Costa Rica: Trippin' with GR

[GRinCR]

I’m done lurking and making incoherent remarks on other’s RRs. It is time to share. First, a brief intro into the who, the what, the where, the why and the ADV’s to follow…

Who
I am GRinCR or Greg in Costa Rica. I study, I work, and I wish I had more free time. I am a father, a son and a husband. I am originally from the southern burbs of St Paul, Minnesota. I said nuts to winter in Nov of 2006 and flew the coop to Costa Rica. This was two short years after a study abroad program which brought me here for Jan, Feb and Mar of, you guessed it, 2004. My wife is Ana Yancy, half Panameña and half Costarricense. We have a son Joseph who is our only, for now.




What
This Thread will be made of many small trips. I seek tranquility, great views, tasty food, good people and epic roads for ADV motorcycling. I will locate peaceful places to camp and comfortable accommodations. I want to find places to explore and basically highlight all I can off the “Gringo Trail”. I have many ADVs in the archives and surely ones that have yet to materialize.


This RR, like many, may get sidetracked and stray a bit from motos…
Chicks! (the wife is starting to understand this is a package deal)


Good eats.


Booze.

Swimming holes.

Friendly and inquisitive locals.


But in the end it is all about the RIDE and where your ADV can take you!













A goal is to keep this to a minimum.


Where
In and around Costa Rica. Basically as far as a few days of free time can take me. Until, of course, the day comes I graduate to the big boy club and can post in “Ride Reports” without being banned.
Why
My wife calls it an illness and it is contagious. The only known cure is to ride and it is a temporary fix. So what is my Excuse? Any. There is something on the other side of that horizon. The indirect route is often better. Pavement gets boring. Because you said it can’t be done!
When
Soon grasshopper. But here is a taste of the first RR and most recent, still fresh in the mind from the beginning of Dec. I hope to post tomorrow, but this is Latina America and tomorrow means whenever.


Hasta Luego!

[Rutabaga]

The rope nobby made my morn. Gracias.

[GRinCR]

Originally Posted by Rutabaga

The rope nobby made my morn. Gracias.

Your pleasure at my expense; that is what I'm here for. The rope-chains ride includes bent forks, bent rims, a cracked crank case and lots of... I forget what more.

Stay tuned!

[GRinCR]

Pt I. Alajuela to Samara. 30Nov2012

Hi, my name is Greg and I am an addict. It has been more than a month since my last ride and here is the story. I will do my best to keep the verbiage to a minimum as I am no writer. This is good practice though…
This route has been on my bucket list for some time. I have just gotten back from the states, and have a few weeks more on my month and a half leave of absents from the daily grind. So, jump on it mister, hit the road.

Step one: Prepare
I haven’t known my speed or mileage since 2008 and I have a Vapor CPU lying around. So it is time.

The Garage

Installed and dialed in.

Time to fill the void. $3 cookie sheet.


Few more cuts and bends…

It was a 4 day project with lots of trial and error. With that done, now for the route planning. Couple hours in front of Google Earth and wa-la!


Time to ride! Departure: 06:44 30Nov2012

2 hours later, we are in Puntarenas for the 09:00 ferry to Paquera. Bike + 2pax = $11/₡5500

All aboard the Tambor III.

Getting comfy and shoving off. (Notice: the wife is coming around and framing in some eye candy to offset my ugliness)


Had we taken the CR1/Pan-American, we would be wet.

One of the Gulf islands.

Yours truly

Taking this pic.

Go Twinkies!!

Welcome to Paquera. The time is now 10:37.

It only took an hour or so to reach Montezuma with some BS’ing as we ran into some Gringo friends in Cobano. They say on the planned route, we’d be three or four hours more to Samara. It is not even noon yet; good news. At Cobano, the pavement ends except for the quick and very steep drop into Montezuma. They finally paved it!
Time: 11:56 – Montezuma Centro.

We are hungry and hit up the main Restaurant on the beach. $10-20 main entrées! Make it a batido and we will move on.

Here is our guide. Who needs GPS?

Leaving Montezuma, the road is very nice and well traveled.

It has bridges. This will be missed dearly by the end of the day.

We hit the town of Cabuya and leave Route 160 for the Cabuya-Mal Pais road.

It was fantastic. The grader had been through recently on select parts and anything remotely steep.

River crossing No.I

River crossing No.II

This was as rough as this road got. Almost a double track.

