Costa Rica, Pura Vida

It's crazy to think I've been in Costa Rica for two weeks already. The time has been slipping by at an incredible pace. I'm ready to come home but I've got some more work to do yet. I found a Cargo Company that is going to air freight the bike to LAX. The moto will get crated on Friday (tomorrow is labor day). Here is the Costa Rica summary... Enjoy :-)

Wed, April 16^th into Costa Rica: the border crossing was a real hassle from Nicaragua to Costa Rica. Getting out of Nicaragua was not too bad but getting into Costa Rica was a convoluted process. I hired a fixer, assistant, guide and it was worth every penny, times two.

1. Immigration passport stamp (immigration office) 2. Liability insurance (insurance office) 3. Photocopies of everything including the passport stamp and your new Costa Rican insurance (photocopy office) 4. Customs to verify all your documents are matching for the moto (customs office) 5. Motorcycle inspection (customs officer) 6. Data entry of moto into the system (another office near the insurance office) 7. Approach the frontier 8. Show your passport to the officer 9. Show your moto papers to the other officer 10. Cross the border (phew) 11. Show your documents again at the police check point 10km down the road. Are we done yet…?

Six countries six currencies, I’m getting confused at times and the exchange rates are completely different:
$1 USD = 13 Mexican Pesos,  2 Belize Dollars,  7.7 Guatemalan Quetzales,  19 Honduran Lempiras, 25.8 Nicaraguan Cordobas, 548 Costa Rican Colones.

Thursday April 17^th, Day hike near Volcano Arenal: I rode around Lake Arenal to the little park near Volcano Arenal and did a short day hike up to a scenic view point for the volcano. It was a really fun ride on a narrow serpentine road and then an easy hike to the vista. Nice, easy day.

Good Friday April 18^th, Cloud forest: I rode the KLR to Monte Verde and Santa Elaina and to the Selvatura Park in the cloud forest. The drive was fun because the road is predominantly dirt, winding through the steep green hills and climbing into the mountains. I did the Hanging Bridges hike in Selvatura Park which was an easy 4km hike with 8 suspension bridges that put you into the canopy. It was a magical place of incredibly dense jungle and mist. All around there were the sounds of birds but it was very difficult to spot them. Still an amazing experience and such a contrast to the deserts of Arizona.

April 19^th & 20^th, Happy Easter, Happy 8^th Anniversary: I have stayed at Hotel Monte Terras B&B for five days and it has been really nice. Kees (pronounced  like case, suitcase without the suit) and Griselda are amazing and have treated me so well. The meals have been great and we even went out to eat together at the local restaurants on two evenings. It's so nice to be treated like a friend rather than a client. The rest of Costa Rica is on the playas for the holidays so I decided to stay put and enjoy the peace and quiet and great hospitality here on the hillside next to Lake Arenal.

www.monteterras.com

Griselda and Kees. This photo just makes me smile! Thanks for the warm hospitality!

Monday April 21 to Playa Samara: Since the Holiday weekend was over, I went to the pacific coast to the little town of Playa Samara. I found a good little hotel that was right on the beach and had some fish tacos and a beer at the restaurant; toes in the sand. 

Tuesday April 22: I had my very 1st surfing lesson. I actually got up on the thing and rode a wave, twice! The rest of the time I spent getting knocked around by the waves. Still, I had a lot of fun and was really pooped out after, so I grabbed some lunch and had a little siesta. In the afternoon I met three guys on rented Honda Tornado s (250cc dual sport motos). They were from California and were on vacation for a couple of weeks. I had a good time talking to them and contrasting our trips. This was their 5th international moto excursion. They just fly into the country they want to visit with their helmets riding gear and a single duffel bag; rent a few bikes and ride around for 2 weeks. They had ridden in Peru, Vietnam, Nepal and Costa Rica (can't remember the other location). What a great way to do it, on a regular vacation schedule and relatively cheap too. They weren't doing a guided tour, just navigating with a Lonely Planet guidebook and an iPhone. Brilliant!

the main road of the little beach side community

Wednesday April 23^rd Playa Samara to Heredia.  In the morning, there were some guys taking down a small building next to the hotel. The Howler Monkeys were not happy about all the noise and were barking and roaring at the workers. It was really an interesting scene, one that you will never experience in the US. There were 8-10 monkeys, a few males, females and babies. I met a motorcyclist at lunch today, William Mora. He was riding a BMW G650GS and we had a good conversation, best we could with broken Spanish and broken Ingles. He put me in contact with his amigo, Charlie Duran, who drives a KLR, speaks English and lives in San Jose.

