Costa Rica Part One...…...
Our arrival in Costa Rica couldn't come soon enough really. If you've been following the blogs you'll know that I've been riding without a back brake, no speedo and a suspect front tyre since Tikal, Guatemala. As soon as we'd got across the border we made tracks for the HD Dealership in San Jose stopping off in Liberia along the way. No sight seeing for us yet. A couple of days later and we got there.....what a relief !!
Roshany, who'd I'd been dealing with via email for the last few weeks was there to greet us and produced all the parts asked for, ready to fit. With that all sorted we headed back to a B & B we'd managed to find within walking distance, unloaded the bikes and returned them to the dealers. Happy Days.....now we can start sight seeing.
First stop of the Oldham - Mills fly by tourism actually started with walking round San Jose, not what we'd originally intended but sometimes you have to adapt to what is thrown at you on the road. The little B & B was great and we ended up extending there whilst the dealership had the bikes. San Jose itself was busy like any city and modern as well but it had it's good side, with pleasant squares, various statues and some Spanish Colonial buildings. And like so many Central American towns and cities we've visited on this trip, it was not without colourful artwork.....graffiti to some of you....brightening up some of the less touristy areas.
We finally got our bikes back from HD San Jose, smiling faces all round. My brakes now work....wit woo. I've had a new speedo, a new back brake master cylinder, a new front tyre, service and oils. Chris has had a service and new swinging arm bushes. Yey...time to ride....
Next stop we have planned and I term planned loosely.....actually we got the map of Costa Rica out to see where to go first as we're starting from the middle of the country. So we chose to do the Eastern side first and head for a place called Cahuita. On the way, completely out of the blue, as we were tootling along, behind us appeared Tim and Marisa from 'Notier's Frontiers'. (Followers may remember we met up with Tim and Marisa in Leon, Nicaragua.) We pulled in as soon as we all could and after hugs,much chatting and cold drinks discovered we were all going the same way.....to Cahuita…..and just like that, off we all went again.
Our lodgings for a couple of nights was in the beautiful garden of a house about 1 1/2 km off the main road (eek...this means gravel) just a few kilometres short of Cahuita.It was owned by a German couple who spoke no English, only Spanish and German. I loved this, it gave me a real chance to practice the little Spanish I had picked up so far. The room/studio was amazing, with a little kitchenette....absolutely spotless but the best thing about this place was that the garden was really backed onto the jungle with no fencing that we could see. At night we could sit outside on a patio with a candle and just listen to the sounds of the nocturnal jungle coming to life, watch fireflies go about their business and parrots fly home to roost.....just wonderful. Oh yeah.....and Bossit…….did I mention they had a pool....😂😂
As Tim and Marisa were just in town for a couple of nights we arranged to meet them for lunch in Cahuita before they left. Who knows where it will be next time. We were intending to visit the park in Cahuita, our German hosts had told us it was full of animals and Tim and Marisa confirmed this as they'd already visited. Excellent....the very next day we went......and it didn't disappoint.
Cahuita National Park.....quite a small in comparison with some but so many different animals to see and it's free.....well not quite, unless you're tight. It runs on donations, we were happy to oblige. In return we got to walk amongst monkeys, racoons, a sloth, lizards, iguanas......all going about their day to day business.....something in the UK, health and safety just wouldn't have allowed. If you ever go to Costa Rica, it's one park I recommend visiting.
With our few days in Cahuita up and unable to extend with the German couple because they were booked up, we moved a little further down the coast to a place called Puerto Viejo. We'd heard people talk about this place and the internet seems to hold it in good stead. Indeed it was full of surfy type shops and a beach but it wasn't for us. The hotel we'd booked into was damp and dirty, in fact Puerto Viejo was just too busy for such a small place and came across as run down and has - been. The whole place was generally untidy. We were quite glad to leave.
Next up ...Tortuguero…….so how the heck are we going to get there on our bikes ???
