Our adventures continue, leaving San Juan del Sur for the nearby paradise of Coco Playa. Where San Juan had been a ballin' party full of opportunity to make bad decisions, Coco Playa was the opposite. A row of maybe a dozen houses and hotels on a beautiful, untouched piece of beach. In fact when we arrived there were more cattle than people on the beach with a grand total of 5 cows.
The place we stayed at was kind enough to let us just pop up tents or what have you for a fraction the price of a room. My hammock and bug net ended up hung under a palapa about 30 feet from the high tide. When the tide was in I could, and did, literally throw rocks into the ocean from my bed.
Being full of little aside from the odd cow or puppy, the beach made for some incredible beach combing. We found lots of interesting shells, and even this beaut of a sand dollar.
When we made our way down to the water to check out the surf, however, we were greeted with a strange, foreign and unexpected sight... snails. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of little snails. Each one buried down into the sand until the surf would pull back past them. Then they would emerge from the sand, with their two little feelers pulling whatever snails pull out of the water as it rolled by. Everywhere we looked there were these snails. I've never felt as if I was accidentally commiting xenocide by simply walking down the beach before.
If you look at the above photo you'll notice a ton of little pockmarks in the sand, each of those is a snail, and this extended down the entire beach and as far as the tide went. Simply bizarre.
After a lovely evening full of eating Ichiban noodles on the balcony as our gracious hosts plied us with cups of Kahlua we enjoyed a lovely Pacific sunset. Shortly after this we walked down the road to a protected area where turtles breed. Mere minutes after our arrival we were lucky enough to bear witness to dozens of leather back turtles hatching and making their way down to the ocean. To say the least it was an incredible thing to see, as these tiny animals made their own incredible journey.
Unfortunately for you, photos are not allowed as it is thoroughly dark when this occurs and flash or white light would impede the turtles, so you're stuck with a photo of the sunset at Coco Playa as we wait to go see the turtles so you'll have to take my word for it.
After leaving Coco Playa, making our way to Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Patrick's liberal application of a hatchet to try and repair a fairing came back to bite him. Apparently striking a metal housing repeatedly with a small axe has a propensity to break the small fragile pieces contained within. So there we have Pat, mere kilometers from a warm, safe place to rest our heads, when his headlight fails. With limited other options, a Petzl head-light is re-purposed as a Petzl headlight and an advertisement proposal is in the works.
The very next day, as Bill heads inland to Alajuala to pick up Anne; Colin, Pat and I head across the Nicoya Gulf towards Montezuma. A reasonably uneventful day proceeds until during a short stop situation, Colin gave Pat a little kiss on his backside, sending Pat into a ditch. A ditch which was comprised of a steep ass seven foot drop and was occupied by a small stream. As Pat's bike took a nap in the creek, damage was accessed and Colin's bike was righted. Thankfully there was very limited damage to both bikes, with Patrick's so called "muffler" taking the brunt of the damage. As Pat's muffler has been a constant source of headache; literal and figurative, for the duration of the trip there was speculation that this little kiss may not have been wholly accidental. At one point it was rumored that there was photographic evidence showing otherwise with a 12 meter long streak of melted rubber as Colin locked up his rear tire. This photo, however appears to be missing, once again opening the case to speculation.
Arriving in Montezuma, bruises rested and heads settled, the time to explore came near. One of the few activities in Montezuma which could be done for free was to hike up to a nearby waterfall to enjoy the deep pools under each of the falls.
The largest fall, about 60 vertical feet, had a beautiful swimming pool and rock formations that allowed us to swim in behind the falls and hang out before jumping through the falls into the water.
Shortly after enjoying the largest set of falls we found out about two more sets of falls just upriver from where we were swimming. These set of falls held the promise of even more fun, so after packing a picnic we made the journey up to the two higher sets of falls with some friends.
Just below the highest set of falls was an awesome rope swing, which provided minutes of fun, diving/falling into the water over and over. After a light lunch the real fun started. You see, between the highest falls, the pool with the rope swing, and the lower falls where we'd been swimming a few days before there was yet another waterfall. Measuring in at 40 feet it was the second largest set of falls, and no slouch either. So we jumped off it. Now this clearly goes against ones natural instinct, as as an individual who takes to heights like a cat to water, this was a simply terrifying proposal, but after seeing a couple people do it, and receiving some Imperial courage I was on the ledge, then quickly, oh so quickly, in the water.
