Costa Rica: Trippin' with GR

DISCLAIMER: The contents within are extremely exaggerated and loosely based on fictitious characters and events.

Worry not, if the first few photos don't show due to a bandwidth error, check back here the first of each month to catch up. Otherwise, click the link below to be whisked away to where the fotos start.

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/costa-rica-trippin-with-gr.856426/page-6#post-21951874

I am done lurking and making incoherent remarks on other’s RRs. It is time to share. First, a brief intro into the who, the what, the where, the why and the ADVs to follow.

Who
I am GRinCR. I study, I work, and I wish I had more free time. I am a father, a son and a husband. I am originally from the southern burbs of St Paul, Minnesota. I said nuts to winter in Nov of 2006 and flew the coop to Costa Rica. This was two short years after a study abroad program which brought me here for Jan, Feb and Mar of, you guessed it, 2004. My wife is Ana Yancy, half Panameña and half Costarricense. We have a son Joseph who is our only, for now (fast forward a few years, we are 5. Three boys have been created and no more to come.)



-2022 Edit-


What
This thread will be made of many small trips. I seek tranquility, great views, tasty food, good people and epic roads for ADV motorcycling. I will locate peaceful places to camp and comfortable accommodations. I want to find places to explore and basically highlight all I can off the "Gringo Trail&". I have many ADVs in the archives and surely ones that have yet to materialize.


This RR, like many, may get sidetracked and stray a bit and these stories include:

Good eats.


Booze.

Swimming holes.

Friendly and inquisitive locals.


But in the end it is all about the RIDE and where your ADV can take you!













A goal is to keep this to a minimum.


Where
In and around Costa Rica. Basically as far as a few days of free time can take me. Until, of course, the day comes I graduate to the big boy club and can post in "Ride Reports" without being banned.

Why
My wife calls it an illness and it is contagious. The only known cure is to hit the road and ride. It is only a temporary fix. So what is my Excuse? Any, I guess. To name a few; there is something on the other side of that horizon. Ten hours to get there, even if only a few kilometers away sounds fun. Pounding pavement is boring. Because they said it was dangerous and should not be done.

When
At every opportunity. Tomorrow is just a promise so get out there and enjoy right now.

Here is a taste of the first RR and most recent (at this time this thread started). It was still fresh in the mind. I hope to post tomorrow, but this is Latina America and tomorrow means whenever.


Hasta Luego!

The rope nobby made my morn. Gracias.

Pt I. Alajuela to Samara. 30Nov2012
Hi, my name is Greg and I am an addict.. It has been more than a month since my last ride and here is the story. I will do my best to keep the verbiage to a minimum as I am no writer. This is good practice though.

This route has been on my bucket list for some time. I have just gotten back from the states and have a few weeks more on my month and a half leave of absents from the daily grind. So, jump on it mister, hit the road.

Step one:
I haven't known my speed or mileage since 2008 and I have a Vapor CPU lying around. So it is time.

The Garage:


Installed and dialed in.

Time to fill the void. $3 cookie sheet.


Few more cuts and bends;

It took time with lots of trial and error. First dodgy fabrication done, now for the route planning. Couple hours in front of Google Earth and viola!


Time to ride! Departure: 06:44 30Nov2012


2 hours later, we are in Puntarenas for the 09:00 ferry to Paquera. Bike + 2pax = $11.


All aboard the Tambor III.

Getting comfy and shoving off.

Had we taken the CR1/Pan-American, we would be wet.

One of the Gulf islands.

Yours truly.


Taking this pic as we disembark.


Go Twinkies!!

Welcome to Paquera. The time is now 10:37.

It only took an hour or so to reach Montezuma with some BS'ing as we ran into some Gringo friends in Cobano. They say on the planned route, we'd be three or four hours more to Samara. It is not even noon yet; good news. At Cobano, the pavement ends except for the quick and very steep drop into Montezuma. They finally paved it!

