Backpacking in Parque Nacional Corcovado, Costa Rica

Since before coming to Costa Rica, we had heard multiple people rave about the scenery and wildlife in Parque Nacional Corcovado, located on the Osa Peninsula in Southwest Costa Rica. Everyone said it was not to be missed and so we brought our backpacks knowing that we'd be spending time hiking in the area. As we got closer to the Osa Peninsula, we realized timing was a bit of an issue as Leah wanted to be near a phone to call her family on Christmas day (and the National Park is very isolated). So, when we arrived in Palmar Norte, the biggest town before the peninsula we toyed with the decision of stashing our bikes there and busing it down to the peninsula.

But where to stash our bikes?...We had had good experiences with the police in Costa Rica and felt like we could probably trust them so we first went to the police station to hint around and see if they'd offer to let us keep our stuff there. They sort of picked up on the hints that we wanted to leave them there, but seemed a little reluctant. However, they did go around to the back of the station and ask a local handyman, named Alcides, who had a little warehouse back there, if he'd be willing to hold our stuff. He gladly agreed and I thought he looked honest, so we began to unload our stuff. This all happened in about 3 minutes and we we hardly had time to think about anything at all as we wanted to catch the next bus to Puerto Jimenez. Leah was a bit skeptical, especially since we had known the man a total of 2 minutes, but I had faith. As we unpacked under the blazing heat of his tin-roofed bodega, we made split second decisions of what to bring and not to bring and stressed at the same time about whether we were making a wise decision. Alcides told us of his friend in the Peace Corps that he had known and another bike tourist he had met before that had funny sized wheels that he couldn't find tires for and my confidence grew. When we finished and locked everything up, I was sweatier than I had gotten on the 50km ride on the Pacific coast that morning. We told him we would see him in a week and hurried off, coincidentally, to wait 3 hours for the really late bus.

The bus was standing room only so I stood almost the entire 2.5 hours (2 of them on bad dirt road). Leah was lucky enough to have an old gentleman call her over to make sure she got his seat when he got off about an hour into the trip. As we stared out the window at the PanAm highway which we'd have to bike later to get to Panama (we'd been able to avoid it in Costa Rica up until that point), Leah and I were quite frankly a little frightened at the prospect with it's lack of shoulder, windiness, and plethora of semis and crazy bus drivers (one of which was ours). We arrived into Puerto Jimenez at 10:30 at night and all the rooms in the town were booked, holiday goers were in town. We ended up in room (me on the floor) in an unfinished guesthouse on top of someone's house that we climbed up to on a makeshift ladder that I thought I was for sure going to break through with my heavy backpack on. In the morning, we went to make reservations for our trip and gather as much information as possible about the park as we were unable to obtain practically any consistent information prior about logistics.

The only consistent information we had was to make reservations at least a couple of weeks in advance, if not a month in the busy season. We had gone through a cycle numerous times to try and make reservations as follows: phone- website- email- no response- phone- email, etc. All of this energy resulted in bad information, faulty email addresses, a great amount of exasperation, and no reservations. We found out when we went into the office that the website is old and outdated, doesn't have the right email address published, and that reservations are not taken by phone, so basically, if you aren't going through a guide you can't make reservations unless you go into the office in Puerto Jimenez. They strongly recommended a guide for the route we (or shall I say, I) wanted to take, as well as for the rest of the park, of course. We were warned about poisonous snakes, peccaries (wild pigs) that would trample you in their herds of up to fifty and eat you on the spot, crocodiles and bull sharks at the river crossings (that we would have to cross), as well as headlands that could be dangerous at high tides. The very aloof and rarely seen jaguars and mountain lions were also a threat and finally there was the element of getting lost or suffering heatstroke. Well, they sufficiently scared Leah (all they really had to do was mention snakes), but I was more determined and excited than ever. We made our reservations (well, completed the first of the three step process) and left the office to walk across town to the bank to wait an hour in line to pay for our reservations. On the way, we approached to everyone that looked like they had hiked in the park to get the scoop from them. As our information databank grew, I was more and more convinced and Leah was starting to sway as well. Getting a guide was out of the question in my book, as it would cost over $200 for one day and someone we talked to said a guide told them $800 for the route we wanted to do! After the bank (step 2 complete), we went back to the office to complete the final step and validate our reservation. In so doing, we encountered Johannes and Stina, two German tourists, who were hoping to take the same route into the park that we wanted to. We made plans with them to maybe meet up later and do the hike in together.

