crtreedude 

Just got the bike back - it hasn't looked this good EVER! even when it was brand new. Amazing - all the things that should gleam - gleam, everything is totally clean - and everything is oiled that should be. They even removed all the attachments and put them back on.

My wife things it is a new bike - except for the scars of course.

hotwheels

You and your wife make me sick! I just had to say that, I'm very jealous.

crtreedude 

When you are old and grey (heck, I have white hair!) you might just be able to swing something like this - but it isn't all roses either - you should see the bugs! Some of the bugs are as big as your hand!

When I am feeling particularly evil, I will post more pictures...

crtreedude 

Last week I was unable to ride - one, everyone was coming down with a nasty bug (I avoided it) so I was afraid that if I did too much, I might be in trouble - the other was that I had to take stuff to the office - which doesnt work real well on a bike.

Today was excellent - I am thinner - the day was wonderful, and I was here 3 minutes earlier. I also figured out to change my back fender a little and I have a lot less mud on my back. I also dropped of my bike for its Monday Morning Makeover.

We have had solid rain for 3 weeks or more - but today is sunny. It will be interesting to see how fast I will be on the roads when they are dry.

jamesdenver

Hey CR dude I saw this place on a travel board I frequent https://www.BananaAzul.com/

I know you're the opposite direction (north right?) from San Jose, but I'm definetely planning on CR soon, maybe this winter! The more I read your posts the more I want to head that way.

Do you think if I did a shorter trip, like 4-5 days (over a long weekend) too short to spend considering travel time is needed between San Jose and Puerto Viejo, or SJ to Arenalas? Just curious how much transportation time is eaten up. Sorry to bug you with travel questions

I have six months de espanol under my belt too, so be good to practice it more too...

All the best - I enjoy reading your posts!

jyossarian

Chicken hop? mmmm...chicharrones...chicken chicharrones are good too.

This thread is like reading a good travelog.

crtreedude 

There are two ways to visit Costa Rica - one is the death march - try to visit the entire country in just a few days. When you get back, replace your kidneys because you were beaten to death by the roads. The other is to find an area - and then settle down there and explorer. This is much cheaper, and much more interesting to me.

There are places to stay as cheap as 5 dollars a night or up to 250 dollars a night as well. Just depends what you are wanting to do. The beach areas are very expensive - if you go to the famous areas - but there are other areas that are very very nice, and not near as crowded, or expensive.

I think 4 to 5 days would be pretty short to go that far - perhaps not for Puntarenas - but Puerto Viejo is farther. It really depends when you flight arrives and whether you can combine a flight day with a travel day.

jamesdenver

I agree. I wouldn't try to trek the whole country, just find one town with some nice restaurants and recreation for a few days and base myself there -- I prefer traveling that way, you may not see everything but you get to know a neighborhood, people and place.

I'm low maintenance, and under $40 a night would be a great.

I would love to trek inland, my travel partner is a beach person - so we'll see Thanks for the info!

crtreedude 

There are lots of very good places for that amount - here is a suggestion - Termales de Bosque https://www.termalesdelbosque.com/english/index.htm

If you have heard of Monte Verde - this is not it, but in my opinion better. Very easy to get to, only about 2 hours (or less) from the airport - and it is next to Juan Castro Blanco Parque de Agua which is about 70,000 acres of rainforest / cloudforest. Almost no one goes up there - and it is worth going.

The last time I checked, if you mentioned us - the hotel was only 30 dollars a night - and they have a natural hot spring with pools and everything.

Just down the road is a great zoo - I am not normally fond of zoos - but this one is an animal rescue with more than 400 animals. They are also the top Tapir breeders in the world (I think) very clean, very nice and very interesting.

Just down the road in the other direction is a farm breeding Macaws - scarlet and green. 50 of them the last that I knew. Truely amazing in the mornings there - flocks of them come in from the mountain - which is an ancient volcano. (Platanar)

So - does that sound like a travelog?

jamesdenver

that's great - thanks - copying in pasting this for future. Hopefully this winter, need keep adding to the travel piggybank but it's a good excuse to continue practicing my spanish - I had to look the name of to find it meant "Thermal of the Forest"

All the best!

jyossarian

No, it sounds like where I might go on my next vacation! I'll have to bookmark this thread.

How's the riding at this place?

crtreedude 

The riding here is wonderful. The rain is warm - so I would honestly go during the rainy season - keeps you cooled off and it is like cycling in a warm shower.

La Fortuna has a few good bike rental places - and there are MTB tours as well around the volcano. Some are aggressive, some are not - all should be finished in a hotspring watching the volcano if it decides to make a showing (as in the clouds clear out)

you can cycle around Lake Arenal with MTBs - I hear that is a really nice ride - long, but very nice.

The fruit smoothies (we call them frescos) are to die for - my favorite is blackberries crushed, strained, with ice and milk - blended. Making me hungry just thinking about it.

Of course, mango is really good - and pineapple is unreal - especially mixed with coconut, all fresh ingredients of course.

crtreedude 

Again I got my bike cleaned and lubed for 1,000 colones - this is like 2 dollars for you all. I guess the guy want to show me how good he could do it - so he pulled out the stops.

Last time was the cleanest the bike has ever been - this time he went a little overboard... I had to tell him to cut back a bit.

First of all - you really don't have to remove the seat post to clean it - I never change it anyway (he changed the seat height) I suspect he does that so he can actually test drive the bike. I know I would if I was him...

But, the thing that really got me was that he dressed up the tires with something like Armor All. They sure looked nice and I appreciated it - until I left the pavement and hit the wet stone! It was like riding on marbles there for a bit!

