Running and walking around the streets of San Jose are a delicate yet crazy combination like scaling a tightrope and mud wrestling all at once. Downtown San José ranks a bit higher on quantity of sidewalks - as there actually is some sort of concrete acera along almost every street. The large gaping holes and buckled walk ways are a challenge, but I consider the capital easier to get around than most suburbs. Downtown traffic is more manageable on foot than by car. In the town of Escazu where I live, sidewalks are neither here and rarely there.

I’ve found a loop that I can run or walk for exercise that has some concrete sidewalk or a dirt path along the road. What you see in this photo is not an unusual obstacle. Once you get past the trash, there’s gooey puddles, barro, boulders, and no where to go except right up there with the 2000 pound hunks of metal being driven to work by tense and cranky drivers (remember these people are amazing pleasant when they get out of those cars…anyway…).

Most Costa Ricans just get right up on that 1/2 foot of asphalt between the mud and cars and walk. I stop and wait. Soon after this obstacle, there’s more piles of mud. It increases with depth and width with each rainfall.

The suburbs here are growing so fast that speeding cars and construction vehicles seem to be pushing and pushing our simple pleasures to the wayside where in the long run, we just end up being covered in mud.