We had been told that the road to the border was largely in excellent condition, and the first half of the journey certainly didn’t disappoint! The road was very smooth, and we passed over the most incredible ravines and through some really beautiful mountains. The highlight was most definitely a river that we came across, and as we were waiting for Claudio and Chris on the motorbike to catch up with us, we decided to disembark the vehicles and take a look at this river from the bridge.

It was wide and quite fast flowing, with a large muddy bank on one side leading up to the jungle’s border. A sign on the bridge warned us about alligators, and before long we had spotted several of them basking on the banks. It’s amazing what a wonderful life these alligators have; nice warm sun, a river all to themselves, no pesky animals coming to try and eat them…all they do the whole day is sit there until they get hungry, upon which they go and grab the odd child who happens to be swimming around at the time…

After trying to persuade Clemens to go down and play/wrestle with the alligator, to which he refused unfortunately, we got back into the vehicles and continued on our way. The beautiful scenery kept on getting better and better until we reached the coast and travelled beside it for some way. Through the trees fringing the beaches we got glimpses of azure water and crashing waves…it took every ounce of our resolve to carry on driving and not turn off for the beach to have a quick swim!

If only the day could have continued like this though, for before long the clouds darkened and the rain started coming down. The road started getting much worse, and the speeds we could therefore achieve were reduced. On one occasion how, this did not prevent Nik and Clemens from striking an unavoidable pothole, and you can see from the picture the pain in their faces and the effect the pothole had on the car! Fortunately though, no damage was done, and we preceded to the border with no hassle, but just one incident.

This one incident was around 30km from the border and there was some road which was being repaired. The only way around the roadworks was an extremely rough and potholed stretch of dirt track. To capture the challenge of getting the car across this stretch, Claudio got out of the van to fit some cameras onto the side of the car. In doing so though, he mistakenly hit the emergency stop button, and the car shut down completely.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem as you would just restart the car with the ignition key, but as you know, since El Salvador we have had to start the car with the laptop. This meant starting the laptop which, being old and very slow, takes around 10 minutes to boot up the program we need. During this time, Nik and Clemens were getting absolutely soaked in the car, and we were backing up traffic for hundreds of metres. While we weren’t particularly chuffed with this, Claudio was as he had just found a way to get a bit of drama going if the project ever got a little too boring for the camera!

Anyway, it wasn’t long before the car was up and running again, and the brave SRZero easily conquered the stretch of shoddy road. It struck us again how remarkably resilient this car is despite its very low ground clearance. I guess we should have a little more faith in it given some of the road we have already crossed, but given the fact that we still have over 13,000km left of this journey, we don’t want to even come close to damaging anything!

Onwards we travelled until just 1km away, the traffic ground to a complete and utter halt. Nothing was moving, and hundreds upon hundreds of cars were sitting there hooting away. Further inspection revealed possibly the stupidest reason for a gridlock; normally there is one lane going out of Costa Rica into Panama, and vice versa. However, on this occasion, somebody decided they didn’t want to queue in the right lane, so they moved over into the left lane and tried to seed towards the border. Other people saw this guy doing this, and followed him. But this meant that the cars coming from Panama had a road with vehicles coming to towards them, and no where to go! So the border guards had to shut down the border until the situation got resolved on the Costa Rican side. Nobody was doing anything constructive to fix the situation, and it was absolute chaos all around!

This did not look good for our schedule, and I already had visions of us having to spend the night sleeping in the van! Nonetheless, we put the time to good use and started on the paperwork needed to allow us to cross the border with the 3 vehicles. In the meantime, a fixer was trying to organise for us to somehow get through the traffic jam, but nothing would help.

Eventually, we strapped a blue flashing police light onto Chris’s bike (a useful piece of equipment the KPMG El Salvador had given us) and pretended to be police escorting the van and SRZero to the front. And can you believe it, this outrageous stunt actually worked! The trucks and cars parted off the road and onto the verges, and we drove straight through to the front of the border queue!

Even though this was great and sped us up enormously, we still had another 2 hours of back and forth paperwork and bureaucracy to complete. However, at some point, the customs officials realised who we were, and the boss came down to explain to the official dealing with us that we had been specially cleared by the British Embassy to receive diplomatic status, and that we should be pushed straight through the border! I have to say that from this point onwards, we were treated very well, and after just a few minutes we were on our way again! Quite an amazing turn of events as we had no idea this would happen, and this diplomatic status meant that we couldn’t be stopped at any of the police checkpoints found on the roads here, no speeding fines, nothing!

So, with the border passed after 5 hours of waiting in the rain, we headed the 50km toward David where we had organised a hotel where we could stay and charge the car. Upon arriving and plugging in the car, we found out that the circuit breakers the hotel used in their fuse box were actually broken. So in the end, we wired the car directly into the mains supply with only a huge 70 amp breaker standing between us and absolute ruin should something short circuit (a circuit breaker is used to cut power when a very large current is drawn from a device, and this normally occurs during a short circuit malfunction). But with the car on charge, it was now time for food and bed, because yet another early start awaited us the next day!

