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00:00Expedition Overland's Pan American Series is presented by General Tire. Anywhere is possible.
00:40We are in Costa Rica, and already expectations are being challenged as we make our way to camp.
00:48Well, we're in Costa Rica, which is the good thing. And that border actually went pretty smooth.
00:54It's like Arizona dry, Texas dry. And we've gone by two fires. There is obviously another fire right here.
01:02There's signs on the road that say, you know, no smoking, no fires.
01:06We just got off the phone just a few minutes ago with our contact. We got a guy, Adrian, coming
01:11in.
01:12He reached out to us and said, hey, when you guys come through Costa Rica, let's go do some trails
01:16and stuff.
01:17So we're excited, and who knows, maybe we will just get into some jungles with good trails.
01:38So you spend a fair bit of time in the hills here in Costa Rica?
01:42Yeah, man. Probably every weekend.
01:44Every weekend? Good. You're my kind of guy. Yeah, that's us back home.
01:47While the guys talk Toyotas, Steve, Kyle, and myself are preparing a special meal.
01:53Tonight we are making chicken.
01:56What we're going to do is we're going to marinate it in some fresh lime juice.
02:01Add a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, a little bit of garlic.
02:05And then Clay is going to help with making some potatoes.
02:08So in our thought process when we were building these trucks, one of the big things that we thought through
02:13was the kitchen.
02:14Because we spend a lot of time here.
02:16What we came up with was pretty simple, actually.
02:19Just a slide that allows your fridge to come out with the access right here.
02:24What's nice about this fridge is the stainless steel, so you can use it as a cook surface.
02:29You can clean it.
02:31And then underneath it, the stove slides out and allows you to cook right here.
02:35Then we have our tailgate, which we use often as a prep surface.
02:41I guess if we were to make any addition to it, we would add a separate camp table.
02:49We are excited to have some new people in camp.
02:52And Adrian and Herman are quite the guys.
02:55Adrian owns the largest off-road shop in Costa Rica.
02:58And Herman works for one of Costa Rica's off-road magazines.
03:02No, no.
03:03You serve us.
03:04You are our guest.
03:05You are our guest.
03:08Well, thank you for coming.
03:09Thank you for helping us.
03:11No, no, no.
03:11It's okay.
03:12I really like what you're doing.
03:15For wheeling, probably we can find some mud because it's a lot of green stuff.
03:22And I know a friend of mine...
03:24We want some challenge with the rigs.
03:26But we need to be careful.
03:28They're not even halfway through their trip, considering that they will have to be driven
03:32back to the U.S., hopefully from the very end of the road in Panama.
03:41In the morning, we eat a good breakfast, get all our maps in order, and set up our HEMA navigators
03:47for our departure to the east.
03:54The terrain quickly transitions out of the dry coastal region to tropical mountains.
03:59The roads are in amazing shape and are far better than our previous weeks traveling through
04:05Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
04:08The last time we had a car wash was in Mapaz, Mexico.
04:12Which means we have five countries of dirt plastered on our cars.
04:16And got all that washed off.
04:18It's like a fresh new slate.
04:19And now we're going into Costa Rica.
04:21So it's kind of cool to think about the reset of all the dirt that we gathered over the past
04:26five, six countries.
04:28And it's just like, reset, let's find some more trail.
04:37We're in the foothills of the Arenal Volcano.
04:41And we are going to go to a ranch.
04:44They have an internal trail that allowed us to go and really reach.
04:49It will be the closest road that you can get to the Volcano Arenal.
05:00Less than a kilometer into the trail, the jungle rears its head and gives us an unwelcome wake-up call.
05:15Crikey!
05:18A lot of stuff.
05:21Well, let's go look at it.
05:24We want to winch with Rufio, so we need to bring it down a ways.
05:27Like a little off this side over here.
05:29In fact, butt the front wheels up against this would be perfect.
05:32Yep.
05:33Be a good stop.
05:36And we're going to get your front tires right about here.
05:39Obviously, we don't want to slip off the side, but let's get you right down here.
05:42Keep coming.
05:43Stay on that, stay on that, stay on that, stay on that.
05:47Right there.
05:49Okay, so we're going to need a snatch block.
05:51A D-ring.
