Thursday 12th June 2025 Río Claro to Uvita
Sorted out the next few days riding, unfortunately the guys who we were going to stay with in Costa Rica, are currently travelling in Italy, like minded souls, they did offer us a complimentary stay at their lodge, it is a bit out of our way so we declined offer , obviously thanked them for their very kind offer though.

Another pizza last night, still not my favorite, but needs must as we sat in are little room munching it, I nearly finished mine, left a few crusts, as I am getting fed up with my curly hair (if you don’t eat your crusts you will never get curly hair), another tale from ours and millions of other families where did all these saying come from! Something for me to ponder on the ride.

We are now on California time, according to my lovely sister Deborah, always checking up on her two very young siblings, 7 hours behind the UK, so we have the cracking idea of getting up earlier to beat the morning rush hour, more correctly ride before the sun gets up, if it carries on like this, we will be getting up before we go to bed! Pinched that from an old Monty Python sketch.

We are out on the road at 5:30 and rocking, it’s that early I still have porridge dripping down my shirt, always nice to have an extra snack, got a banana in my back shirt pocket and a packet of mini snickers in my front bag, been there a couple of day so do need eating. Heading north again, towards Ojochal on the pacific coast, loads of places to stay so not unduly worried, just pedal and keep pedalling. Still on highway 2 (Pacific Highway) pretty busy at this ridiculous time in the morning, most of the drivers are really good, just the odd one that brings the swearing out, but mainly calm. We stop for a coffee at Osain just after 8 in the morning, when normal people are just getting up, only us and a couple of early morning workers in the cafe, good chat with the owner, nice stop.

Push on keeping the pace on and looking out for any animals or bird life, this first section is through Palm oil plantations, so not much wildlife, just the odd guy walking along the road with a machete, they all always have a smile and wave, so nothing to worry about, just plantation workers, not from a Steven King novel.

We came to the junction at Palmar Norte, Bingo smiled and said take the left fork, it could all go pear shaped from here, most of the traffic stays on the Pan Am highway 2, we take the coast road, hey ho lets see how it goes. For a start the roads are good and a little bit of a hard shoulder so good choice so far, nothing can go wrong. Also out of the plantation area, now in the natural jungle, weird noises coming from the side of the road, very difficult to see, but you can hear the Macaws screeching all the time, Bingo so wants a picture, very difficult to capture though, not capture but get on a picture! had a beer or two so can’t think of the correct word. This road is so much better, really difficult to look where you are going, as you want to look in the jungle, then there was a big commotion in the trees a tribe of monkeys playing about, brilliant family of Central American squirrel monkey (Saimiri oerstedii), playing in the trees, how cool is that. Think we may have some pictures, but they were darting about all over the place, really good though. We are on high alert now for all animals, how we kept a straight line I do not know, every sound what was that, did you see that, loved the riding it was so good, riding through the Punta Mala Arriba national park, which went on for miles to the East of us, just as we was getting to the first town, Bingo spotted a The white-nosed coati (Nasua narica), I did get a glimpse of it before it sped back into the jungle.

Just as we entered Chacara, we pulled up for a little stop, check the maps and see what we can do, first things first have a beer, then look at the menu, I have decided we are eating here, Greek salad and Mozzarella and jam starter I am in, best meal for ages. Lovely meal, I don’t think the young waitress knew what had hit her, me eating all their vegetarian options before noon, washed down with a couple of beers. Decided to push on another 12 miles or so to the next little town, we booked it before we left Tochan hostel.

Nice little ride through the green jungle on one side and the occasional glimpse of the pacific ocean on the other, a guy on a little motor bike stopped, I just waved and gave him a thumbs up! no he is back with an ice cold orange drink and a banana , top guy. Soon we entered the little village and found the hostel on the north side, a good choice. All booked into a little hippy style place, nice and clean, the guy behind the bar was a little moody, can’t do this can’t do that, we will see about that I thought. Just had a beer, relaxed a bit, then lounged about the bamboo decks drinking beer from the supermarket! Jacques the owner came over for a chat, nice guy from Paris, then lived in Quebec, came over here 5 years ago, really interested in the ride, and arranged for the staff to leave us a breakfast out at 5:30 tomorrow morning , really nice guy.

Washing all done, relax before we eat again.