Costa Rica or Bust!

…And I do mean bust! This has been one of the hardest trips to get rolling that I’ve ever had and I mean that! Oh sure cashing in the frequent flier miles was easy. One phone call and it’s done. Reserving the motorcycle was fairly simple too. An email, a phone call, give them the Visa number and it’s a go. No the hard part was simply getting my ass down to Costa Rica in one piece!

I originally booked the trip to start the weekend of Memorial Day. Unfortunately while running errands that morning my motorcycle got into a dispute with a pickup truck. I got caught in the middle. The end result was a number of bumps, bruises, sprained ankles and a battered knee. The damage to my body wasn’t bad enough to call off the trip or so I thought. I spent the rest of the day taking it easy in anticipation of my evening flight to LA. Unfortunately just as my ride to the airport showed up my knee decided to expand to twice it’s normal size. So instead of going to Costa Rica I went to the emergency room at Kaiser. C’est la vie…

Knowing that it would take me some time to heal properly and also to take advantage of another holiday day off I rescheduled for the weekend of Labor Day. This time I was bound and determined to stay out of trouble and out of emergency rooms. It worked!

At this point I need to mention Motos Costa Rica. A friend of mine had recommended this outfit as the place to go for a motorcycle in Costa Rica. I checked out the website, liked what I saw and then got in contact with Fred Brown, one of the owners. We had a nice chat on the phone and I went ahead and reserved a DR650 for the week. I also chose to reserve a room at the Bed and Breakfast Villas de la Colina that is home to Motos Costa Rica. Since I would be flying a red-eye into town it would do me well to have a place to relax and catch up on sleep before I began my foray into Costa Rica. I chose well!

So yes, I flew from LAX to San Jose thru the night. Got into San Jose and got a taxi to the B&B. Had a nice chat with Paul from Motos and then wandered up to my little room with the great view and the perfect hammock. I spent the bulk of the afternoon relaxing in the warm breeze while studying the inside of my eyelids. It was the perfect way to start my vacation.

My first day on the road saw me work my way from left to right. I motored across the map through San Jose and then up into the hills of the central part of the country. I was content to just motor along at an easy pace taking in the sights and smells of the country. My only complaint is that they do not have anywhere near the same requirements for smog equipment on their vehicles that we have here in the states, especially here in California. Every car, bus or bike that I passed was belching out black soot from their tailpipes. Pretty sad if you ask me. Such a pretty country with a great focus on ecotourism and ecology and yet they have horrible car pollution. Ick!

Once I got out of the cities and into the hills the air was fresher and the roads much less clogged with traffic. I enjoyed rolling through tiny little town after town taking in the various names and places. Suddenly those stale two-dimensional names on my map were developing character. I soon came to Turrialba. A friend had recommended staying at a lodge up on the volcano. I must admit the website offered some pretty cool stuff. But I needed to go further today. Turrialba could wait.

I rolled down out of the hills and into Limon. Knowing shipping ports I decided to keep going and not stop. Too dirty, too many people and nothing really of interest. My sight was set on the Caribbean! As I motored on down the road the ocean swelled up on my left. Wow! It was all I could do to keep the bike going in a straight line. The surf, the sand, the sun, it was amazing! In time I made it to Cahuita and pulled off to investigate this enchanting little tourist town.

Within a half hour I had scoped out the place and chose a funky little cabina off the beaten path to spend the night. Despite the fact that the sign on the front advertised Creol food I kinda figured that the menu had changed since the couple that ran the place were German. Ah well, the room went for $12 and had a big, comfy hammock out front so I wasn’t too worried about it.

After a bit of cleaning up I wandered down to town, bought some lunch, drank a beer and took stock of the situation. Before me lay a wonderful National Park. Hmmm, since Costa Rica has quite a few of these I figured I would be spending significant time enjoying them. In fact I spent the rest of that afternoon walking a beach-side trail watching Howler monkeys in the tree tops, White-faced monkeys on the trail, and a host of other critters including a tremendous number of insects on the greenery all around. In all I probably hiked 5 miles worth of the park, all for a 2000 colone donation (about $5).

