The following was written by Andrew:
So yes, for those of you who don't know, I rolled my car. It was easily the scariest experience of my entire life. I was leaving a party with a car full of local folks, along with my roommate Nick. We were up at the very top of a mountain section here in Guiones and were only about 30 yards from the party when one of the guys up in the front seat decided to horse around at the most inopportune time. I was put in a head lock or sorts, right at the moment when the road made a turn to the right. We didn't make the turn. Once the tire went over, the soft, muddy ground made it too hard to correct.
The experience itself still doesn't seem real. At first there were screams, then dead silence as we rolled. I only have snippets or flashes of what was taking place around me. I remember the feeling of the car beginning to roll, then seeing the ceiling pass by my head. Then...we stopped. The car landed upright and I told everyone not to move, and that we would leave through the windows. I wasn't sure if the car was stable and didn't want to risk opening doors and shifting weight. As we made it up the hill, I looked back to see one tree (the one that stopped the car) between us and the bottom of the mountain. The bottom of the mountain is a long way down, so the tree had basically, as far as I can tell, saved our lives.
In the following hours and days, the people involved had spread the word and being that Nosara is a small town, EVERYONE knew what happened. People who I didn't even know began coming up to me and making sure everything was okay. Some of the locals even offered me money to help with the car repairs. I didn't except, but it made me feel good to know that I wasn't bearing blame from the town people. It was truly amazing that everyone involved walked away with only minor injuries, even though I was the only one wearing a seatbelt. I feel like we were all given a second chance, but lessons were surely learned from all sides.
One last note: The car started the next day after we pulled it from the hill with a back-hoe and chain and drove home. So if anyone wants to know what kind of car to buy down here, my vote is officially for Toyota.