River crossing No.III The time is now 12:51. It wasn’t much longer to Malpais.



Once in Mal Pais the road is dusty and very busy until you get past Santa Teresa. After Santa Teresa, bliss!

Almost bliss. The time is now 13:23 and we are very hungry and burning out fast. We have not seen a sign of civilization since leaving Santa Teresa. We take a quick 10 min break to stretch and calm the nerves.

About 30 min down the road we see a sign for Restaurante Dyka. We turn inland, up a hill, around a few corners and finally some food.

Arroz con Camaron

Sopa de Mariscos (From memory about $15 for the meal. I doubled up on the strawberry con pineapple shakes)

Back on the road. (The new dash revealed!)

Not a bad place to RIP, no?

At this point we are near the town of Ario. We have a choice: Ride on Playa Manzanillo or take the road to Betel then turn North. (These cities are marked on the NatGeo Maps) I didn’t fancy much beach riding two-up and loaded so we choose “B”. Wrong answer. We drive directly into the rain storm we saw from our lunch table. Once we hit Betel and turn North we exit the rain storm. Soaked!


Being wet didn’t matter much. Time is now 1459 and our first proper river crossing of the ride, or ever for that matter.

I had recently read some of Colebatch’s river crossing advice about looking for rougher looking water to find the shallow parts. See it above in the pic? Just a bit down stream. I ignored everything I read and took the direct route. It got deeper and deeper. Just before exiting the other side the river swallowed the front wheel, stopped all momentum and the clutch slipped with a loud screech! Just as I heard that water hit the header pipe and a cloud of steam billows up. My thoughts: F*uck me I just burned up the clutch in the middle of nowhere!! We pushed it out with the help of the engine, it killed and I prayed it would start and function again. It did, and I will pay more attention in class next time.


While pacing back and forth enjoying the adrenaline a car full of tourists came rolling by. They were just our F’in around in their rental car and we exchanged route info of what lay ahead and bid each other farewell.



Stealing BigAl’s line: ONWARD!

We round a bend just a short way down the road and guess what? Our second big river. I wish I could read her mind in this pic .
As I mount the DR she says I’m walking this one and you follow me. Ana plunged right in, no hesitation and just like that we are across. No drama.


The third and final big river of the day was a big more complicated. It was above the knees and had a rather swift current. First part was easy, follow the wife.

She’s having fun now.

Third proper river crossing in my life, 20+ inches deep with a steady current. The manly way crossed my mind. Gun it, lean back and hope for the best. The thought that followed was pulling soaked spark plugs and even the possibility of a free helicopter ride to the hospital while leaving Ana with a 350lb bike in the middle of nowhere. I promptly returned my balls back to her , she guarded them safely in her purse and we pushed the DR across.
(1:37 clip of the second part of this crossing.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHg6rePL6xM (Sorry, the embed text isn't working for me.)

It is now nearing 1600 hrs. Remember 3 to 4 more hours in Cobano? Not even close. No more large rivers to cross from my ADVrider research. Smooth sailing with speeds between 50 and 80 km/h.



At Punta Islita we stop for a break. Time: 17:11. Not much daylight left and still a considerable distance to go.




No more pics because of darkness, but the show must go on. From Punta Islita it takes us roughly two hours to reach Samara. We stop in town and I call my buddy where we are to sleep this night. I am now informed he lives in the general area of Samara, but closer to Nosara. Another hour to an hour and a half!! Wait, there is a short cut which will make it about 45 minutes to an hour trip.


He explains the directions and that we will have to cross another “plenty wide” river but it is only about a foot deep. I relay this info to the wife, concealing the river part, and lay out the options giving her full control. We pitch a tent on the beach here or continue on. She chose “B”.

The directions were to take a left past some bar or super market. I find a left. It looks very f*cked up. Reach for the cell, no signal. We continue on looking for something more traveled. If we miss it we are on the long way around so no big deal. We did find the correct left and lucky we did. I was later told people have lost trucks in the part of the river where the first left leads.


Now at the river I feel the wrath of God bearing down on me when the headlight hits the smooth black of the river water. I hear the wife behind me asking in a scolding kind of way, “Hay rio? HAY RIO?” I tell her not to worry, it is shallow. Now with my fixed headlight it proves difficult to find the exit on the other side. We finally do, she hops on and away we go. Directo! A foot deep? Maybe down stream. Scroll up to the first proper crossing of the day. Same story.