I ended the day reading my book while swinging in the hammock and listening to the sound of the jungle mixed in with the sounds from my Ipod. It had been a fabulous start to my vacation. I could hardly wait for tomorrow.

In the morning I suited up, loaded up and hit the road heading further south to Manzanillo. Along the way I stopped in Puerto Viejo for a little huevos con jamon. It was a delightful little eatery with an incredible view and a couple of very nice non-Ticas who cooked up a mean omelet! PV is a nice little town and I decided that I would come back here for the night once I was done exploring.

The road south to Manzanillo was a little rough around the edges but quite passable. Being on a glorified Dirtbike has its advantages. I soon located the town and then searched and found Aquamor. Aquamor runs a dive and kayak shop that specializes in finding the local sea critters to show off to the tourists and in particular they find dolphins. I had read about it in my guidebook and was hoping to do the dolphin cruise. Unfortunately with it being low season I was unable to take the ride out because no one else was around to share the cost. Ah well, guess I’ll just settle for a kayak rental instead.

I spent the next hour or two paddling the shoreline and then exploring an interesting little river next to town. I managed to sneak my way up past the mangrove swamp and up into the heart of the jungle. It was gorgeous! I really didn’t see too many critters but it was neat being surrounded by all the greenery and listening to the sound of the insects. It’s a constant white noise that varies in intensity both day and night. I finally got to a point where I had to turn around and return to the ocean. I spent the rest of the time playing in the swells and managed to go ass over teakettle in the surf. Way too much fun!

After drying out I wandered on back to Puerto Viejo where after searching a bit I found a potential hotel. They had Internet access so I jumped online to email my friends and gloat about my location. Unfortunately it was dialup access in a country with lousy phone lines. Took me forever to send a simple email out to everyone. Thankfully I chose not to upload any pictures! The room I was waiting to see turned out to be not my style. I got frustrated with the rest of the choices and chose to motor on back to Cahuita. There I checked into a nice hotel complete with swimming pool and tree sloths.

Tree sloths? Yup. And poison dart frogs and some incredible flowers. It was a nice place with some really well laid out grounds and just outside my room I found a couple of sloths hanging out in a tree. Very cool! I spent the rest of the day cooling off in the water and sipping umbrella drinks. Yeah, vacation is good!

Time to go ride! Today’s plan of attack is to ride North toward Nicaragua and then loop over to the outskirts of Arenal, the classic volcano of Costa Rica. I took my time riding up toward Limon. In fact much of the time I was content to motor along at 35-45 mph simply taking in the sights and smells along the way. There was so much to see and I constantly found myself stopping to take photos and check things out. Once I got past Limon I wicked it up a bit because most of the truck traffic from the port was moving along at a fast pace.

Eventually I made it up to Puerto Viejo Sarapiqui. This port is along the Sarapiqui river and is the gateway to Tortuguero and Nicaragua. In fact in years past the river was closed down due to the Contra activity along the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border. Today it’s yet another tourist spot with river boat tours and eco-trips. I chose to peal off onto a side road that was primarily hard-pack dirt. I wandered a good 15 miles up into the countryside enjoying the scenery and looking for ways to get down to the river. Unfortunately there’s no such thing as public access around these parts. Everything was private property. Eventually I turned around and wandered back to town for a nice lunch at a local soda.

From there I took the main road out toward the center of the country and then to La Fortuna. It was my desire to see the classic example of an 11000-foot high volcano. As I approached the mountain in the late afternoon I couldn’t help but notice the very large thunderstorms approaching from the west. So far I had avoided riding in any inclement weather but it looked as if my luck had run out. Sure enough the rain began to fall and I motored on with my chin tucked into my chest to avoid the stinging raindrops on my cheeks and nose. Within minutes I spied a nice hotel in a convenient location and of course pealed off to check it out.

