Costa Rica a biodiverse fairy tale
Muy tranquilo we ride into Costa Rica with our German-American-Dutch cyclist group and illegally enter this beautiful lush green country. Oh no, in the end we manage to find customs and enjoy an afternoon ride through the green hills into La Cruz. In the morning we wake up to a spectacular sea view. Yay, back on the Pacific ocean! The cheering soon vanishes when we find out that Costa Rica is almost equally expensive as the Netherlands, ouch! Time to be a little more creative getting around, this may involve some firefighters at some point…
Misfits at the holiday beach
Today we embark on a mission to reach the beach. Its a beautiful 90km green ride and we take a long lunch stop at the Dutch Balbo’s restaurant for our first Costa Rican staple: casado (rice and beans, AGAIN! But with a nice flavourful touch). It’s strange but nice, being welcomed in Costa Rica with a Dutch conversation. Edward runs this restaurant/hostel with his wife and kids and it has become a popular Panamerica bicycle stop. Of course we add to the legacy by drawing our signature sail and brand name on the wall. Edward is wild about our bicycles and keen to have a go before we set-off again. We look forward to a fresh dip in the pacific, but a serious big hill needs to be conquered on the way. Not a problem normally, but this time Matthijs’ electric assist fails and it becomes a hell of a job to get reach the campsite. But we make it, just before dark! A fishy dinner helps regaining our strength. What requires us more time to get used to is the American family holiday atmosphere at Playa Hermosa. We feel like tree hugging slow travel misfits trying to fit in among the tourists.
Hot and not happening
Nicaragua was less touristy, for the wrong reasons unfortunately, but we still met numerous backpackers looking for adventure. All of a sudden we plunged in a resort type of holiday even though we take the low-budget option, camping next to the beach. Holy smokes, its HOT when we get out of our tent at 7am. We thought the 35 degree heat was overwhelming while cycling all day, but now it was even boiling in the shade. We decide to take it easy; go for a swim and chill on the beach and enjoy a date night. After two beers we giggle in our beach seats watching the stars. Matthijs’ whike has an electical problem and we break one of Jakoba’s cables as well in the process of fixing it. Great, now none of us had any support, and the hills seem unsurmountable without. We need to get off and push the whike up the steep hill. A car with two good Christians stops and they help us pushing up the hill, praise the lord!
Bomberos to the rescue
We finally make it to an electrical mechanic who needs only two hours to fix both our bikes replacing some cables. We are happy that this time it only takes a couple of hours instead of the three weeks in Mexico. When we arrive in Santa Cruz it is already dark and unfortunately the Red Cross cannot host us. Here is where the firemen (aka the “Bomberos”) come to rescue, as we can stay the night at their 24hours station! We even get to sleep in their air conditioned meeting room where they keep a foam mattress, especially for bicycle tourists. We feel super lucky and before we go to sleep Matthijs offers to help out if there is an emergency at night. But clearly he’s a rookie. He completely snores through the loud alarm at 1am when the bomberos rush out. Completely refreshed we had a big day ahead with a ferry to catch at 4pm. We spiced up the casado lunch by chasing some iguanas around to click a pic. Ahead of schedule we rolled onto the boat. The fire chief in Punta Arenas is a big fan of our bicycles, but posing with him for pictures does not provide us a roof above our heads. His station is too small and he redirects us to his naval colleagues on the other side of town. The bomberos are super friendly and happy to host us, despite the dog almost eating us. We camp in the yard and have a shower at their facilities. It was all worth the breakfast and enjoyable conversations in the morning. Marcelino, was especially keen to help us in any way possible and went out of his way to introduce us at other fire stations on our way South. A million thanks to Marcelino and all those people that make our trip so much more enjoyable. For their help getting around, their openness and sharing their view on life. We truly get to see the best side of humankind from our bicycle!