The commitment from Johannes and Stina to do the hike with us finally put Leah over the edge into the "yes zone". It was a go and I was excited. We camped the night at Danta Corcovado Lodge, a beautiful eco-lodge on the way to the trail where we would begin at day break the following morning. We opted to take horses and a guide for the first 14 km of the trail as it crossed the river 10-15 times and was reportedly the hardest part, trail-finding-wise. Not to mention it reduced the length of our hike from 34km to 20km making it doable in one day, as there is no designated camping area on the way and walking at night is the most dangerous part of being in the forest. I would have been stoked to camp in the middle of the forest, but I don't like breaking rules and there is certainly the scary element of the unknown.

The horse back ride ended up being worth every penny of it. The great thing about being on a horse is that you don't have to look on the ground where you are placing your feet and you can just absorb everything around you and zone out in the sounds, smells, and sights. The river that our horses followed was in a valley and we saw many kinds of birds fly overhead including the Scarlet Macaw. Rosa and Macho, our horses, did well taking us and our backpacks with few complaints. We arrived at the Los Patos station at about 9 AM, but didn't set off on the trail until 10:30 as we had to register at the station, then walk 3 km uphill to the old station where the trailhead was located, and also eat some breakfast.

The forest canopy shaded us the entire 20km from Los Patos to Sirena making the weather quite pleasant. We walked at a fast but steady pace with few breaks as we knew the sun went down around 5:30 and we had a 6-8 hour hike ahead of us. Unfortunately, because we had to walk so briskly we weren't able to stop and look for sloths or other wildlife high up in the trees. However, we did see a ton of spider monkeys and squirrel monkeys taunting us from the treetops. A couple of which got directly above us and started shaking the branches and trees as if to shower us with leaves and and fruits (successfully). We had also heard that peccaries are usually smelled before they are seen as they have a horrible stench. About three hours into our hike, we all stopped in our tracks at the same time and looked at each other with the same recognition in our eyes...peccary stench. All of our sources on peccarries said the same thing, watch out, stay away and get ready to run and climb a tree or get on something at least 4 feet high. I got out my machete and the others grabbed big sticks, and we all unclipped our backpacks and looked for the nearest good climbing tree (not many of those in a forest where the canopy is over 75 feet overhead) if the peccaries made their presence known. Lucky for us, we saw no hide nor hair of them (just a ton of tracks) and continued on slowly, sniffing along the way. Finally, three easy river crossings and 6.5 hours later we arrived at the Sirena ranger station. Leah walked the entire way in a pair of thick rubber boots (the kind that all of the local laborers wear) which eased her fear of getting bit by a snake, and at the end she didn't even have one blister.

"Camping" at Sirena was plush. We had a huge covered patio to sleep on with foam mats provided, so all we really needed was to put up our tent to act as a mosquito net. Over the next three days, we explored the trails and beach surrounding Sirena and happened upon a number of cool sites. One afternoon we went to a mudhole where a tapir was reported to frequent often. We saw the tapir resting deep in the mud and then to our surprise the tapir stood up, crawled out of the mudhole and started walking toward the beach. We followed and when we got to the beach, there was another tapir traipsing along. Tapirs are much larger than I thought and are actually about the size of a small pony with tracks the size of a small elephants. It was truly spectacular to enjoy a sunset walk in the company of two tapirs.Our regular alarm clock at 5:30, just before sunset became the T-Rex sounding call of the local howler monkeys, we never saw them however as they kept quite during the day. Squirrel monkeys and spider monkeys were also a common sight near our sleeping area. One morning after breakfast, we looked up to see a teeny tiny baby spider monkey clinging to it's mothers belly. Never seen such a tiny monkey, it looked like it could fit in the palm of my hand. At the river mouth of Rio Sirena, we immediately noticed the predators that lurked and it was no longer a mystery to us why NO ONE crosses the river, even at low tide. We had a couple of guides tell us that they wouldn't even put a toe in that river. Two large crocs basked on the shore while one patroled the inside of the river mouth and the bull shark fins patrolling the ocean and river waters where plentiful. We watched one of the crocs enter the water, but then we lost him and weren't able to see him anymore...until we began walking back along the beach. He was swimming in the ocean! Not even that close to the river mouth anymore. The croc was just cruising along in the waves parallelling the beach, looking for some dinner presumably, if we hadn't known anybetter we'd have sworn it was a log. Crocs in the ocean and sharks in the river...go figure.