Intel just announced they are shutting the Assembly Line here, in San Jose, and everyone is worried about the economic impact it will have on Costa Rica. Semiconductors is one of Costa Rica’s biggest exports. For my friends at Grohmann Engineering it's really bad news. If there is no manufacturing line, you certainly don't need the Field Service Engineers who help Intel maintain the equipment. When you listen to the news, it seems like no big deal: ~1500 jobs from a company of 100,000 people. Intel's stock price went up. But for the Ticos in San Jose, this will have a negative impact on the economy and will directly affect far more than 1500 Intel blue badges. There are all the contractors (housekeeping, cafeterias, security, warehouse) plus all the businesses that support the operations (materials, transport, equipment supplier support, etc.). It makes me a little nauseous. This is where my personal values are in direct conflict with corporate values. Yes, Intel will reduce their expenses and  maybe be slightly more profitable, but when it's at the expense of a whole community it feels like a poor choice, cruel.

Friday 25th: I went to the Airport to see about sending the KLR home by air freight and I think I have a good lead on a company that can help me with this. I also went to the Kawasaki dealer in San Jose, Todo Motors and they were very helpful and friendly. I have a contact for shipping the Moto by sea and a potential buyer for the bike too. All in one day. But with the weekend here it will be early next week before I make any more progress. I went to Dinner with Luis Lopez-Borbon and his family tonight. Luis is a field service engineer for Grohmann Engineering and I've worked with him many times in Arizona. It was really nice to meet his wife and son, his nephew and his sister, Dylana. The food was excellent tipical Costa Rican fare and I really enjoyed the conversations we had. After the meal, the boys had fun sitting on the Big KLR and playing with the switches and buttons :-D Thanks Luis & Dylana for the nice evening and thanks Luis for taking the time to talk with your friends about selling/shipping the Moto. 

Saturday 26th: I went for a ride with Charlie Duran; he also rides a KLR, it’s a 2012. We rode west out of San Jose into the mountains past two Volcanos, tough you couldn’t see much of them, the peaks were cloaked in clouds. It was a beautiful ride with lush green hillsides and farms. We climbed up to 5000ft and then descended on our way to visit Charlie’s friends, Memo and Ana. They have a beautiful property that is a small coffee plantation. They were really generous hosts and made a delicious late-lunch / early-dinner. After we ate, we hopped on Memo’s 4x4 quads and went for a tour of the property. It’s very lush on steep hillsides with lots of beautiful birds. They have plans to put in some cabins to create a little B&B. After the tour we had some excellent strong coffee :-D and then it started to rain. Charlie and I hopped on the motos and cautiously made our way back to San Jose. The rain stopped after about 20min but we still had some fog and it was getting dark so we just took our time coming home. It was a really good day on the moto… thanks so much: to Charlie for being a great guide, to Memo and Ana for being so friendly and providing a great meal, and to William for introducing me to his friend.

Ratboy, San Jose in the background

Me and Charlie Duran on our ride to Turialba

Sunday 27th: I moved hotels, I had a very inexpensive Hotel in Heredia that was run by a really nice family but I was getting tired of the intermittent water, spotty internet access and very tiny room. So I moved closer to the Airport to the Adventure Inn…  Paradise! Big comfy bed, rock solid WiFi, Hot water any time of day and very reasonable room rate too, total win. Breakfast is included and there are a bunch of nice restaurants nearby including the Hard Rock Cafe, San Jose. 

The rainy season has begun in earnest and it’s time to get home. On Monday the rain started at 12noon and was finished by 2p but it came down in buckets, Tuesday was the same though it stated a little later. Wednesday, ditto.

I’m finally making some progress towards getting the bike home. I got a quote from CRCW, Costa Rica Cargo World to send the bike by Air Freight to LAX. We are going to crate the KLR on Friday morning and the bike will arrive in LAX on Monday. I will probably fly on Monday and stay with Mark Althoetmar in Long Beach while I get the moto through customs.

Friday May 2nd: The KLR is boxed and ready to go. The Guys at CRCW have been great! Thank you Roosevelt, Marquinho & Luis for your help and great customer service! www.crcwsa.com

GPS Coordinates:
10.00213, -84.19484

Roosevelt and Marquinho. We were rocking out to some 80's tunes while we crated the KLR

Coffee break, note my awesome Iron Maiden coffee mug :)

Ready for customs...

Sunday May 4th: The Moto is in the Air!...