Blackjack luck on our side
Along the road to Jaco we check out crocodiles below a famous bridge where people throw whole chickens into the water to get a glimpse of the predators in action. A great spectacle to spot these majestic creatures in the ‘wild’. When we arrive at the Buddha hostel we have the impression that Jaco is a nice surf town. But we couldn’t be more wrong… When we head for a bear into town we only encounter shady people selling drugs on the streets and no nice bars. So we try the casino! Which turns out to be 98% occupied by prostitutes. The other 2% are made up by middle aged men and us. An interesting scene, but it doesn’t hold us back from drinking a well deserved beer and winning USD 200 at the blackjack table. Luck is still on our side when we leave Jaco and spot colourful macaws in the trees! We love the beautiful ride along the coast to Quepos and pick some wild marañons (what?!). Did you know that this fruit produces cashew nuts? We actually had no idea and were even more surprised by the bitter taste of the fruit which is used a lot for jams and juices in Costa Rica. We knock on the bomberos door again and are friendly welcomed in their fire station. They even have the classic pole! We can sleep in the lockers area upstairs. On our way downstairs the pole is unfortunately more for show and we have to take the stairs when we go into town for a very nice Italian dinner.
Biodiverse tourist heaven
A 6am rise and shine as we had to leave the bomberos before 7am. This way we can squeeze in a visit to the famous Manual Antonio Park and we roll our whikes into a conference room at a fancy hotel who arranges the tour. The park has amazing scenery and wildlife. We see (baby) sloths, birds, bats, butterflies and tons of monkeys with our funny guide. On our way back we hitch a ride to a restaurant and while we have an excellent early dinner we see a sloth climbing down the tree, how awesome!
Coconut bomb
The next day is camping time again as we got tipped about Playa Ventana, so here we go! To arrive on the beach we conquer a dirt road with steep hills and luckily we find a small grass patch to pitch our tent. We cook our last freeze-dried meal (the one that we kept in the bottom of our bag for emergencies) and try to sleep, but this is a real challenge in the heat. We wake up sweating like pigs and conclude we definitely do NOT have a tropical proof tent… Next time we’ll need a separate outer and inner tent for these weather conditions. The beach compensates for the rough night as it is stunning with its walk-through caves at low tide. We enjoy a rest day with sun, water fun and shade and spend another night at the beach. OEF, a coconut JUST dropped next to our tent! These are the real dangers that we are exposed to here, or are we underestimating the wildlife a little? We get up early to catch the morning boat to Drake Bay. We park our bikes at the bomberos in Palmar Norte, thanks again Marcelino! But things are getting a little wild as we see a snake slithering into the fire station. It turns out to be a terciopelo, one of the deadliest in Costa Rica! A snake hunt follows and after a small ‘fight’ the snake is relocated to the nearby river by the fireman. We leave our whikes and catch a boat to the one of the most biodiverse spots on our planet, the Corcovado national park.
Jungle home without walls
We arrive at Edin’s home stay in Drake Bay where we sleep in between the jungle and the small airstrip. Edin moved his house a few years ago to provide space for the airstrip with the increasing amount of tourists visiting this area. We stay in a room without walls, but a mosquito net is really all you need in the jungle with its amazing sounds. Edin’s family is the nicest and we have a great time sharing stories, enjoying delicious dinners and exploring the jungle ‘garden’. His wife shares her extraordinary and emotional story of how she met her biological father when she was 35 years old. Next to our kind host, Edin is also a guide at the park, the town’s pastor, a house builder and daily football player with his friends. We enter the park by boat and are introduced to a sleeping tapir, colourful toucans, a crescent owl and some beautiful birds! It’s a great feeling being surrounded by all of this wildlife and spotting them in their natural habitat. The park has very strict rules on waste and the leave no trace policy will hopefully be sufficient for this pristine place to survive in the future, even with ever increasing tourism. The next day we go for a snorkeling excursion and are pleasantly surprised to see a rare turtle, a shark, jumping rays and dolphins! We meet Malou and her boyfriend Michiel from Amsterdam and join them to their lodge to watch the Ajax game! Who would have thought that we could watch Dutch television in the middle of the jungle? We leave Corcovado with a warmed heart and return to the main land.
Our whikes are still there and nobody got killed by a snake, thank God! The firemen try our whikes, we have a good laugh and then set sail towards Panama, our end destination!