We took a short hike with some of the other "campers" at Sirena to the only repotedly safe place to swim near Sirena, up the Rio Claro, and relished in the relief from the humidity and heat of the area. As a group we comprised a varied group from different parts in Canada, the US, and France. We even met another Hawaii native who graduated from high school the same year as Leah, just across the island. We enjoyed getting to know everyone and exploring the surroundings with more eager eyes than just our own. We did not however, enjoy our meals much. Our diet consisted mainly of peanut butter, honey and tortillas as we had not brought our stove in the interest of sacing weight. Johannes and Stina did however treat us to some freeze dried meals a couple of times, those were really special meals!

There were two other couples leaving Sirena to hike out to Carate the same day as us, so we arranged to all hike together: Wilfred and Holly, a father and daughter who live on the Osa Peninsula, and Stephanie and Olivier, a French couple on their honeymoon. The hike to Carate was also 20km, but this time along the beach. We left at 5:45 am to try and avoid the heat and also to ensure that we'd cross the Rio Claro at a low enough tide to avoid shark and croc bites. Along the way, we saw some coatis, scarlet macaws, an agouti and of course more playful monkeys. Thankfully, no snakes, sharks, or crocs. The beach vistas were postcard perfect and the flat 20km went by before we knew it. The last 4 km we walked barefoot on the wet sand with an occasional splash from a bigger wave. Although we did escape most of the heat by leaving early, we didn't anticipate having to wait in Carate for four hours for the collectivo to take us back to Puerto Jimenez. Carate was just a small store with expensive drinks and a few hotels. As you can imagine, we got to know our hiking companions a bit better and played some cards to pass the time. When we finally got back to Puerto Jimenez, the first thing on our minds was a hot meal and a beer, two luxuries we hadn't had in almost a week.

We hit it off with Olivier and Stephanie and ended up spending the next three nights and subsequently, Christmas with them. We shared laughs, games, stories, jokes, Christmas traditions (in France the eat fatty liver...mmm), taxi rides, food, beers, rum, Christmas dinner of fried fish and plantains and even went out dancing at the local discotech on Christmas eve (a first for all of us). It didn't really feel like Christmas to any of us but it was definitely a memorable time for all. Leah and I also had the pleasure of talking with most of our family members on Christmas day which was nice.On the 26th we got on the bus to head back to Palmar Norte to discover if our bikes were indeed still in Alcidez's bodega behind the police station and resume cycling again. We said sad goodbyes with our new close friends as we got off the bus and they continued north. There wasn't much time to mope around however as we had to get back to our bikes and pack everything up for our journey up and into the Talamanca mountains on our way to Panama!

Starting our second leg: San Jose, CR to Palmar Norte, CR

The warm, humid air hit us as soon as we stepped off the plane in San Jose, Costa Rica and brought us right back to where we left off, bringing our mental state to match our physical location. Our alter-egos began to resurface and the itch to get back on the bikes was back. But before resuming our bike tour, we took a side trip to meet up with David´s cousin Becca, who was reportedly in Parismina on the Caribbean coast where her boyfriend lives. After two days of trying to reach her to no avail, we took our chances and traveled a full day on bus and boat to Parismina. Luck was on our side and we spent three days getting to know each other a little better, catching crabs, walking on the beach, playing cards, "adventuring", and wildlife watching with Becca and her boyfriend, Jerry.

