Driving our JL To Costa Rica

[Karl_in_Chicago]

Love following your blog. Question - with literally everything you own being in the back of the Jeep do you empty it out at each B&B/Hotel stop?

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[Chocolate Thunder]

Just read the whole blog. Thank you for allowing us to take the journey with you vicariously. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s adventures. I love you guys’ open mindedness, positivity, and can-do attitude about everything.

 

[Capt-Zoom]

Not a chance in hell. I prefer not to be kidnapped

 

[Villagevip]

Lived in Central Mexico, over a decade.... Very brave driving a new Gringo Jeep SOFT TOP, filled with goodies ...Jus sayin...Have a safe trip!..

 

[flipboltz]

Love following your blog. Question - with literally everything you own being in the back of the Jeep do you empty it out at each B&B/Hotel stop?

We did not. Every stop we made sure we had secure parking as in gated communities for AirBnBs and gated parking for the hotel stops. It was a little unnerving to have everything in the back but the windows have a really good tint and they got pretty dirty as well so it was difficult to see inside. We had some go bags with vital stuff (money, passports, computers) that we brought in every night with us to be safe.

 

[flipboltz]

Hey everyone! We made it! We are safe and sound in Costa Rica. Man this was a journey. We ended up driving 4100 miles in 13 days. We were in 7 different countries and crossed 6 borders. We averaged 21.9 mpg for the trip.

México was great! It was amazing seeing the different parts of the country and how different the landscapes were. Border crossings were a little crazy, the worst part of border crossings were poorly marked buildings and general not knowing where to go. I would say the worst city we were in was Acapulco. It was super busy and crazy and dirty. Not a place we would go again. If we were to do it again, the one thing we would change is to be able to spend more time in certain places. Puerto Escondido is one of these places. We had some really long days in the car, a couple due to protests in Guatemala & Honduras. Pretty much every night when we pulled into where we were staying we were exhausted. A little less driving and more enjoying and relaxing would have been much better but I could only take 2 weeks off at a time.

Drove past an awesome new Jeep dealership in Mexico and they had some nice new 4 door JLs out front. We did see quite a few CJs, TJs, YJs, & JKs on our way. In Guatemala we saw tons of old Toyota Landcruiser trucks and 4 doors. There is a Jeep dealer here in Costa Rica but it is in San Jose and I’m pretty sure they are still selling 2017s as new.

We were driving back to Tamarindo from looking at a rental house and on the Google Maps there was a road that said similar ETA and we looked at each other and said why not? Stupid noobs mistake. It was near dark and this road went from hard packed dirt to deep thick Mud. It had been raining like cats and dogs for over a week straight at this point. We should have turned around right away... Nope. Dumbasses keep on going. I quickly popped it in 4H and we were straight mudding. Let me tell you, this freaking Jeep is amazing! I kept the throttle going and we plowed through this crazy ass mud and made it out with no issues. Lessons learned. When the Google says similar ETA, it doesn’t know the condition of the road.

Thanks for hanging with us on this trip and thanks for reading the blog www.flipboltz.wordpress.com We will continue to post in the blog and I will continue to post here on the boards. Let me know when you want to come visit!

 

[GreyFox]

So are you guys permanently staying in Costa Rica?

 

[Trav.city]

Really enjoyed the blog. Thanks for taking the time. Glad you made it.

 

[flipboltz]

So are you guys permanently staying in Costa Rica?

That is the plan for now. We are going to stay here for awhile and then see where the wind blows us.

 

[Chocolate Thunder]

Whenever you get a chance to get down to Jaco or Herradura, tell em I’ll be back soon. Glad you had a fun trip.

 

[beachbumm78]

Glad y’all made it and super excited for you! Lived in Caribbean and absolutely loved it! Costa Rica will be amazing. Enjoy life!

 

[Chocolate Thunder]

I’m glad the horrible brown non-Americans didn’t rob, rape, and murder you (and kick your dog) like a lot of folks seemed to think was so likely to happen.

I don’t know your intentions now, perhaps the blog was just a fun way to chronicle your journey and share it with family/friends and the Jeep community. But if you decide to continue it or start a new one telling us about your acclamation to the Tico way of life I’d read it.

 

[JohnAinVA]

Amazing.....loved reading about your journey and congrats! I'd love to see more pictures!

 

[flipboltz]

I’m glad the horrible brown non-Americans didn’t rob, rape, and murder you (and kick your dog) like a lot of folks seemed to think was so likely to happen.

I don’t know your intentions now, perhaps the blog was just a fun way to chronicle your journey and share it with family/friends and the Jeep community. But if you decide to continue it or start a new one telling us about your acclamation to the Tico way of life I’d read it.

We will continue the blog. We plan on Eating and Beaching our way around Costa Rica and might expand into Panama and South America. I really appreciate you following along and not having the same American thoughts that a lot have had on this thread.

 

[flipboltz]

Amazing.....loved reading about your journey and congrats! I'd love to see more pictures!

Thanks! We will be updating the blog regularly with pics and stuff we are doing here in Costa Rica.

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