05:55A tree saver.
05:57And get the winch all fired up.
06:01We're going to go down and pinch around the one tree, so we need a tree saver around the upper
06:05tree.
06:05We got another one right here.
06:07Another tree saver right here.
06:08If we have another one, let's grab it.
06:15Yep, you bet.
06:16Yep, we're ready to have that down.
06:18The brush is thick, and the critters within are less than friendly.
06:21See the size of those ants?
06:22Yeah.
06:25Oh, we sent Jeff in.
06:28You okay?
06:30I just got a huge ant on my finger.
06:33Bit through the glove.
06:35I'm not even mad, I'm impressed.
06:47Okay, now we've got to have everyone back.
06:49Yep, we're good, rigging's good.
06:52It's going to kind of pull tight.
06:54It's going really easy.
06:55Yeah.
06:55We've got a couple feet.
06:56Double gold.
06:57There it is.
07:00Go ahead and let off a little bit.
07:02Yeah.
07:14Go ahead and let off a little bit.
07:16Yeah.
07:16Go to the other one.
07:17The other tree.
07:17The higher tree.
07:18Yeah.
07:19Just so we get a better angle on it.
07:24We've got most of the big logs pushed away, and now we've reset the snatch block and reangled
07:32the forerunner for a better pull angle on the drum.
07:44Meanwhile, I'm in the truck with the gear in neutral, the transmission in neutral, my foot
07:50on the brake, and I also have the e-brake on, just my foot on the brake for safety.
07:57In case something goes weird, there's always somebody in the vehicle, and there's no tension
08:02being put directly on the transmission.
08:10Oh, there she is.
08:13Okay.
08:14Stop.
08:14Let's shorten one out.
08:15Yep.
08:21Let's topple it together.
08:23Like that.
08:24A whole ton of stuff.
08:26About 50 feet worth of downed trees.
08:30Winched some, broke some, cut some, macheted some, and we're down to like the last little
08:34snarl here, where we're going to drive these forerunners through.
08:38Looking good.
08:39This side's going to come up a little bit, but it's all fine.
08:42Let me watch trees on this side.
08:44All good, man.
08:45All good.
08:46I feel like I could do this for days and days on end.
08:49This is fun.
08:50At least if you're in the heat, it's good to be sweating because you're working.
08:52We're having a blast.
09:02As we make our way up the trail, periodic rain makes the vegetation slick.
09:07Our grabbers do their work and move us up the steep trail.
09:11We'll be in, of course.
09:19Okay, come on...
09:23killer, Oh God.
09:23Right.
09:37I love you.
09:40How'd you come out?
09:40You should always leave this time to get a lot of stuff back up.
09:40How'd you come out of time?
09:44Kyle is the most novice of drivers amongst us, and he takes the wheel behind Rufio.
09:50Here he's learning the balance between traction and momentum.
10:11How many times in life can you go off-road at the base of the volcano?
10:20It's mind-boggling. It's amazing.
10:24You can't get up here unless you have a 4x4 and have permission to even be here.
10:43At the trail's top end, a very special spot is revealed to us.
10:48A remote church the landowner built for his family.
10:53We can't go any further from this point.
10:56It wasn't long ago that some scientist died from poisonous gases not far from here up the volcano.
11:06Night is about to fall, and our time is limited.
11:10The jungle is not always the friendliest of places when the sun goes down.
11:27It's a bit eerie, wheeling in the jungle at night.
11:31Sometimes you feel like something might jump out at you at any moment.
11:47We channel our inner Indiana Jones as we cut our way down the trail toward tonight's camp at the ranch
11:52house.
11:56All in all though, it's really fun.
11:58Yeah, it's really fun.
11:59Yeah, everybody.
12:00I like it.
12:01I can't see your tree on.
12:02I forgot.
12:06I'm digging about this.
12:07Oh yeah.
12:10From the top of the trail.
12:27You may need to be able to move on again.
12:30It's fun to actually engage the lockers and do some work on a trail, a part of the world
12:39where we've never been before.
13:03Adrian is providing dinner tonight, so he brought a local sausage that we're going to make up.