As we got all of our gear out of the "bodega" where we had stored it at Enriques house, we realized just how tough five months of rainy season can be on things. We spent an entire day cleaning mold and dust off EVERYTHING. With everything clean and shiny like new, we left San Jose and headed for the Pacific Coast with our ton of crap on our bikes. This time it REALLY felt like a ton even though we were even more conservative with what we brought with us than last time. To get out of the Central Valley where San Jose is located we had to climb the "Cerros de Escazu" (mountains of Escazu) which was a quick jump start to get our biking legs back. It took us two days to get to the coast and although it was physically tough, the mountain vistas and hospitality of the small town folk we met was amazing. People seemed to really care about us-- many made sure to tell us the safest route to take, one store owner gave us a gift of some chocolate bars before we left his town, and when David dropped one of his riding gloves while we were eating lunch at a roadside stand, all of the locals at the stand took it upon themselves to figure out who picked up the glove and one of them rode off on his bike to go find it at the house of the suspected glove-snatcher. Five minutes later, David had two gloves and we rode off with a deeper fondness for the Costa Rican people that we will never forget.

Our ride along the coast from Parrita to Dominical was HOT and dusty. We wore wet bandanas over our mouth and nose for most of the ride to try and save our lungs as best we could. Just after Parrita, we had to cross a one lane bridge which was about 50 meters long and super rickety. There was no railing for most of the bridge and horizontal metal beams made up the ground with many missing and an occasional small metal sheet thrown over a hole deemed big enough to be dangerous, but not bolted down of course. We were at the front of the line of cars with a man on a motor bike, waiting for our turn to cross the bridge and when the cars from the other direction stopped coming, the man on the motorbike went ahead and crossed...and we followed...but the cars in the opposite direction still had the right of way and started coming at us. It seemed everyone was equally afraid of the bridge as we were, so everyone went very fast over the bridge including those cars coming at us. So we were forced to squeeze by the cars on the right side. After the first truck passed me and shook the bridge with its weight, I realized that the bridge was really slippery and that stopping was not an option, as it didn´t seem wide enough to accomodate a car and the width of me standing next to my bike comfortably. When the second car passed me, I got a bit too close to the edge of the bridge for comfort (remember, no railing) and upon trying to get closer to the middle too quickly, I slipped and my bike and I were on the ground with half of my back wheel off the edge. Shaking like a leaf, I picked up my bike and pannier that had fallen off and slowly walked across the rest of the bridge as if I was walking on ice. Luckily, man at the other side of the bridge who was supposed to be directing the flow of cars stopped any more cars from coming and I was able to walk across safely. I think my fear of heights is much greater now than before, if that is even possible.

We spent two nights camping on the beach in Dominical and in Parque Nacional Marino Ballena and were graced with beautiful sunsets and also a strange marine animal phenomenon. For a few hours at daybreak in Playa Dominical, the stingrays went crazy and were jumping 2-3 feet into the air from the surface of the water. If they weren´t jumping all over the place, they were surfing the waves. Of course, I didn´t realize that they were surfing until I saw about three of them 10 feet away from me ready to snake the wave that David and I were bodysurfing. Needless to say, I almost had a heart attack until I realized what they were. From the shore, we could see sometimes six stingrays in one wave flapping their wings to gain momentum in the wave. Like a National Geographic picture, amazing. At Playa Ballena we spent the day beachcombing, swimming, and taking in the coastal sights. In the morning, we rode the hot stretch to Palmar Norte where we began preparations for our expedition to Parque Nacional Corcovado with finding a place to stash our bikes.

Back in the USA!

It has been 5 months since we were in the Guanacaste Mountains... and subsequently since our last blog. Throughout this time, our whirlwind adventure continued, but landed us back in Seattle, although a bit unexpectedly. Here's a quick summary (mostly in pictures):

After riding along the North side of Lago Arenal, we headed South into the capital city, San Jose via Fortuna and San Ramon. We encountered volcanoes, rainforest, lots of clouds and fog, a rope swing, and the inevitable long climb and descent over the cordillera into the Central Valley where San Jose is located.

In San Jose, we met back up with our friend Enrique, who was actually transferred to a position in San Jose shortly after we left him in Managua, Nicaragua. Enrique is from Costa Rica and his family lives in Santa Ana, just outside of San Jose. We spent the next two weeks with the Castegnaros, bumming around Santa Ana and San Jose.