What ensued was the most spectacular thunderstorm I’d ever seen. I parked the bike in a carport and unloaded my gear. Soon I was relaxing in a hammock under the carport enjoying an Imperial cerveza and watched the rain come down. Over the course of 3 and a half hours it rose and fell with amazing intensity. Later while talking to the owner of the hotel he indicated that that was the worst rainstorm he’d seen in the 12 years that he’s lived there. It rained so hard that the water level rose up and flooded both the carport and some of the rooms. I just sat there in the hammock and enjoyed the show.

Later I retreated to my room where I broke out a couple of tea candles for light since the power had been out from nearly the start of the storm. As the rain slacked off and the clouds cleared away I had a perfect view of the mountain to the North. What was even better was the red glow from up top and the occasional shower of molten rock that tumbled nearly 6000 feet down the side of the mountain at 2-3 minute intervals. I later found out that the mountain had a serious eruption only 2 days after my visit. Wow!

The morning dawned clear and beautiful. I made arrangements to take a canopy tour with a local eco-tour company. For $45 I was going to go horseback riding, hiking and then whizzing through the treetops on cables strung between the trees. Oh yeah, this is fun!

I soon learned that horseback riding is not at all like riding motorcycles. Where you become one with the bike and lead it through the corners with simple inputs on the handlebars, the horse leads you around with your bottom bouncing up and down on the rock-hard saddle like a steam-driven pile driver. It didn’t help that I was already wearing the climbing harness so the straps were being driven deep into my sensitive posterior. By the time we made it to the corral I was more than ready to get off that horse. Yikes!

We then hiked for half an hour up into the jungle until we reached the upper level of the cable runs. From there it was one fast-paced ride after another as we transitioned nine different cable runs back to the corral. All I can say is that it was incredibly fun and very scenic. Seeing the jungle from up top is the way to go! Even managed to see a Toucan while whizzing along through the trees. Very cool!

After a slightly painful horse ride back down the hill I retreated to the hotel to gear up for the rest of the day’s adventure. Unfortunately that saddle and my butt did not fit together well. Part of the problem was the harness that I had to wear for the zip line. The straps went right under my cheeks between the saddle and me. Once I got on the bike I realized that I was a bit bruised down there. Riding another couple hundred miles that day didn’t help!

Despite the pain I was having fun. I found a great little mountain road that took me from La Fortuna over to San Ramon. Very little traffic, a few potholes and one herd of cows. I entered some low overcast weather up at the top and got a little wet but not terribly so. On the backside I rolled down into town and then jogged over to the Pan-American Highway. From there it was a short hop to Puntarenas.

Puntarenas is the main ferry port for the Gulf of Nicoya. Unfortunately it was like Limon in that it was a bit more grubby around the edges and nowhere near as relaxed as the “tourist” towns. After riding out to the point and taking a break I decided to make tracks for Jaco. I could see some major t-storms building out on the gulf and I really didn’t want to get caught in the rain nor did I want to ride after dark.

That night I splurged and got a $90 room complete with central air, satellite TV and a king sized bed! Whoo hoo! Now this is living. I washed about 7 layers of grime off my tired body and then took a short walk down to town to get some dinner. As usual I pretty much passed out not long after the sun went down. These tropics have a funny way of doing that to you.

In the morning I took a look around and decided to bail. Jaco is primarily a surf town. There’s a lot of American’s hanging out here and the focus is more on partying and surfing. I wanted to see more jungle and jungle critters and the perfect place to do that was just down the road a hundred miles or so. Manuel Antonio.

