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Our first trip to Costa Rica last year involved me doing a lot of driving. My 12 year old became car sick within 30 minutes of being on the road. I stopped three times on the way to La Fortuna so that he could “relieve” himself. I eventually came across a pharmacy. I explained I had a 12 year old with car sickness and the young store clerk immediately reached for a small box of tiny pills. The pills worked very well for the rest of our 9 day stay but made my son sleep most of the time the car was moving.
Later, while conversing with a friendly older Tico couple, they mentioned that they had seen a few stopped cars with kids vomiting on the road side as they made their way to Arenal from Atenas. Apparently, this is not unusual. Numerous curves and hills everywhere are bound to take some kind of toll on some passengers.
I can’t remember the name of the medication I was sold in La Fortuna. Next time I will bring something along from Miami with us but I wonder if anyone out there knows of a good product sold in CR for car sickness.Try to address the cause of the car sickness. In general it is caused when children sit too low and cannot see the moving surroundings. The inner ear tells you that the world is moving but the eyes say no. The result is motion sickness. The same can happen to adults reading in an automobile.
With video games and movies becoming more common in automobiles the motion sickness can also a larger problem. On smooth US highways it may not be a problem but anywhere the roads curve and twist it can be. When traveling you need to get children interested in their surroundings. A 12 year old will beg to go on theme park roller coasters, they should not have motion sickness in a car.
You can see Arenal many times from various places on the road from just past the the high point at Laguna. Make it a game to see how many times it can be seen. OR play at translating road signs. If the person is interested in looking for things along the road they will not synchronize their inner ear to visual cues and quickly forget they feel ill.
That would be Dramamine – same as in the U.S. Another alternative is a wrist band which fights motion sickness. My sister swears by it, and it doesn’t put you to sleep.
I get motion sickness very easily. My ten year old son also gets it. The best thing I’ve ever found is a pill called Scopace. It’s a prescription and not all doctors or pharmacists have heard of it. The pharmacy you go to may even have to order it in for you. It’s medical name is ‘Scopolamine Hydrobromide, U.S.P.’ 0.4 mg tablets. I believe it’s the same thing found in the patches you put behind your ears, but it works a lot better for me.
I’ve learned the hard way to only take between 1/3 and 1/2 of a pill (my 10 year old takes 1/3) and it does wonders. Any more than that and I get a little loopy. It’s the only pill I’ve ever tried that doesn’t put me to sleep.
I’ve tried the patch, the wrist band, and many kinds of pills, but this is the only thing that I’d swear by. We’ve been all over Costa Rica in the past few months with no sickness (and I can even read the map as we go).
I’m pretty sure you’d have to bring this prescription from another country. I don’t believe they have it here in Costa Rica.
My cousin swears by ginger. Ginger Ale, Ginger cookies etc. I’ve never tried it.
Good luck.
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