No Return Ticket – Just a Ride Report /w Pics

[cavebiker]

Just another Beach Hike - Costa Rica

There are several beaches north and south along this coast. We devote a day and attempted to find ‘Turtle beach’. After a 90 minute hike we found a nice beach. It was a longer hike then we anticipated. The further distances we go off to explore on foot the more serious we need to get about the supplies we carry. We could have been more prepared this day.

Where Are the Turtles?......

Heidi scrambles over a rock point.

We are not sure if this is Turtle beach. Heidi says it isn’t and she would know because she is a turtle. I kid you not, while hiking along Heidi exclaims that she hasn’t seen any ‘horse poop’ on the trail. “Horses bring tourists to Turtle beach” I complement her immediately on the fantastic navigation and tracking skills she has developed. We have a good laugh. I say “I think you’re part Native”

We hike back and prepare to do some more research. This was another good day.

We are almost home, just two hundred more yards up a steep jungle trail. Heidi has on her big wide brim hat and is looking down at the trail. We are both struggling to keep moving when ‘Bam’ Heidi’s head is bouncing off this fallen tree trunk. She went down fast and obviously had her ‘bell’ rung. This is no fun, getting hit in the head is a stunning feeling to say the least. All I could do was to first verify her physical wellness and mental state. Her neck is fine, her shoulders are fine and no gash in her noggin, good. She is alert and answers questions. She hit her head bad and it hurts like heck, we hope that’s all it is. Heidi says “You should be watching me better!” I agree and suggest I may have to buy her a bicycle helmet for future hikes. She cracks a smile I continue to monitor for signs of nausea and a greater than normal state of delirium……

Photo: The next day at the same tree trunk.
We march down to town. Heidi is more cautious today. 2 blocks away we wait for a bus going to Nicoya.

Bus ride to Nicoya:
Nicoya feels more like a Central American town to us. There are no tourists and the price for everything is half or less here. We stock up on supplies. Heidi finds some ‘lotions and potions’ and continues her never ending quest for ‘another bikini’.

Bus stop in Nicoya: The one hour bus ride is $1.40 each, one way. The buses are nice. You pay the driver when you get on.

While the bus is stopped at the station a guy jumps on and starts selling ice-pops and chips. As the bus is slowly creeping out of the station the seller gives the driver an ice-pop then hustles off. This is more like the Central America we have grown accustom to. Although the buses are nicer and the people seem more familiar the process is the same as in every other Latin American country we have visited.

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North Coast Road:
We have to see if we can reach this “Turtle Beach”. This time we try by motorcycle. We ride north along the coast. I have heard that in Costa Rica a lot of rivers don’t have bridges. There are 2 possible routes to get across this river. We wait for another vehicle to see which way looks best. First a tractor with huge tires goes straight across. It looked deep. Then a compact car takes the outside route. It looked good. The sound was cool when the exhaust pipes went under water.

It was nothing.

On the other side I notice my left foot peg rubber is gone. It’s nowhere in sight. Crap. I’ll have to rig up something. I’m thinking duct tape, Heidi is giving me major crap.

It was all dirt road as we neared the coast. The hills were not super steep and the ruts were not bad. These are the kind of dirt roads I grew up on, no problem. Although the going was really slow, we think we got close to the beach area that is protected for nesting turtles. We weren’t exactly sure and again the journey was further than anticipated. We didn’t have the supplies needed to continue. We will return here another day better prepared. Lesson learned.

This is dry season in the ‘Dry Jungle’ some trees turn pink and others turn yellow.

It’s nice to be lightly packed while exploring the local area. The bike feels better and we have room to carry stuff. On our way back we stop in town and load up on a few supplies.

The Ride Continues…….

 

[ghost]

All I can say is WOW!

I have been reading of your adventures and have really been inspired.

I was reading and wondering what the dates where. When did you leave? What date did you cross the borders? The border crossing experiences sound thrilling yet bureaucratic. I too am glad your mechanical problems are behind you.

What is your background? What did you do for work before you left? It looks like you worked in a "Cubicle Farm". What did Heidi do before this? Is she ever gonna write a "view from the back"? Heidi, please write something soon, "Don't make us come down there!"