13:08He says what they do is they cut it in half and put it on a tortilla, so we also
13:12got some local beef,
13:14and so we put a little salt on it, we got some natural charcoal happening over here,
13:19and then it's really easy, we're just going to make some rice to go with it, chips and beans as
13:24an appetizer.
13:25So tonight is a meat dinner.
13:28That's amazing!
13:29There's nothing better than a big steak at the end of a hard day,
13:33especially off the back of your rig in Costa Rica.
13:42Get to these areas and wake up and see what's around you, this place is pretty spectacular.
14:09We head up to the ranch house to meet our hosts.
14:11They are friends of Adrian's, formed when Adrian asked them if he could explore their land a couple years ago.
14:18At 1 a.m. they were milked in the car when we were sleeping.
14:21Wow!
14:22And then now at 1 a.m. again.
14:24Look at that!
14:24Oh, the cheese!
14:28Ayayay!
14:34It's mozzarella-ish.
14:36Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
14:38It's good!
14:41Oh!
14:44Steven!
14:45Gentle!
14:45Go eat your hand!
14:54Come to find out, Cesar is a famous long-distance horse racer.
14:58He's proud to show us his best horse.
15:16This is really cool for me to see because I grew up around this kind of stuff.
15:20They really care for their animals.
15:22I mean, these horses are just beautiful creatures,
15:25and they take a lot of pride in what they do, which is always fun to see.
15:32Salute!
15:33Salute!
15:34Salute!
15:35After great conversation, they let us in on a secret spot.
15:39The son, Junior, shows us the way.
15:46Cesar just showed us this childhood swimming hole where he used to come and play and swim,
15:52and it was just so much fun.
15:53And he said, like, this is my home, and it's your home also.
15:56It just shows there's really cool people.
15:59And we just got, you know, feel pretty blessed and lucky to be able to see all this.
16:05It feels good!
16:17Refreshed, it was time to get moving.
16:19Our target is an abandoned highway project along the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
16:26The idea here was that if the road was built, people would move to the area populating it,
16:31and making Costa Rica, which is a non-militarized country, less vulnerable to their militarized northern neighbor, Nicaragua.
16:38The plan backfired, corruption led to the project going broke, and people left instead.
16:45And this bridge is the last one to be finished, leaving miles of unfinished and unconnected roads cut through the
16:52jungle.
16:57A few kilometers later, we find our first obstacle.
17:01Oh!
17:03The bridge is gone here, but they built another one over there.
17:06It's gone all right.
17:07Yeah.
17:08But this one on the other side, they built it.
17:10Oh, okay.
17:10You can see it.
17:11Adrian finds the owner and sees what he will allow us to do to get across it.
17:15If we decide that it's safe to pass and we won't break his bridge, or if we break the bridge,
17:20we were willing to help him rebuild it and fix it,
17:25he's willing to let us pass, you know?
17:27So now he wants us to go with him to check it out and see what happens.
17:33So this is his personal bridge that he built.
17:35We think we'll be all right.
17:37The width is a little tight.
17:38The bridge, it's pretty strong.
17:40These are very large timbers.
17:42But the entrance to the bridge is an old fallen timber.
17:45We're kind of weighing our options of how long it would take to axe through a, you know, 18, 20
17:51-inch diameter tree.
17:53And if he's even willing to let us do that, he may not want it opened.
17:57So, let's see what he says.
17:59Are we finished on the bridge?
18:01Yeah, I think it's not much to do.
18:03That would take a long time to cut that without a saw.
18:07Let's go look at that.
18:07Let's go explore that.
18:08We hunt around for any other option to prevent having to detour hours out of the way.
18:13Oh, there's no option here.
18:15Yeah.
18:16This is the lack of option.
18:18That's a good way to never have a forerunner again.
18:22Enter that quagmire.
18:24I think he would stop thinking about the door handles.
18:27It seems we have no choice.
18:29We cannot continue here.
18:31Let's look at the map.
18:32Let's go for over map.
18:33As we talked a little bit more about it, we could, it's obvious that he's keeping that log there for
18:39a reason.
18:39He doesn't want us to cut it.
18:40I totally understand.
18:42He said even the police can't pass there.
18:44We'll just track it down and hopefully we'll get back into where we want it to be without upsetting what
18:50this guy has set up.
