"Go on, just keep going!" is Ingo's instruction as I cross the river for the first time. Alban and Isaline from Belgium watch spellbound from the vehicle behind us - the certainly much more suitable Range Rover - in anticipation of a clear indication of the water depth. It is not to be expected that the SL will sink and simply fill up like a bathtub; after all, the car did not belong to me, but to him, our advisor and inventor of the "Carrera Costa Rica", Ingo Bartsch. And indeed: it's child's play if you get the right amount of throttle to the bearishly gurgling eight-cylinder engine at the right time.
After all, this SL is no ordinary car: it is modeled on the famous SL and SLC rally cars of the 107 series, which were also driven by Björn Waldegård and Walter Röhrl in the '70s and '80s and which won the Vuelta a la Americana Sud in 1978, the Safari Rally in 1979 and the Bandama Rally in 1979 and 1980. At the beginning of the 1980s, Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer had signed with Mercedes-Benz, but the Mercedes Benz 500 SL rally project was canceled.
Pura Vida - pure life
This is the country's motto, omnipresent and somehow also very fitting - and a "rustic" environment for a classic car tour, was my first thought when we at Zwischengas were asked by Ingo to promote his new offer immediately after the end of the usual international Covid travel restrictions. Ingo is a mixture of tourism entrepreneur and private individual. He has lived in Costa Rica for 18 years with his cheerful, hospitable wife Inga, a passionate amateur cook, in an architecturally impressive residence on the outskirts of the capital San José.
Today, both of them feel too young to retire, but have also travelled too far to enjoy organizing trips for "normal consumers". So one day, while looking at their collection of vintage cars, some of which are exotic for Costa Rica, the two of them had the idea of offering classic car tours for tourists who are looking for more than just the numerous attractions of this destination, which is particularly popular with Germans and Swiss.
The Switzerland of the American continent
And this country really does have a lot to offer: Tropics and jungle, picturesque volcanoes and waterfalls, sun and sea, lush vegetation and a diversity of species, including wildlife, that is unparalleled anywhere in the world. As a small Central American country, Costa Rica is considered the Switzerland of Central (and South) America, not only because of its mountainous interior, but above all because of its "neutrality" proclaimed in 1963. Politically, it is a stable democracy, prosperous due to flourishing agriculture on volcanic soil, but also thanks to its great attractiveness as a safe tourist destination.
We couldn't resist booking this tour last March. Arriving after a good eleven-hour flight from Zurich - fortunately in a reclining position - we were greeted by a climate almost like home; although there was a typical subtropical flavor in the air, it was quite cool for what we had expected. The reason is quickly found: San José is 1170 meters above sea level. After a night in the capital, which can easily be explored in just one day, including the state theater and a few museums, we take a cab up another 200 meters to the "Equis", the villa of our hosts Ingo and Inga, which offers a Hollywood Hills-worthy view of the city's sea of lights. With first-class hospitality and good wines, we have our first gasoline conversations and get to know the other teams riding with us, all of whom are staying in guest suites or annexes on the premises.
The vehicle fleet is ready
On the first day, a "pool day" is planned to acclimatize and discuss the situation, of course not without inspecting the vehicles ready for our tour and meticulously cleaned by Mario, the friendly car valet: two Range Rover V8, two-door, color "sahara dust", manual transmission, from 1972 and 1980.
In addition, a 1968 Porsche 911 converted to an "R", whose 2.3-liter boxer engine has been upgraded to deliver a good 200 hp on the track - thanks to the body being raised by six centimeters, it can even be driven on any conceivable track.
And of course the 1974 Mercedes-Benz 450 SL in rally version, modified after lengthy research and according to factory specifications. Although it offers the standard engine with automatic transmission, it has an exhaust system that should scare even big wildcats, balloon tires suitable for off-road use and a noticeable 120 millimetres more ground clearance. "The original Mercedes springs were far too soft, even though the factory still likes to claim that they were installed back then," says Ingo, explaining his conversion to a Bilstein suspension. The front axle has 275/60 tires on eight-inch BBS-Mahle rims; 295 tires are mounted on nine-inch rims at the rear. "That's how it gets through everywhere in this country," explains Ingo, giving us a subliminal hint that this vehicle is the most comfortable of all for the upcoming tour - and the only one with air conditioning.