I am looking forward to more and will keep you in prayer.

I think you should consider publishing this story. It is very interesting.

 

[cavebiker]

Costa Rica

Alright, alright, it’s been a while so I better post. I have a good excuse Anyway, thanks a ton all for keeping this thread alive while I was busy. This Is Great…….!
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Base-Camp - Costa Rica:
An apartment was waiting for us at the beach village Samara, $670 a month. It sounded too good to be true. When we first rode into Samara we continued past to Carrillo beach. We were waiting for a quote on a place that is said to be on the beach. Well, Carrillo beach is beautiful but the hotel we looked at is expensive, dark and not on the beach. At least we gave it a shot.

Back at playas Samara we check out the apartment we had lined up. It was noting special but it looked OK, ‘except’ the motorcycle security, there is none. And the place is in town on a busy street. If we spent a week here everyone would know this bike and that it sits at the hotel most of the time. We could handle one night here but not longer.

Just before pulling into Samara I saw a sign “Apartamentos – Piscina - Vista” (Apartments – Pool - View). We ride back and check it out. Holy cow! This place is over our chosen monthly room budget but This Is Just Too Good. OK, it’s $100 a month over our budget, Humm? That’s $3.33 a day….. We can make that up. We will cook at home more. We will do more of this and less of that. Heidi and I like to play games with and discuss scenarios about our financial situation. We are always trying to find the funniest reason to afford something that makes sense. “$3.33 a day, that’s one cappuccino” Obviously we don’t need much to be entertained.

Base-Camp: The bike looks happy.

The Lookout Is Good.

Heidi inspects the pool……. I think that’s an “OK”

This works for me also. Playas Samara has hit our mark as being a paradise location and ‘Barracuda apartamentos’ as being a place where we could live forever. We struck a deal for $33.33 a day (Where am I ?) Only 2 other apartments here are open, the rest are under construction. Our unit sits high up on a hill surrounded by jungle and is close enough to the beach to hear the surf.

Heidi takes me down 2 games in a row, one-on-one water volleyball. I think she’s anxious to add another notch on her belt. I can’t let this get out of hand. I must stay focused……….

Samara:
The town of Samara is just a few short blocks down the hill and the beach is a five minute walk through town. The beach is ‘nice’ with a capital ‘N’. There are about a dozen open-air ‘beach bars’/restaurants facing the ocean, the kind of places where you sit down at a table in the sand under palm trees wearing a swimsuit, bare feet and maybe carrying in a surfboard. The village is very small but there are a lot of places to stay here, in town or on the beach. All the resorts are small family run type of places. Some look really-really nice. There’s also places to camp right on the beach at a resort right in town, cool. The beach is mostly undeveloped on both sides of town and makes for an ideal ninety minute beach hike. Near town there is a big variety of places on the beach. Rent a surf board or buggy board or lounge in a chair under palm trees while drinking cappuccinos or pina collides.

An ice-truck is loading up the holds of these two fishing boats. These guys are going out fishing on the open Pacific. There is only one small outboard motor on each boat. No radios. I wonder if they always go out two at a time for safety. I wonder how long they stay out to sea.

Kids fishing. Notice, the three on the right are holding bare fishing ling in their right hand. The forth guy caught something.

Barracuda taken from the beach:

Samara taken from Barracuda:

Samara and The Barracuda are recommended.

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Forward:
Costa Rica has ‘hit the mark’ for my vision of a beach & jungle paradise, Heidi too. We can’t believe all the spots to check out here. We had a hard time getting to a lot of the places but sometimes that makes it more fun. We have failed to achieve more destinations here then we have concord. It’s all part of the learning process. We have tried several destinations a second time, in a different way and have still failed. We are always confident we know what we did wrong and how we should try it again, that is, if we chose to do it again. Sometimes we deem that it is not worth it. Our first failed ride was to a well known cloud forest, Monteverde. We decided to attempt Monteverde again when we get packed up and back on the road.

