One of the things I’ve had to get used to as a visitor to Costa Rica are all of the dirt roads. The first time we visited Costa Rica was in the month of March, well after the end of the rainy season and after all of the dirt roads had been fixed and re-graded for the high/dry season and were not hard to drive or navigate.
In subsequent visits over the course of the year, I’ve noticed the roads start to get bumps and ruts, and when the heavy rains come in the summer and fall, the dirt roads can deteriorate significantly, with storm runoff creating lots of erosion. By the latter part of the rainy season in October, some of the roads can be a giant mess, and driving on them feels more like a mini roller coaster or kiddie amusement park ride.
What I found fascinating was that when the road outside our property is fixed at the end of the rainy season, it is treated with molasses! Yes, the sticky and sweet smelling syrup substance used in candy and cooking! Apparently, after applied, it is a good substance to keep the dirt and rocks bound together and prevent the road from getting too dusty. I found this interesting blog post with some more detail. Also, I found a great article and audio story on PRI.
On the street outside our property, (the one pictured above) they apparently applied the molasses starting on January 10. We don’t get to Costa Rica all that often, but I will be marking my calendar for the early part of January in future years to see if I can catch this process in person!
Not all streets in Costa Rica are paved with molasses. It is a decision made street by street in a given town, based on whether the residents want to pay for it.
We are Scott and Caroline, 50-somethings who spent the first 20+ years of our adult lives in New York City, working traditional careers and raising 2 kids. We left full-time work in our mid-40’s for location-independent, part-time consulting projects and real estate investing, in order to create a more flexible and travel-centric lifestyle. 
Financial independence and early retirement is not something we originally focused on, but over time realized it was possible. Our free report, 