Of course just as I hit the road the rain kicked in. It kept the dust down but it did start to penetrate my gear including tiny little needle pricks on my nose (ok so I was doing 70 mph so what did I expect) and a river flowing down to the bottom of my boots. No big deal, I’m on vacation! I rolled right into town and did the full loop to check out the hotels. I finally pealed off on a little side road and found the perfect spot. A nice clean place with a restaurant up front and cute little cabanas out back and for $36 a night it was ideal.

Again I spent some time relaxing in a hammock on the porch listening to the sounds of the jungle and the rain falling. There’s something to be said for this kind of lifestyle. Hmm, memo to self, gotta win the lotto!

Later I took a walk down by the beach and ended up in a nice restaurant sipping cool umbrella drinks while watching lightening strikes out on the gulf. The palapa overhead sprung a couple of leaks and forced me to move to another table but overall it was a great spot to relax and enjoy the rain.

In the morning I set off on a grand adventure. After a hearty breakfast I grabbed bug juice, water, sun block and my camera and set off to explore the National Park. Manuel Antonio is billed as the jewel of Costa Rica. It’s set pretty much at the end of the road on the West Coast. At the cull de sac in town you simply wade across a river, hike up a little hill to the ranger’s station. There you pay a minimal fee to enter the park. The primary trail runs along the shoreline nestled up into the trees by the beach. You have a few options for side trails that take you to small points along the coast. There are also a couple of very nice beaches that for the most part are empty of humans.

I wandered into the park around 7:30am and didn’t leave until after 3pm. I thoroughly enjoyed wandering the trails and poking my nose into every last corner of the park. The only thing I did not do is go off trail. It’s pretty hard to do without a machete and I really didn’t relish getting more bug bites or stings from the greenery.

I heard howler monkeys up in the treetops though I never saw them. I had Titi monkeys come right down to the trail and had them zip back and forth overhead in the trees and bushes. Got some video of them too! Sunbathed with an iguana. Saw a Coatimundi nosing around some tourists though I never got a chance to catch him on “film”. Crabs galore in the undergrowth, various bugs and flying critters of all types and an incredible array of greenery passed by on my walk. All in all this has got to be the best land-based park that I’ve ever experienced. Hands down the best!

I reluctantly left the park by days end so I could catch a shower, grab a bite to eat and relax in my favorite hammock on the porch. I wish I could have had several days to explore the area and learn more about the plants and animals. Some day I will return…

In the morning I rented a sit on top kayak and had a great open water paddle. I crossed the bay, ran out beyond the point, checked out a couple of small islands and a reef before coming back in and tossing myself into the surf. Some day I gotta learn how to surf a yak. Every time I caught a good wave I ended up surfing on in until I flipped it end over end. I keep forgetting to use my paddle as a rudder. Ah well, someday…

I soon found myself wandering slowly up the road enjoying every single moment of time on that last day. I stopped to inspect a couple of beaches along the way including Playa Hermosa and the Northstar favorite, Herradura! After taking one last swim in the wonderfully warm water I turned inland for Atenas. Sure enough the rain returned and by the time I got back to my cabin on the hill I was soaked from head to toe. I finished up the day swinging in the hammock while enjoying the sound of thunder, flashes of lightening and the sound of rain on the greenery.

In the morning I caught a taxi to the airport and soon enough found myself back in “civilization” battling the traffic on the San Diego freeway and making tracks for Huntington Beach where I had stashed my belongings after working in LA for a month. The next day I had a leisurely drive home up I-5. It was nice to review my Costa Rican Adventure while droning along the highway. Made for a pleasant escape from the monotonous drive.

All in all I’d have to say the trip was an incredible experience. The scenery was great. The critters fabulous! The people shy but very hospitable. The motorcycle was fun and the price was right. One of these days I will return and spend a little more time in the country. In fact I would hope to go beyond the borders to visit both Nicaragua and Panama. After all it’s barely 200 miles border to border in Costa Rica. Yeah, gotta go back. Hmmm, where’s that map…..

Craig

Photos!

Take a ride on a zipline!  MPG file

TOC