Oh, the Places You'll Go...Slowly...

 One thing we are learning very quickly is that driving goes very slowly. To travel a few miles might take about 10-15 minutes. To travel 30-40 miles will be around an hour-ish depending on which direction you take and what time of the day you leave.

Driving towards San Jose and the airport is very busy. Driving towards the mountain, away from San Jose, is ok. Pretty much any driving towards San Jose and back again, especially in the morning and evening commute, will take hours to go 30 or 40 miles. Update: Nope. Pretty much you are going to wait in traffic no matter what!

One toll booth has 10-12 lanes and can be backed up for hours. Alex (recall my Tico friend) has expressed a strong opinion about spending time the car. He shared his philosophy: "You are wasting your life sitting in a car." In traffic though, right? Does it make a difference if you are actually making good progress towards a desired destination or adventure? I say, "Yes!" However, in San Jose, it is still frustrating to lack the convenience of straight wide roads, fewer population, and higher speeds. 

Reasons for the slow down include narrow, curvy two-lane roads which require slower speeds. There is also a high population density that works in the city. With most roads being two lanes, the large trucks and busses often block the way. Clark says you can wait in the left lane for people to turn or you can wait in the right lane behind the bus. There seems to be some unspoken rules of driving here that people follow, and motorcycles obey few rules. They weave in and out of traffic like thread and their noise is everywhere. Clark worries most about not seeing a motorcycle. We saw a motorcycle wreck recently. No fun.

This is an odd way to block the road.

Big trucks on narrow curvy roads.

Many people commute far to work. I am SO grateful we live here in Coronado AND work in Coronado! It is wonderful this way. Clark comes home for lunch and when we want to go out in the evening, we don't have to wait on his commute. 

Updated January 26:

After driving two weekends in a row toward the beach during non-rush hour, I can say we still have seen some entertaining scenes and sat in hours of lines of traffic. When we were on our way to Jaco (hah-KO), as we sat in traffic, someone passed in the oncoming lane, driving their backhoe in regular traffic with a motorcycle in the front shovel. I have to admit, the bike fit perfectly. I wish I had a picture of it...I can still see it clearly in my head.

When we drove a few kilometers from Herradura to a cafe, on the way back the traffic was stop and go. It took us 40 minutes to drive about 5 miles. We saw a car pull out into the OPPOSITE oncoming shoulder and drive down the shoulder THE WRONG WAY so they could make a left turn eventually. We had a red taxi try to force his way into our lane. It is similar to New York but maybe more aggressive? If you can't get in a lane, just make space for your car. Some honk to make it happen. 

I had my first driving in Herradura to Hermosa and there was this intersection with a yellow light one way and a red light the other but it was functioning more like a four way stop except sometimes you just follow the car in front of you. I just pulled into the middle of the road (intersection) and had to stop for a car and honk for people to let me cross. I remind myself none of us wants the inconvenience of crashing, so people just stop. Use common sense, as Clark says. 

I saw two motorcycles on the interstate pulled over and when they started to rev up to leave one bumped into the other one. Oops. 

It is routine for people to be walking down the middle of the interstate in stop and go traffic, selling Latin snacks such as cashews and these bright orange round crunchy snack; I think made of corn. They also had red icy pops. 

A single rig is holding up this line of traffic on a non-passing two-way stretch of interstate going DOWN hill. 

Need a snack while you wait in stop and go highway traffic?