Sunday consisted of a massive buffet lunch which filled us up for the rest of the day, some haircuts as some of us were beginning to look a little mangy, and some general logistics and PR maintenance. Toby also went over to the Ambassador’s Residence to put the car on charge, but other than that, there was very little else going on until the evening where we went out to celebrate Nik’s birthday (even though it was actually on Monday). We did however have a early start planned for the next day’s events, so we called it an earlyish night and headed to bed.

With our first press event of the day starting at 8.30am, we left the hotel at 7am in order to drive over to the Ambassador’s home to pick up the SRZero. In doing so, we met Tom Kennedy, the British Ambassador to Costa Rica, where we had a quick chat about the project and the day’s event which he had helped organize. As you would expect from an upstanding member of Britain’s foreign service, he was a really great guy, and it was fantastic to see his evident enthusiasm in the project.

With the car now charged up, we headed over to University Veritas for our first event of the day. The first half saw the car outside and press, students, and staff all invited to come along and ask questions. We took the rear bodywork off the car to show interested individuals, and it was yet another fantastic opportunity to informally inform people of what we’re up to and how well an electric vehicle can really perform.

After around an hour or so, we were invited into the lecture hall where we gave a presentation on the project, with Andy outlining the benefits of electric vehicles, Toby going over the engineering aspects of the car, and myself telling stories from the trip so far. The reception we got, especially to the video we showed at the end was exceptional, and the Q&A session afterwards showed a real interest in the subject. Our presentation was preceded by a welcoming speech from the Ambassador as well as a short presentation for Esteban, a student at the university, about Costa Rica’s relationship with electric vehicles to date. It was really great fun presenting to this audience, and we thank the University Veritas for giving such a great platform to share the project.

Some press interviews followed the presentation, and amazingly we had a queue of people waiting for us to autograph pictures of ourselves! Unfortunately though, we had to leave quite quickly as the Ambassador had received word that the Minister for Energy, Environment and Telecommunications had suddenly freed up some time for us, and we were urgently requested at the Ministry. Exciting times!

A 20 minute drive later we were outside the Ministry with yet more press assembled, and we were eagerly anticipating meeting the Minister. Without much delay, he came out of the building and we had around an hour to tell him about the project, and to question him on Costa Rica’s extensive renewable energy drive (to be carbon neutral by 2021). He was also able to do a piece to camera for the documentary series that Claudio is filming, and it was a very enjoyable experience all around. The only problem now was that we were late for our next event, so with a quick goodbye, we pushed on once again!

Our next event was at a company called Capris Engineering who are also the local distributors for National Instruments. They had gone to massive lengths to ensure a huge media turnout for the day including advertisements in the local newspapers, and free posters that were being handed out to anyone and everyone! These posters, incidentally, were what we were signing our autographs on earlier that day!

Anyway, at Capris we had the opportunity to give another presentation and to demonstrate the car to the audience and TV crews. It was a fantastically successful event with really a enthusiastic audience, however the highlight of the day was yet to come; Toby had been quietly talking with the CEO of Capris, and he was so in love with the project that he instantly sponsored us $5,000 dollars on the spot! What an amazing turn of events! He immediately got a sticker of their logo, and there in front of the audience and press, we stuck it onto the car. Furthermore, we also needed a $200 torque wrench (ours had been completely screwed in Managua while we were giving the wheel nuts a quick tighten) and instead of making us pay for it, he graciously put it on his private account! Incredible generosity, and we are proud to have Capris as our latest sponsor, and the first new sponsor to join the project while we’re actually on the trip.

However, we had yet another event to go to, this time at one of the city’s main parks, so very quickly we had to set off for this. Organising this event, and indeed coordinating much of our stay in Costa Rica, was Dr. Hugolino, an expat from Venezuela and an Imperial alumni. Right now I would like to thank Dr. Hugolino for all his continued help and support, and we look forward to discussing with him further the option of getting the car out to Venezuela at the end of the trip!

But back to the present, we parked the car outside the park, and some local visitors and press came along to see it. As we were so late for this particular event owing to the unforeseen meeting with the Minister, many of the people who had convened to see the car were no longer there. The Consul for Venezuela was there however, and he spent a long time trying to convince us to come to Venezuela and drive there instead of certain other countries! It was a very tempting offer, but for now we are sticking with our plan of driving the Pan-American Highway!

At this point, it was nearly dark and the day’s events had come to a close. It had been a really successful day, and I would like to publicly thank KPMG, Her Majesty’s Embassy in Cost Rica (especially Eric for driving us around everywhere, and Tom for spending the day with us), Dr. Hugolino, and especially Capris for becoming our latest sponsor!

After the event, the car went back to the Ambassador’s house for a top up charge, after which we headed back to the hotel, had a drink with the Ambassador, had a delicious Italian dinner at one of the hotel’s restaurants, and then hit the sack. Tomorrow was going to be a very long day with a 5am start…we needed all the sleep we can get!

