djb

now thats funny (read on) because 25 years ago I participated in an exchange program in CR, and recently have been thinking of going back to see some of the (now) elderly people I knew before they go. Ive also been thinking of taking my bike and going around to the people I know by bike.....funny that I read this.

that said, Ive toured a bit and have commuted in Montreal for 25 years, so I do realize close calls are part of the deal sometimes. I may however do a bit more research on the routes I could take to look at optional ones now after seeing your informed opinion on CR truck drivers.

cheers again from Montreal.

nancy sv

Nope - nothing. We had bear spray for a while, though. The drug cartel stuff won't really pertain to a bike tourist - they are after each other and the violence is targeted. Yes, there is a SLIGHT chance that you could get caught up in the crossfire, but that's about as likely as that you'll be struck by lightning. If you don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong, people will leave you alone - or even invite you home!

garethzbarker

I'm glad you completed it safe and sound.

nancy sv

We had been warned by other cyclists about how bad the Costa Rican drivers were, but didn't believe it - it just didn't make sense. But - within one hour in the country, we had already had more close calls than in the previous 9 months combined!! It was crazy. I would never recommend anyone to cycle CR, although it was a lot better after we got off the main road. Those few miles colored my whole opinion of the country.

garethzbarker

Had a buddy removed of his bike and cash in Mexico right across the border. It was like, "Welcome to Mexico." Since I only know like 3 bike tourist personally and one was robbed at gun point in Mexico I'd be scared to ride there

Newspaperguy

I had a different experience in Costa Rica when I was there in January, 2010. I had no problems on the highways, even when I was on the busier roads. In the towns and cities, however, drivers seemed a bit unpredictable.

dspaff088

Yeah that's what I was getting at haha, and to say it's as likely as lightning is a bit of a stretch. Bodies turn up by the dozens down there. I guess I'd have to pull a double century until I got into more rural areas haha

axolotl

I toured in CR over 10 years ago, so perhaps things have changed. I didn't have a problem with drivers there. Rather, it was just about the only place I've toured where the roads were as bad or even worse than I'd heard. I rode on several unpaved roads in CR which were better than some of the so-called paved roads there. I generally tried to avoid riding on the Panamericano highway. I recall the road from San Isidro down to Dominical on the Pacific coast was particularly awful. Even though it should have been a great descent, I had to go down slowly because of the frequency and size of the potholes.

I liked CR as a country to visit. The scenery is gorgeous, the people are friendly, and you can even drink the water. But for several reasons, I don't think it's the greatest place for bike touring.

axolotl

I wouldn't tour near the US border in Mexico. But I've toured in other parts of Mexico as well as traveled extensively by bus there, and it's a wonderful place. The majority of the country is a very safe and rewarding place to visit.

djb

Newspaper and axo--interesting to hear, or rather good to hear another experience. Just going from Nancy's experience of her trip (although I dont "know" her any more than you two) I do believe her experience as there would be no reason for her to make this up or to exagerate things, given what her and her family have done. The small town I lived in is about 50k from the capital towards the Pacific side up in the hills, and is on smaller roads, I was last there in 89 and in both 89 and 85 I took buses on this road many many times. From memory Im not overly concerned, espeicially as this area is by no means a tourist spot, and is really mostly agricultural.
I do have friends whose families live towards the other side of the country, between teh capital and the east coast, but again, are not a "destination" and I do know that a major highway was put in after I was there, so I suspect this area (Turrialba) , hope rather, would be local traffic.
I'm not kidding myself, narrow winding roads with "only" local delivery trucks are not anything to poo poo at, so while its good to hear some less dire points of view of CR, I will have to do some more research vis-a-vis up to date maps to try to get an idea of how those roads are nowadays. (and not from 20 yr + old memories)

in the end, while I would like to do a bike thing, this trip really is to see some of the older parents of the friends I knew. Some are quite old now and if circumstances end up for flight costs or time restraints, I will just go and get around by bus like I always did when I lived there.

thanks though for the info, nice to hear some recent real world bikers perspective (bad or otherwise)
luego

simplygib

Did you pass through CR on the Pan Am? Just wondering because my experience there was totally different. No close calls, sane drivers, no issues whatsoever. But I entered the country at Los Chiles, near the southern end of Lago de Nicaragua, and rode southeast to Limon, then along the east coast to the border with Panama at Sixaola. Avoiding the occasional pothole was the biggest issue.

axolotl

I biked down to Limon passing through Turrialba. I think it was around 1998. The road wasn't as bad as some others I encountered in CR, and traffic wasn't bad either, at least prior to reaching Siquirres. I have a vague recollection of an unexpected big climb between Turialba & Siquirres, but that the stretch also had nice tropical scenery with minimal traffic.

djb

Axo, interesting, my old friend has family in Turrialba itself, but his parents home and extended family indeed live towards Siguirres (Pavones area actually) and yes, there is a fair amount of climbing along that route, I remember it quite clearly in bus or in jeep. If I do take a bike, I shall take my old Rockhopper mtn bike, with two panniers on rear rack (I've used it as a commuter like this for years) and perhaps a bar bag. The low gearing will be fine for touring toodleing pace and the climbs will be fine with it.