Then we hopped on a plane back to the States! So, how did this big change in plans occur? A couple of months prior while we were in Managua, we found out about a few events scheduled back in the States that we wanted to be there for: 1) David's cousin Dallas's wedding, 2) David's childhood friend Rhett's wedding, 3) The Gibbs family reunion, and 4) The opportunity to see my parents who would be in the continental US around the same time. After contemplating the cost of the ticket (which didn't take too long thanks to a Frontier Airlines special), we bought two tickets back to Salt Lake City for one month. Well, one month turned into almost five and we visited not only Utah, but also Colorado, California, Washington, and Oregon to see family and friends.  We were obviously excited to see family, but also craving a bit of familiarity and regularity. Sleeping in a bed and showering daily, communicating with others without getting a headache, and eating home cooked meals were all things we really wanted to enjoy for a bit.

We entered the states in July and have had a cram packed 5 months while we have been here, Here is a short description and photos of some of our events:

We went to Volcan Turrialba with our local guide Enrique

The Gibbs family reunion, with the water fight as one of the highlights

A family reunion of sorts in California with Leah's dad's side


A family reunion of sorts in Vail, Colorado with my mom and Leah's aunt & sister

Some kick ass times with our biker gang in Salt lake City
Hanging out with Uncle Dave & family on Orcas Island

Sweet bike ride to wineries and brewery followed by a drunken ride home and skinny dipping in chilly Lake Washington

A couple of backpacking trips - one to Mount Rainier National Park and one to Goldmyer hotsprings

Moving in with some awesome roommates to a house in awesome Greenwood

Hiking Kendall Catwalk in the Cascades

Climbing and camping in Vantage, Washington

Panhandling at freeway offramps and getting picked up by the police (and donating my proceeds ~$26)

Volunteering with Bikes For Ghana

Hiking to Mason Lake in the snow and going for a dip

Attending my cousin's most memorable Halloween dress-up wedding in Connecticut

Going to Washington, DC for my first time and being there for the most memorable election ever, not to mention hanging out with Jamie & Ryan

Canoeing on the Potomac River at Hard Bargain Farm with three aweome co-pilots (you can't see Ralph the dog)

Relief caretaking at Goldmyer Hotsprings and getting the full-time job of caretaking in the spring (April - July)

A most memorable visit with my good friend Steevasaurus in San Fran

An unbeleivable family reunion with my mom's side of the family - 34 of us total - all but one cousin, OUTSTANDING! (Here is Sarah after going over the handlebars on a bike ride - The other two sisters taking good care of her)

Hanging with the family

The standard ultimate frisbee game on Thanksgiving day

Sweet family biker gang

We are now going back Costa Rica to meet up with Blackie and Pete, our trusty steeds. We are really excited to meet up with Enrique again too. We plan to bike around some in Costa Rica along with doing some backpacking . We are also planning to go to Panama, but, if you know anything about us plans tend to go to the wayside pretty regularly. We will be flying back to LA on January 21 and will proceed to bike up the west coast to Seattle. We plan to arrive in Seattle in mid-March to prepare for our upcoming caretaking stint at Goldmyer Hotsprings. Our caretaking stint goes from April 1 to the end of July or August.  It is something we are very excited about, but it is still in the distant future. We plan to keep up the blog on our travels so we hope you enjoy!

