It had rained heavily all night at San Juan del Sur and when we awoke we had to make the decision whether to leave in the rain or stay another day, I was keen to get moving so we donned the waterproof gear and set off. Fifteen minutes down the road and the rain had stopped and we were riding in sunshine, we reached the border early, quickly changed our Nicaraguan Cordobas into Costa Rican Colones and apart from Joe and I having to trail all over looking for the border Police we were out of Nicaragua in an hour.
Getting into Costa Rica proved slightly more time consuming only because we missed the immigration office and rode 200 yards further on to the Aduana (Customs) We parked the bikes only to find we needed to go back an get our passports stamped by Immigration, as is the case with most Border crossings their seems to be no logical flow to the process sometimes the buildings are clearly signposted and sometimes they aren't.
Dont get comfortable just yet.
We left Sue and Lynn minding the bikes and decided to walk back to Immigration to get our passports stamped, we arrived just as the coaches were unloading passengers for the same thing. Joe and I kind of pushed in and got to the counter only to be told they wanted to see Sue and Lynn in person, so off back to the Aduana to get the girls. Joe and I stayed with the bikes and sorted out the Customs side of things whilst Sue and Lynn walked back to Immigration.
This was the Costa Rican mobile Customs Office
The guys in the Customs bus were relatively quick for Central America but when Sue and Lynn returned they had additional forms that had to be authorised back at Immigration, so off Joe and I went and by this time half of Costa Rica was trying to get back into the country. To cut a long story short we took an hour and a half to get into Costa Rica when it should have only taken half that time.
Joe and Lynn heading into Costa Rica past the usual two mile tail back of trucks waiting to get through the border (sometimes it can take a driver two days to get into the next country)
Passing the first Police checkpoint.
Good roads and no traffic.
Costa Rica is incredibly clean and tidy for a Central American country, it is also relatively stable both politically and economically. It's a bit like Switzerland in a way, it has remained neutral in an area of civil unrest and tends to go about it's business without upsetting it's neighbours. We had decided to stop for the day not long after the border, there is no guarantee how long crossings will take and it's always good to get off the bikes early and plan for the next day. Liberia is a fair sized town with a population of around 35,000 it's one of those 'on the way places' and the first intersection in town was surrounded by shopping malls and American fast food joints, Burger King, Mcdonalds, Subway, they were all there and if the people here didn't speak Spanish you could have been anywhere in the US. It was here that we discovered the forged note (or rather the guy behind the counter at Burger King did!) luckily there was only one and it was a lesson learned.
100 yards down the road was our hotel so we unloaded the bikes and relaxed for the day (again!)
100 yards down the road was our hotel so we unloaded the bikes and relaxed for the day (again!)
"No you just sit there and look all pretty"
Noise....That night it rained again (nothing new there). Costa Rica has some of the highest rainfall in Central America, in the highlands they can get 20 feet of rain a year which makes me think as I lie in my bed 'why would you put a bloody tin roof on a hotel'! The trucks on the PanAmerican are using engine brakes to slow down and the whole place shakes and to cap it all off first thing in the morning the gardener decides to trim the grass using a sodding petrol strimmer! everywhere else in CA they'd use a machete.
Right! let's get out of here and find somewhere more peaceful.
The next day's ride took us up into the central highlands and around the shores of Lake Arenal, we were heading for La Fortuna a town in the shadow of Arenal Volcano and popular for its thermal springs and adventure activities.
Right! let's get out of here and find somewhere more peaceful.
The next day's ride took us up into the central highlands and around the shores of Lake Arenal, we were heading for La Fortuna a town in the shadow of Arenal Volcano and popular for its thermal springs and adventure activities.
I love these jungle roads.
The road round the lake was a pleasure to ride (except in the rain) stunning scenery of the lake with the active volcano in the distance and the road subsidence and potholes were a minor inconvenience. Every so often you would emerge from the jungle to find perfectly manicured lawns and verges bordering fincas (farms) or tourist resorts, Costa Rica relies heavily on tourism and the efforts made to cater for the likes of us is all too evident.
Too neat and tidy for my liking,
(give me a washed out riverbed and a dead cow by the side of the road any day).
We got somewhat of a shock as we rolled into La Fortuna the place consisted of tourist shops, tour companies, restaurants and hotels. This town exists solely to cater for tourists and the prices in the shops and restaurants must be crippling for the locals unless they have some secret outlet for day to day commodities. We simply compounded the problem and booked into a decent spot with views of the volcano trying to look impressive.
The volcano is constantly puffing out smoke but hasn't erupted with any force since 2005.
Whilst staying in La Fortuna there are numerous activities to keep one occupied, you can climb the volcano, quadbike tours, horse riding, white water rafting, zip line canopy tours, thermal hot springs or just lazing in the pool.
