The Long Road 2015

Costa Rica to Nicaragua; traveling for those without deep pockets.
After the Panama-Costa Rica border we rode a further 120km to Uvita: a costal town with long beaches and fresh coconuts to boot. Before arriving in Uvita we stopped for lunch at a happening local place, completely packed with people. We had to wait for a table, which is the first time ever since leaving the States. Enjoying some lunch at a table nearby was a couple from Florida who were curious about our bikes and the trip. We told them we were riding from Michigan to see every country in North America and that we are doing the trip in support of the Wounded Warrior Project, raising money and awareness for this important charity. He then revealed that he is a Veteran Navy pilot of 22 years, and that he flew a myriad of planes whilst serving. This lovely couple decided to move from Florida and live in the tropical(yet expensive) paradaise of Costa Rica. We said our goodbyes as they left for home and us to continue on to Uvita; however, when we went to pay for our meals and found out that this very kind couple had generously paid for us, without even telling us.

Very kind of them and we are extremely grateful, surprised by this act of selfless generosity we continued to Uvita. After arriving we ventured into downtown in the atempt to find a hostel or camping spot. After coming up with nothing we spoke to some locals who gave us the down-low on a good place to stay. Flutterby, a play on the word butterfly (or mariposa in Spanish) was the hostel we were looking for. A dirt road and lots of dust later we found our destination for the night. For $10 a person we could camp or pay $4 more for a bed in a dorm, we decided to take the marginaly more expensive option and sleep in a bed for the night (at least there was a fan, that was well worth the extra $4). The atmosphere of the place was calm, very surfy and communal. We walked through the gate and were met by a large bar, a communal kitchen, dinning area, bathrooms/showers, and ping pong area. The dorms were perched in amongst the tree canopy with a slight breeze which aided sleeping in this muggy habitat. From our previous experience in Costa Rica we knew how expensive everything is, especially eating out; we decided to purchase some supplies and chef Tim was to cook vegetable chilli for us. After filling up on delicious rice and chilli we meet two girls that were traveling together and they told us of this bioluminescant plankton that we would be able to see that night at the beach. Wasting no time we donned our swimmers and headed to the beach. All was dark, the sky, the water, everything. Some locals told us that we had to go in the water to see them so in we went and sure enough with our bodies disturbing the water it was as if it rilled the plankton up and the water began lighting up. Lighting bugs in the ocean! It was wonderous, nature produces the most intruiging and beautiful things on this earth. Bemused we spent a long time disturbing the water and splashing ourselves which led to glowing specks of plankton all over our bodies, on our shorts, in our hair and face. It was quite a sight, definitely not one to be forgotten soon. Back on the beach there was a bonfire raging so we headed in and joined the growing crowd of people chatting, relaxing in the sand, just enjoying the night air. A few hours later we decided to retire to our lofty beds as we were leaving to Honduras the next day.

The next morning we awoke with the sun due to having no walls around our shack amongst the leaves. We cooked a breakfast of eggs, something that we had not eaten in quite a while and missed sincerely. After re-loading the bikes we hit the road heading for the town of Puntarenas where we caught a ferry across to the peninsula town of Paquera and continued from there to the small beach village called Montezuma. Here we found a hostel for $10 a head, "Tienes estacionamieto para motocyclietas?"(do you have parking for motorcycles?). The receptionist replied: "Si, si! Aqui.." (yes, yes! Here..), as she pointed to the rocky beach behind the hostel. We rode our bikes down a narrow path to the 'parking' spot and left them standing in the sand for the night, after taking most everything off of them as we were told that it would all get stolen if we left it there. We then decided to relax in the ocean and cool off, afterwards we headed out to find some cheap local cuisine. After viewing the menu of practically every restaurant in this small village we decided on a little corner kitchen where were had "comida typicos" (typical food) which consisted of rice, beans, various other vegetables and your choice of meat. After dinner we trudged over to the icecream shop that was convieniently directly across the road from where we had dinner, clearly meant to be. We headed back to the hostel to get some rest for the long day that was to come: 300km and a border crossing, we just hoped that this border would take less than half a day.