Puerto Viejo

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We were hosted in Siquirres by the wonderful Marilyn. She has a tremendous amount of energy and was incredibly warm and welcoming to us. She works in local government to support people into work and to set up businesses. Last year she supported over 3000 people. Amazing. 


Our ride from Siquirres towards the coast was characterised by rain. Proper tropical rain that lasted all day. We were soaked within minutes, however it was warm so no extra layers or waterproofs were needed.


Rachel accidently managed to capture this wonderful shot which shows what it is like when a truck passes and splashes through a big puddle at the same moment. We were riding over a bridge at that moment and on the pedestrian walkway beside the road. To my right is the muddy brown river.


We were riding along a big road all day so it wasn't much fun but the rain did make it entertaining. A lot of the time there was a shoulder to ride on. The road is being widened and we regularly snuck onto the unfinished, new carriageway for some traffic free riding. This meant lots of getting on and off the bike to negotiate the starts and ends of these sections.


We were in banana growing territory. All day long we rode through plantations. The scale of these was brought home when we passed a major truck depot at the wonderfully named, Gash. There were rows and rows of refrigerated containers piled high. They looked like bizarre skyscrapers. 


We took refuge from the rain in a cafe owned by Grace who ran it with the help of Krisbel. The cafe was full of really nice touches from the carved wooden hand basin in the toilets to the branches used as pillars decorated with birds and models of nests. Such incredible attention to detail.


Speaking of nests, there was a real nest at our accommodation that night.


We stayed at this place. We were a little sceptical at first as we asked if we could stay and they asked us how many hours we wanted (this is usual in auto hotels which are rent-by-the-hour establishments to which provide purchaseable privacy for couples living in multiple occupancy, multi generation houses). We got a good price for the night and it was really nice. We were the only people there and it was really tranquil.


Within a few minutes riding the next day we had hit the Carribbean. It was still overcast so the water was a dull grey rather than the turquoise it would be on a sunny day. One great benefit of the rain is that it has kept temperatures down. We are in contact with other riders who are in El Salvador and are riding through 40° heat at the moment. 


The road took us over many rivers flowing out of the hills to the sea. All were full of muddy brown water from the rain. We looked down from one to see a crocodile idly making its way upstream. The road is two lane, main road but the bridges are one lane wide. There are no traffic lights or other traffic control system so we saw lots of traffic meeting head on and backing up going on.


We ended our day in Puerto Viejo which is the last big town on the coast before Panama. It is great. There is a small scale, low key tourist industry which means nice cafes etc but without being overwhelming. Apparently, it has a chill vibe because of its distance from anywhere else (it only got connected to the rest of Costa Rica by road in the 70s).

We had a fab swim in the warm sea and did a bit of planning for Panama. 



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