Now, we are devoting all our time exploring Peninsula De Nicoya, the beaches, the raw jungle and protected nature areas. ALERT: This area is an off-road motorcycle haven. Get a good map and get down here with a bike and a tent if you like. There’s weeks of free adventure and camping in this area. I would like to take a month to do it. I yearn for a more off-road capable machine. I can do a lot ‘one up’ lightly loaded on this Sporty but sense we’ve been here I want to take Heidi with me everywhere, and she wants to go. ‘Two up’ is just a lot tougher especially on the deep rutted severe uphill narrow sandy parts. Heidi has developed new riding signals, like “I’m getting off right here!” or “Let me off!” We talk about “what if we lived here and we both had our dirt bikes” ………………..

This entire ride is exploratory in nature. One of our goals has always been to find somewhere where we can envision a dream life. We think we have found a place here in Costa Rica. Now, we must ride on and attempt to find another. 'Explore inside yourself. Explore the world around you. Plant a dream seed, properly take care of it and maybe it will grow into a reality….…….'

 

[cavebiker]

Re: All I can say is WOW!

I have been reading of your adventures and have really been inspired.

I was reading and wondering what the dates where. When did you leave? What date did you cross the borders? The border crossing experiences sound thrilling yet bureaucratic. I too am glad your mechanical problems are behind you.

What is your background? What did you do for work before you left? It looks like you worked in a "Cubicle Farm". What did Heidi do before this? Is she ever gonna write a "view from the back"? Heidi, please write something soon, "Don't make us come down there!"

I am looking forward to more and will keep you in prayer.

I think you should consider publishing this story. It is very interesting.

Hey ghost. Thanks for the great words man. Replies like this really add octane to our spirit especially when we are feeling far from home.

Yes, because I started posted to hdTalking.com after we were well into the ride the time line wasn’t well spelled out. So good questions. Here ya go:
We started the ride Aug. 15th.
We crossed into Mexico Sept. 15th
My background: I worked on motorcycles starting at age 14 when I got my first bike. I do all my own maintenance and I like rebuild bikes. Before that I built a couple go-carts from scrap parts. I went to school for a year studying internal combustion engine design then changed my major to electro-mechanical engineering. One of my main hobbies is electronic design and I worked in that field for almost 30 years. During the last 10 years my job function turned to mostly embedded software design which landed me in the ‘cubical farm’. I preferred working in the lab but I still really loved my job, the people I worked with and the company so it was hard to leave. I’m just super lucky I had the support from my wife to leave it all behind to pursue this dream.
Heidi was a Human Resource manager for a big retail company.
I keep encouraging Heidi to write ‘girl on the back’ stories but she tells me that the stuff in her brain is staying in her brain. What can I say, I will keep trying and I appreciate all the encouragement you guys have been giving her.

 

[cavebiker]

Life in Costa Rica:

Every evening, starting just before sunset we experience a very loud buzzing sound. All day long we hear noises but ten or fifteen minutes before the sun is down the ‘sound’ begin. We can almost sense a silence before it starts. The first bug that starts to buzz sets off a chain reaction that explodes through the jungle until we are engulfed in an almost all consuming sound sensation. We can hear it coming at us, then we hear it cycle back and forth all around. Sometimes it starts out at a very low frequency, barely a beat or two a second then slowly climbing to several hundred hertz. Seemingly thousands of trees are buzzing in the background all at the same time but stopping and starting at different times. Suddenly a tree or bush close to us starts to slowly tick then explode in sound. We can hardly hear each other talk. Usually at the same time a Howler monkey is grunting and some loud birds are screeching. It’s like everyone wants to be part of the sundown serenade. This goes on long after dark. This is the jungle……

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Monkeys:
I think I got the Howler monkey sound ‘down’. Heidi thinks I’m attracting them and wants me to ‘knock it off’. We see them hanging out in the jungle and hear them grunting all around us. A couple days ago a monkey was hanging onto a telephone pole next to the pool. Then he walked right across the pool area and down the driveway. The hotel owner’s son woke up with a monkey in bed with him once…..! (?)