Nicaragua

It's Easter Sunday. I've been in Costa Rica for several days staying at a little B&B on the southern side of Lago de Arenal. It's been really nice to relax and enjoy the cooler weather and to hide from the Holiday crowds that are at the beach. I'll head there tomorrow. 

April 12^th Danli to Leon: The border crossing went fine, Honduras was fast and efficient. There were “assistants” that actually made the process really easy. I gave the guy a $5 tip and he seemed really happy about it. Total win. Getting into Nicaragua was fine but not nearly as fast or efficient but what was really interesting about it was they had a DJ spinning tunes at disco volumes. It was really strange because, while I liked the music and it was very festive and upbeat… it made it really hard to communicate with the officials especially with my non-existent Spanish. Anyway, it all got done and after I had an ice cream from the ice cream lady. The roads in Nicaragua are in far better condition than in Honduras and I had a nice windy bit of asphalt for a while. As I dropped elevation the temperature crept up and by the time I reached Leon in the heat of the afternoon it was nearly 100deg F. for a while I drove through a long wide flat valley with lots of agriculture and saw some interesting things: I saw several farm wagons being pulled by teams of Oxen, a couple communities where the primary mode of personal transport was horseback, 4 adventure motos headed northwest towards Honduras, a couple on tandem bicycle that were obviously overland travelers; the bicycle was really interesting because the front rider was recumbent and the rear rider was in a traditional riding position and the bike was very heavily loaded with panniers, Three big Volcanoes two with plumes rising from the top. Because the roads were in good shape I made really good time at maximum KLR cruising speed… 70MPH.

Sunday April 13^th, Leon: Today I laid low… I got up late had a light breakfast and then walked around Leon for a couple hours while it was less hot. The markets were busy and there were lots of folks in the churches for mass. I grabbed a pizza for lunch and then went back to the hotel for a siesta. The rest of the afternoon and evening I spent on the computer prepping for the next few days: things to do, sights to see, places to stay, setting up routes on the GPS. Then just before bed we had a little earth tremor. Nicaragua is has many volcanos along the western part of the country, many of them are active. As the Geologists love to say “Subduction leads to Orogeny!” Nicaragua rocked my world.

Monday April 14^th, I made an attempt to drive the KLR to one of the nearby Volcanos, Cerro Negro. It is one of the active cones near Leon. There are tours that go there frequently so I thought I would drive out and see it up close. I never got there. I had set up a route for my GPS, no problem, I knew the road was dirt but it was a very short distance less than 20 kilometers to the park entrance. What I didn't know was that the road was Very sandy. After 2 low speed tip-overs with the bike (front tire washed out) and the exertion of picking up the KLR and the climbing temps, I decided to return to the hotel. One of my “mantras”: discretion is the better part of valor. Riding in sand on a moto requires technique, one that I never mastered. I know the principle is to keep your speed up so you remain on top of the sand but on this narrow one lane road with blind corners and barbed wire fence on both sides the consequences of making a mistake at speed would be bad.  It turns out the sand was from an eruption from Cerro Negro in 1992. One of the employees of the hotel explained that Leon had been buried in ½ a meter of sand. The evidence was still there on the road to Cerro Negro.

Tuesday April 15^th, Ometepe and San Juan del Sur. I wanted to visit Conception, the huge volcano on Isla de Ometepe in the center of Lago de Nicaragua. There is a ferry that can take vehicles to the island and there are a bunch of little hotels and B&Bs on the island. It was the wrong time of the year to go there though. The cooler temps were gone and we were in the hottest part of the year before the rainy season began. I also learned that if you wanted to climb Conception you needed a guide and more than 10 hours to do it. It just didn't sound very appealing to me after my sandy work-out the day before. Still I drove to the little town of San Jorge were the port for the ferry was and took some photos. There is a nice public beach and there were a lot of families just having a nice day at the beach on Lake Nicaragua. This was another moment where I just looked and felt ridiculous, with my loaded KLR and wearing all of my motorcycle gear; I wasn't exactly in beach attire. After getting off the bike and walking around to take some photos (and getting lots of strange looks from the locals) I hopped back on the KLR and headed to the pacific coast, only about 40 minutes away. I spent the night in San Juan del Sur. I paid a little too much for my hotel, but it had A/C, had some mediocre pizza with a great view of the setting sun and then got almost no sleep because the night club next door was Kicking Out the Jams until the small hours…

The KLR in beach attire

One of the Ferries to Ometepe

The beach at San Jorge, on the shore of Lake Nicaragua

Sunset on the Pacific, San Juan del Sur

Honduras

I feel like I sped through Guatemala and Honduras and I'm sure I'm doing myself a disservice especially in Guatemala but I guess it gives me an excuse to return... It was foolish of me to believe I could cover so much ground in so little time and not feel like I was missing out.

