El Residente
6 Destinos Title article by name by William Duckwall
Title text
Route 32 From San José – Part Two
C
ontinuing on Route 32 from where we left off in the last issue, our next destination is Braulio Carillo National Park. Driving from San José, it should take about an hour to drive the 42 kilometers to the ranger station. Traffic, weather, and road construction can conspire against you, but WAZE can give some advance warning of what lies ahead. There is even a Facebook page for this stretch of highway – just Google ruta 32 Facebook .
First destination – Braulio Carillo National Park The highway starts in San José as Calles 1 and 3. It quickly becomes a four-lane divided highway that extends as far as the bridge over Rio Virilla, near Tibas. From there on it is a two-lane highway with an occasional third lane for passing. The Rio Virilla Bridge is now being widened to four lanes, and presumably the highway will also be widened in the future, at least for the section that goes up to the pass. The road climbs 450 meters from San José to the pass at 1,600 meters. Just before the pass is a toll station for northbound traffic (toward the Caribbean) – 250 colones
for autos. Near the pass the highway enters Braulio Carillo National Park.
Everyone wonders – whose idea was it to put a highway through the middle of a national park? The answer is complicated. There was a long-standing desire to have a road from San José to Guapiles (today’s Route 32 cuts an hour off the travel time to Siquirres, compared to the old Route 10 through Cartago and Turrialba, a road which is prohibitively twisty for large trucks). The original advocate for a roadway was none other than Braulio Carillo Colina, the third head of state of Costa Rica, for whom the park is named. Around 1840, Camino Carillo was begun, but was beset by one problem after another. In 1881 President Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez opened an improved road, but it was abandoned in 1891 when the railroad to the Atlantic was completed. Planning of today’s Route 32 began in 1977. Concern over the mostly unspoiled forest prompted lobbying efforts by conservation groups, which led to creation of the national park in 1978. Subsequent acts over the
