So it's winter in Costa Rica right now, which means rain. And lots of it. Winter here is from mid April until mid November.
I was supposed to depart this morning for the Osa Peninsula (from Heredia), but all the roads leading south are closed due to landslides and/or flooding. There are two routes I can take to get to the south, both are closed.
One is over the Cerro de La Muerte where fall perpetuates itself year-round with high mountain elevations of about 10,000'. It is very common to have landslides in this region as the road is cut into nearly vertical mountainsides. This past May, when hurricane Alma, the first of the 2008 hurricane season hit Costa Rica, this highway, which IS the Inter-American Highway known as Route 2, was closed for almost a
week. When I drove thru after it was re-opened, I was blown away at the amount of earth that had fallen. Where forested river streams once were, there were now only tunnels of dirt, no greenery. And the amount of dirt piled up on the side of the road and the exposed slopes was absolutely mind-boggling. One barren slope after another...Where did they put all that dirt?
The second way to get south is a lower route, so the problem here is not usually so much landslides, but flooding. Right now the town of Parrita is completely flooded, blocking my way.
And guess what, it rained ALL last night so the situation is probably not getting better today. Bummer.
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