How Many Cars Did We Drive in Costa Rica?

Between arriving in Costa Rica on September 17th and leaving April 22nd we drove a few vehicles.

First was our Mitsubishi rental car…

Which needed it’s battery changed before we could take it off the rental car lot.

We had hoped to find a car within a week and although we did, there were many hoops to jump through before we could get it. Some of the hoops were getting in touch with the owner, how to pay for the car when our cashier’s check wasn’t accepted by the bank (Oh, Costa Rica), getting a few things fixed on the car, as well as having the right papers (everything is done through lawyers there) and getting it to pass the required inspections.

We didn’t want to keep our rental but needed a car. Thankfully our new friend Jason (who helped us find our place) lent us his car while he was away in California for ten days (at a cheaper price than the rental car). We drove our rental back to San Jose, stopping to eat at a Middle Eastern restaurant that we love, before returning it and taking a bus back to Jaco, where we got the car from Jason.

Like most cars in Costa Rica, Jason’s had it’s quirks. Of course it did not have any AC.  The windows would stick so you’d have to help them up and down. The driver’s window was so bad that you could break into the car just by pushing the window down from the outside. During a parade in Jaco one day Jason saw a guy walking down the road with flip flops, sunglasses, and a towel similar to his. The more he thought about it the more it was clear the guy had stolen his stuff out of his car. Luckily Jason just had to approach him and ask for his stuff back, but the guy had clearly seen him struggle with his broken window previously.

The greatest thing about Jason’s car was that we could fit a surfboard in it. It didn’t have racks to put the board on top, but it fit inside nicely. This allowed us to not only pick up the long board that Jim borrowed from a friend while he looked for one to purchase, but also allowed us to take it to and from Jaco when he’s surfed with friends there.

Jason got back to Costa Rica, but we were still in the process of waiting for everything to come together in order to buy our car and then the car had to get some things fixed immediately. Thankfully our friends Noah and Erik came into town and let us use their van when we needed to go into town. (They drove from Colorado to the tip of Argentina. To read about their adventures and see incredible pictures check out Noah’s blog or Erik’s.)

Then we had another rental while our car was in the shop with Eduardo (the first of a few times). Eduardo was hysterical, he was all about the fist bump and loved Coca Cola. I learned a lot about cars from him, which is funny because I don’t speak much Spanish and he doesn’t speak much English. Thank goodness for universal gestures/sign language.

Then we finally got Esteban, which Jim named and because of it refuses to name another car again. (You’ll understand why soon enough.) We we thankful to find a Toyota we could afford as cars are twice as expensive in Costa Rica as they are in the US because of an outrageously high importation tax. In full disclosure we had set aside about $5-6k for a car, but thought we were getting a deal on Esteban at a price of $2,600. Esteban was a 1987 4-runner (AKA old enough to drink).

Esteban has some “character” as my dad would put it. Here is the rusted wire hanger “antennae,” though the stereo didn’t work though.

The 1987 4-Runners only have two doors. The passenger-side door, as you can see, was missing the electrical needed for the window (meaning the driver had to open the window for the passenger every time) and the buttons.

The passenger-door also had two handles, just in case your sitting the the back seat and either no one is sitting in front of you (and you’re making the driver drive you around like a taxi driver) or the person who’s sitting in the passenger seat gets out and closes the door on you.

Esteban did have those sweet window visors which really helps us get air (we didn’t have AC) when it was raining.

The window on the back door started sliding down as we’d drive. This wasn’t always fixed by just pressing the window’s buttons or pulling over, opening and closing the door. It became unbearable when my mother-in-law came to visit, and it went down and stayed down while we were driving into town, with me sitting the the back. The exhaust was horrific. Thankfully she was willing to rent a car during her stay (and even let us hold onto it a few days longer) while Esteban went into the shop to see Eduardo for the second time. The issue was that the window wasn’t the original and had been replaced with one that had belonged to a whole different kind of car. Eduardo did his best to “fix” it.

The issue continued and we brought Esteban back to Eduardo and had him replace the back door with a whole “new” door of another 1987 4-Runner. Oh Costa Rica!

