Riding Along

Following the jungle experience in which the system emergency lights went on I started a retreat back towards Santa Ana to recover at my apartment. The last of my fumes were used to ride 140 km over the 3300 m¨Cerro de Muerte¨ (mountain of death) from San Isidro to San Jose, a repeat of the last stage of the Vuelta. I´m not sure what was harder, riding it in 4 hrs at race pace with a pack of riders during a sunny day or by myself at my own pace (6hrs) carrying a pack through a rain storm. Either way I rolled into SJ pretty ragged and worked over thoroughly. Once in SJ I pit stopped at small cafe for a green tea and saw two other bike tourers who asked ¨How´s the ride over from San Isidro?¨ I looked at there sketchy 40 lb hybrid bikes with probably 80 lbs of luggage on them each, with a pink bell on the girls bike and shuttered. ¨It´s beautiful, nice mountains.¨ I left it at that and headed out. I figure they will have a grand adventure lugging there bikes over the mountains. Definatly a better day then passing through on a overcrowded bus.

Back in Santa Ana things have been peaceful. Lots of resting, a little bit of studying, plenty of spanish lessons and of course some riding. Its great to be able to go out for a bike ride knowing you have a shower, comfy bed and fridge full of fresh healthy food to return to. Yesterday the body was starting to feel normal again so it was off too Volcano Irazu. 80 km later I stood on top of the 3432 Volcano long enough to get a good feel of Canadian coldness. Once my hands started to numb I felt like I had my little piece of Canadian winter and happily retreated down the Volcano to greener pastures. 1 pack of Strawberries, 2 cocount waters and 2 hrs of pedaling later it was back to Santa Ana for a Salad feast with my friend Ronald and ¨Jungle House¨ adventure buddy Dan.

Road riding in Costa Rica is great. There are roads going everywhere with each one offering its own unique adventure. With the steep terrain, uncovered manholes, uncontroled dogs and some of worlds more crazier drivers there is never a dull moment. I have been lucky to have my buddy Ronald show me around as it would take yrs to find all the great rides down here. The biggest problem is the heat which makes sure most riders get out on the roads before 6 to insure they dont dry up before the ride is over.

Other than riding, CR is a pretty cool place to travel. I have found there are two main typs of travellers down here. Familys or couples on 2 week vacations staying in luxury hotels and the expats, generally single middle age men down here for the girls, beer and trying to do as little as possible. There are some backpackers as well but generally they like to stick to the cheaper surrounding countries such as Panama and Nicaragua. This is a bit of an illusion put on by amount of tourism down here. If you stay in the hot spots its will cost alot of money but at the same time if you have the will to adventure off the tourist trail then you will find the real Costa Rica and normal prices. As far as I can tell Costa Rica has the best structured tourism scene of any country down here and there are enough cheap crazy adventures to keep anybody busy for months. In Central America, probably only Guatemala can match Costa Rica in the # of wild outdoor adventures available. One day Honduras could join these 2 as well but at the moment there is very little tourist infrastructure and the crime is pretty out of control. For now I will stick to Costa for a bit longer as theres a few more Volcanos and a few more jungles to roam around.

Mountains & Jungles

After the downtime in Jaco the initial plan of returning to Canada was overidden by a mtn called Chirripo and a Jungle called Osa.

Mount Chirripo being the highest pt in the country has been on my radar since my first trip down here. I figured it would make a great start to 2010 so I headed off down the road. Like all roads in the country it soon went up and pretty soon the pavement was gone. Riding up steep costa rican gravel roads on a road bike is not the smartest idea but it is still faster then buses. In fact I have been a busy beaver and did the math on buses vs bikes in costa rica. I was always a better sport kid then school kid but I´m pretty sure bikes are faster than buses every time except on long distance trips on the interamerican highway. On a road bike you can avg approx 25-30 km an hr over 6 hrs. Buses avg around 45 km an hr on the good paved highways and anywhere else it goes down. Calculate the time waiting for buses, connecting to other buses, catching taxis to and from bus stops and a bike is faster everytime. When the roads are unpaved hiking is probably faster then the buses as well. To get to the Chirripo trail head, 21 km from the city of San Isidro it takes the bus 2 hrs and a road bike 1.5.... Point proven.