Time: 11:56; Montezuma Centro.


We are hungry and hit up the main Restaurant on the beach. $10-20 main entrées! Make it a batido and we will move on.

Here is our guide. Who needs GPS?


Leaving Montezuma, the road is very nice and well traveled.


It has bridges. This will be missed dearly by the end of the day.


We hit the town of Cabuya and leave Route 160 for the Cabuya-Mal Pais road.


It was fantastic. The grader had been through recently on select parts and anything remotely steep.


River crossing No.I


River crossing No.II

This was as rough as this road got. Almost a double track.


River crossing No.III The time is now 12:51. It wasn't much longer to Malpais.


Once in Mal Pais the road is dusty and very busy until you get past Santa Teresa. After Santa Teresa, bliss!


Almost bliss. The time is now 13:23 and we are very hungry and burning out fast. We have not seen a sign of civilization since leaving Santa Teresa. We take a quick 10 min break to stretch and calm the nerves.


About 30 min down the road we see a sign for Restaurante Dyka. We turn inland, up a hill, around a few corners and finally some food.


Arroz con Camaron


Sopa de Mariscos (From memory about $15 for the meal. I doubled up on the strawberry con pineapple shakes).

Back on the road. (The new dash revealed - Function over form achieved!)


Not a bad place to RIP, no?


At this point we are near the town of Ario. We have a choice: Ride on Playa Manzanillo or take the road to Betel then turn North. (These cities are marked on the NatGeo Maps) I didn't fancy much beach riding two-up and loaded so we choose. Wrong answer. We drive directly into the rainstorm we saw from our lunch table. Once we hit Betel and turn North we exit the rain storm. Soaked!

Being wet didn't matter much. Time is now 1459 and our first proper river crossing of the ride, or ever for that matter.


I had recently read some of Colebatch's river crossing advice about looking for rougher looking water to find the shallow parts. See it above in the pic? Just a bit downstream. I ignored everything I read and took the direct route. It got deeper and deeper. Just before exiting the other side the river swallowed the front wheel, stopped all momentum and the clutch slipped with a loud screech! Just as I heard that water hit the header pipe and a cloud of steam billows up. My thoughts: F*uck me I just burned up the clutch in the middle of nowhere!! We pushed it out with the help of the engine, it dies. I prayed it would start and function again. It did, and I will pay more attention in class next time.

While pacing back and forth enjoying the adrenaline a car full of tourists came rolling by. They were just our F'in around in their rental car and we exchanged route info of what lay ahead and bid each other farewell.

Stealing BigAl's line: ONWARD!

We round a bend just a short way down the road and guess what? Our second big river. I wish I could read her mind in the next pic .


As I mount the DR she says, "I'm walking this one and you follow me". Ana plunged right in, no hesitation and just like that we are across. No drama. Before long we were at the Rio Bongo. The third and final big river of the day. It was a bit more complicated, above the knees and had a rather swift current. First part was easy, follow the wife.


I think she's having fun now.


Third proper river crossing in my life, 20+ inches deep with a steady current. The manly way crossed my mind. Gun it, lean back and hope for the best. The thought that followed was pulling soaked spark plugs and even the possibility of a free helicopter ride to the hospital while leaving Ana with a 350lb bike in the middle of nowhere. We pushed it across.
(1:37 clip of the second part of this crossing.)

(Sorry, the embed text isn't working for me.)

It is now nearing 1600 hrs. Remember 3 to 4 more hours in Cobano? Not even close. There were no more large rivers to cross from my ADVrider, pre-ride research. Smooth sailing with speeds between 50 and 80 km/h.






At Punta Islita we stop for a break. Time: 17:11. Not much daylight left and still a considerable distance to go.




No more pics because of darkness, but the show must go on. From Punta Islita it takes us roughly two hours to reach Samara. We stop in town and I call my buddy where we are to sleep this night. I am now informed he lives in the general area of Samara, but closer to Nosara. Another hour to an hour and a half!! Wait, there is a short cut which will make it about 45 minutes to an hour trip.