April 8^th: Antigua to Copan Ruinas Honduras: I retraced my route for half of the day today. Straight back through Guatemala city. I was trying to hit a small window of time between the end of rush hour and the forecasted rain at 11AM. It worked perfect! So no story to tell really… I didn't even miss my road change in the center of Guatemala, lucky really. I wished the moto was a little narrower for an easier time lane splitting but I followed some locals for a little while and that helped J. East of Guatemala City you descend in elevation a bit and enter a region that is very arid and desert like. It was hot, too, nearly 100 deg. F. then wound through the hills and low mountains to Flores and the frontera. I arrived at the border around 2p and it took a while to get through. No real issue it just took some time to get the moto out of Guatemala. Thankfully it was only about 10 kilometers from the border to Copan Ruinas. I was able to find my Hotel pretty quickly and it was a really wonderful little place called Yat B’alam which is Mayan for little jaguar. Really lovely staff, truly pleasant. They have won several awards from the TripAdvisor website and I understand why…just wonderful! I also met Marvin Lopez today. He’s a Tuk Tuk taxi driver and he agreed to let me drive his Tuk Tuk to the Mayan Ruins tomorrow.

9^th Copan Ruinas: Yat B’alam has been great! Comfortable good food too. Marvin was right on time this morning and after 37 seconds of tuk tuk driving instructions we were on our way to the Mayan Archaeological site. I really enjoyed driving the little trike and I think I will do this in my retirement… be a Tuk Tuk driver for tourists ;-) I hired a guide for the site today and we spent the morning exploring Copan Ruinas. I really enjoyed the experience, you learn so much more with the guide. I had a nice lunch at the hotel and had a new culinary experience. They had just finished baking a “quesadilla” not the Mexican quesadilla that we are used to. It was a cake, similar to pound cake but mildly sweet with a lovely cheese flavor and aroma. I got to have a slice of it while it was still warm from the oven and it was excellent! After a siesta I returned to the site in the afternoon… drove Marvin’s Tuk Tuk again… and explored the tunnels dug by the archaeologists and then walked the nature trails. The park was so quiet and tranquil and the weather today was perfect. It was a really relaxing afternoon. The park has a flock of Scarlet Macaws, Montezuma Oropendolas, and saw some Cotuzas, little piglet shaped rodents running around.

The guide to Copan Ruinas and Marvin the Tuk Tuk driver/passenger (on the right)

I had a blast driving the little Tuk Tuk through the cobblestone streets of Copan. Top speed was only about 25 MPH. 205cc air/oil cooled single cylinder engine and a 4 speed transmission like a Vespa Scooter.

Copan Ruinas is at the southern extent of the Mayan world and was unique for its much more elaborately carved sculptures. Most were carved under the reign of the 13th king of Copan. 

Copan Ruinas, Wiki

Scarlet Macaw sculptures above the Ball Court

There was a really nice museum on site with some of the more delicate objects and a full scale reconstruction of the Rosalila temple which is still buried below one of the main temples

the Dancing Jaguar

This one is for Dad, The old Texaco logo and the Honduran Flag just to the right

April 10^th Copan Ruinas to Comayagua: There is not much to report here… I was on the bike for nearly 6 hours today crossing Honduras. I drove through many little agricultural communities today. I’m still astounded by the living conditions in many of these little towns. Families living in one room shacks made of sticks and mud and some with satellite TV dishes on them. The road conditions out of Copan Ruinas were not good; many large potholes to avoid but there were road crews out there improving the road. In some places some of the locals were filling the potholes with gravel and dirt and asking for a donation for their efforts. Honduras has lots of Bananas, little bananas the size of your thumb to big bananas the size of your forearm and lots of roadside stands to sell them. Comayagua was just a place to spend the night but the hotel was comfortable and I was able to get some photocopies of my documents for the next border crossings.

April 11^th Comayagua to Danli: I drove through the capitol of Honduras, Tegucigalpa. It’s a good size city but I didn’t have too much trouble getting through. The city occupies a valley in the mountains so it’s quite hilly and the roads are windy. Once I got through the center part of the city and started climbing out of the valley I turned on the GoPro for a few minutes. I hope to put a bunch of video clips on YouTube once I get home… The road between Tegucigalpa and Danli was pretty and fun winding through the mountains and pines and with some elevation, the weather was cooler too. Tomorrow morning I’ll cross into Nicaragua and then have a longish ride south to Leon.