The day started with great weather, and the drive over to the power station was fast and exciting; given the short distance we had to cover today, we could afford to really push the car’s speed as we didn’t have to worry about the state of charge. When we got there, we were treated to a very interesting presentation on how the whole facility works, and amongst other things, how this one facility, the only one of its kind in Costa Rica, generates 15% of the nation’s electricity! Combined with 75% from hydro and wind power, Costa Rica has 90% renewable energy which is quite an achievement given the country’s limited resources.

During the presentation however, the rain broke away from its traditional pattern of starting in the afternoon, and instead came down in full force at around 10am. Despite the weather however, we were still able to complete an awe-inspiring tour of the geothermal facility, including going up onto the flanks of the Miravalles volcano to see natural steam and hot water issuing forth from the earth. Rivers of water, so hot that you couldn’t even touch, flowed around us, steam was everywhere, and the smell of sulphur filled the air…this was a truly awesome sight! The tour was completed by seeing one of the extraction wells, the water/steam separator unit, and finally the generator hall where the steam is passed through turbines which convert the steam’s expansion into electricity.

Despite the fascinating nature of the site, time was ticking on and we had to leave, so after a quick lunch in the local town, we headed back to the car which was parked at the geothermal plant in order to get moving to San Jose. Now, normally there is a friendly tussle among the team as to who drives the car, but on this occasion the weather was so horrible; clouds, wind, rain and cold a.k.a. English weather, that it was only myself that was prepared to drive with Kevin the cameraman accompanying me to try and get some dramatic rain shots.

While the daylight continued, the driving was pretty easy going with great road conditions and only a small reduction in visibility due to the rain. But when darkness fell, everything got much worse. To understand why, I have to explain a little bit about driving the SRZero in the rain. Normally, any speed above around 40mph works out well as the rain goes over the top of the vehicle, so you don’t get much water in the car, the wind clears the helmet visors of rain, and visibility is generally acceptable. But on this occasion, traffic on the single lane Pan-American Highway was slowed to a crawl as the big trucks and lorries struggled to climb the 1000m up to San Jose.

This meant that I was a) getting soaked b) getting very cold as we were climbing in altitude c) couldn’t see anything but water droplets out of my visor, and d) my worst; oncoming cars seeing the SRZero and saluting us with a flash of their raised beams. This blinded me every time a car drove past, and ruined my night vision for the next few seconds. And on these occasions, I completely lost sight of where the road finished and the verge/cliff/jungle/other roadside hazard began. It was the most dangerous driving I had ever encountered, but 6 hours later when we safely rolled into the secure compound of the British Ambassador’s residence, the feeling of accomplishment was exhilarating. The SRZero was truly conquering the Americas!

After putting the SRZero into the Ambassador’s garage to sleep for the night, we headed for our hotel which had kindly been booked and paid for by KPMG and Capris, the local distributors for National Instruments. We were expecting a small hotel somewhere, but it turned out to be a 5* Intercontinental hotel! We were bowled over by the luxury of the place, but being as it was a Saturday night, we didn’t hang around for too long as food and nightlife beckoned!

I would like to thank Eric, the driver from the Embassy, for being such a great driver and leading us into and around San Jose. Also, many thanks to the Embassy, KPMG and Capris for all their help in organising accommodation and events. Amazingly, more surprises from them were in store for us on the Monday to follow…

Anyway, after the event, we took the press through to the front of the hotel where the car was waiting. Somebody had obviously gone a little crazy with the cleaning as the car was all buffed up and shining, and given the late night, I can assure you that it wasn’t a member of the team! So there, in the early morning sun, the only sun we had seen for a while actually, we drove the car around for the press to film and photograph…needless to say, they were thoroughly impressed!

After this it was time to drive the 150 miles across into Costa Rica, the 8th country in our journey so far. Apart from the customary sharp showers here and there, it was a great drive to the border was great; the weather was generally on our side, and the scenery as we drove alongside the massive Lake Nicaragua was unforgettable. 2 huge tropically-vegetated volcanoes connected by a tiny isthmus of land rose from the tranquil waters, and it was among the most beautiful vistas we have yet had on this trip!

After a few hours drive, we made it to the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border where we were presented with the usual paperwork. Fortunately, the British Embassy had sent someone to meet us; a great guy called Eric, who really helped speed things up and get us to the front of the queues. Despite this however, we still ended up staying at the border for 3 hours, and by the time we were able to leave, it was dark again. It appears that no matter how hard we try, we always end up driving in the dark! Although I suppose this can’t really be helped given the fact that it gets dark at around 6pm in the tropics.

At the border, we had been warned of a very heavy rainstorm around 20km away, but we carried on nonetheless as we only had 30 miles still to cover. As promised, we were lashed by a torrential rainfall, but nothing we hadn’t seen already. And around 45 minutes later, and a little bit wetter for the journey, we arrived at our hotel in the small town of Liberia just inside the Costa Rican border. With the car on charge and some extremely mediocre food in our bellies (a late night Pizza Hut if you’re wondering) we headed for bed.

Interestingly, despite being in these small Latin American countries and out in the middle of nowhere, you are still greeted by Pizza Huts or MacDonalds and plenty of other American fast-food chains, at the first sight of a settlement with even a modest population. But at least we were able to get some food in us at this late hour to prepare us for another early start the following morning!