Costa Rica

[18. March 2008]

Costa Rica is the Switzerland of Central America: social security, clean, well educated people and tons of tourists. They are even one step ahead of real Switzerland: they got rid of their costly army 50 years ago, a step we are still waiting for in Switzerland!

Being the Switzerland of Central America also means that prices are a lot higher than in the countries we were travelling for the last months. A double room in a cheap hotel now costs 15 to 25 Dollars instead of 6 to 8 dollars in Honduras/Nicaragua. As these prices do not fit into our budget we had to look for places to camp as often as possible.

One night we were camping on the lawn of a hotel for free as we were eating in their restaurant. Another evening we wanted to ask at a nice hotel whether we could do the same thing and then realized that this was a private house... The owners asked us where we come from and when we told them we are Swiss they said we can camp in their garden – with swimming pool and patio!

One day we were eating lunch in Liberia and another 50 kilometers of cycling against the wind was waiting for us. Within half an hour we had our plans changed and turned right towards the famous beaches of the Nicoya peninsula. One day later we arrived in Samara where a picture perfect beach was waiting for us. The water of the Pacific was as warm as the Caribbean Sea had been and we were enjoying the waves. For one day we were in Paradise again and watched the surfers doing their terribly short rides – we are used to ride much longer on our snow boards :-)

What could have been an easy two days ride up from the coast to San Jose – only 1000 m of altitude – turned out to be the nightmare of our tour: roads without shoulders, heavy traffic and an up and down of the steepest grades we ever rode. 1800 m and 1500 m of altitude in bikers language.

Totally exhausted we reached a restaurant on top of a never ending grade. As they were about to close we asked whether we can stay on the terrace of the restaurant for the night and leave in the morning before they open again. The waitress we asked had a better idea: she invited us to stay at her house. We ended up in the house of here parents and learned how much more modern a household in Costa Rica is than one in other Central American countries. The people too are better educated, more cosmopolitan and still incredibly friendly.

The inevitable ride through San Jose was a surprise a la Costa Rica again. It took us four hours to ride through the city. That is we took “some” path through the suburbs as we wanted to avoid the city center. Maybe it would have been wiser to do the dirty but short way...

In Cartago we were awarded for the struggle of the last days: one Couchsurfing contact was offering us an empty studio directly in the center of town that we can use as long as we want. Wow, this is trustfulness!

The first night in Cartago was the night of the day the value of the Dollar fell under the one of the Swiss franc. We were waiting for this moment and we had a bottle of rum ready to celebrate... By coincidence we met other Swiss travellers who of course were in the mood for party too. Cheers!

Above Cartago rises the 3440 meters high volcano Irazu. Most of the day it is covered in clouds; the best time to visit is early in the morning. To be there as early as possible we camped one night in front of the park entrance on an altitude of 3000 meters – a very windy and cold experience. We now are prepared for the cold nights in the Andes.

[5. April 2008]

From Cartago we rode down to the Caribbean (which feels like riding UP only in Costa Rica due to the never ending hills) where we finally enjoyed flat terrain to roll to Cahuita. We could leave our bikes in the hotel we booked for the meeting with Pius’ parents one week later.

By bus we went to Puerto Viejo, the backpacker-surfer-party-town of Costa Rica. We arrived on Thursday before Easter, the craziest time of the year. During the “semana santa” hotels are full wherever you go. Puerto Viejo was flooded by people and we loved this. More people more party. After the quiet days we had until now in Costa Rica this was perfect for us.

There is a famous hostel in Puerto Viejo, the Rocking J’s. It consists of a large area directly on the beach with rooms, tents and hammocks to sleep, many places to hang out, a restaurant a nice garden… When we arrived there all the rooms and all the tents (more than 120!) were already sold out. We could save some of the last hammocks in one of the mass sleeping areas with 30 or more hammocks – for 10 Dollars per night!

There were 356 people staying at the Rocking J’s – it was like being at an open air festival. What made the festival feeling perfect was the fact that the government of Costa Rica prohibited the selling of alcoholic beverages during semana santa. Of course in the end there were beers everywhere; the black market was flourishing.

From Puerto Viejo we went to the Tortuguero National Park where we met up with Pius’ parents. They enjoyed a two week organized hiking tour in Costa Rica and came to the Caribbean coast now to see whether everything is all right with their son :-)

On a early morning paddling tour through the maze of channels in the rain forest we saw so many beautiful animals we could hardly believe we were not in a zoo. Three different types of Toucans, three different kinds of monkeys, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, birds and on and on. We were impressed by this thriving jungle life.

The ride out of Tortuguero was not a quiet paddling tour anymore. A 140hp motor boat took us along a maze of channels to Puerto Limon – 60 kilometers in two hours! We were sometimes flying over the water.

During the following days we had a very tranquil time with Pius’ parents in Cahuita. We went for walks in the national park, played a Swiss card game (the “Jass”) for hours and were eating good food all the time. We were invited during all this time by Pius’ parents. They invited us for all meals, paid the hotels, the trips, made us drink many beers (so they had a chance in the Jass), just everything. You can imagine how much we enjoyed this. Thank you very much!