Heidi does not want me talking to or encouraging the monkeys. We close our door after dark now. I like the monkeys. We hear them every day. They seem to roam in packs. There is always at least one nearby that we can hear but when the pack is in the area you know it. We see then swinging around in the trees and we hear them howling and moaning. Sometimes it’s like they’re having a contest to see who can bellow the loudest. I tell Heidi to listen to the monkeys. I say “They will tell you what to do…….”

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Jungle:
Base-camp Costa Rica is surrounded by jungle. A few days ago I followed a primitive trail that leads into the trees where the Holler monkeys swing around. The trail goes back only about 200 meters before it ends, probably to the hotel property line. I stomped down some tall plants at the end of the trail and continue hiking. This is raw ‘new growth’ jungle. The going seemed doable so I tried to blaze a trail. This is good. I need to get Heidi out here before progressing much further. (what am I saying?)

Heidi can sense my excitement and is wondering ‘what the heck’ I’m getting her into. I deem this as the “Monkey Trail” and we are going on the “Monkey Hike” We both prepare and try to hit the right time to do this. The sun sets at about 5:45 now. 5:00 sounds good.

We head out. I wanted to keep the trail a mystery, but I should have suggested long pants. Heidi’s legs got a little scratched at first but she continues on. Soon we discovered some old steps leading down into the jungle. They start in the middle of nowhere and go to nowhere. We have heard stories of bad energy on this hill. The rumor is it’s a native burial ground. I proclaim these are ‘ancient steps’. Later we could see the steps were made with stones and cement. It’s still a mystery.

Near the bottom of the steps a short matted down path led off to the side. It looked to us like a spot where white-tail deer sleep in the woods. We deduce that the monkeys must sleep here or some other large creatures. Then we realize, don’t’ monkeys sleep in trees? What could this be from?

What is this guy doing perched at the top of this plant. We never saw it move. Is it waiting for food to fly by or is it just caching some sun?

We came across swarms of tiny butterflies. We hear unidentified creatures scurry off into the jungle. The monkeys have plenty of vines to swing on here. Often our feet got caught by thin and almost invisible vines growing along the ground. These long thin vines do not want to break. We can imagine how strong the big vines hanging from the trees are.
I encourage Heidi to give the vines a try:

We see some Howler monkeys off in the distance.

Big stretch.

This is the dry season and this is the ‘dry jungle’ It is very pleasant to be here at this time. Some areas look a little brown and dry but the jungle looks beautiful and rich with color.

A person could hike through the jungle for days here and live with the monkeys.

We Like Costa Rica………………….

 

[Speed]

Re: Life in Costa Rica:

Thanks cave for your trips update,appreciate it,waiting next story and ride safe.

 

[cavebiker]

Our lives may suddenly turn upside down:

We need to go to the big city, San Jose to take care of a big concern. We first thought about taking the bike but then decided that a bus will be less hassle. We are at the bus stop by around 7:00 AM. The plan is to just wing it and catch a bus to Nicoya. At Nicoya we will hopefully catch a bus to San Jose. It’s a long ride so we plan on spending the night in San Jose if necessary.

We wait for about an hour. Over a dozen people show up and wait with us. The local etiquette seems to be, when you walk up to the bus stop you start out with a greeting to whomever is already there “buenos dias” Everyone replies “Buenos dias” It’s nice. We all jump on the bus for Nicoya.

We don’t know what the deal is with this garbage pile at the bus stop. It never gets any bigger and never goes away. And it usually smells. Why does it have to be at the bus stop?

At the Nicoya bus station we find that a bus is leaving for San Jose in 90 minutes. OK!

There are a lot of food options at this bus station. We see our favorite, empanadas. The pollo (chicken) empanadas here are some of the best. The shell tastes like cornbread. We often find the best and for sure most affordable food at bus stations. We still talk about the great empanadas at a bus station in the DR. That was over ten years ago. Anyway, we get 4 large empanadas, OJ, yogurt and a bottle of water, ~$4.50. This little diner will always be on our radar.

Seven hours after we started we are in San Jose. We do some walking with a map, jump on a public bus then take a taxi a short distance to the place we wanted. Great, we have an appointment and need to come back in three days, mission accomplished. We jump on a bus back downtown. Downtown we travel on foot and find the bus terminal we arrived at. A bus back to Samara is leaving in three hours, perfect.