Breakfast on the volcano
We set off the next morning in our gently rocking '72 Range Rover on the first leg of our journey: a picnic at the crater of Irazú, at 3400 meters the highest volcano in the country. For me, the car is a prime example of very British, small quality flaws - the kind of thing you usually see in Italian makes, although these usually feel more charming in their bundled imperfection. Apart from that, they are certainly indestructible on the road. Ingo starts ahead of us in the other Range Rover, our escort vehicle. Alban and Isaline from Belgium in the "dusty yellow" 911 (quote from Ingo) and Günther from Westphalia and his daughter Andrea from St. Gallen in the comfortable 450 SL. The two of them do this every year - a father-daughter rally somewhere in the world.
A great gesture and the best gift for family ties, I think, as I shift into third gear somewhere half a meter further to the right and very close to my companion's knee in the "Range". There are other reasons why you should think twice about doing this: The eight-cylinder engine is not overly elastic and a cute 135 hp from 3.5 liters of displacement has to push two tons of weight (and yes, we are also taking some of the Porsche crew's luggage with us). On the usual gradients in Costa Rica, where roads are occasionally carved out of the bush at low cost and sometimes simply leveled straight up the mountain, lower gears are often required - right down to off-road reduction. Seen in this light, this car is a good choice if you want to arrive at a leisurely but guaranteed pace.
Arriving at the top of Irazú, our small vintage car team is almost the bigger attraction among the many bus tourists than the view of the crater and the crater lake. Some Americans and Europeans flock here with their smartphone cameras out and want to know where these cars come from. They are astonished to recognize the local license plates, and we realize for the first time how rare it is to admire classic cars here - by the way, we didn't see another Porsche 911 during the other 1500 kilometers of this tour.
On a clear day, you can see both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean from up here. Unfortunately, the crater was a little cloudy this morning, and with temperatures only just above zero degrees Celsius, we decided to have a small champagne breakfast with finely filled puff pastry buns on a less crowded side of the crater.
The next stage of the day led back down from the volcano. With a short visit to the disused and "haunted" Sanatorio Durán - a truly mythical place - we touch the two national parks "Braulio Carrillo" and "Póas Volcano". In the afternoon, after a 160-kilometer stage, we reach our destination for today, La Paz Waterfall Gardens and the Peace Lodge. Magnificent waterfalls; butterfly, big cat and bird houses; reptile, monkey and hummingbird gardens and the old "Casita Típica", an old Costa Rican farmhouse, await us here. We stay in rooms in the style of the Feuerstein family, very spacious and far more luxurious, albeit without "Wilma".
Several climate zones every day
We "experience" a similar distance but a more beautiful route the next day, with our destination La Fortuna and accommodation with a fantastic view of what is probably the most beautiful volcano in the country from afar: the Arenal. Not only do we see the Póas on the way, but Ingo also suffers the first breakdown of the tour on his Range Rover: the servo pump is stuck; a replacement is not in sight here in the countryside. Instead, he has a pair of pliers in his toolbox, and the shrill squealing V-belt is cut in ten seconds. The noise is also over, and we can continue without servo assistance - we rarely have to reverse park here anyway. And more importantly, the area we are driving through is one of the most beautiful landscapes in the north of Costa Rica with its evergreen, tropical vegetation.
We pull up at "The Springs, Arenal". According to Ingo, the hotel team already knows our vehicles. Alban removes the flaps on the 911 twin-tube exhaust a few places in advance to announce our arrival. We are welcomed quickly and reach the pool faster. But which one? There are lots of them: some sulphurous, half a dozen hot natural springs, some with a view of the Arenal - a special place.
The next morning we enjoy our first unobstructed view of the picturesque volcano and another dip in the pools. Today we will drive around the glistening Lake Arenal - the largest inland body of water in Costa Rica - on a partly unpaved road up towards Monteverde.
We pass through the so-called "Switzerland of Costa Rica", an incredibly well-kept, gently rolling landscape with apparently perfectly organized agriculture, where there is even a Swiss village with typical Swiss chalets, its own railroad line to the panoramic restaurant and a Costa Rican hostess who understands Swiss-German. This was built by an emigrant and coffee merchant, Franz Ulrich, who died a few years ago and came from Hergiswil in Switzerland.