Oh well, after a bit of a sandy stretch, it was just fine.

jyossarian

Oh man, those are so gooood! Guanabana's good if you like it tart, mango's always good and really, you can't go wrong w/ any of them.

crtreedude 

I have had a real treat for the last couple of days - it has dried out and the roads are fast! Instead of my normal 30 minutes to work, it is down to 25. The return was much easier as well.

Amazing how much the water (puddles, small streams, wet sand, and some puddles that look like fishing ponds!) can slow you down.

I do love riding in the rain - but sometimes, it is nice to really be able to rip and not worry about slipping on a mud patch.

Of course, one downside is the "leavings" of the cattle are more permanent... Ah well, just some more things to dodge.

What is amazing to me is how fast things dry out and become firm. Areas two days ago I walked the bike across because I couldn't pedal through it were dry today.

We are building stuff on our property now - and finally it is dry enough to bring stone onto the road - we have been trying to do this for about 5 weeks - It only took two completely sunny days to get us there.

This doesn't mean that it rains all the time - but it has been rainier than normal. However, the sun is so strong here, it isn't gloomy even when rainy.

crtreedude 

So the weather decided to get even for a couple of sunny days - a really big storm came up. I had just come in after walking a pretty good size finca (about 100 acres) and found out I need to grab a shovel and start making canals for the water so it would wash away the road we just built.

There was a bucket out in the lawn, and after the storm, it had about 6 inches of water. I have been in showers with less force. It was fairly warm too - but not as warm as usual.

I went into the weekend weighing 207.5, this morning it was 204.5 - and I can believe it. On top of the above excercise, the storm broke the water main above us - but we weren't sure it was local, so we walked almost to town (3 kilometers). A really beautiful walk, but that added about 5 kilometers of walking to our weekend.

Then of course quest came over and we were running around collecting fruit, etc - and I spent a little time helping them fix their truck (needed brake fluid)

I guess I can now understand why I dropped 3 lbs over the weekend!

crtreedude 

Well, it had to happen eventually. I got cut off today. Except for the last kilometer, there are almost no vehicles at all - so it was a little surprising. On top of that, people are very careful around cyclists. So, I will admit, I have been reading about your problems with cagers up there being very glad I didn't have those problems.

He was looking right at me too with a bit of a crazed look in his eye - made me wonder so I thankfully had my hands on the brake - and the next thing I know, he was making a dash straight in front of me to the other side. What was worse, others followed him, I guess they were assuming since he went, it was okay for them too - or perhaps they were a group.

I know many of you would have had rude things to say (and perhaps a little sign language too) but honestly, it wouldn't have helped a bit.

After all - it was a bull...

He and his heifers had broken down a fence and were feeding on the side of the road - I guess he had never seen a white haired gringo riding a MTB down his feeding zone before - he was more than a little spooked!

Dinstee

Now that story is just full of BULL!

Reminds me of a trip I took as a kid to a freind of my parents in Negril, Jamaica. Little mountain "road" that led up from the main road on the coast had many cows loitering in the middle of the night when I would make my way down to the convience shack halfway down the mountain. Now, I'm from Texas, and have seen, raised, ridden my fair shair of cows. But when you bump into one in the pitch dark .. it's unnerving.
I can only imagine getting cutoff intentionally by some bull-headed "un-cager".

crtreedude 

Trust me, I was watching where he was going - that was an awful lot of beef on the hoof moving in front of me.

I bet there are a lot things in common with the uncager and cagers.

1. 4 hoofs - 4 wheels
2. Fairly brainless - think because they are big they have the right of way.
3. Can be looking right at you - but still cut you off.
4. Smell very bad - especially the exhaust
5. Have a bad attitude at times.
6. Just a fact of life.

whiney

Hi, thanks for your thread! I just started commuting and riding everywhere in nyc on a fixie - it'll be one month in 3 days. My legs feel really strong now...I think they've adapted to the gear ratio. The commute is only 2.5 miles, but with watching out for all the cars, taxis, trucks, buses, peds, cops, my heart is pounding really hard by the time I get to work or back home. I wonder if that counts toward the cardio workout. Anyway, I'll be going to Costa Rica in a wk or so. Surf camp in Jaco for a week, then Arenal for 4 days. I wonder if there's anyone in Arenal that can show me how to bunny hop or at least curb jump a chicken.

jyossarian

Bulls always have the right of way. Cagers don't.

crtreedude 

Hi Whiney - give me a call when you are at Arenal - depending on my insane schedule - I might be able to show you. (check the contact page on www.fincaleola.com )

Bulls only THINK they have the right of way - if they act like it, they have a new name - hamburger. That is the difference between cagers and uncagers - one you can eat without suffer social stigma.

crtreedude 

The rocks were really well packed on the road for a while - not terribly smooth and more than a few holes, but it made for an interesting ride - and then, enter the grader.

I guess they felt the road was getting toward terminal - anytime it is starting to resemble a single track too much - send in the grader. Make the road so much better for cars.

But for me, for a few days, it isn't a lot of fun - it loosens all the rocks. On a positive note however, after a few days of being pounded by cars / trucks - it gets pretty smooth.

The also fixed the huge hole in the bridge which is nice.

ken cummings

Another thing about those chickens. If you hit one first hide it. Then find the nearest farmer. Bargin for a chicken. After you pay him say I'll pick it up later. Then ride off and pick up the deceased around the corner. If the farmer knows the chicken is dead before the deal is done then you have killed the greastest prize winning breeder stock in all the country and you must PAY.

P.S. the family will be down there in May'07. I'll mention your tree farm. My sister is a developer and is proud of her Green reputation.

crtreedude 

Nah - Costa Rican law says that if the chicken damages my bike - they have to pay... The road does not belong to the chickens.

Everyone takes their chances on the roads of Costa Rica - a slow chicken is a flattened one.