June 28, 1999

The day was sunny and clear and we headed down the coast to Dominical. We had to head inland first and the road was the worst I've ever seen in Costa Rica. It's pretty much unpaved with lots-o-gravel, potholes, and rocks. After driving on that for half hour or so, we popped back into the costal road. There were some spectacular of coastal sceneries along the way and we stopped at this open-aired restaurant to eat lunch. Lunch was yummy and I explored the tidal pools and the coast after that. I wondered how a place like that manages to stay in business because we were the only ones there. Two backpackers showed up after we ate and we continued our way to Pinuela.

Pinuela is an area where David bought a 100-acre lot of primary and secondary rainforest with a great view of the Pacific Ocean. He was planning on building a house in a one-acre area at this location but is still waiting for them to run water and electricity to this party of the country. He plans to preserve the rest of the rainforest and keep it from being developed. An infinity pool has already been put in but not totally finished. Without electricity, there really isn't any point to continuing to build here.

I left David and Rudi to talk to the caretaker to catch up on the news and headed up along a river on my own. I was told that there are poison arrow frogs along this river but I didn't spot any. The river was very cool looking though but I had to turn back after half hour and get into the car again to continue on our way.

We got on the Pan-American Highway and drove through a cloud-shrouded rainforest road that had my knuckles white most of the time because the visibility was horrible and the drivers on the road were as bad. I breathed a sigh of relief after we made it back to San Jose.