18:51We have to respect and honor what he has and we'll plan our recreation outside of that.
19:05Our detour takes us several hours and as darkness falls, we find ourselves back on the abandoned highway.
19:11Or what's left of it anyway.
19:21So what we're doing is we've got a big hole here.
19:24We're going to get our max tracks out and we're going to span the gap here with a double layer
19:30of max tracks.
19:31Make sure we don't slide off into this big washout that's going on up here.
19:36So.
19:40Copy Kyle.
19:44Come back a little bit past here.
19:46Just crawl it.
19:47Okay, right there.
19:49Come back a little bit driver.
19:51Nice and slow.
19:52Nice and slow.
19:53Just crawl it.
19:54Get back done.
19:56Good.
19:56Get a little driver.
19:57Go back.
19:59Perfect.
20:01Driver, right there.
20:02Just hold that line right there.
20:04Go.
20:05Go.
20:05Go.
20:05Go.
20:07Nice and slow turns.
20:09Okay, cut the driver.
20:09Over our first farm bridge, several locals are walking out, pushing their bike through the muddy road.
20:16Apparently, just 10 kilometers ahead is a great place to camp, if we can make it.
20:22He says it's around 10 kilometers to the place that we, the bridge.
20:25But it's a nice place, the hills, where we can come tonight so we have fresh air near the river.
20:45You know, Steve, the road's over here.
20:48Yeah.
20:49Were you listening to Kurt again?
20:51He was, I didn't say a word.
20:53This was 100% organic stuck.
20:56He just took a little line and it shifted sideways on us like a foot and dropped down into a
21:00hole on that side.
21:09Okay, then we don't have a locker engaged on the back, so you got a flashing red light.
21:13Is the air compressor on?
21:15We're getting nothing out of the compressor.
21:17So, let's track our wiring.
21:19Let's figure out why that is.
21:20Kurt and Jeff fix an air compressor electrical connection.
21:25In the meantime, I'm supposed to move behind the Tacoma for a snatch extraction.
21:29Huh?
21:29I don't know, man.
21:30Maybe one of these.
21:30Look at all this.
21:33Oh, what are we doing?
21:36That's when I make a bad judgment call, mixing up Steve's left with my left.
21:42Oh, boy.
21:48How you doing, Steve?
21:49I told you the left side of this isn't too good.
21:53Yeah.
21:56Um, yeah.
21:59Hold on.
21:59Let's go get the other, let's go get the other part.
22:01No, no, no, no.
22:02Go to the left of us.
22:03Go to the left side of us.
22:05Other side.
22:09How you doing, Steve?
22:12Oh, my God.
22:15Amazingly it worked.
22:19I'll go to the other side this time.
22:21I'm doing it.
22:22No, I'm looking real quick.
22:23hook it up to the bull runner,
22:24give you a quick tug backwards.
22:25You're gonna be under load,
22:26drive up on the max tracks,
22:28we'll have you out in a snatch,
22:30but just give it a little bit of oomph,
22:32not too much, we'll see how it tugs.
22:33Your other side's pretty stuck,
22:34so hopefully this does the trick.
22:37Okay.
22:46You're good right there, you're good right there.
22:48Call it, call it.
22:50It's really wounded.
22:53No.
23:01People might be thinking right now
23:05that, oh, well you should have had a mud terrain tire.
23:07Right.
23:08And you would have got right through that
23:09with a mud terrain tire.
23:11Well, maybe.
23:12We could have probably.
23:13Does that mean that it's the best tire selection
23:15for the trip though?
23:16Yeah, for doing 12,000 miles a lot on highways.
23:20No.
23:20I don't think so.
23:21I mean, yeah, you could do it
23:22with a mud terrain tire for sure.
23:23You could do this whole trip.
23:25Yeah.
23:25There's trade-offs for sure.
23:26There's ride quality.
23:27There's noise.
23:28It's all that stuff.
23:29We did do a lot of pavement,
23:31but we also brought all the necessary tools
23:34that in the event,
23:35in the small case scenario,
23:36that we will be stuck this badly
23:38to get out.
23:40So, do I stand by an all-terrain tire selection?
23:43Yes, I do.
23:44Absolutely.
23:44The right choice.