Monteverde itself has the lovely charm of a small town and exudes an incredibly friendly atmosphere. Together with the neighboring protected areas, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve forms the largest contiguous cloud forest area in Costa Rica. We explore part of it on foot. It is something special, incomparable and surprising, even for some real globetrotters we meet along the way.
Did you see the crocodiles?
After breakfast in the much cooler Monteverde, we set off towards the warmer Pacific coast. All the cars hold out, even the Range Rover feels right at home here. On the picturesque way there - partly on gravel - we often see the Gulf of Nicoya glistening on our high-altitude route. We visit the harbor town of Puntarenas and drive briefly along the Pacific coast on the Panamericana - not very spectacular on this section, but practical - before turning off into the mountains again, not without a detour to the lower bridge of the Rio Tárcoles. It is under this bridge that the up to five-metre-long pointed crocodiles are said to cavort. Ingo sees a few as he drives past, but none of the other rally participants do. From then on, the crocodile sighting becomes a "running gag", a kind of mirage.
We continue past small villages in the southern Cordillera. Only a few tourists get lost in this area. Here, Costa Rica is definitely still the original Costa Rica. Towards evening we reach the Equis again, but only the first part of the rally journey is complete.
More seating comfort in the 1968 Porsche 911
The next morning, day 7 of our trip, we set off for the south of the country in a 1968 Porsche 911 after changing vehicles. What can we say? We say goodbye to a British Spartan wooden stool, which was obviously developed after numerous pints in the pub, which is why even a halfway generous adjustment option for the backrest was forgotten. We take a seat - surprisingly comfortable in direct comparison - in a Swabian driving machine; built by people who apparently only know one vice: The desire to develop good, lightweight sports cars, which still deserved this much-worn designation at the time. The 911 also has a better seating position - despite being 55 years old, like the author of these lines. After just an hour's drive, we meet the local police, the kind who don't feel responsible for traffic, but are nevertheless interested in our cars. After a staged handcuffing of my co-pilot for a souvenir photo, we head into the mountains near Cangrejal, where we enjoy another small champagne breakfast and the view over the mountains and as far as the Pacific.
Shortly afterwards, it lights up red in the middle of the rev counter in the 911: "Battery". You guessed it: the alternator is on strike. It had been replaced before this stage as a precautionary measure, more or less "on suspicion", but that was probably the mistake. As another 1968 Porsche is already running just as well on battery power, we drive on undeterred; for hours without any problems. And since we are not in the middle of the Sahara, but in one of the most prosperous countries in the region, we simply go to the nearest large supermarket on the way and buy a spare battery. We don't need it, because Ingo has a charger with him for night-time recharging.
The eight-horsepower ferry on the way to the howler monkeys
This is followed by a visit to Drake Bay and, on the way there, a short river crossing on a ferry powered by a permanently moored sports boat with an 8 hp outboard motor. We reach the Golfo Dulce and see mountain, cloud and palm forests, but also alluvial land, swamp forest and mangrove swamps. Here is our next stop: the Kunken Lodge, formerly the private estate of a wealthy professional sportsman, complete with guest houses, now a spectacular complex integrated into the natural surroundings with absolute seclusion from the outside world and situated on its own bay, including a restaurant right on the water.
Unforgettably impressive here is an hour-long wake-up call from nature from around 4:30 in the morning: howler monkeys, who spend a good hour in the hills above the complex, sometimes over a distance of several kilometers, discussing their plans for the day and negotiating possible meetings. They sound as close as if they were just a few meters away from our veranda.
Swap pool for rally day in the SL
After this somewhat shorter night, we split up into a group that wants to stay by the pool today or go on short hikes, and the other participants who want to "experience" a few more things in the area. I choose the 450 SL today and look forward to a casual, lazy automatic day, but it will be a tough one: River crossings, steep hills on a rain-soaked muddy track and a sudden slalom through construction machinery crossing our path, rightly trying to make that very track more passable. The friendly, smiling Tica (as the locals are called here), who controls the traffic at the entrance to the construction site, gestures energetically in our direction, which we interpret as an incentive to speed up. And as we - accompanied by our Belgian friends in the Range Rover - were only able to master the situation in the SL with plenty of momentum, speed and, in some cases, by driving crossways through the bends, dozens of construction workers paused motionless and you could see their jaws drop in sync out of the corner of your eye, as if we were a UFO taking off on their unpaved runway in the middle of the jungle. I wonder if the traffic patrol was networked or had any rudimentary knowledge of whether traffic was stopped at the other end? No matter! A little driving adventure is also allowed on a rather touristy country road.