From a rock at the top of the falls you could jump and fall, ever so gracefully into the pool below, reaching; according to Pat, who mathed it out with science, 85 km/h.
For reference, this is the set of falls we launched ourselves off of. You may be able to make out the people at the top enjoying themselves.
Unfortunately, as safe as this activity sounds, there are accidents. While we were at the falls we did suffer one tragic loss as Colin dropped his GoPro into the water below. A sad moment, and a moment of silence was had.
On a happier note, we shared the area around the falls with all sorts of birds, lizards and even monkeys!
Once my glorious week in Montezuma was over the time finally came for me to be reunited with my girl. Kate flew in and after a night in Alajuela, we mozied on towards San Jose. Two people on a KLR is effort, two people with all their gear is work. Unsecured our bags were nearly as tall as Kate. Thankfully everything packed down to a reasonably small package and with our gear and my precious cargo we were able to have a comfortable, cozy little bike.
We met up with the others in San Jose where we were lucky enough to be there for the annual festival of lights. A strange mix of Christmas, Disney and corporate interest kept the town excited for most of the evening.
The next day with Anne on a bus, we took off bound for David, Panama. A damned long drive two up, so Kate and I planned on stopping in Neilly, Costa Rica and continuing past David to Boquete the next day to enjoy the cloud forest. As the day progressed, making good time the turn-off for Neilly came and went as we decided to stick with the group and try to make it to David to meet up with Anne. Shortly here after a local suggested we take the northern border crossing as it would be significantly quicker. This might have been the case had it been anywhere we could find, or not raining incredibly hard. The rain came harder than we've seen since we left, and the road arched back and forth through the mountains, all but halting our progress. Somehow we found ourselves back on another road to Neilly after a few hours of detour through what was actually a very beautiful national park which Panama and Costa share.
Arriving in Neilly, wet and in the dark I was done riding. So Kate, Colin and myself stopped and got a couple rooms at a very nice little hotel and had a lovely supper of chinese food in the dry. Meanwhile Bill and Pat drove to David to meet with Anne.
The next morning, somewhat dry and in much better spirits, the three of us made our way to the Panama border, a relatively quick and simple border. Within two hours we were in Panama, cruising down a gorgeous 4 lane divided highway towards David, and then on to Boquete. Boquete is a lovely little town. Very eco-tourism and old people. After being ranked the number one retiree destination in 2001, the population seems to have grown a few grey hairs. That said it was an incredibly beautiful little town, nestled into a mountain valley high up in the cloud forest, it wasn't hard to find a breathtaking vista. Panama, you make a damned good first impression. Then we went to the grocery store to find supper.
$0.60 beer? You make a good second impression too! With local beers being so inexpensive, and imported beers like Guiness being only $0.75 cents we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try a little bit of liquid culture.
We were even able to rep some Huskie pride with the beer cozies my mother ever so lovingly sent down for Christmas.
The following day the three of us made our way across the street for a little zip-lining adventure. A three hour tour through the cloud forest, traversing 13 lines awaited us. As we walked towards our first platform our guides were able to show us many different species of plants: orchids of all shapes sizes and colours, rhubarb with leaves well over 2 meters across and many more. Then one of the guides gave each of us the stem of a flower and suggested we chew on it a little. OK, deal. And in it went. The strange stemmy bitterness of the plant was quickly replaced with a strange facial numbness as traditional anesthetic did its job, numbing our tongues and lips.
The numbness was just starting to wear off as we got to the first platform. Buckled up and off we went. Flying through the forest with the grace of a monkey, which needs a seat belt and training wheels.
Regardless of aesthetic, or testicular comfort, it was an awesome experience, and a great rush flying through the canopy at high speed. With lines up to 1200+ feet you definitely got some sense of flying, albeit backwards and upside down, and when you zipped out from the canopy for a few moments you instantly and acutely became aware of just how rainy it was.
Finished with Boquete we have since moved on. We are currently in Portobelo waiting for our ship to set sail for the San Blas, the weather seems to have broken, but more on that, and the rest of our adventures in between to come from Columbia!
Bray
