Public buses service the region’s main towns, but off those main routes it’s almost impossible to get around without a four-wheel drive. The road infrastructure has not kept pace with development. At the time of writing there were several bad patches of main road in the Tamarindo area, as well as several monkey tracks and dirt roads that have become heavily traveled.

As for the weather’s effect on the roads, it’s a no-win situation. Rain creates more potholes in the unpaved gravel roads, while hot, dry weather makes the roads terribly dusty; drivers have to keep their distance from each other just to be able to see. Roads that are resurfaced often have large potholes open up during the rainy season.

Below is a table showing the distance between the main towns discussed in this chapter. You cannot calculate distance and time to destination as you would in your home country, unless of course you’re also from a place with bad roads that wind through hills and mountains. Given the unpredictable road quality, always add extra time to the calculation you would make at home, and then a little more for being stuck behind a tractor or trailer.