My shoes and toes have been reunited once more… but not without a fight. A fight that that took me from 1400m elevation all the way down to sea level and lasted 3.5 hours to complete (one way). The return, fortunately, was with assistance. Let me tell you about this grand rescue.
Starting at 7am, I went up to the Hotel Viandante to pick up a mountain bike. Then rode that down to the local farmer’s market to pick up some energy food for the trip… a delicious Banana/Rasin/ChocoChip bread loaf. So very good, as I figured out later. Then I hit the road, through Santa Elena and started down the long hill.
And as I said before, this hill is enormous. In fact it is a mountain range in the middle of Costa Rica. This trip would have been crazy even without the mountain, or maybe even more-so, just because 75% of the way down I did not have to pedal (thus reducing energy consumption). There were quite a few unexpected up hills though, and those were extremely hard because I am out of shape. The hardest and most exhausting part though was just the fact of having to stand up on the bike, and grip the handle bars while breaking for almost 3.5 hours straight. This was harder than any pedaling due to the shear need for endurance. I have always taken pride in my endurance, mostly during cross-country, but this was a serious test of skillful endurance in both mind and body.
This was one of the views on the way down... those are the tops of clouds falling over the Continental Divide up by Monteverde.
Here is one of the vistas from high on the mountain. You can see the gravel road snaking down, as well as the Gulf of Nicoya (my final destination) at the very back.
The gravel road down is pretty much a string of potholes that cut along ridgelines with steep drop offs and rocky embankments. Not to mention it is practically 1 lane, so all traffic had to deal with me. Not a very hospitable place for a biker. I went through the towns of Guacimal, Sarmiento, Colinas and Judas on my way to Punta Morales (were the shoes were left over 5 weeks before). I would like to clarify too though that these road offered me some of the most beautiful scenery and vistas yet on the trip… especially all the quaint little, no-name aldeas that I went through.
This is the soccer field in the town of Colinas. Anyone want to play... we might have to pick up a few cow pies first.
I also had to cross the Pan-american Highway too, at the town of Judas, and then the homestretch was a 13km sprint, on asphalt, to the biological station at Punta Morales. It was late morning by this time, and after dropping nearly 1400 meters in elevation, I realized that it is a lot hotter in the dry lowlands than up in the cloud forest. Who would have thought? I must confess that I did end up losing control and crashing the bike on this stretch, just from sheer exhaustion and heat rising from the black pavement.
But I did make it… after those 3.5 hours and probably 50+ kilometers (I don’t have a good scaled map), and one fall; to reunite with my toe-ed shoes. It was beautiful. We sat on the beach and ate lunch (I was very hungry, the shoes just sat there… on my feet). Then I dipped my front tire in the ocean. It was a glorious reunion!
Now, you are thinking to yourself, “if it took Cody 3.5 hrs. to get down to the beach, how in the world could he get back up the mountain in time for dinner?” We’ll here is the secret… I didn’t do it on my own. First of all, I was too darn tired and not crazy enough to attempt a climb after such a difficult descent. So I took the bus! Of course, public transport will take you anywhere down here… you just have to be patient. I waited at the bus stop for 3 hours for the bus to Monteverde, and then another 2 hour bus ride up the mountain, but it was well worth it. I would probably will be on the ascent up if I hadn’t taken the bus. So I cheated partly, but it was a realistic decision so I feel good about it. And yes the bus let me bring the rented bike to. I got home at 6 or so, exhausted. But then I had to get ready for the field trip departure at 7:30am on Sunday… oh what a life.
So, just so you know, the universe is back in balance. Peace and freedom to all your toes!
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