Day one recap: Google distances were off… it was 300+ kms today and damn near 14 hours. We arrived to cold beer and buffalo wings in Playa Pelada around 21:00 hrs.


Day Two: Estimated 92kms. More rivers, cattle drives and general ADV!


Cheers!

[riderddonald]

Originally Posted by GRinCR

Cheers!

River crossing looks familiar




She’s having fun now.



And yes this is why we bring the Mrs,






Keep it coming.

[GRinCR]

Originally Posted by riderddonald

And yes this is why we bring the Mrs,






Keep it coming.

Looks like your wife chose the same path as I did. About 2 feet in front of her is where I got stuck.

More soon...

[rowie]

Originally Posted by GRinCR

Installed and dialed in.

Hey Greg,

I'm planning to get a Vapor for my RS. Did you use a kit for a specific bike or a universal kit? I was mainly wondering if the wires for the temperature and tacho pickup are long enough, or if they had to be lengthened.

Cheers,
David.

[GRinCR]

Originally Posted by rowie

Hey Greg,

I'm planning to get a Vapor for my RS. Did you use a kit for a specific bike or a universal kit? I was mainly wondering if the wires for the temperature and tacho pickup are long enough, or if they had to be lengthened.

Cheers,
David.

David,

I did use a model specific Vapor, at least for a 1990 DR 650, not necessarily the RS. I found it by Google shopping “1990 DR 650 VAPOR”, cheapest vendor, $89 if I remember correctly. Then I started the international shipping and doodies process.

All wires were plenty long with exception of the one for the Temp sending unit. Where you see the CPU mounted in the pic, the wire is about as tight as I would be comfortable with. After a few months of riding I would like the CPU higher up, closer to the windscreen so it would be nice to find a longer wire (IMHO).

I haven’t had the opportunity to see a temp reading yet. When I had just finished installing the plug with the copper unit in place, I smashed my head on the handle bars getting up. Of course I got perturbed and readjusted the bars cranking them to the right while cursing. Turns out I had forgotten that I tied the loose end of the wires off on the handle bar to keep them out of the way. Result: stretch and SNAP! Broken wires. Yet another lesson learned.

BTW: final box of parts arrived today… once I figure out this “No Spark” issue that appeared this AM it is time for the teardown.


Greg

[MoodyBlues]

Getting ready to pull the trigger and move to CR from Texas. Love it.

[jerdog53]

Originally Posted by MoodyBlues

Getting ready to pull the trigger and move to CR from Texas. Love it.

I have Been wanting to for a while!

[rowie]

Originally Posted by GRinCR

David,

I did use a model specific Vapor, at least for a 1990 DR 650, not necessarily the RS. I found it by Google shopping “1990 DR 650 VAPOR”, cheapest vendor, $89 if I remember correctly. Then I started the international shipping and doodies process.

All wires were plenty long with exception of the one for the Temp sending unit. Where you see the CPU mounted in the pic, the wire is about as tight as I would be comfortable with. After a few months of riding I would like it higher up, closer to the windscreen so it would be nice to find a longer one (IMHO).

I haven’t had the opportunity to see a temp reading yet. When I had just finished installing the plug with the copper unit in place, I smashed my head on the handle bars getting up. Of course I got perturbed and readjusted the bars cranking them to the right while cursing. Turns out I had forgotten that I tied the loose end of the wires off on the handle bar to keep them out of the way. Result: stretch and SNAP! Broken wires. Yet another lesson learned.

BTW: final box of parts arrived today… once I figure out this “No Spark” issue that appeared this AM it is time for the teardown.


Greg

Thanks Greg,

I have looked around and found Trail Tech sells extended wires for the temp sender. May even be possible to extend them myself as they appear to be normal wires. My plan is to remove the speedo and tach and keep the housing. Then make a plate that covers the original and mount the Vapor, spotlight switch and power outlet to it. Something like this:



Good luck with the rebuild! Finding an electrical problem can be a royal PITA!

Cheers,
David

[KiLO]

Thanks for this thread, Greg! I am not done reading, but thoroughly enjoyed the reports and photos

[GRinCR]

Originally Posted by rowie

This is very cool. Thankfully I pack-rat all my old parts... somewhere?

[Domromer]

Looks good, can't beat riding in the tropics.

[GRinCR]

Originally Posted by Domromer

Looks good.

Thanks for coming along.