only had a metaled surface on it for the past 3 years - before that, the journey south must have been hell.
As we arrived in the next town of Domical, we finally saw signs for Uvita, our destination. It was only about 25km further and we rapidly covered the distance and arrived there ready for lunch. We found an open fronted restaurant called Ballena Marina and ordered sandwiches. When I asked for a tuna sandwich, the waiter asked how I'd like it cooked, rare, medium or well-done! I don't think I've had a fresher tuna steak sandwich, very tasty.
95, 96, 111
After lunch, we drove the 15km to Ojochal but because we were a bit early for check-in, we had a brief exploration of the road further south. We didn't go far and decided we try for the early check-in (a whole 40 minutes). Our journey from Santa Elena to Ojochal had taken us 5 hours.
The final 1.5km of the journey was up a steep gravel track to the Alma de Ojochal, our hotel for the next 6 nights. The hotel is perched on the top of a ridge with views down to the Pacific on one side and up to the Central Mountains on the other, a really stunning location. The hotel has a small pool, 5 rooms (3 rooms and 2 suites) and an open-air lobby and breakfast room.
With the temperature in the low thirties Centigrade, we were quickly shown to our suite. Although it was lower floor, the view from the terrace were wonderful. Although the room had air conditioning, we chose to use the ceiling fans and have the huge sliding doors open with the flyscreens pulled across.
After settling in, we went for a swim in the pool, it was very refreshing. From the hotel, you can just about make out the sound of the sea through the almost deafening noise of the ciccadas.
After a swim, we headed back into Uvita to collect some water to put in our fridge and then went to a restaurant near our hotel down by the sea called Boca Coronado. Both of us had locall food, Arroz y Pollo and Arroz Y Mariscos washed down with Imperial (local) beer.
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