I can do the lazing in the the pool bit really well.
The next day we considered the options:
1) Hike up the volcano...No thanks, done that, never again. (see blog entry for November, Antigua)
2) Quadbike tour...Why after riding 20,000 miles on two wheels would I want to sit on something I can't fall off? (easily).
3) Horse riding....Lynn is allergic to horses, and I'm wary of travelling faster than walking pace on anything that doesn't have a throttle and can kick the living daylights out of you.
4) White water rafting....Done that before.
5) Zip line canopy tour...We were all in agreement that this was doable.
6) Thermal hot springs...A good way to relieve the aches and pains if the zip line thing doesn't go well.
Just another bug shot, that's my hand in the pic, nobody else would pick it up. Hold out your palm to get an idea of scale.
Nature Section
That's right son keep looking down and stop fiddling with my carabiner!
Looks quite tame really.
Here's Sue in action.
I thought I'd be really clever and film the run across one of the lines and nearly forgot to brake!
Nature Section
The zip line tour was part of a package provided by a local resort and included lunch, entrance to the thermal springs and a access to a nature reserve.
Bloody tourists!
The guides give you all the instruction and point out that if it starts thunder and lightning they will stop the tour for safety reasons, we were just about to clip on when there was a distant rumble....true to form they assured us everything was OK and we were good to go (what's the worse that can happen if lightning stikes a mile and half of steel cables?)
They give you a piece of leather to use as a brake and the only thing to remember is not to put your hand in front of the pulley, and then off you go. The tour consisted of a dozen zip lines of various lengths and height above the round, the biggest danger was being swatted by a branch as you whizzed through the canopy.
Looks quite tame really.
Here's Sue in action.
I thought I'd be really clever and film the run across one of the lines and nearly forgot to brake!
There was ten of us in the party so it took about an hour to get all the way round, the last line was by far the best and longest at just under a quarter of a mile, in fact it was so long I ran out of film.
We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing about in the thermal pools at the resort, as always it rained but then when your lounging about in water with temperatures ranging from 30 to 42 degrees centigrade who cares if it rains.
Leave the top on your Pina Colada, it keeps out the rain!
"Stop being stupid and get me another Pina Colada"
The next day we visited the hot springs at Baldi and did pretty much the same as the day before...nothing.
It was our last day in La Fortuna and the next day involved a long ride to the Pacific coast through the Costa Rican central highlands and the Cerro del Muetre (Mountain of Death).
What's that saying about the fat lady singing?
No fat ladies here thank you!
The Cerro del Muerte (Mountain of Death) is the highest stretch of the Pan American Highway in Costa Rica somewhere between the Capital San Jose and San Isidro, it was recently listed as number 4 in the world's most dangerous roads. What a load of rubbish! apart from the freezing fog, blind hairpin bends, thousand foot drops on either side and oncoming traffic in both lanes it was just another day on the road for us.
Heading up into the mountains.
We have not photographic record of the ride over the mountain as it was so foggy the visibility was down to less than the length of two or three vehicles, the scary part was occasionally headlights would appear out of the gloom on our side of the road. As we were limited to driving below 40 mph it was turning out to be a long
day and the worst was to come, no sooner had we dropped down out of the mountains than it started to rain.
What is frightening is the amount of rain that falls in this part of the world, God it rains! within minutes the roads are flooded and it's impossible to stay dry even in waterproof gear. If you ride too fast the weight of water hitting you is actually painful even with protective clothing and we foolishly decided not to stop and put our rain gear on. We continued to ride through the rain and hoped to dry out after it stopped...it didn't stop.
When we reached our accommodation for the evening we were completely sodden, It was only when we were changing out of our wet clothes that I discovered my camera and I-phone were also full of water (Costly expense number 2).
Club Fred is an Eco-lodge overlooking the mouth of the Terraba river and the Pacific Ocean beyond, it is only accessible by a mile long track of washed out mud and rocks (not advertised on the web site!) Sue and Lynn got off the bikes and walked whilst Joe and I somehow managed to get to the lodge without dropping the bikes, although Joe would have a couple of minor 'offs' when we left a couple of days later.
We had a good couple of days with Fred and Ely as hosts, we would be woken in the morning by the squawks of flocks of scarlet macaws and we even had a resident three toed sloth.
This thing almost moved slower than Honduran border officials!
I was so annoyed at having flooded the camera, even after several attempts at drying it out it still won't work so we are faced with having to replace it when we get to Panama, the I-phone on the other hand did finally work after being plugged into the mains for a day!.
So all in all Costa Rica has been fairly expensive (totally avoidable of course which makes it more annoying) we are now heading for the border with Panama and our final destination in Central America.
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