[soulman]

My girlfriend and I made the drive in May of 2005. Neither of us spoke hardly any Spanish at all but read everything we could about making the drive. http://www.drivemeloco.com was pretty helpful but also gave some bad advice on “shortcuts”. We took 6 weeks, the odometer registered about 5,000 miles from LA to Costa Rica. We had ZERO problems with police, banditos, rudeness, etc. It was a dream trip and a trip of a lifetime. The border crossings are the worst part of the trip. Several places suggested hiring one of the kids that essentially work at the border and let them speed you through the process. Bad advice. We got into Mexico on our own no problem, entered Guatemala perfectly, but for some reason decided to hire someone upon entering Honduras. The two guys tries to extort $200 out of us and gave us lots of reasons why it was necessary. We just stonewalled, said we don’t have $200, ordered them to take us to the person that wanted the $200, of course no one at the border was asking for the bribe, and eventually got through the border. Entering Nicaruaga was no problem and Costa Rica was relatively easy. So bottom line, driving was doable, we got there with lots of our stuff, a great car that we could rely on, and a great experience. Of course, anything could happen during those 5,000 miles but its not the landmine, bandito filled route that people claim. The one rule that we NEVER violated though was we NEVER drove at night. That seems to be when the banditos operate and the crooked cops work.

We drove a 1993 Toyota 4Runner. Paid $5k for it in the US for the purpose of driving it to CR. We were allowed two 90 periods and then had to pay to import the vehicle. The total import cost was $3,400. We drove it in CR for two years and sold it this past year for $8,400.

[Author]

Posts