Costa Rica for one

[twinstar]

Great pics! Im digging the narrative; looks like a blast (and making me hungry)

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Getting a bit behind now with the fam, but it's been good. The ride to get here friday included a downpour which I luckily waited out at a bar on the beach. Todayy I rode around some local towns via dirt back roads and tomorrow I have a 6 hour ride planned through the newest national park in the country, along with a few roadside watefalls. Tuesday is a chill day so I will have time to update the thread more, but it's been just fine.

Popped into San Francisco today

 

[ThumperX]

What a fantastic trip! Can't wait to debrief you.

 

[1962siia]

Looks like an epic trip and great ride report! Thanks for taking us along!

 

[budman]

Enjoy the Thanksgiving in Costa Rice N4te!!!!

Looking forward to more.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Got back to turkey day in the US, long travel day as I was up at 4am ET and landed in SF around 11am PT. Lounged on the couch for a bit and then we went to a friends to have a proper turkey day meal. Hit the spot. Now that I'm a little more rested I figure I should wrap up the trip report.

I managed to get two more rides in while spending time with the family in Costa Rica so I certainly feel like I got my monies worth with the bike.

On Sunday I put together a route to explore the area around the beach we were staying at, I wasn't looking for a long day, just a little ride to see stuff. The route was a just a few hours to make a nice loop.

I didn't take quite as many pictures as there was more time on pavement and the lack of shoulders made pulling off sketchy in most places.

I did find a powerline road to cut from Haucas to Santa Rosa, switch backs aren't much of a thing in Costa Rica so it climed quickly and despite a little rain and mud, it was a pretty easy ride and fun, along with some good views.

I made it to Santa Rosa and took a left to continue on to San Francisco, but for lack of a Russion River Brewing outpost, I was feeling very at home...

I saw a few cars along the dirt road to San Francisco, but as with most of the back roads I had taken on this trip so far, I largely had the place to myself.

Just me and the scenery.

Even the town of San Francisco was pretty quiet, I heard some music emanating from one of the houses, but didn't see anyone. Turns out most locals don't bother going out during the mid-day heat if they can avoid it. Can't say I blame them.

After San Francisco I was back on pavement and heading towards Tamarindo, a popular surfing destination that is very americanized. I figured it was a worth a ride through and I had a task to find a soccer ball for my nephew so we could play a bit ont he beach. I stopped in Villareal for a photo at the town square, it was bustling with locals, lots of music, smoke from food being cooked and kids walking or riding bicycles around. I considered stopping for lunch, but I wanted to save my appetite for a meal with the family later.

I got to Tamarindo and stopped to see the beach briefly. The place was one big traffic jam and all the restaurants were packed with tourists. Beach was busy too.

Somewhere between the two hills in this picture is the house on PLaya Grande we were staying at. The beach by our house was generally very quiet which was nice.

I saw a vendor in a kiosk had soccer balls so I pulled over to buy one, and shifted stuff around in my saddle bags, it just barely fit, so I guess the volume on those bags is approximately one soccer ball.

This flyer was all I needed to see to put to rest any ideas I had of exploring the nightlife in Tamarindo...

I took the back way to the beach house on my way home, the road was nice a bumpy in spots and went by a bunch of locals houses.

At one point as I was getting near the main road, I saw a guy walking in my direction smiling and giving me a thumbs up, as I got close I realized it was the day watchman who'd seen me off when I left in the morning. Nice guy, he sneakily washed my bike at some point without my asking or looking for any credit. Nice folks in Costa Rica.

I got home in time to run a quick errand to the local store, got rained on in the mile it took to get there, and yet no rain at the house. Back in time for beers and a sunset.

 

[budman]

Right on... thanks for taking us to Costa Rica man!

 

[GAJ]

Great trip Nate, congrats.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

But wait, there's more! One more ride that is, as I was having fun and wanted to get my monies worth on the rental...

On Monday I planned for a longer ride, as the rest of the family was planning to go for a drive and maybe a hike to see a little more of Costa Rica.

I decided to check out Diria National Park, a newly minted park about an hour from us. It had one road that cut through the park, marked as passable in the summer only, and a national route that skirted around the park, so I figured I had a backup in case the road through the park turned out to be a problem.

I'd ridden more than a few roads that were purported to be passable only in the summer and while that might have been the case for anything short of a beefy 4-wheeler, I'd had no problems. My family decided to drive to the same park to see if they could get far enough in to find some hiking.

I took off and kept the initial ride to Dirian easy, just following the paved main roads, no photos because, no shoulders, but it was a pleasant ride with plenty to see. At one point Google Maps thought it was being helpful by routing my on a road that bypassed the congested part of Santa Cruz. I did not fild it helpful.

Definitely not trying a river crossing like that without riding buddies to help me extract the moto should I inevitably fail and drown it.

I turned around and cruised through Santa Cruz, which was a cool town. I figured I might stop there for food on the way back if all went as planned. It's a populous area, I even saw a 600cc sport bike.

After making my way through town I got to the road that leads into Dirian so I stopped for a quick photo and to water some of the local fauna.

So far so good.

The road got a little rougher once I entered the actual park, it was really hot, but being in the trees helped with that.

Hardly a waterfall by Costa Rican standards, but it was neat to see.

A ways later, the road split and the route to left presented me with a fast moving river crossing of unknown depth.

