Costa Rica - the Switzerland of Central America

Costa Rica, with its prosperity, efficiency and cleanliness, is something special in Central America. Tropical rainforests, exciting beaches, active volcanoes, jungle rivers and many national parks make Costa Rica a cycling adventure full of variety.

Almost 30% of the country is protected, and ecotourism is a big deal. Especially worth mentioning: Costa Rica has no army, it is neutral, and the money this frees up is used for environmental and social purposes. A true paradise, the third-smallest country in Central America, covering 51,000 square kilometres between the Atlantic and the Pacific, which are only 3 hours apart by car.

The average temperature is 32 degrees on the coasts and 17 degrees inland. The rainy season lasts from May to November; the rest of the year there is hardly any rain. Every cycling enthusiast soon understands why Costa Rica is called the "Switzerland of Central America". Costa Rica, with the colón as its currency, is unfortunately, along with Panama, the most expensive country in Central America.

Our experiences from 7 to 27 November were varied, many-sided, exciting and full of surprises, and should give you a picture of how we got on over a total of 752 kilometres (a daily average of about 52 kilometres).

Getting through the various border offices without a "tourist guide" would have taken us several hours. Leaving Nicaragua is bureaucratic and expensive (20 dollars). Costa Rica charges no entry fees. The border crossing at "Peñas Blancas", with 5 cm of fine dust and lots of lorries, is a disaster. The striking jump in civilisation compared to the countries we had already cycled through really struck us.

From the border to La Cruz (20 kilometres) there are more "ups" than "downs". The road leads through dense wild growth of trees, palms and other exotic plants. Falling branches alert us to monkeys living in the wild. In La Cruz we get the last free hotel room, "all inclusive": no window, a fan with a cut power cable, missing slats in the bed frame and a few cockroaches. A power cut from 23:00 made the musty air even hotter. Now our Therm-a-Rest mats come in handy again, and we swap the beds for the sun loungers by the pool and spend the night "open-air".

After 65 km of asphalt with nowhere to buy food, we reach Liberia. From Liberia to Brasilito (72 km), only just under 20 km are paved. We take a wrong turn and lose a whole hour. After 5 hours of riding with 20% climbs and descents on the "Monkey Trail", we reach the little village of Brasilito after dark. Playa Brasilito and Playa Conchal, 500 m away, are among the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica.

We move from Brasilito to Tamarindo, just 20 km away. Here too, only 5 km are paved. Tamarindo, spoilt by tourism, is very expensive, with lots of surf shops, souvenir shops and a beach that is nothing special. You can skip this place with a clear conscience. The exception: the "Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas", where we take a boat through a maze of shallow waterways and see lots of birds, crocodiles, monkeys and mangroves.

Tamarindo – Manzanillo: 42 km! Very exhausting: one stream crossing, 5 hours of riding, an average of 10 km/h, very dusty, big climbs. We spend the night at the "La Joya" resort (near the village of Lagarto); we could not have gone any further. We light a campfire on the beach and cook our own dinner. In our bungalow (we are the only hotel guests) we feel like Robinson Crusoe.

Manzanillo – Sámara: 60 km! Extremely exhausting: 3 river crossings, the last one 20 metres wide and 80 cm deep. 3 suspension bridges, and the roads are unpaved and full of potholes. Our average speed is "just" 8 km/h.

On the whole stretch from Liberia to Sámara, you have to reckon with an average speed of 10 km/h, not counting river crossings. Splitting the route into three daily stages is the minimum; there are places to stay about every 10 kilometres. A river crossing takes about 30 minutes (carrying 2 bikes and every bag through the water one by one). Some stretches mean pushing uphill and downhill (dusty, dry and slippery).

It's worth checking carefully and thinking about whether you want to ride these 150 km of unpaved road from Sardinal to Sámara, or take the alternative of 110 km on asphalt via Santa Cruz and Nicoya to Sámara.

We like Sámara better than Tamarindo, but it is very touristy.

Sámara – Corozalito: We had actually wanted to reach "Playa Coyote", 60 km away, in one day. But how wrong we were! The first river crossing, 10 km after Sámara, took 1 hour. A river about 20 metres wide and 80 cm deep really "eats up time". On top of that came 3 hills under the motto "steep, steeper, steepest". More than 1,000 metres of climbing! Most of the time it took both of us to push each loaded bike. The descents turned into a braking exercise, with some "pushing downhill" (riding on the gravel was no longer possible). And so, after 33 kilometres and 6 hours of sweaty work, we reached the little village of "Corozalito", where we got a cabina with meals (dinner and breakfast). There was no restaurant or supermarket to be found here.

Corozalito – Puntarenas: At 08:00 in the morning we were already on our way to conquer the last 2 hills and gravel roads with gradients of up to 20%. Not quite as high as the day before, but we had planned 60 km to "Jicaral". Nothing but gravel tracks, our hands always on the brake levers, our forearms aching. We are lucky: a coconut farmer gives us a lift for 12 kilometres, so we reach the ferry to Puntarenas just in time (17:30). The crossing over the Gulf of Nicoya takes a little more than 1 hour. In a hotel just 200 metres from the port (more of a dive than a hotel) we get an apartment with a kitchen. Everything's fine, so we don't have to worry about dinner as well.

