Dark Road Ahead

        I thought the SUV was a little sluggish leaving the rental place...luckily I figured that I still had the emergency brake on! Oh boy, am I ready for this? When you think of dark, add 3 more levels and that's what we're driving in. Our 1989 Garmin GPS had us a little concerned, but the old girl popped up our hotel location and we were off. Speed limits are posted in km/hr; but I soon decided that it didn't matter how fast you could go, safety determined that we didn't exceed that. We had heard the caution about Costa Rican roads, but we had a new blacktop "highway" all the way to the hotel. I will say that there are not many straight sections of road here; so you are an active driver at all times. Oh did I mention that there are 'reductors' (speed bumps) whenever you come to an area with buildings. At night these are a little hard to see and I took the first one faster than recommended--that sprang me into a higher alert stage than I was already in. We were very thankful that the centerline had reflectors that allowed us to see the road better. I was absolutely flabbergasted that the terrain was mountainous so near the coast. We went up, then down, around sharp turns, back up and down again. If it wasn't so dark, the views had to be spectacular. We got the "800 meters turn right" announcement from Garmin girl and we turn on "The Road" to our hotel.
          After avoiding some potholes on "The Road", we pulled up to our hotel. We weren't sure if anyone was around until we saw the lot attendant (we felt bad for this guy too!). We parked and our amigo assisted us with our luggage to our 2nd floor room. We made it! A shower was necessary, recall the puddles, and the bags went on our 2nd bed and we hit the hay.