The San Jose bus terminal area is a little seedy but this is nothing new to us, we have experienced much worse. We circle around until we find a mom and pop bar restaurant. It’s a nice place for food and a few cocktails. The cost for everything was less then what we would pay for the drinks alone back at the beach. We like San Jose but are not looking forward to the 7 hour bus ride back, then we have to do it all over again in three days.

San Jose:

Two days later we are back on the bus bound for San Jose. Our appointment is early in the morning so we decide to go a day early and spend the night in style and stay right at the city center plaza. We looked at a couple hotels recommended in the Lonely Planet shoestring guide book but I was looking for something a little more then shoestring. The Plaza Hotel, $48 with a full breakfast included. And we are right at the center of all the action.

We get settled into the hotel then head out to check out the scene. This is cool. The plaza is for pedestrian traffic only and is there the traffic. People are going back and forth here all day and all evening. The street is lined with fountains, shops, restaurants, bars and places to hang out. We enjoyed the evening at a spot with open air seating on the street. We have the feeling that this could be a downtown in any major city. This is a nice diversion for us. We enjoy the heart of the city scene with all the people and places to see. We’ve heard many bad reports about San Jose from people we have met recently. Our ride plan was to avoid riding through the city. Well, we like San Jose and are very glad we didn’t miss it.

The next morning we walk to a street where we were hoping to catch a bus out to the suburbs. Unbelievably we see a bus with the name of the suburb we want on it. We run over and jump on. Fifteen minutes later we are in a taxi headed to our destination. Smooth, we have this city down.

Knowing that our lives may suddenly be turned upside down or not in just a few hours is a surreal sensation to say the least. This whole journey to San Jose doesn’t seem real. It’s like a bad dream. We await the results.

Thank god, everything is good! We feel like we dodged a bullet. Like our lives have suddenly been given back to us, at no cost. We felt in shock.

OK, it’s before noon; we know the last bus to Samara departs at 6:30 PM. So….I guess….It’s time to CELEBRATE! We take a bus back downtown and wander around until we found a place that looked interesting. LA EMBAJADA, this place is huge and was full of people. The custom here is to buy a bottle of your spirit of choice. Your wait person supplies you with ice and mix. Yeah! We talk about feeling reborn and the fact that nothing has to change now. To us this is a confirmation that what we are doing is what we should be doing.

(There will be a motorcycle in the next report)

The Ride Continues……………

 

[cavebiker]

Unreal, my older sister Cassie e-mailed me and wants to fly down to CR for spring break! Super, I jump on the bike and ride off to Liberia to pick her up at the airport. I was fired up. I got on the road early so I would have time to stop for a few photos along the way and have time to attempt a repair on that missing foot peg problem I have.

I stop at a small ferretería (hardware store). The owner of the store gets involved as soon as I explained my problem. Another guy at the store also helps. I look at the foot peg, I look at he duct tape and say “necesito poco madera” (I need a small piece of wood)

The owner of the shop is on it. He tells me to wait then comes back with a piece of rubber tubing. I proceed to assist him in doing the repair. It worked perfect. The tape should help hold it in place. This is fun....

He tests it out. We are both happy.

I arrive at the airport in Liberia. My sister is electric. She is telling everyone that her brother is picking her up in Costa Rica with his Harley. The crowd cheers!

We instantly reminisce about when I was 14 and flew out to visit her at school in AZ. I’ll never forget that time. While hitchhiking to California Cassie taught me that you don’t give bikers a traditional wave, instead you give them a type of finger solute Later that year when school was over she gave me her Suzuki motorcycle, my first bike. That for sure started my ‘thirst’ for two-wheeled adventure. What a sister.

We are off. We ride through the jungle toward the Pacific coast, Samara beach.

Cassie, Heidi and I had a blast. Basically we did what Heidi and I normally do, exercise, enjoy the beach scene and have a good time. I am one lucky dude…..

Semana Santa (Easter week) is the best week to be in Latin America. Locals fill the beach and there’s a lot of activity happening everywhere.

Music, sun, sand, surf and pina coladas, what’s not to like?