He explains the directions and that we will have to cross another "plenty wide" river but it is only about a foot deep. I relay this info to the wife, concealing the river part, and lay out the options giving her full control. We pitch a tent on the beach here or continue on. She
chose B.

The directions were to take a left past some bar or super market. I find a left. It looks very f*cked up. Reach for the cell, no signal. We continue on looking for something more traveled. If we miss it we are on the long way around so no big deal. We did find the correct left and lucky we did. I was later told people have lost trucks in the part of the river where the first left leads. The crocs are also known to hang out at that spot

Now at the river I feel the wrath of God bearing down on me when the headlight hits the smooth black of the river water. I hear the wife behind me asking in a scolding kind of way, "Hay rio? HAY RIO?!" I tell her not to worry, it is shallow. Now with my fixed headlight it proves difficult to find the exit on the other side. We finally do, she hops on and away we go. Directo! A foot deep? Maybe down stream. Scroll up to the first proper crossing of the day. Same story.

Day one recap: Google distances were off; it was 300+ kms today and damn near 14 hours. We arrived to cold beer and buffalo wings in Playa Pelada around 21:00 hrs.

Day Two: Estimated 92kms. More rivers, cattle drives and ADV around every corner!

Cheers!

Looks good, can't beat riding in the tropics.

Nice to see some pics of CR!
i lived in La Trinidad back in the late 90's and frequented a bar called La Jarra that was a giant palapa. I wonder of its still there?
The drop into montezuma used to be nuts, probably an appropriate place for pavement and i dont think there was even much more than a donkey path between there and Malpais which was the spot to be for the annual halloween party!
Mike

Greg,

I had the opportunity to spend a week riding around Costa Rica last March/April. The incredible scenery and food were surpassed only by the friendly, welcoming people. I also crossed in the Tambor III, and the Nicoya Peninsula was a highlight of the trip.

There is a link to the ride report in my signature line in case you are interested.

For now, I will ride vicariously through your report and try to forget about the freezing weather here in DC.


Pura Vida,

Thanks for sharing the pics, Gregg.
Looks like you're heading through Playa Nosara on day 2. I've spent a little bit of time there. bro-in-law has a place there. Next time I plan to rent a bike and explore a bit.
Oh, I like the mud chains. Nice.

I'll bet you wake up some mornings, look in the mirror and say, "You know, it really doesn't suck being me!"

Thanks for the ride report. Keep it coming!

Nice ride report !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your pleasure at my expense; that is what I'm here for. The rope-chains ride includes bent forks, bent rims, a cracked crank case and lots of... I forget what more.

Stay tuned!

It was flattened shortly after I moved here in '06. It is now a Pricesmart (Costco/Sam's/Membership shopping)..

It only took a busload of people sliding off the second hairpin into the gorge to get them to pave it.

Thanks for coming along.

I had read your RR once before and took the opportunity of an easy link to read it again this morning. Looks like you hit the Manzanillo beach section I skipped. You also got a little deeper into the Nicoya Pen. which I do plan to do. It is my "Baja". I don't imagine the paving machine making it out there in the near future either.

Ride vicariously as long as you like and I hope you enjoy. I will vicariously freeze my ass off through you in return.

love me some CR.
the rope knobby was a good idea !

You are welcome and correct. Got some grub at Ranco Tico, in Nosara Centro, on the way out.

Chains: I keep 6 meters of rope with me at all times. Mostly for hangin' the hammock .

I suck 6 days a week, 8 hours a day . Then I kick ass the rest of the time.

Thanks for following... more to come for sure.

Nice to have you along.

That is 1°F'in ugly number!

Honor to have you along.

Well then, here is a little teaser of days 2-4...




The full enchilada in time... hasta la proxima!

Pura Vida!