Puntarenas - Jacó: 78 km in a hot, sticky climate, with several climbs (the last steep ramp just before the finish). Jacó, a tourist town, offers everything your heart desires. We treat ourselves to a room in a Best Western hotel. The beach and bay are nothing special. Here we decide to leave our bikes at the hotel and take the public bus to Puerto Limón. The 2 x 3-hour journey, changing buses in San José (by taxi to the bus station for the Caribbean side), is hectic and chaotic. In San José there are strong winds, and the weather gets worse by the minute. In Puerto Limón we can't find a hotel, so we spend the night outside the city at the Hotel Maribu Resort. A few days earlier, a small oil tanker had run aground on the coast at Puerto Limón in a storm. It rains like a hurricane all day. We drop our visit to Tortuguero National Park, because a tour (only possible with a guide) cannot go ahead and there is no sign of the weather improving. We decide to go back to Jacó the next day without having achieved anything, collect our bikes from the hotel and carry on with our journey.

Jacó – Quepos: We ride through kilometres of oil palm plantations, where the harvest is in full swing. The rainy season isn't over yet. Again and again we have to look for a dry place to shelter.

Quepos: We want to visit Manuel Antonio National Park, 7 kilometres away and advertised as a "don't miss". Entry costs 10 dollars per person. A guided tour with a "Swarovski telescope" magnifying up to 60 times, so you can see the small animals and insects, is recommended. The extra cost depends on the number of guests and is quite expensive. We go without a guide and search the treetops and bushes ourselves with our Leitz binoculars. To still our hunger, we crack open one of the many coconuts lying around. Not bad, if you know how to get at the vitamin-rich white inside.

Quepos – Uvita: Our journey continues on a 50 km bone-shaking track to Dominical. We are 1 year too early: the whole stretch is being turned into a highway more than 20 metres wide. The surface consists of countless potholes, round stones the size of a fist, and gravel. Our average speed is just 10 km/h. On this stretch without any climbs, we get 5 hours of non-stop blows to our wrists in 41 degrees of heat, and finally rain, which quickly turns the dusty road into a mud track. On the next 20 kilometres to Uvita we recover on the asphalt we have been longing for.

In Uvita we spend the night in a cabina (2 kilometres off-road from the main road) at Playa Ballenas. The next morning, before high tide, we walk out to a reef that is flooded at every spring tide, and enjoy the impressive sight of the waves meeting. The link from the reef to the beach floods more and more. Within a few minutes the water rises so much that you can already feel the current pulling back. By 11 o'clock it is no longer possible to reach the reef safely. The photos give an impression of this unique spectacle in Marino Ballena National Park, which costs 6 dollars per person during the day. At night, entry is free. Because of the crocodiles in the river just 30 metres away, which don't sleep, great care is needed. At 12:00 we set off in drizzle for Palmar Norte, 45 km away. The drizzle turns into unusually heavy rain for this time of year. We spend the unplanned stop in a "welcome" shopping centre and wait, wait, wait. As the rain doesn't let up, we have to struggle into our uncomfortably tight and already damp rain gear anyway, to reach our night's lodging before dark.

Palmar Norte - Ciudad Neily: A relatively flat 79 km. Cloudbursts keep surprising us and force us into unplanned stops. We are never sure whether it's "just" a short "disturbance" or whether it's about to pour down in buckets. You can guess the right decision (rain gear or not, or head for the next shelter and wait) from the speed of the windscreen wipers on the oncoming cars. Ciudad Neily, 20 kilometres from the border with Panama, offers plenty of places to stay and is a pleasant little town.

Ciudad Neily - Paso Canoas: The route is unspectacular, with a slow-rolling surface and lots of potholes, some of them repaired unprofessionally.

Our recommendation for cycling globetrotters:

When visiting Manuel Antonio National Park: leave the bikes at your accommodation (in Quepos) and take the public bus to the national park; the fare is 210 colones per person each way. The road (7 kilometres) winds over the hill like a corkscrew, and by bike it takes at least an hour each way, which isn't worth it.

After 752 kilometres we leave Costa Rica with these memories:

An un-planned night by the swimming pool

The Nicoya Peninsula: the toughest stretches so far; steep, unpaved dirt roads

Dreamlike, lonely Pacific beaches at Brasilito and Playa Conchal

Campfire romance as the only hotel guests at Playa Manzanillo

Hot, sticky, humid, dusty

River crossings: carrying the bikes and gear through the water

A coconut farmer carrying the bikes, the gear and the Zentralbiker on his "load"

National parks:
Marino Las Baulas with crocodiles and water birds. Manuel Antonio with monkeys, insects and beautiful beaches. Marino Ballena with its reef and the "play of the waves" at low and high tide

The most wild animals we have seen so far.

Chaotic San José: 340,000 people, and bus terminals 3 kilometres apart