Companies That Care

Its nice to know that there are still companies out there that not only make excellent products, but also still care about their greatest assets, their customers. This is the story of our experience with Katadyn and Optimus, sister companies that make, in my opinion, some of the greatest outdoor equipment available. In the summer of 2004, I bought the Optimus Nova backpacking stove from Kirkham's Outdoor products in Salt Lake City, UT (shown on the left). The Nova was slightly more expensive than some of the other options but there were a few facts that persuaded me to buy it. First off the stove, when held in hand feels solid, sturdy and well built, generally a good sign. Another factor was that the stove is compatible with just about every type of fuel available - white gas, kerosene, gasoline, diesel, even jet fuel (I haven't tried that one yet, but everything else - yes). The final selling factor, which the associate at Kirkham's informed me of, was that Optimus has unparalleled customer service and an excellent warranty policy. He told me of a former customer who had broken his stove and Optimus replaced with no hassle, I was sold. Simply put, I bought, what I felt was, the best available product because in my mind, when one buys the best and takes care of it, no need will come up to buy another one. When Leah and I left in January of 2008 for our bike tour we took the Nova with us and it proved to be an indispensable asset to our trip. Having the Nova provides us with the opportunity to be completely self sufficient, not having to rely on the availability of restaurants and also providing us with the ability to cook much healthier meals than are available in most areas of Central America. After 2 months on the road, while doing some routine maintenance on the Nova in Belize I sheared the bolt that connects the burner to the stand while tightening it. As soon as we came to a town with an Internet cafe I looked up the Optimus customer service email address in Sweden and the Katadyn affiliate in the US and sent them a message telling them of my situation, and our need for the Nova. I, of course, didn't have my receipt or of proof of purchase or anything of the sort and I was a little worried about it. Nonetheless, I received a personal response from both Optimus of Sweden and Katadyn of the US on the next business day telling me to send them the address where they could send the new stove, just like that! I gave Sarah of Katadyn my mom's address in the states and the brand new stove was there within a week, I couldn't believe it. From that point on, I decided that Optimus and Katadyn are companies definitely worth supporting.

At about this same time, we were traveling with a fellow bike tourist that we had met along the way. He was carrying the Katadyn Pocket water filter. Before Leah and I had left we had decided that we would mostly be buying water and using a Steripen (a UV light water filter) for emergencies when clean water was not available. After traveling for a bit we realized that this was not the most efficient or best option for several reasons. While the Steripen is certainly a good product for what it is intended for, overnighters and day hikes, we found that we were needing it more often than we had anticipated. Some of the drawbacks we found were the constant need of batteries and the ability to only filter one liter at a time. We also found that buying water was expensive, not always available when we needed it, and a generally wasteful form of plastic goods, something neither of us are fond of. Isai, our companion, had no need to buy water ever, or batteries. People are almost always willing to give him water out of their taps and the Katadyn Pocket was the perfect solution. There are certainly cheaper water filters out there than the Pocket, but like the Nova, there are a few factors that set it apart. For one, again like the Nova, you hold it in your hand and you feel as though it will never break. It is made of stainless steel very durable plastic, it is heavier than some of the others out there, another sign of durability. The Pocket has a very simple design that makes it easy for anyone to clean and maintain. One of the reasons for its weight is the size of the ceramic filter inside. The filter is larger than most others allowing it filter up to 12,000 gallons before needing replacement, not to mention that the pores of the filter are smaller than most, meaning you get cleaner water, filtering out particles and microorganisms that some others do not. In my mind, all of these factors add up to the fact that this is the best water filter on the market and lets face it, when you are drinking water from a filter day in and day out and lots of it, while biking in Central American heat and humidity, you want to to have faith in your filter. After weighing all of these factors, Leah and I decided to go for it and order the Pocket filter, we also felt that it would be the last filter we would ever have to buy. We had it delivered to my mom's house and she sent both the Nova and the Pocket to us in Managua, Nicaragua.

After receiving them we knew we had made the right choice with the Pocket. We didn't ever have to worry about whether there would be a store with either batteries or water where we were headed, it was nice. Unfortunately, however, after only three weeks of traveling with our new stove and water filter we got robbed in a little town in Costa Rica and both the stove and the water filter were gone. We were devastated, we were no longer self sufficient, we had to eat cold meals and rely on restaurants meaning we weren't able to eat as healthily or as cheaply as we had been in the past. We also resorted to drinking water out of the taps, only after asking the locals if it was safe first, of course. This lasted for a couple of weeks until we were scheduled to go back to the states for a hiatus in our travels and I decided to appeal to Optimus and Katadyn for help in our current situation. I emailed them telling them our whole story and I asked them if there was anything they would be willing to do to help us out so that we wouldn't have to buy the Nova and the Pocket at retail price again. I again received a personal response from the same Sarah as before, informing me that she would speak with the VP Director of Sales and find out what they could do. A little while later she replied offering both the Pocket and the Nova to us at the wholesale cost, which in the end saved us the equivalent of the retail price of the Nova. We of course gratefully accepted their offer and although we are currently on hiatus from our bike tour for a couple months, we are still enjoying the use of our stove and water filter on our backpacking adventures here in the Northwest and looking forward to using them when we resume our journey in Central and South America.