23:45If you want to come down here
23:46and do Central America with a mud terrain,
23:48would that be a good choice too?
23:49Yes, it would be too.
23:51You're just going to have different trails.
23:52You want to get stuck too.
23:53Yeah, and you'll still get stuck with a mud terrain.
23:55And you'll still probably have to get your max tracks out
23:57or snatch out or winch out or whatever.
23:59It's part of it.
24:00Yeah.
24:02Hey, good job, team.
24:03Yeah.
24:04Good job, Steve.
24:05Now I'm having fun because we're all out.
24:08I can think about dinner.
24:11Food.
24:11I don't want to eat.
24:13Back on solid ground,
24:15we make the distance towards camp,
24:16passing several roadside alligators
24:19and reminding us to find some higher ground.
24:27Right there.
24:47The next morning, we find ourselves perched
24:50in a tropical paradise.
24:52But I can't see the sun.
25:01The disputed Rio San Juan lays just ahead.
25:04It's possible that this river may one day be used as a canal,
25:08transporting huge ships across the middle of Central America.
25:12An idea funded mostly by the Chinese
25:14to compete with the Panama Canal to the south.
25:17But today, it's just a river alongside a muddy forgotten road.
25:22One that took a toll on us last night.
25:27What is so funny?
25:29As we pack up for the day,
25:31Steve finds my colorblindness
25:32and the fact that I thought my shirt was a different color
25:35to be hysterical.
25:37Say it fast.
25:38What is it?
25:38Your shirt was, uh,
25:39you thought your shirt was green
25:41and it's for, this whole time,
25:43and it's for pride.
25:49You're real funny.
25:50Make fun of the colorblind kids.
25:52I don't mean to.
25:54I think Steve needs a nap.
25:56It's crazy.
25:59He got that man.
26:02Go ahead, Kurt.
26:04Take him out of here.
26:05Get him out of here.
26:06Get him out of here.
26:08Woo!
26:10Woo!
26:11Woo!
26:18We move methodically through the jungle.
26:21The rains come and go,
26:22filling the air with humidity.
26:29With it now muggy and hot,
26:31we come across our first obstacle of the day.
26:33We could try and fix out some of these pieces of wood too.
26:37That'd be high risk.
26:39I mean, it could be done,
26:40but it would be high risk and a lot of work.
26:43Another old bridge is in disrepair
26:45and not an option.
26:48Luckily, a local farmer is here to help us
26:50with a different solution.
26:51Go look at the other bridge.
26:57Hey, Ronaldo said he doesn't have any problem, man.
26:59If we want to do it, let's do it.
27:01And he believes he will hold it.
27:03The way it is.
27:04Cool.
27:04Yeah.
27:06You guys think we should take the Tacoma first?
27:09The heaviest one first?
27:10Yeah.
27:10Oh, yeah.
27:11What do you mean?
27:11Oh!
27:13The lightest one?
27:14This farmer is helping us out a lot.
27:16He's bringing us some long wood
27:17from the old bridge that got destroyed.
27:18So, we're reinforcing the bridge here in the bottom.
27:21We're going to move back wood and then doubling up
27:23on this old hardwood.
27:24Then we, under here, under the back,
27:28slid it up against where it started to crack
27:29and reinforced it.
27:30Sweet.
27:31She ain't going anywhere.
27:33Locked and loaded.
27:34We're going to drive across this beauty.
27:38Just how deep it is down there.
27:40So, we're kind of standing on a little bit of old,
27:42rotten vegetation, but there's some deep holes.
27:44So, the last thing we want to do is get a four-runner wet today.
27:47I was able to kind of just be thinking through it behind the lens,
27:51because at the end of the day, if something goes wrong here,
27:55I'm on the hook for it.
27:56So, that bridge was definitely not an option.
27:59It was just far too risky.
28:00But then, we got permission to use this one,
28:04and they've had smaller, like, samurais that weigh nothing,
28:09go across this.
28:10It's not all that comforting,
28:11because if you were to stack five samurais on there,
28:13would it still hold, you know?
28:14Keep your back end up and over.
28:16So, bring the driver.
28:19You're all right.
28:19That's just that board settling.
28:21More, more, more.
28:22You got plenty of room over here on the driver's side.
