Got talked into taking the coastal route south to Mal Pais rather than the safer if longer inland route. Unlike the inland route, the coastal route is entirely on unpaved roads, at one point runs along a beach and has several river crossings to ford, including the river Bongo pictured beneath.
For once our SatNav was useless as it wanted not only to go on the inland route, but then to avoid a bad stretch of road by taking one ferry back to Puntarenas and then recrossing the gulf on the other ferry. A trip some 200kms longer than the coastal route!
All, however, went well. At each river crossing I made Christine get out and wade the route first to make sure the water wasn't too deep. She made feeble complaints about sharp rocks underfoot and the possibility of crocodiles lurking in the undergrowth on the riverbanks but I pointed out that it was mostly her idea to come this way and anyway she couldn't drive the car.
As we progressed the SatNav changed its mind and became helpful again, even suggesting alternatives to the 4x4 only route we were taking. It wasn't a particularly difficult route, the area is just kept unnecessarily inaccessible by the lack of tarmac and bridges.
We reached Mal Pais without incident. It isn't really a town, it isn't really a village, just a stretch of dusty unmaintained road with a scattering of hotels and restaurants alongside the potholes.
Unfortunately the hotel we thought we had chosen, 'La Hacienda Lodge', turned out to be a B&B with few facilities and a rather ambitious ( and we assume self awarded) four star rating. The room is comfortable enough, even luxurious by local standards, but rather overpriced for all that.
We walked along the beach northwards but didn't reach St Teresa, the local centre, before we needed to turn back because of the time. However we found a beautiful restaurant, Caracolas, on the sea shore at sunset. It was almost over the road from the lodge and we enjoyed a delicious meal of mahi mahi before retiring for the night.
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