Once hiking, the trail went up 1800 m over 14 km through jungle to a mountain top hostal at 3300 m. With a typical Costa Rican bike toureres packsack with only beach clothes in it I soon made like Frosty the snowman for the remainder of the adventure. I had purchased a $2 jacket in San Isidro for the acent but I probably should of gone with the $4 model. At the hostal the French came up with a the idea that everybody should get up at 2 30 am to hike the last 6 km to the summit to catch sunrise. I was keen on sleeping in but I was outnumbered and overinlfuenced. We all made the summit at 5am for sunrise. It was colder than Canada up top and we could see 6 ft in front of us. The dutch were mad at the French and they took off down the mountain. The French looked upset and they also took off. The Americans and I pulled out our sleeping bags and used them as rain jackets to stay up top stay a bit longer in hopes of a clearing. It cleared to 8 ft vision so we took bad photos and headed out. On the way down we passed the Swedes who were making like a bunch of sleepy turtles. By the time they hit the top it was a blue sky day and they came back with photos of both the oceans off the summit. I never believed the story of the turtle and the hair but I am starting to see some similarities to it.

After the mtn trek I met up with Dan Clark (American friend who helped us at the Vuelta) and away we went off towards the Jungles of the Osa Peninsula. Dan on his motorbike and myself on the roadie. We rolled into the rustic town of Puerto Jimenez 2 days and 180 km later to stage a 55 km 2 day hike through Corcovado National Park, what National Geographic calls the most Biologically Dense place on earth. Not sure what that means and we never found out as the Chinese guy with the gong began making a racket. Regulations, reservations, sketchy information etc.. etc. etc...

Instead of hiking through the National Park we ended up travelling to an old farm house 15 km up in middle of the jungle with 7 argentinian girls, a german couple and a swede. Not too sure how we ended up there but there were no complaints. We were all pretty stunned to be at such a ragged, remote place but with hiking trails and waterfalls surrounding us the place proved to be pretty cool. Sleeping in a house with 7 beds for 12 people proved another problem.

Dan had the quote of the trip "Danm, I have spent over half my life in bush camps in Alaska but that lil 90 lb Argentinian snores as loud as any of the lumberjacks up there."

In the morning the howler monkeys came through at 5am. Dan eventually hit his time budget and headed back to his house in San Jose. The few of us left at the house spent the day exploring through the jungle. 5 of the girls got scared and returned to the house while 3 of us wandered around looking for jaguar cubs. We didnt find any. There were monkeys, parrots, snakes and numerous other unidentifiable insects and birds. Next time I figure a guide would be well worth it for a quick lesson on the goods and bads of the jungle as it is a wild place.

After the episode of "jungle house" I made another effort to reach the depths of Corcovado National Park on a garage sale worthy mtb bike I rented off a local. After 4 hrs of riding through rivers and across the jungle that plan was finally foiled as the bike and I both malfunctioned around the same time. With the diesal tank low from the previous days efforts I opted to let Corcovado win this round of the battle but I will be back for round 2 as what I saw of the place is spectacular.

Baked Potato

The last day of the Vuelta was a blur for me as I was out of Hempseeds and running on smoke as I barely managed to hang with the main pack for the day over the Mountain of Death to the finish line in downtown San Jose. In the end I finished 30th out of 90 starters in the 12 day race. It was the fastest race I ever did. Only the 24hrs of adrenaline compared in how much my body was messed up afterwards. Casper (aka Cody Canning) made a showing into the main pack around 30 minutes into the final day. For an untrained shaggy pipeliner the white ghost came around strong near the end of the race.

Stage 13 was pretty tame as 12 days of racing hit most the riders pretty hard although the Colombians were still given'r. We joined them in there room for a bit, I sat beside two large boxes of syringes and unlabled vitamins. Probably just vitamin C and aspirin .... On another note the UCI quit doping tests after stage 6, right before the 6 toughest days of the race.

The Tour was definitely an experience I will remember for a long time. Racing in a foreign country is always a great time Although I have learned many times that you must roll with the punches as your always in a uncontrolble environment with gongshows galore. Big thanks to Marc Dufour (Team Manager) and Jean Michael Lachance (Rider / organizer) for making this trip happen!

After any big stage race there is one more day after In which the body functions and then it becomes as useful as a baked potato for the next week as the stress of the race takes its toll and the body trys to recover. With New Years last night, the recovery took a few steps backwards. It was a top 3 New Years ever. We joined hundred of travelers from around the world out on the Beaches of Jaco. With a full moon, waves crashing, a bonfire, fireworks shooting in every direction and the party going till sunrise it was a night for the books. Today was a write off. Tomorrow we will hit the bikes again for a light spin before I start contemplating a trip northwards to the mother land for some much needed recovery and some work to refuel the bank account.