We would like Optimus and Katadyn to know that we are very grateful of their service, generosity and their outstanding products and warranties. Needless to say, Leah and I are now lifelong loyal customers.

Thank you,
David & Leah Gibbarts

Guanacaste Mountains, Costa Rica

While staying at the hot springs in Miravalles, the manager, Alex, had given us a suggestion for a route, a "shortcut", over the Guanacaste mountain range that would be "an adventure." He told us of a road that went over Cerro la Giganta (The Giant Hill). The road, on the map, was surely a short cut as it traded at least 50 kilometers of riding on paved roads for what he told us would be 4kms of flat, 4kms of climbing, and 4 kms of downhill on a "rough dirt road". His friend, Victor, who was sitting in on the conversation told us that not only would the road be an adventure but that it would be taking us right, "through the heart of my country" with no houses, only fincas (farms). Now, many times when people tell us that a certain road is rough, it ends up not being so bad, people generally exaggerate the conditions. We decided that it sounded like it would be a shortcut worth taking, so we followed Alex's directions. We headed toward Cuipilapa, the town where he was from. His directions and descriptions were right on the money for this first part, it was very beautiful, we passed the thermal energy plants and (most importantly) it was pretty flat and the road wasn't so bad (confirming our suspicions) and it was exactly 4kms until the hill started. We started thinking it may not be such a bad shortcut after all.

The hill started with a small river crossing. There was a man walking past us there and I asked him, "Is the hill starting?" He looked at me with a smile that seemed to be hiding something and said with a chuckle, "More or less." We shortly thereafter discovered that when Alex had said it would be an adventure, he wasn't lying. The road kept getting steeper...and rougher. Leah and I were able to push/ride our bikes individually for about 1km until La Giganta got so steep and rough that we had to set one bike down and both push one bike for a bit, set it down, go back to the other bike and repeat the process. Now if you do the math, that requires us to do three times the amount of walking and twice the amount of uphill walking. For this part of the route Alex had been wrong, it ended up being 5.5 kms of uphill, maybe half of one km of which we rode, one km of which we pushed individually and 4 of which we pushed together. If you add it all up we ended up pushing our bikes up 9 kms of steep, very loose rocky uphill and walking a total of 13kms. It had taken us over six hours, just to climb this "4 km hill".

At the top of La Giganta we had a beautiful view of the valleys to the east and west, Volcano Miravalles to the north and hills to the south. Also, in front of us laid more steep, loose, rocky road, but this time gravity was to our advantage. We got on our bikes and rode 100 meters before we decided we would be better off (safer) walking our bikes down. I was at the bottom of the hill when I heard a crash and looked up to see Leah's bike on the ground, her front panniers thrown off the bike (this was the second time, unbeknownst to me) and Leah sitting next to it with her head in her hands. As usual I wasn't sure how to react but decided to walk back up the hill and try to console her. I sat down next to her, put my arm around her shoulder and through her tears she said, "This isn't what I signed up for." Leah had been trying her little heart out, and I felt really bad, but there was really nothing I could do. I picked her bike up, put the panniers back on and walked it down the rest of the hill giving her time to shake it off. Most of the rest of the hill we were able to ride down slowly and carefully. We eventually reached the bottom around 4:30 PM, the whole epic had lasted around ~9-10 hours. We were exhausted and it was getting time to find a place to camp. When reached the highway we realized that we were within only a couple of kilometers of Enrique's father's ranch, Hacienda Miravalles and we decided to stop in for the night.

We arrived at the ranch and met Doña Mariksa. We told her that we were friends of Enrique and asked if we could set up the tent . She called the boss and obtained permission for us. Before we set up the tent she made sure that we understood if there was anything we needed we better just come to her and ask. She also told us to come to her when we got hungry. We slept like babies that night and the next day wandered around the ranch checking out the beautiful Brahman cattle herd, watching part of the artificial insemination process (donning an arm's length glove, lubing it up, and sticking an arm up the cow's butt to probe the uterus while at the same time using a huge syringe to inject the semen into the cow's vagina - not exactly child's play - or my idea of a good time).

