Costa Rica Part Two.....

After the excitement of the white water rafting and Chris's birthday celebrations , we headed back to Liberia. Nothing to do here but we'd found a computer shop. The sound card has stopped working in the laptop so we tried our best to get it working again, no joy, have had to buy temporary speakers. Bit of a pain when you want to skype home and practice making videos. Not to worry the joys of simple things wearing out/breaking on the road, you've still got to deal with them.

From Liberia we rode to Tamarindo. There was tons of us 'gringos' here but we liked Tamarindo, with it's vibrant and laid back surfy atmosphere. Amazingly neither one of us had ever been surfboarding in our Worldly travels..... Tamarindo seemed like a good place to have a go......and yey….guess who got up first time.....meeee…..followed not long after by Chris. Wit woo , loved it but this is where we made a clanger......no pictures as we were having a lesson and we forgot to bring the Go Pro out for the tutor to wear to film us...….talk about 'all the gear and no idea'.....der!!!

Playing on body boards before we went for a lesson surfboarding.

We loved Costa Rica for it's abundance of wildlife.....Tamarindo was no exception to this.....there were Howler monkeys just outside our room, iguanas rustling round in the bushes and making us laugh as they crashed loudly amongst the fallen palm leaves when they accidentally fell out of trees they were climbing......and being back on the West coast.....fabulous sunsets again.

We'd have quite happily stayed in Tamarindo for longer but we'd already planned to be back on the road.....this time heading for Montezuma.

The journey to Montezuma started off pretty standard, reasonable tarmac roads, then we came to the gravel section between Naranjo, Paquera and parts down to Montezuma. For some of you this road would still be a sinch…..it was actually gravel a bit further than we had anticipated. For Chris it's not an issue...….for me.....(I may be repeating myself here from another blog)…..despite having ridden several 'difficult' gravel roads in Alaska and Canada.....the fact that you would think that this would make me a better rider has actually gone the opposite way.....I've completely lost my confidence on gravel......for me it's just like riding on marbles and I'm struggling to control the 'wobble' on the front end of the loaded Sportster. I know theoretically what I'm supposed to do but my mind is blocked into putting this into practical use...…..will the confidence return on gravel......I hope so and suggestions to go on an 'off road' course have been made.

A tedious, stressful 14 mile stretch of gravel followed, the last bit down a steep hill with some rather large stones.....my side stand went again...….arrrghhhhhhh……..bash......a stone went against the little nut that holds the spring on and off it bounced...….more welding needed.

I was soooo relieved when we finally made it to Montezuma. The small pub style lodgings we'd picked had a butterfly garden, was a brewery and backed onto the Montezuma Waterfalls walk. Excellent....and monkeys too !! This place was called Mariposario Montezuma Gardens and I highly recommend it for a short stay. The food is amazing and Chris really enjoyed their home brews.

The walk to the waterfalls at the back was so much fun. First thing, photo the little map they show you to follow and then pick your way through.....a little daunting in a couple of places but if you like a little bit of a scramble to your destination.....this walk is for you and the waterfalls are well worth it......you'll want a cool swim when you get there. Don't forget to watch out for Howler monkeys on your way round.

The waterfalls was only one of the attractions of Montezuma, the beaches were great, the one we sat on for a while, almost empty. On other sections of beach around this walkable part of coastline, the locals were fishing and tourists were sunbathing and swimming. The village has a pleasant hippy vibe and is also fighting against plastic use due to the fact that turtles come here to nest so if you get your timing right be sure to visit the turtle hatchery here.

On leaving Montezuma we asked the locals the best way out to get onto paved road. This meant leaving on the hill the B & B was on instead of the steeper one from the village. It turned out to be much better and shorter to get to the tarmac.....phew......though it still freaked me a little!!

Looks easy peasy on a photo doesn't it ………...

Once back on the tarmac we relaxed and enjoyed the ride to the ferry.....yes ferry.....we're not riding all the way round to our next point as we've already been up there, (check out routes,map 10F) we can cut across on a ferry from Paquera to Punta Arenas.

We arrived in Punta Arenas late afternoon....a strange town...a few nice areas but it general it seemed a little run down and the hotel we were in felt like it was closing down. Not to worry it was only an overnighter.

For the record it's now 10/4/2018 and we're heading for Manuel Antonio, another National Park in Costa Rica full of wildlife. On the way down we stop off at 'El Avion', an aeroplane restaurant for a quick drink, planning to return for tea one night during our stay.

More pictures coming for there......

Manuel Antonio Park certainly did not disappoint, although it rained heavily on our initial entrance the skies soon cleared and the animals came out to play. Best to go early here as the park soon fills up with tourists coming from all parts of Costa Rica on day trips. This park like others in Costa Rica has a mix of jungle and coastline. It's a cracking walk round.

Back at the ranch....our hotel, surrounded by jungle apart from the road to the park. The staff let us park our bikes in reception, as we ate our breakfast we could watch monkeys going about their daily business, in fact they often popped down to the small hotel pool for a quick drink...…….but the best thing.....we saw our first 'moving sloth', practically right outside our room......fantastic !!!!!

Time for tea, a re-visit to El Avion. We really liked this restaurant, it's worth a visit even if you only have a drink. The actual remaining part of the plane houses a bar and you can climb into the cockpit which is pretty much as it was. The plane has history.....not really a good one but still history.The views are great over the ocean and whilst we were waiting for our meal we were treated to several macaw parrots displaying themselves on 'fly- bys' and perching nicely on a tree for us to photograph.

Our tour of Costa Rica is nearly over......not quite though as we ride to Puerto Jiminez on a quest for Bio-Luminescence.

On our way down we spot a motorcycle repair spot and make a mental note to get my side stand welded again on the way back.

I was looking forwards to Puerto Jiminez, I've booked us into a cabina at a local project....Cacao Monkeys Rustic Lodge right on the edge of Corcovado National Park. Ha, ha it's not called Cacao Monkeys for nothing. Just outside our cabina there's a short trail you can walk round. The day we walked it the resident White Faced monkeys threw sticks at us, annoyed at us daring to walk the pathway. This place is brilliant, clean, comfy, fabulous food mainly vegetarian which makes a nice change. Safe parking for bikes. You can do yoga and arrange trips from here as well. We'd already booked with an agent in town to go on a sunset kayak tour. Hopefully the bio-luminescence would come out as well.

So last trip.....sunset tour with Gabriel Rodriguez from Venezuela. This turned out to be pretty cool. A spot of kayaking through the mangroves, the sunset and thankfully after dark the bio-luminescence came out. This was so exciting to see. Hundreds of algae lighting up. It's not like what you see on the internet, many of the photographs are photoshopped. You'd need a special camera to catch this at night and unfortunately we don't have one so no photographs but the memory is one I'll never forget and try to see again in another part of the World, it was fascinating.

So that brings our tours in Costa Rica to a close but not quite the visit. On our way out we stop at the little repair centre and get my side stand welded again. This actually turned out to be highly entertaining with Jose and his team sorting my bike out and being invited into his home to meet his son, all because I was chatting about animals and I'd spotted saddles outside the house. A wonderful group of people who ended up fixing my bike for free, stating 'Pura Vida Costa Rica' and wishing us well on our journey. So any more bikers passing by needing any quick fixes this is the place to call in on...Motos Honda, La Palma, Puerto Jimenez, 8847 5641, sorry there's no website.

Last stop in Costa Rica Rio Golfito, where we pause for a couple of nights to check paperwork and make a few copies in preparation to crossing the next border.

Where To Next ?