Did you ride from San Jose to Turrialba? That would be my second part of the trip, going out that way.
Big diff in temperture between Turrialba and Limon. I recall Limon being quite muggy.

Simply, I travelled by bus in Nicaragua a bit, your ride must have been pretty darn hot and muggy too, thats my recollection of Managua et al. Really friggin hot. Especially if you rode down the coast more. If I remember, in Nicar. on the east coast in the south it is quite underdeveloped, not a lot of roads? Los Mosquitos people no? but you must not have been that side, will have to look at a map to rmember teh lay of the land and the route you mention.

gracias again for the added info
(and sorry for getting off topic Nancy-this was unexpected hearing CR stuff)

simplygib

You are correct, we didn't ride the eastern part of Nicaragua - stayed to the west. Entered the country near Somotillo on CA-3, rode down through Chinandega, Leon, Managua, then down to Granada, and took the ferry down the length of the lake to San Carlos. From there we took a smaller ferry down the Rio Frio to Los Chiles. We got very lucky with the weather. The worst heat was in Mexico, from Cancun down to Belize. From there it gradually got milder (maybe around 90 with high humidity) and was tolerable all the way to Panama.

axolotl

Yes, I biked from SJ to Turrialba via Cartago. I don't recall too much from that stretch. I started getting torrential rain in Siquirres and it continued for several days in Limon. This was in February. I had intended to bike south along the Caribbean coast but ended up returning to San Jose by bus instead because of the relentless rain. I believe that there was some flooding. My ride from San Jose to Limon was delayed as well due to unusual out-of-season rainfall in the central valley. (for others reading this, the Caribbean coast in Central American generally gets rainfall year-round, but the mountains and Pacific coast are generally quite dry during the northern hemisphere winter, and wet during the northern hemisphere summer.)

One of the other issues with touring in Costa Rica is the terrain. It is an extremely mountainous country, as you know. I don't shy away from mountains, but in CR, big climbs are frequent and are sometimes steep, and the roads are often quite bad. And if you're not in the mountains but instead near sea level, it is extremely hot, as you noted. Humidity wasn't bad on the Pacific coast, though.

nancy sv

I'm very happy to hear that others had good experiences in Costa Rica. We were on the main PanAm for those first 50 miles - it was fine in Nicaragua, but changed dramatically as soon as we entered CR. We got off that road and rode along the Pacific coast as soon as we could escape.

We've crossed the US/MExico border three times "recently" and had no problems - but we are a group of four which I think helps us. In 2006 we crossed into Tiajuana, 2007 crossed into Douglas,AZ. Then in 2009 we crossed from McAllen, Texas to Reynosa with a police escort. As we cycled south through Mexico we had ******* through all the cities - for traffic, not for fear of mugging.

axolotl

Nancy, what countries or regions that you toured in do you think are best for bike touring? They can be "best" by using whatever criteria are important to you. I'm always in search of new touring destinations. And feel free to also mention those places that you would not recommend.

zonatandem

Many American kids tend to be self centered (clothes, phones, drugs, etc).
Your kids have developed people skills that will benefit them as adults.
Yes, and Boise is a nice place to raise a family!

Machka 

Yes ... what I'd like to see is a map telling me where the "don't miss" spots are along the way (and maybe some "avoid this" spots as well).

Rowan and I are in the early stages of planning an extended tour and South America is on the list ... but where???


And you know that all this travelling with your kids may encourage them to want to .............................. travel as adults!!! My parents took my brother and me out of school from time to time to travel as well .... and he's in the southern US now, and I'm in Australia.

nancy sv

Wow - where to even start?

I have to say that the USA is one of the best places to tour - there is so much variety here and the national parks are spectacular. Wonderful people who invited us in and plenty of Road Angels of all sorts.

I really like India. It was wild and crazy and intense and not relaxing at all in any way, shape, or form - but it was wonderful. We had a bunch of... erm, shall we say, interesting experiences there. That was back in 1990-91 and I have no idea how it may have changed since then.

I did NOT like Pakistan. But then - that was mostly due to the fact that I am a woman and Pakistani men feel it is their right to touch any part of my body they want to. It got old real quick.

Yemen was wonderful - except the 100 miles directly south of Sanaa. That 100 miles was scary - very scary. It's a very fundamental Muslim area and they threw rocks at us and yelled and it was generally not a place I wanted to be. The rest of the country was delightful though.

Mali was fabulous. We took a "shortcut" across the desert to Djenne which ended up being anything except a shortcut. It was lovely and we met wonderful people.

Ethiopia is horrible. Kids throw rocks. A lot.

Egypt was great when we were there, but the political climate has changed a lot since then.

Likewise, Israel was great back then, but I have no idea how it would be now.

Mexico ranks very high on our list of favorites. We've spent, in total, about 6 or 7 months touring Mexico and loved it. Great people, great food, great scenery...

Colombia is also wonderful - incredible scenery, wonderful people, biking is a national pasttime.

Ecuador is great if you have plenty of time to stop - there are local festivals all the time and you really need to the have the time to be able to stop and take part in them.

