I ran a boat down to C.R. winter of '03-'04 (chasing sailfish).
Spent a month in Los Suenos. Decided to take a cab to Jaco for dinner. We needed 2 cabs because there were 6 or 7 of us. Owner got the bright idea of offering the drivers an extra $20 to the car that got there first!
You can imagine what kind of ride that was was, lol.
Notoriously bad roads in C.R. but beautiful place. I did a little exploring while I was there. Montezuma (popular with expats, canucks and europeans), Puntarenas (gritty little fishing town), San Jose (watch out for the pickpockets!), then loaded the boat onto a Dockwise ship in Golfito and had them transport it back north.
I love the C.R. currency. Game fish and mermaids...