Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Puerto Jimenez to Carate

Hi all. I just returned from a 10 day trip to Costa Rica, half of which was spent on the Osa Peninsula. Took a Nature Air flight from the Tobias Bolanas airport near San Jose to the airstrip in Puerto Jimenez. We then took the Collectivo from Puerto Jimenez to Carate. If you are not aware, the Collectivo is the cheapest means of travel ($7 each way) from PJ to carate. For the trip you ride in the back of a 4x4 pickup along a rough road for about 2 hours. On our way out to carate it was a rough but rather enjoyable ride. However, on the return trip my girlfriend and I had a very unpleasent experience, and I would advice against traveling with the Collectivo. Unfortunately, the only other option is to hire a taxi for $60 each way, but if you can split the cost it is not too unreasonable.

Now for the story. We are sitting in the back of the pickup with 3 other travelers. About 15 minutes into the trip back to PJ I see a large log, maybe 25-35 centimeters in diameter, laying accross half the road. Rather than steering around it, the driver drives right over it at about 30 km/h when he easily could have driven around. I kind of thought the driver was just showing off, no big deal. Then about 15 minutes later, the truck begins drifting to the right side of the road, we go off the road and are bouncing along heading straight for a tree. No slowing down at all. At the last moment, the truck is turned back onto the road and we continue along without stopping. This time, I was a bit concerned, but brushed it off thinking maybe the driver was playing with his radio or something; won't happen again. Well I was wrong, and the next time could easily have killed or severely injured several people. The truck drifted off the left side of the road, and started climbing up the steep slope. The truck was on such a steep slope that it should have rolled over, but for whatever reason it did not. And once again, the driver never touched the breaks. Just continued driving off the road, after several seconds finally steered back onto the road, went off the other side of the road, then back onto the road and kept driving. We hollered at him to stop, and got out with our bags. We were going to walk the 13 miles in 90 degree heat before getting back in the truck. The driver was claiming that the truck's steering was broken. Whether the truck was broken, or the driver was incompetent, it was still a very dangerous situation that I would advise against subjecting yourself to. Sorry for the long rant, but I had to put this out there.