Well....we're not. Tortuguero is another National Park in Costa Rica famous for it's nesting grounds for turtles. You can only get there by boat or a small plane. So we rode as near as we could get, to the small town of Cariari. Here we'd booked into a motel where the staff will provide you with a map of how to get to Tortuguero. We visited by getting a taxi to the point where you have to catch a boat. Off road bikes would easily make it down this rough road as would 4 x 4 and other cars driven carefully. At the end of the road there is a bus station/ car park and a boat stop. We got down there in time for the first water taxi at about 7am. Lucky us, our water taxi was empty and the captain was eager to impress, pointing out monkeys and a caiman along the way. All along the river there was wildlife and people going to work or delivering food and supplies to various dwellings and hotels within the park.....just another way of life.
The small part of Tortuguero that we visited had access to one of the beaches that the turtles nest on but we didn't see any.There are shops and cafes here with a few places to stay if you wanted. Many people that venture into Tortuguero do so on organised tours and stay overnight. There's other activities that you can do out here such as fishing and canoeing but many people come here to observe the turtles nesting. Don't be put off by where it is and the alleged cost of getting here, it's perfectly possible to visit this place for the day and night without a tour guide at a reasonable price. Once visited we caught a water taxi back to the bus station/car park and got on a bus back to Cariari. Good job !!
After a long day we stayed at the motel for a second night and in the morning packed up and set off for La Fortuna. It's nearly Chris's birthday....we have something planned.
La Fortuna was quite busy with tourists and plenty of places to stay and to eat. We'd booked a little cabina in somebody's garden again, just outside the small town. This proved to be a good move, it turned out that the road the cabina was on was just down the road from La Fortuna waterfall and fantastic.....our cabina had a superb view of Arenal Volcano. Safe parking for the bikes and the family that ran the cabinas loved them. We'd booked in for several days and we were going to be busy. Our first visit in this area was to the waterfall, a little expensive for what it was but still worth seeing. After a long walk down to it Chris went swimming, too cold for me. We huffed and puffed back up the steps...ha, ha....we're not as young as we used to be. Once back at the top we blasted off for a quick ride round to get an even better view of the Arenal Volcano and surrounding countryside.
Back at the cabina , we enjoyed a 'supermarket' tea 😃 with the view of the volcano, toucans and parrots....brillzy.
Next outing, a visit to some hanging bridges. When you visit Costa Rica this has to be a 'must do'. There's several to choose from. We'd picked The Arenal Hanging Bridges Park because of it's proximity to where we were staying. We opted to walk round on our own and regardless of what it says online you can buy tickets when you get there. The walk round was fun, the bridges were strategically placed and not quite as 'wibbley, wobbley' as we'd expected. During our walk round we bumped into a couple of Canadians, Michael and Thom also out here on a bit of a tour but not on motorbikes. Nice to meet you two, it was a fun day. The walk ended back near the ticket office, we hadn't seen any animals...on no I forget....a couple of toucans and one monkey.....never mind, always another day.
Tomorrow the second birthday on the 'Where to Next' trip is here. It's Christopher's birthday …..so what are we going to do for it ?????...……..White Water Rafting !!!!
And what an awesome day this turned out to be. We'd booked with Arenal Rafting as they were based in La Fortuna. The sun was shining, we picked up from the cabina and despite the fact that we broke down on the way to the river, it didn't deter our spirits. At first the whole thing was quite a mish mash of tourists when we arrived at the river and we were all provided with all the necessary equipment. Then we were placed into groups for the rafts. Here we were lucky enough to have formed our own group by teaming up with the Warren family from Newfoundland. Once we eventually got out into the river, (which is the River Balsa by the way), after a lesson from our Captain, the fun really began. The Warren family were a joy to be with and our guide was hilarious.I could go into so much detail here but maybe it's easier to just watch and see how much fun we had...……...
Cheers Chris
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
And on that note...….that's it for Costa Rica Part 1...…….Part 2 coming soon and don't forget these photos are only a snippet......for more visit GALLERY TEN .