Costa Rica is the one country I would recommend you skip - it's way, way, WAY overtouristed and we felt we couldn't get away from the tourist crap at all. That being said, a lot of people like the country, so you have to judge for yourself.

The Peruvian coast was incredible. Harder than a bed of nails due to battling headwinds and blowing sand every day, but there is a beauty out there that you won't see racing through it in a bus.

Argentina was a mixed bag - in some ways it was the hardest cycling we did due to long distances (it's the ONLY place we had to carry extra water) and high wind and lots of hills. But it was beautiful and there was something magic about being so far from the nearest trace of civilization.

Alaska and northern Canada were wonderful for the same reason as Argentina - very, very remote which is a magical feeling in many ways.

I've heard good things about touring Europe, but have never been there. Hubby cycled Australia and loved it, but I can't speak from personal experience.

Machka 

Thanks for that. I've enjoyed cycling in Canada, Australia, Europe, and the US, so far.


Looking to the future ... your sons may very well have a desire to travel for the rest of their lives. Between the ages of 18 and 30, young people can travel and pick up work in quite a few countries. Australia is one country where they can get a Working Holiday visa. https://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/working-holiday/ That's something to keep in mind ... to make sure they know about that option if they express a desire for continued travel as they grow up. I wish I had known about it when I was that age ... I might have hit the road a lot sooner!!

And you'll have to come to Australia ... and go to Europe next!!

axolotl

Thanks, Nancy. I've biked in several of the countries you mentioned and mostly share your feelings about those places. I have not yet been to Colombia, however, so I'll have to consider it.

BigBlueToe

Congratulations on your family's accomplishment. It's almost beyond belief.

Since some have opined that this trip was not in the best interest of your kids, I'll weigh in.

When I was in first grade my dad, who was a civilian electrical engineer for the navy, got transferred from Bremerton, Washington, to Washington, D. C. They gave him some time to make the move. He and my mom decided that, rather than flying, they would drive leisurely across the U. S., stopping at various places on the way. They added vacation time to afford us more time. They bought a VW bus so all 5 of us could fit with our camping stuff, and we headed off.

That trip had more impact on me than anything else in my life. My mom "schooled" all three of us boys as we drove. We each had paperbound workbooks for various subjects, and we were each expected to do some schoolwork each day before we played. However, I think I learned more from learning to read street signs, touring various museums, visitor's centers, etc. as we went from place to place. When we left I had been in first grade for about a month and was learning to read - probably a little advanced for my age. By the time we got to Washington, D. C., I was reading at a 4th grade level.

After the school year was over my dad went back to his regular job in Washington State, so we drove back, visiting different attractions.

We experienced so much on the trip - Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Badlands, Chicago, New York, (probably lots more, but I was only 6 - I've forgotten a lot.) We spent almost every weekend in D. C. going through the Smithsonian, visiting the capitol, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, etc. We met the locals in different parts of the country, and I got a taste for how people are the same but different in different locales. I discovered they sell different brands of gasoline, bread, crackers, soda etc. in different parts of the country, and you might not be able to buy the same stuff as you can back home.

My trip was far less experiential than yours, but my point is that I feel that travel is much more impacting educationally than school, and I'm an elementary school teacher. When parents tell us that they're pulling their kids out of school for a week or to to take a trip, some of my colleagues grumble, but I say, "Go for it." Some trips are more educational than others, but I think you learn from all of them. It's like some books are more educational than others, but I think I've learned something from every book I've ever read.

My opinion is that your boys will thank you for taking you on this trip for the rest of their lives, as I'm thankful to my parents for the trip we took (and many other, shorter trips during my childhood.) They will have an understanding of people, places, governments, infrastructure, food, cultures, etc. that will be indelible.

My only worry is that they will have difficulty adjusting to "normal" life. I know I always have a touch of depression when I return home after a tour - even one that only lasts a couple of weeks. However, kids are very resilient and adapt easily. I'm guessing within a short time they'll be happily immersed in the milieu of school activities, friends, texting, Facebook, sports, homework, etc. - all the things kids these days do. However, I think they'll have an innate sense of self-confidence that can only be gained by successfully accomplishing something as amazing as your trip.

It will be interesting to follow them as they grow up. I wonder if they'll become bike tourers as adults?

Once again, I thank you for sharing your trip with all of us.

nancy sv

That is EXACTLY what we're thinking! Thank you so much!

msviolin57

Like BigBlueToe, I'm also an elementary school teacher, and I feel the same way about my students taking time off from school for trips. Life is to be experienced, not just read about in a book or watched on TV.

I'm a touring newbie (planning my first tour this summer), so I don't have any stories to tell about touring with my daughters, but both of them spent their junior year in high school as exchange students. One went to Japan, and the other went to Argentina. Besides learning a second language, their experiences have opened up and broadened their worlds more than I could have ever imagined. This sounds kind of corny, but they really are citizens of the world now.

And then, of course, I had people say to me, "Oh, I could NEVER let my children do that."

Nancy, I commend you and your husband for taking your sons on an adventure that they will never forget.