Many families in Costa Rica either own one car or a motorcycle; however, it is also common not to own one at all.
The transition for me from driving everywhere to walking everywhere was surprisingly not that difficult. As much as I enjoy having the ability to easily access my car and get anywhere as quickly as I want to, being forced to walk to where I need to go gives me the opportunity to relax and to be more productive in planning ahead on my schedule. I can’t burst in my random karaoke sessions anymore; however, I’m a lot more observant of my surroundings, and it’s always interesting to people-watch as you walk. Sure, I might almost get run-over from a car that won’t stop at the stop light, but it is still fun to be out and about on my own two feet! With that being said, I was extremely nervous about transportation via public bus and cars/taxis. I’m someone who gets extreme nausea from motion sickness, so any abrupt motion and stops really make me ill. My previous experience in Colombia, where the cars and buses were also manual made me extremely motion-sick. Therefore, it was really a major concern of mine coming to Costa Rica that I might not be able to make myself travel anywhere that I really wanted. But since coming to Costa Rica, I haven’t had any truly bad experiences with either the buses or taxis, here. In fact, many of the drivers here are a lot better than my friends back at home! The only part where I feel queasy is when we abruptly swerve up and over the hills (there are a lot of hills in Costa Rica) or whenever we go on an incline.
