I haven't been to Costa Rica since 2019, but use to go once a year since 1992.

No more kidney punch highway? I'm surprised the author didn't know what we use to call this stretch of road. Kidney Punch Highway.


Dominical to Quepos: The Costa Rican Road That Took 30 Years to Finish

https://ticotimes.net/2025/07/...ook-30-years-to-finish

Actually, I really liked that drive. You got to see how a lot Ticos really lived and how hard they had to work just to put food on the table. I used to take my son's soccer uniforms and participation trophies plus a cooler of sodas and give them out along the road. The kids were so grateful for such a little thing. Plus, driving over the creeks on 2x12s (one for each tire, custom laid out by the workers for each car) was an adventure. ANd, waaaaay safer than the Via del Muerte at 3:30 in the afternoon.

garcia, you just gave me a flashback of having to tip the tico kids to open the cow gate at Hermosa. They took surf stickers and anything else you had. Open and close it for you so the cattle wouldn't escape. Hardly anyone was surfing there back then. Just a handful of ex-pats. Have you seen Hermosa lately? Jaco suburban sprawl happening.

I know a lot of you travelled to CR earlier than me, but man, going there for the first time in 1992 it was truly a third world country and I loved every second I was there. My wife and I had our honeymoon there in 1994 and camped on the points of both matapolo and pavones. So many memories I have. My good friend Matt and wife Deaun still live there 30 plus years.

My good friend Mark is going there next month. But, he has a tour guide and all exclusive surf package. I'm like PURA VIDA...but, that ain't PURA VIDA.

The faster you drove the smoother the ride, but man the dust cloud in the dry season was enough to reduce your speed to a crawl.

If I remember correctly 45 mph is the ultimate speed over kidney punch highway. Just fast enough for the car to go airborne over the holes and not too fast to blow a tire. And, I've blown a few tires.

I recall seeing a girl watering the road so the dust wouldn't bury the house.

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I was right.

That was one long hard ugly road. I remember blowing my nose and seeing river mud come out.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.