Guatemala

So I'm a little behind in my posts... what else is new? Well, Guatemala, another drastic change in culture from Mexico and Belize, but it took two days to begin to feel it. My first days in Guatemala were spent at Tikal and It wasn't until I started driving south out of the National park that I really got to see Guatemala.


April 3 The border crossing between Belize and Guatemala was no trouble at all, the only thing that made it a little difficult was the heat and humidity of the day. I had to get the Moto sprayed with insecticide again but Guatemala did not require liability insurance like Mexico and Belize. The drive to Tikal was relatively short and I arrived at the Park entry at about 3pm. If you wait 'til 3:30p to buy your entry to the park it's good for the next day so this worked out perfectly. While waiting around I met Luci & Phillip from Czech republic who were traveling around Central America and using the public buses. Driving into Tikal National Park was pretty because you were surrounded by dense jungle. I arrived at the Jaguar Inn and unpacked quickly and was able to walk around the ruins until sunset. along the way in I saw a family of spider monkeys in the canopy and some Parrots. 

Sun setting on Temple 1 (viewed from temple 2)

April 4th Tikal: I got up super early today to do a Sunrise tour, You enter the park with a guide and hike through the site to Temple 4, climb up to the top of the temple at first light and watch the jungle come to life! It was a really cool experience listening to the Howler Monkeys, Brown Jays, Parrots and Oropendulas. We saw another family of spider monkeys, and this time we were above them as they worked their way through the trees. The guide pointed out a pair of Toucans, too. The sunrise itself was a total bust... the sky was completely overcast from horizon to horizon but it was still an amazing experience. After the sunrise I went back to the Inn for breakfast then explored the site until about noon. I gave up due to the heat, high 90’s and high humidity and got a cold beer and some fresh fruit for lunch. on the way out of the park I saw Zack & Caitlin (Texas) again, they wad come on a day tour from San Ignacio, Belize. On the sunrise tour I met a retired couple Steven & Jane from Wisconsin and later we had dinner together. They were just really nice folks and enjoyed talking with them. 

Temples 1,2 & 3 seen from Temple 4 (try to imagine a brilliant sunrise in the grey space above the trees...)

Saw a little family of Coatimundi running about just after sunrise. Most of my attempts to photograph the wild life have been total failures; my little point and shoot Fuji just doesn't do it well. 

5^th Tikal to Coban. Now I’m really in Guatemala. I shot some video along the route today because I really felt like I was seeing something new. The route south took me through many rural and agricultural villages. Today is Saturday and the markets were full of people. In each town the vendors booths crowd the roads and the streets were full of the locals doing their shopping. I crossed a river on a small barge type ferry that was powered by a little Yamaha outboard motor, 5 Quetzales. Saw groves and groves of date palms in a long flat valley and then into the mountains to arrive in Coban. There was a little parade/procession through town that had some of the roads closed which made navigating a little difficult but I found Hotel Posada de Carlos V and it turned out to be very nice. The markets were packed in the streets of coban and I had a little bit of time to go walk around and buy some little bananas for a snack. The staff at the hotel was really nice and even though they had no English I still got a nice meal and pleasant service from them. It was also nice to have some cooler weather after the high heat and humidity of the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize and Tikal.

Ferry across a river near Sayaxche

Had a delicious lunch at a little roadside Comedor; Sopa de Pollo, Tamales y hencho a mano, las tortillas de maiz

The local markets of Coban

6^th and 7^th Antigua: Antigua is a Spanish colonial city and it reminded me of Ajijic and San Miguel de Allende in mexico. I arrived on an important day of celebration “Quinto Domingo de Cuaresma – Procession de Jesus de la Caida” 5^th Sunday of Lent – the procession of the fallen Jesus/ Jesus of the fall??? Need a little assistance from Joyce here… there were beautiful patterns made from flower petals laid on the processional route and the city was full of people. I managed to get into town and found a great room at Hostel Antigua. I think half of Guatemala city was in Antigua for the celebration. Lots of men in purple robes. The plazas were full of people and there was a park full of food vendors where I got some great local cuisine for cheap. I stayed a second day to rest and to see more of Antigua without the throngs and had a nice day just walking around. I also found a little moto shop and they let me use their space to change the oil on the KLR and I bought a new pair of gloves at the Honda shop because I wore through the thumbs of my gloves on the way into Antigua. I also had some great Guatemalan coffee & took some photos of the ruins of churches.

Volcano de Agua emerged from the clouds for just a moment