28:24Okay, is that climbing?
28:25Take it nice and slow on the drop-off.
28:27One foot in closing.
28:29Slow, fill that front end, come down to earth.
28:31Simple crossing.
28:32Nice and slow, perfect.
28:33The thing with being a driver on something like that is,
28:35your eyes are just locked right in on your spotter.
28:38So, I wasn't looking in my mirrors or anywhere else.
28:41Kurt is definitely the guy you want giving you direction on that.
28:45The Tacoma weighs 7,700 pounds, plus or minus.
28:48It's right in that range when we came across the scales
28:50on the ferry in La Paz.
28:51So, we are a little worried about that.
28:53It's probably 1,500 pounds more than the 4Runners,
28:56even their full loaded trim.
28:57So, she's running down the highway pretty heavy.
29:00Probably even more like 2,000 pounds more than the 4Runners,
29:02the way we've got them weighted out right now.
29:05So, this will be the true test.
29:06That's 500 pounds more per corner, per wheel.
29:08It's a lot on this wood where you feel it bowing under,
29:11you know, a couple hundred pound man.
29:12500 pounds is a lot.
29:13So, we're going to see what it does.
29:16Slow coming through.
29:17Okay.
29:18Little bit passenger.
29:20Little bit passenger.
29:22Right there.
29:23Bring it in.
29:24All good on the back.
29:27Okay.
29:28This way.
29:29Put it on the front end.
29:31Two feet.
29:32One foot.
29:33Good job.
29:35Good job.
29:45Well, there we are.
29:47Well, there we are.
29:48Mission accomplished.
29:55Back on the trail, conversation stirs about our trip.
29:59You look for these moments inside the greater, bigger moment.
30:02So, the big trip of traveling through all these countries and seeing all these places.
30:08And then you have little pockets of really good off-roading and adventure like this.
30:13And that's a good way to do it because you have to preserve your vehicles.
30:16If you were to do it the whole way, you wouldn't make it.
30:17And that's okay.
30:19Totally fine.
30:20That is what it is.
30:21It's the adventure.
30:22I love what you said that this has become an abandoned place of the world.
30:27Yeah.
30:27It's forgotten about in nature and the local people who live here have totally reclaimed
30:35it.
30:35Adrian brought up a really great point that we may actually be some of the last people coming
30:41through here as now the bridges are destroyed.
30:44Bigger vehicles, more vehicles, more weather.
30:47Even that footbridge might become unpassable here within a few months.
30:52Exactly.
30:52So, yeah.
30:53This is a little treasure that we get to go on here in the remote jungles of Costa Rica.
30:59Yeah.
31:00This experience is pretty unique.
31:03It's got controversy, remoteness, mystery, and technical aspects.
31:08An overlander's daydream.
31:16Another bridge is now in question.
31:20That's pretty wild how they did that.
31:23The only thing we have to worry about here is width.
31:26It sits on strong heavy trees with a combo of sticks, dirt, and sandbags for a base.
31:34However, it is very narrow.
31:37A small mistake here will put a rig hood down in the ditch.
31:40And you, chest deep in water.
31:44Go over it.
31:45Yeah, it's right here.
31:49Let's go.
31:50Drastically.
31:51Right there, straighten it up.
31:54Perfect.
31:55Stay a little passenger.
31:57Looking good.
31:59Perfect, perfect.
32:00Nice and slow.
32:08Looking good.
32:10Okay, here we go.
32:11Woo!
32:14We're about to get the other forerunners across when Adrian makes a critical observation.
32:18It's going to pour.
32:19It's going to be really, really, I mean, it's all over.
32:23So we have to make a decision right here.
32:24Yeah, I think, I, yeah, that, you can tell it's just going to pour.
32:28I say we get out of here.
32:29I immediately reverse the truck and line up to cross back over the bridge.
32:33But the rain has already reached us.
32:37The mud is now slick as axle grease.
32:39I feel good on that.
32:40Now there's definitely no room for mistakes.
32:46So I'm not going to be that.
32:47I think we are going to go past here.
32:49Past here, past here.
32:52Here you are.
32:54Perfect, you have to come back.
32:58Perfect.
32:58We're out, we're out, we're out!
33:33We're out.
34:00We're out.
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