Camino de Costa Rica

Most of the trail follows dirt, gravel, and rock roadways across costal plains and over steep mountains. These "roads" are steeper in spots than any managed trail I've hiked.

Even though they seem like remote, unused, forest roads, these roads are used daily to reach remote homes, farms, and fields. Vehicles are used to encountering pedestrians, and we had no near misses, but maintaining awareness of traffic approaching is important all the time. There are a few short sections of walking along busy, paved roads with little shoulder.

There are occasional red/white blazes or spraypainted hummingbird blazes, but not enough for navigating your way. Using a guide or the guidebook is a good idea.

A few sections of trail are through indigenous lands and nature preserves. These are muddy, single-track, lightly-used trails. With the constant new plant growth, the trail is sometimes difficult to distinguish.

Once you leave the Caribbean coastal flatlands on the firs day, there is very little flat trail until the Pacific flatlands the last day. You are constantly either climbing or descending steep terrain.

This route was dreamed up in 2016 and has been in use since 2018. The Mar-a-Mar non-profit has been working with local communities and businesses to set up infrastructure to support hikers, such as lodging, meals, shuttles, and interactive activities.

A main goal of creating this camino is to move some tourism from the coasts to the more exotic, mountainous interior of the country. Since it has recently been laid out, it is changing often. Cement segment markers, new wooden signage, and red/white blazes mark the route.