That was a nope for me, so I tried the route to the right. It went a little ways further but also came upon the same river.

That's as far as we go I guess...

So that was it for my ride through the park. I took a break to drink some water and take in the sounds, and then turned around to head back to the national route and ride around the park to make a loop.

Noticed a few neat things I'm missed on my ride in, so that was cool.

Another tiny waterfall...

Probably monkeys around there somewhere. I definitely heard howler monkeys a few times.

At the turn off for the park, I ran into the rest of the fam, and advised them that the road was probably a no go in their vehicle.

We hung out there for a bit, managed to actually see, but not photograph a family of howler monkeys in the trees and I managed a rare photo of me on the bike as I headed out to continue my ride.

The road around Dirian was paved for a short distance and didn't waste any time climbing. I had noted that a viewpoint from the top near an old defunct radar station offered unobstructed views of the pacific, so, I expected a tall mountain. After maybe a mile I was already getting pretty high.

The road turned to dirt and I passed a sign that I suspect warned about no maintenance beyond this point and kept climbing. I'd eventually find myself among all the radio towers in the distance.

As I got further up, things cooled off nicely and I found myself in the clouds.

And then a forest of radio towers.

And then a church? Not sure for whom, it'd be a long drive.

While the road had dipped a bit past the church, it was not done climbing yet. And it eventually passed the old radar station, unfortunately, the clouds prevented any views from being had, but made for their own ambiance.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

At some point I was supposed to take a left at a fork, that left however, was a unused road behind a gate, so I decided not to trespass on ranch land and instead follow the more clearly traveled road to see where it went. Google maps now had no idea where to take me.

I was glad I didn't take the fork, the ranch was huge, and I imagine that road would have dead ended somewhere.

My new route kept on going and going, I figured, I was descending, sometimes very steeply, so I'd eventually hit a major road (and hopefully a gas station).

At one point, just after clearing a steep and rocky downhill, I came upon a horse and a father and son riding two up. We fumbled through our lack of a shared language and determined that both our bikes were 400cc (he seemed pleased with that) and that the view from the top was obscured by clouds and I thought to myself that everything I had done, this guy was doing two up with a smile. Different breed.

The road kept going, for a very long time. I stopped to take a picture of this interesting gate. I'm not sure exactly what was there, but I liked their gate.

Eventually the road go wider, and then busier, and then it spat me out on the coast. I had a feeling I'd gone a bit further than planned.

Sure was a pretty spot though.

The smart money would have been to adjust my route and head north up the coast, but, I did still want to try to see a waterfall so I proceeded further south to connect with a main road that would take me on a big loop past the waterfall and eventually route me back home.

It probably took another hour before I got to that road however, I in the meantime I rode by numerous beack towns. I didn't stop for too many photos as I was now aware I had a long way to go and not much daylight left.

Plenty of beaches to see on the way.

Around the time I hit the main route, I realized I was going to get wet, and I did, spending the next 30 minutes riding in a downpour, or sitting in a downpour waiting on construction crews. It was warm rain so I didn't really get bothered by it.

The rain eventually cleared and I stopped at this particularly picturesque town square.

Then a quick late lunch at this small town restaurant. It was just what I needed.

After that I still had about 2 hours to go assuming all went to plan. It turned out I missed the turn for the waterfall during the downpour, I decided not to go back and I was short on time and kept pressing on.

Eventually I came to where I should have turned, but my navigation phone had died and I didn't think I wanted to go to Tamarindo (I did though). So I continued on wasting about 45 minutes in the wrong direction. It was now dark. I pulled off to check my phone and realized what I had done, Google tried to route me across another river and I decided riding bad roads at night was a bad plan. Instead I just turned around and high tailed it in reverse.

It was neat seeing the towns come alive after dark, it was not neat trying to keep up the speed limit while looking for potholes. I did not stop for photos, unfortunately. When I eventually made it back to the house around 7:45 everyone was relieved to see me. I'd probably have been less worried had I not had the family waiting on me, but all is well that ends well.

I figured with my misrouting and everything else, that day ended up being around 175 miles. Heck of a way to end the trip.

Thankfully I had a full day on Tuesday to do nothing, and that's just what I did, beer, beach and food.

 

[ThumperX]

Sounds like an amazing culmination to an awesome trip.

 

[SFMCjohn]

... and I managed a rare photo of me on the bike as I headed out to continue my ride.

fantastic pic, and ride report!

 

[budman]

A ride report with a pic of N4te on the ride ride. Sweet.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

A ride report with a pic of N4te on the ride ride. Sweet.

Rare than diamonds

 

[GAJ]

Rare than diamonds

Your mug was just featured in this thread.

https://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=552119&page=5

 

[1962siia]

Great ride report! Great pics! Epic trip! Woohoo!

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Your mug was just featured in this thread.

https://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=552119&page=5

Ah yes, but not on a bike!

Great ride report! Great pics! Epic trip! Woohoo!

Thanks!

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Finally edited some of my GoPro footage from the trip and posted it up in moto photos and videos, here for any who are interested.

 

[ThumperX]

Great video. "Oops" did not intend to ride up to your locked up instalation

 

[N4teTheGreat]

I was apparently on private property illicitly using the rich folks pavement. Public road was just beyond the only staffed gate I came across. They fiddled around for a bit, took down my plate and name and let me through.