Costa Rica - No Compromise

I have been lurking here for years now and after returning from a great riding vacation in Costa Rica with five buddies I thought I had better step up and post a ride report. Here is a trailer to get things started.

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I'm in!

This is gonna be a good one.

Cool... somone has some graphics and editing experience

Last year I was working on my bike in my garage and a guy came up to me and introduced himself. He said that there were number of guys in the niegbourhood that owned adventure bikes and that often they would meet at the local coffee shop and then ride from there. I gave him my number and asked him to give me a call next time they went for a ride. This is how I met Dirk. Dirk called a few times and eventually we did get a chance to ride together towards the end of last summer. After the snow fell in Calgary Dirk called me again and said that he was getting together with a group of guys that he had ridden the Dempster Highway with to watch the video he had made and invited me to join them. I joined Dirk and the rest of the guys to watched some great video footage and while we were watching Dirk asked if anyone would be interested in going to Costa Rica to do some riding. We all said yes and the planning began for a March trip.

The plan was to fly to San Jose, rent bikes and ride for a week. Dirk did a lot of research and ended up working with Dave at Costa Rican Trails. Together, Dirk and Dave planned a route that would have us stay in seven different locations and give us a chance to see a lot of Costa Rica. The itinerary would like this;

Day 1 Fly to Costa Rica. Arrive at the Hotel Presidente at around 11:00 PM
Day 2 Shuttle to BMW Motorrad to pick up the bikes and then ride to Guyabo Lodge via Irazu Volcano.
Day 3 Ride from Guyabo Lodge to Cariblue Hotel in Puerto Viejo.
Day 4 Ride from Puerto Viejo to the Royal Corin Hotel near Fortuna.
Day 5 Ride from Fortuna to the Tamarindo Dirra Resort in Tamarindo.
Day 6 Day off in Tamarindo.
Day 7 Ride from Tamarindo to the Esencia Hotel in Santa Theresa.
Day 8 Ride from Santa Theresa to Hotel Costa Verde near Manuel Antonio.
Day 9 Ride from Manuel Antonio to San Jose via San Isidoro de El General.
Day 10 Fly home.

More to come.

So I found myself committed to a trip to Costa Rica with five guys that I didn't really know. We had one thing in common, adventure riding, and that was enough. Here are the guys;

Dirk.


Ryan.


Ron.


Clive.


Dave.


Me (Rob)

I'm all over this fellow Canucks. hope you had as good a time as we did .

The first day of the trip was all about getting to Costa Rica. We flew out of Calgary at around 11:00 AM and after four hours of flying time we landed in Houston and ran from gate to gate to catch our connecting flight. Four more hours of flying time and we landed in San Jose. Costa Rican Trails had arranged for a van to transfer us to the Hotel Presidente. When we walked out of the customs area the driver was waiting for us. I was very impressed with David and his team at Costa Rican Trails. Everything they planned went like clockwork. We never found ourselves wondering what was going on or waiting unnecessarily. Anyway, we arrived at the Hotel in downtown San Jose at around midnight and we were all hungry so we walked a few blocks and stopped at the first open restaurant we found.



After a good meal and a few beers we returned to the hotel and called it a day.

Subscribed. I have been daydreaming about riding in Costa Rica for awhile so thanks for the fix!!!! Have fun

We woke up early on Day 2 had breakfast and loaded ourselves and our gear onto the Van that would take us to the BMW dealership. We arrived at the dealership and the bikes were lined up and ready to go.



We bagan loading our gear and getting the bikes set up the way we wanted them.



A little time spent planning the route.



Dirk took care of the paper work.



Ryan was loaded and ready.



Dave was good to go.



We were all ready.



Here is an overview of the entire trip.



Here is the route we had planned for Day 2.