So Esteban was in decent working order for a bit. We drove to and from Jaco and to places for Jim to surf and me to walk for hours. Esteban then started to act up a bit. We’d be driving in the lower gears and the car would shut off, but we’d be able to just start the car again and we’d go on our way. We were going to take it into see Eduardo again, but then on the way into Jaco with a friend of mine it started making some funny noises, it did it’s usual shut off, the car started to smell, and it wouldn’t start back up. We hitchhiked back to the “village” Jim and I lived, found Jim on his way home from surfing and sent him with one of the keeper of the grounds of our community, Marcos, to go tow it to a mechanic Marcos and many of the people we knew recommended.

When we went back a few days later with our new friends and visitors from Boulder, Gwen and Joel (their car not shown) we were surprised to find Esteban’s guts all over the place.

Some were in the trunk.

Few were under the hood.

And more were  on the ground.

The repairs were cost prohibitive, so we made an agreement to sell the car to Dennis for a couple grand for parts, though he actually fixed it and sold the car to someone in San Jose.

So we needed to find another car (maybe even a long term rental) but in the meantime we got a short term rental car (read expensive). This little hatchback was great. We could fit Jim’s surf board inside and ride comfortably.

It was great until the bumper fell off. Seriously, it just fell the fuck off while we were driving in down the main drag in Jaco.

After creating a mini scene at the rental car place and Jim being all patient we got a replacement rental car.

We started looking for cars to buy or even rent long term. We took a trip with our friend Surfer Mike to the central valley to look at cars, but nothing was in our price range (which was low as we had already spent so much money on cars).  We also needed to get our money from Dennis for Esteban. We probably visited Dennis over two dozen times before we actually got the money. Oh Tico Time!

Here’s Jim cleaning out the last of our belongings out of Esteban, with the radiator in the cab.

While we were waiting (which you tend to do a lot of when trying to get things done in Costa Rica) we returned out rental and took a trip with our friend Raeann to Nosara. Here is a view out the back of her car as we drove through a river.

While in Nosara we rode in our hosts’ car a couple times (one of which we had to stop and fix a tire in the dark) and also rode in their golf cart.

When we got back we got a mini rental. Thank goodness Jim’s board fit on top.

Finally after months of car issues, we found a guy who was renting his car long term out of San Jose. We drove the mini car there and then we each drove back. I must say that learning to drive stick shift and feel confident driving around San Jose were the best things that came out of all of our car troubles. Here’s our long term rental:

Two things that needed to be done soon after getting our long term rental was get the breaks replaced, including the parking break, and take it for it’s emissions test. Dennis did the work on the breaks and during that time lent us his car. This is the type of car we probably should have gone for in the beginning, rather than be enchanted with the Toyota brand. We were warned about buying a car by the beach as the elements do a number on cars. As you know though, we didn’t listen. Next time! Neat thing about this car of Dennis’ is that the speedometer didn’t work.

Here are the worthless brake pads:

All in all our long term rental served us well. Just before leaving Jim found an email from just before we moved down to Costa Rica and it was to the owner of the long term rental about the same car. In the email it was for sale. If we had bought it, we would have saved thousands of dollars. Oh well!

Before driving the car back to San Jose to return it to the owner, we had the car washed. The young guy who did the bulk of the cleaning hit on me, in Spanish of course. I told him I was married and showed him my ring. When Jim showed up he asked his he was my father because of his beard. Cheeky kid.

Here’s an entertaining sign at the Lava Car Wash:

While I was waiting I noticed that another car there had the standard Jesus sticker on it:

While in San Jose, before we dropped off the long term rental to its owner (who was a real character) we picked up our last rental car of our stay:

So we drove a lot of cars. Four of which our visitors rented and we got to drive. Let’s see, that adds up to 18 cars we rode/drove in more than once (that I can count/remember). All of them were a financial investment because at the very least we paid for gas. This does not include cabs or buses we took either.

Clearly we learned some great lessons. Some of which are: Cars in Costa Rica cost more than in the U.S. due to outrageously high importation tax, don’t buy a car by the beach as they won’t last long due to the damage the elements have done to them, don’t be enchanted by brand names you know, don’t buy a car that is old enough to drink, don’t try to save money on a fix-er-up car, plan to spend $4k+ on a car, and if you have a bad feeling in your guy about the seller don’t buy from them. There are many more lessons, but I think I could go on for a while.

So when people say, “Seven months? But I thought you were going to stay longer?” My response is, “We thought so too.”