Mike in the Wild

Eight nights in Costa Rica didn't sound like a lot.  Neither did the five different hotels and many locations I'd be visiting.  The distances between these places didn't sound like much either: only one hundred kilometers from Arenal Volcano to the Monteverde Cloud Forest, two consecutive highlights.  Sixty miles wouldn't take long, right?  Well that's when the math started defying my North American logic.   The ride took over three hours, not counting a stop for lunch.  First I had to drive around Lake Arenal, the body of water whose hydroelectric dam provides Costa Rica with twelve percent of its electricity. (Passing below towering wind turbines reminded me that ninety-nine percent of the country's total electrical energy is generated by renewable sources.)  But then the pavement started disappearing from the roads along the last thirty-five kilometers or so.   Initially it looked like there was a resurfacing project underway, but the...