Our route would take us through San Jose then to the Irazu Volcano then on to the Guyabo Lodge. A few weeks prior to leaving on the trip I purchased a map of Costa Rica for my Garmin Zumo 660 from gpsmaps.com and created routes for each day of riding. We were a group of six riders with one GPS. The plan was that since I had the GPS, I would lead and the rest would follow. This worked for about five minutes and we realized that we had turned into a group of four. Somehow we had lost Dave and Ryan. It is not suprising considering the traffic in San Jose is intense and when you start splitting lanes it gets pretty difficult to stay together. We pulled over and waited a while but after ten minutes and no sign of the guys we decided to keep moving and hope that we would meet somewhere along the way or at the lodge at the end of the day.

This road ended up being part of the route that the GPS came up with. Looking at this road on the GPS you would have thought it was a proper highway when in reality it was a dirt two track. I love Costa Rica.



We didn't take a lot of pictures while riding but we did get some good video footage. I'll try to include a short video for each day to give an idea of what the ridding was like.

Beautiful Costa Rica countryside.



After a fun twist filled ride up the volcano we arrived at the national park.



The crater.



Here is a shot of Clive. As you can see we are well above he clouds. I think the elevation is over 11,000 ft.



Taking a break.



I am not sure what this was but it calmly walked by while we were relaxing.



We decided to start riding down the volcano and stop at a restaurant that we noticed on the way up. When we pulled up we noticed a couple of BMW bikes parked in front. Hello Dave and Ryan.



Lunch was great and the views from the restaurant were amazing.









Dave and Ryan rode up the volcano and the rest of us made our way to the Guyabo Lodge. We made it to the lodge in time to get unpacked and enjoy a beer while watching the sunset.

Nice view.



Nice lodge.



Nice sunset.



The eveining was pretty uneventful other than Dirk losing the key to his bike. Somehow he managed to lose the key while moving his gear from his bike to his room. We spent about an hour looking everywhere and through every bag and pocket. We had given up and called the dealership to see if we could somehow get a second key when one of the guys found the key balancing on the rear axel between the frame and the wheel. We were relieved. Dinner was average but the setting was wonderful and everyone was tired and ready to hit the sack early. That's it for Day 2.

For full screen video turn HD on.

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Did a 2 week trip last Feb. Walked, rode the bus, and took taxi's. Will have to do it on a bike next time. Great pics, and looking forward to the rest of the trip.

The climate change from cool to sweltering was interesting.

Well I am sure glad I stopped in and introduced myself to Rob and invited him on this trip! I knew right away he had potential !! Great job on the video and posts. Looking forward to the rest.

Cheers Dirk

Oh Hells Yeah!!!

Very nice! Keep posting

subscribed!

Day three started with breakfast at the lodge.







Someone is having a hard time completely unwinding.



The morning scenery is amazing.



Guayabo Volcano smoking in the background.













Dirk and Clive packing up.



Ron is ready to go.



Dave is geared up.







And we are off.



Todays route.



As we left the lodge we had fun mountain roads with good views and we passed through many small villages.







There was a little more traffic as we made our way through Turrialba.







Then the roads opened up a bit.





The road south from Siquirres was flat, straight and busy. There was a lot of truck traffic heading to and from the port town of Limon.





We stopped for a break at a roadside fruit stand.





Another break here.



This guy happened to be crossing the road at the entrance. I am not sure if he was escaping or trying to get in.



We rolled into Puerto Viejo at around 2:00.



We checked into the Cariblue Bungalows and went for a swim to cool off.





We all went to town and had lunch at the Flip Flop. Great tacos and cold beer.





Fresh eggs delivered right to the restaurant.



Puerto Viejo has a laid back Caribbean vibe to it. I really liked it and I am glad we made the effort to go there. It is quite different from the rest of Costa Rica and worth checking out. Some shots of the streets and people of Puerto Viejo.











After lunch I went south with Dirk and we checked out Manzanillo, a small beach town at the end of the road.





The rest of the guys went to the beach.












Later that night we had an exceptional dinner at Koki Beach Restaurant then made our way back to the Cariblue for a night cap on the deck.



Day three complete.

OMG this is awesome! I did a similar trip 6 years ago, rented bikes and did a similar loop. I LOVE Costa Rica! Now I am committed to going back. Keep the posts coming!

For full screen playback turn HD on.

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