We have been hearing monkeys all week but they haven’t been in the neighborhood. Early on Easter Sunday a family moved into the mango trees at the hotel and began to feast. What a treat.

The monkey’s ate and ate throwing mangos everywhere. Then they all just picked a branch and slept with their arms and legs hanging down.

Cassie fly’s out of San Jose. We try to take a bus ride there the day before her flight, but the bus running from Samara to San Jose was full. This is the Monday after Easter and one of the busiest travel days for Ticos. Plan B, we take a Taxi to Nicoya and try to buy a ticket to San Jose, all full. We take another taxi to a highway that leads directly to San Jose. There we hope to jump on any bus going to San Jose. After at least 4 full buses pass us one finally stops and lets us on. Standing room only but at least we are on our way to San Jose.

We get a room at the Plaza hotel then proceed to enjoy the city. We zigzag around on foot for hours then end at an open air restaurant right on the plaza. What a good time. Downtown San Jose, Costa Rica. Don’t miss it.

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We will miss Barracuda and the village of Samara. Tomorrow Heidi and I are on the road heading toward Panama. On the way we will again attempt to ride to Monteverde cloud forest then tour around the lake Arenal area. We hope to do some jungle hiking and hopefully see volcano Arenal spew some lava at night.

The Ride Continues……..

 

[cavebiker]

All packed and on the road early. Samara was great but after 5 weeks we are both excited to hit the road. Are ‘night before’ talks include how our mind set and attitudes have noticeably changed. That super anxious feeling preparing to get back on the road is gone. We are not really sure ‘what it is’ but the feeling we both have inside is undeniable. We want to get back on the road and get going.

After about two hours we get off the main highways and start heading up into the mountains. The road is paved for the first 20 miles but then turns to dirt and stones. This is the normal route to Monteverde. We hope the road won’t get too bad.

Wrong. When the road is level it’s bad but doable. We just keep it slow and dodge the big ruts, rocks and holes. Riding into a small village about 8 miles before Monteverde it was time for a pop and a rest. A guy stops in a truck to talk with us, asking where we’re from and where we are going. He mentions to us that the road gets much worse closer to Monteverde. We didn’t want to hear that.

The views are beautiful but the road sucks. A light dirt bike would have no problem on this road but our fully loaded Sportster is a different story.

We hill climb up some super steep and rutted sections of road. The bike and Heidi are taking a beating. I knew the bike can make it but I was concerned that one of the 20 titanium screws holding Heidi’s neck together might pop loose. At the base of the next steep rocky rutted hill I stop the bike. We both want to make it to Monteverde so bad but we had to agree, it just isn’t going to happen today. We turn around and go back to spend the night at the little farming village, Tilaran.

Tilaran is just a few short miles from Lake Arenal, a beautiful and big lake formed in a crater of an ancient volcano. The wind is howling. Lake Arenal is famous for serious windsurfers. We did have plans to spend a month or more here to do some windsurfing but our research didn’t show any affordable places to stay, so we opted for Samara instead. (Not a bad thing)

The ride around the lake is awesome, thick lush tropical jungle. We stopped for breakfast at a nice spot right across from the lake.

I can’t help but to explore interesting looking side roads. Heidi thinks I’m nuts but goes along with it. This is some of the best scenery we have seen on this trip so far.

We ride to the town La Fortuna which is right at the base of volcano Arenal. This is adventure central Costa Rica. There’s jungle tours, volcano tours, rafting tours and tons more. We debated staying here for a few days but decide to move on. All the tours are expensive and touristy, not exactly my style. We spend one night just outside of town hoping to see some spewing lava that night.

We didn’t see any glowing lava at volcano Arenal. We sat in front of our room until late, playing cards watching and hoping. At this altitude the clouds cover the top of the volcano more nights then not. At least we tried.

Hotel Durado Suenos is recommend. It has good bike security, a great view of the volcano, close to town and all the activities associated with the Lake Arenal area but most notably the hospitality. You can get help with any activity in the area or just information. They also serve a full included breakfast in the morning with some of the ‘best coffee in the world’

We hope you are enjoying the ride………………

 

[glider]

Great pics, how many miles have you racked up on the bike so far?