‘Pura Vida’, or ‘Pure Life’ is Costa Rica’s mantra, used as a greeting, a stand in for goodbye and a way of expressing thanks, it is a concept that is ingrained into the DNA of the country and we think this suits perfectly. We found Costa Rica incredibly civilised, with huge exports of coffee and bananas, as well as the growing ecotourism industry it is a wealthy country and is said to have the highest standard of living in Central America, often topping the list of ‘happiest’ places in the world. The wealth is immediately evident, with no rubbish by the road sides, bigger and more expensive houses and cars, the fact you can drink the tap water and even flush the toilet paper on occasion. The latter two took some getting used to after such a long time, I vowed never to take these things for granted again but you soon sink into whatever is the norm. We also found that the concept of customer service has been brought down from the US and everyone we encountered in hotels, restaurants etc were incredible friendly and nothing was too much trouble…it is amazing how much more welcome you feel when people are openly nice!
We have spent two weeks in Costa Rica and it has rained pretty much every day, the rainy season is truly upon us…but it is warm rain and the type that you know won’t stick around for days on end. Not only does it cool the world a little but everything is incredibly green and lush and adds to the appeal of the pristine landscape full of palm oil, coffee and banana plantations. Luckily, there is an abundance of bus stops along the roads which make perfect cover for damp cyclists.
We spent some time in the mountains in Monteverde and went zip lining through primary rain forest, flying through and over the canopy, with a speed and thrill that we don’t always experience on our bikes. The place was crawling with American tourists and we paid many dollars for the privilege of joining them but there’s a reason these places are popular and it’s nice to step out of our cycling bubble, do something different…and learn to fly! Despite the countries infrastructure the roads weren’t all great and in order to leave Monteverde we had to take a steep gravelly track back down to sea level. This was rather a terrifying experience for me as only my back brake was functioning, causing me to skid and slide all over the shop…once I had got the hang of travelling sideways it became a fun challenge and I could look up a little and appreciate the incredible views.
I had been struggling with the pace again, whether mentally or physically I am not entirely sure and after several unexplained meltdowns we decided to make our cycling days shorter and set 50miles as the absolute limit. So we took short hops along the coast to Manuel Antonio National Park…the smallest in the country and easily covered on foot in a few hours, we walked the trails through dense jungle spotting monkeys and their young, an enormous amount of birds and lizards, iguanas and both two and three toed sloths…and yes they do really move as slowly as everyone says! Our hostel was on the top of a hill with spectacular views over the coast and jungle and worth the nightmarish struggle of pushing our bikes up impossibly steep inclines to get there.
We continued to potter along the now very good roads along the coast…stopping for a few days in Uvita where we did nothing of note other than sleep in the equivalent of a treehouse, make use of the yoga deck for extended Pilates sessions and swim in the sea before setting off to wild camp our way to the border. Both nights were rather damp and mosquito infested but otherwise good spots…especially our second night in a palm oil field. We were pretty sure this was a safe camping spot by looking at the trees around us and noting they had already been harvested…so you can imagine we were alarmed to wake up in the morning and find men working around us. However, they didn’t seem too bothered to find two cycle tourists camped in their place of work and wished us a cheery ‘Buenas Dias’ before carrying on their merry way – maybe we aren’t such a rarity after all!
I was sad to leave Costa Rica, although expensive it has been a comfortable and relaxing experience and has felt like a break from Latin America but if we stayed any longer we would have no money left for the rest of the trip…and Panama is calling, who knows what our last Central American country with have in store for us!
Out for a Spin 