If you’re looking for a great drive down the coast, but don’t necessarily care about your destination, you should make a short trip down to Carate. Start at Puerto Jimenez and go 45km past Cabo Matapalo, to arrive at a city consisting of an airstrip, a pulperia and a dozen or so hotels for those too tired to continue their journey. It’s not the city that will interest you however, but the drive. To get to Carate, you’ll pass through rainforests, rivers and beaches that are covered in lush vegetation and filled with the wondrous wildlife of Costa Rica.