We were also treated to a horseback ride through part of the ranch. From the ranch you could see part of La Giganta which we had ridden (pushed) our bikes over, Volcan Miravalles, Volcan Tenorio and the valley between the two. While riding around we contemplated trading our bikes in for a couple of horses but decided that although crossing mountain passes like La Giganta would be much easier on horseback, our bikes, Blackie and Pete, really give us no trouble. They're never hungry, they never run off in the middle of the night (by themselves), they don't need rest and they don't fart when you are riding close behind them. We decided it wouldn't be such a wise trade. After the horseback ride we realized that although our bike seats are called saddles, there really isn't much similarity between riding bikes and riding horses. When we got out of the saddle our butts hurt a little (not in the usual spots), our legs felt stretched (bowed) and our inner thighs felt more worked than they had been in a while, nonetheless it had felt good to ride a horse again as it had been several years since either Leah or I had done so.

We left Hacienda Miravalles early in the morning, we again were striking out on another "shortcut" suggested to us by one of the ranch hands. This time however it didn't turn out so bad we only had to push our bikes in a couple of spots. We also got to ride by a wind farm with giant windmills (can you see Leah in there?). By the time we reached pavement again Leah had decided she would be quite content if without taking another dirt road for a while. We descended quite a ways into the the Arenal valley where the Lago Arenal reservoir lies. We reached the lake and from there it was steep rolling hills all the way to the town of Nuevo Arenal (just called Arenal - Old Arenal now lies under Lake Arenal.) Along the rolling hills the tourist presence and foreign investment was very obvious. We saw a lot of housing developments with US priced houses as well as a lot of land for sale. We also couldn't go more the 500 yds without seeing some sort of sign with an advertisement for either a hotel, adventure tour or restaurant, the signs were a very ugly addition to an otherwise beautiful ride along the lake.

By the time we reached Arenal (at the top of a very big hill) we were absolutely starving. We stopped at the grocery store, bought some cheese, tomatoes and cucumbers then rolled down the hill to the "German Bakery" that we had seen no less than 7 signs for on the road (we weren't exactly stoked about encouraging the presence of signs but good bread is always tough to turn down). We enjoyed every last bit of our "sandwiches" on black bread and when the Spaniard tourists next to us left their bread sampler plate only half eaten, I couldn't just sit by and watch good food go to waste so I snatched it and ate it too. After our lunch we wandered around town a bit grocery shopping and found a Costa Rican bakery that was every bit as good as the German bakery and a fraction of the price, so we loaded up on bread for dinner and breakfast after complementing our previous meal with some irresistible cinnamon bread and pastry (screw the Atkins diet - give us CARBS!).

After our little rest and watching the rain go by we set out to find a place to camp. There was a public park but with our recent robbing experience Leah wasn't too stoked on that option so we rode on down the road until she found a house that looked inviting. She waltzed up to the house and told our story: All the cheap hotels were taken, we didn't want to camp at the park after being robbed and nowhere would let us camp. The owners were an old grandma and grandpa and soaked up every detail. They looked down the hill at where I was standing and the grandpa was pretty confused, "But he's a gringo," he says, as if gringos can always afford hotels. "Yeah, I am too," Leah says. "Oh. Why do you want to camp here?" grandpa says. Leah tells the story again and after thinking for a moment he points at the bottom of the hill, close to where I'm waiting, at a little stable and tells us to camp there. Leah thanks them and comes down. We walk our bikes up next to the stable and set them down and he yells down, "No, no, open the gate and go inside." Leah looks at me with a quizzical look, "Hey, if a stable is good enough for Jesus..." I say. This is how we came to camp in a stable for the first time.

After setting up our tent and getting ready for the night we walked up to thank our hosts. We ended up sitting and talking with them for a while and they told us of how they had lived in Old Arenal and the government had provided them with the land they currently lived on when the reservoir was built. They told us of all of the soaring land prices in the area and how there were almost no Ticos (Costa Ricans) living in town because of it. This is one of the major problems with foreign investment in developing countries, displacement of the locals (it also happens in Hawaii). After we had talked for a while at about 6 PM grandpa looked at us and said, "Now you're going to sleep?" We took that as a very strong hint, said goodnight and retired to our stable for a good night's rest.