Page 33: - No Return Ticket - Just a Ride Report /w Pics - From the beginning
Playas del Coco, Costa Rica:
The plans is to ride from the Nicaraguan border to the first good beach in Costa Rica, Playas del Coco. After doing some research the concern that it may be expensive, so we don’t plan to stay long. After pulling into town and finding the beach we take a photo. This is looking good.
We proceed to ride around looking for a hotel. At the beach the only option is turn left, 3 blocks later the road ends at a foot bridge. Just before the bridge is an old motel. After turning around in deep sand an old guy hollers at us from the balcony of the motel and then walks out to us. He tells us that this is the cheapest place in town and he is moving out today. He points to a room on the second floor with a large deck overlooking the beach. I go in and ask how much for a room for 2 people, $40/night. I ask the price if we stay a week; $30/night. Sweeeet, We Are On It.
In front of the hotel
The bike sits behind a cage right in front of the office and below our room. The bike is happy, we are happy.
View from hotel deck: Heidi loves the beach and I’m prepared to sacrifice a little to give it to her.
We get settled in. There is a small table on our deck overlooking the beach, time for some serious gin. We play ‘best record per country’ Heidi has kicked my butt the last two countries and is up 3 countries to my 2. Heidi's super competitive nature means I need to get my act together, Now.
We play into the night while observing all the action happening below on the beach.
Playas del Coco is a great place for hiking. Everywhere we hear Howler monkeys; sometimes we hear them in town and at our hotel. These monkeys make a loud ghoulie sound, like a sound from a horror flick. We are glad we finally saw the monkeys; they are not as scary looking as they sound.
Beach Side Shoe Maintenance: The rocky trails of Northern Honduras really took its toll on my new ultra-light hiking shoes. Heidi was right; she knew they wouldn’t hold up. All that is available is some household silicon glue that’s hopefully strong enough to do the repair.
There are miles of beaches here. At low tide a person can reach 3 beaches on foot by walking along the shore. A fourth beach can be reached by walking along a road for a mile or two.
This is the kind of hiking Heidi likes. It’s a 2 hour walk from end to end, great workout.
A 4 hour round trip to the black volcanic beach. But that includes some time to enjoy a pineapple drink with an umbrella stir stick. We met two French girls at the volcanic beach who made the same hike. They are taking a taxi back, we decided to walk, it always seems shorter on the return leg.
We notice some cool patterns in the sand that were made from the retreating tide. This would make a good motorcycle paint job. (Woo… I think the endorphins have kicked in)
Futbol is big down here. These guys are good.
A 100 feet from our room is a big futbol field. There are games here every night.
Future futbol stars.
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Playa del Coco is a small beach village. Sunday when we first arrived there were a lot of locals down at the beach. Since we have been here the locals have far outnumbered the tourists, just the way we like it. Walking into town a block or two there are several upscale bars, restaurants and hotels, it’s a nice mix. In the bay there’s a lot of commercial fishing boats moored, along with a dozen cruising sailboats.
All day long there is a lot of activity on the beach, dinghy’s carting out people or ice or water or supplies to the fishing boats and sailboats. We wonder what is in those huge sacks. How can this small boat stay afloat with all that stuff?
Just up the beach from us a fishing boat is getting ready to launch.
Every day we have seen several people get stuck in the sand. There is never a shortage of people willing to help get the vehicles unstuck. It’s a beautiful sight.
Just past our hotel is a small creek with a foot bridge that leads to a couple of puta bars that are right on the beach. We enjoy watching all the girls and the action going back and forth.
On the way back crossing the bridge one of the girls asked me if I needed anything. When she passes Heidi she asked me if I wanted two. ?
La Vida Loca (The Crazy Life) I guess that fits. This bar has a top location, right on the beach secluded from town. It seems like it’s on it own private beach, except when all the people start driving past the ‘No vehicles on the beach” sign and park in front of the bar. Well I guess that kind of adds to the allure.
The Buda and we wait for the sunset.
Playas del Coco
Again Costa Rica has a different feel from the other Central American countries we have been to. Yes, the scenery is different, the smell is different but there is something else, it just doesn’t feel like we are in a foreign country. The buildings are more modern, stores, gas stations, everything seems less primitive. We haven’t seen a single horse drawn cart since we’ve been here. Also there is no indigenous culture, no colorful handmade clothing, nothing that shouts out “You are in a foreign land” We both feel like this is going to be easy, nothing seems unfamiliar now. Is it because we have been traveling for so long through exotic lands, is it because Cost Rica is just more prosperous? We are not completely sure. But, we have to remember that we are far, far from home and need to not become complacent.
The Ride Continues…………………
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