I'm up early the next night because I'm really looking forward to the howler monkey concert - and the next stage. Neither disappoints. Today we have an exceptionally beautiful but also challenging route ahead of us. We drive north around the Golfo Dulce, then another short stretch on the Panamericana, touch the national parks "Piedras Blancas" and "Golfito National Wildlife Refuge", past the "Esquinas Rainforest Lodge", before entering the bay of Golfito.
Hotel access only recommended with 4x4
From Golfito we continue north, back onto the Panamericana until just before the border with Panama. Before the border, we turn left into the mountains towards San Vito - a dream route with magnificent views. Finally, we reach Ochojal and our destination for the day: the Three Sixty Lodge - a beautiful small boutique hotel in a dream location, with a spectacularly steep approach and Pacific or rainforest views from all rooms and from the beautifully designed infinity pool. What is also remarkable here is the car and classic car enthusiast staff. You almost get the impression that they are some kind of Indiana Jones or at least brave and daring - which leads to a certain special treatment at the pool bar. And looking back, it is indeed courageous to drive a 911 or SL up an extremely steep, narrow and stony driveway that looks as if it was carved out of the bush yesterday. This is probably why the hotel's website indicates "access by four-wheel drive vehicles only". A shower, a good Asian-Mexican dinner and a very good gin and tonic top off this little adventure.
The next morning, we stay by the pool for another hour before allowing the staff to take some Instagram pictures of vintage cars - before finally setting off on one of the longest stages of the day.
We leave the long valley of the Nauyaca and drive via San Isidro over the notorious "Cerro de la Muerte", where we climb to over 3300 meters, experience the thickest fog and even our first traffic jam due to major construction work.
Allow time for a coffee break
This is followed by a descent through low-hanging clouds and back into better visibility for around ten kilometers on the Panamericana. Then we turn west onto the road of the "Santos", the saints. San Marcos, San Gabriel, San Pablo, San Andrés; these are the names of the small towns - and the saints.
Wonderful views, past huge coffee fincas. Tarrazú, the world-famous coffee, is grown here, so we also had to stock up on this really aromatic coffee in a small store - "also" because this store was unfortunately full of a US school class as a tourist group. And anyone who has ever experienced in the USA how US citizens (and in this case these rather wealthy kids) can make a science out of a mundane coffee order will like to think of the simplicity of an Italian bar and the caffè or espresso ordered and consumed there within three minutes. That's how long it takes these kids to tell each other what they don't like or whether oat milk tastes disgusting - all while they're standing at the checkout and having to make a decision about a simple order, which is completely beyond them.
No wonder Western civilizations are in danger - and so are we, since it takes us 30 minutes to make this purchase. For Ingo, that's 20 too many. He still has a plan for us: to reach San Jose and the last attraction of our trip on time. On the onward journey, it is therefore completely silent for about the same amount of time, and there are no route descriptions via walkie-talkie before the mood brightens considerably and we try to make up for the time lost buying coffee by taking a very steep descent on a shortcut. We reach the imaginary checkered flag on the Equis before dusk - done!
Before the farewell dinner, an entire mariachi band unexpectedly emerges from an inconspicuous minibus onto Ingo's courtyard to crown our final cocktail by the pool with sombreros and professionally played Mexican-inspired evergreens, which are almost all familiar and yet fit in so well here that they simply seem authentic and beautiful. And since we are here on the property of a German who is known throughout the town and who is indeed well-organized according to every cliché, none of the guests and none of the musicians are surprised that Mario is still working on the interior of our Porsche 911 in the evening of our return under discreet carport lighting - after the 450 SL has already been thoroughly cleaned all around. He looks happy and always looks at the cars with a somewhat transfigured expression. Just like all of us, from a little more distance and with many new memories in our heads that would stay with us much longer than on the long flight back two days later.
As my grandmother, still reeling from the great inflation, said: "Boy, listen to me. Money, houses, cars - everything can be gone again one day. So travel as much as you can. It creates openness to the world and beautiful memories in your head - and nobody can take them away from you; they are yours forever."
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