Burnhams on Tour

7th - 8th August

Mi padre and I had quite an epic journey planned and in true Burnham style were trying to cram in as much as possible in the eight days we had together.

Dad had rented a 4x4 so in order to make the most of our time together I parked the bike at Hotel Mango and we set off in the nice, rain proof car and headed South toward Jaco. Surf central, Jaco is a well developed beach town with numerous hotels, condos, restaurants and surf shops... the waves were whack with a strong onshore knocking any shape out of the swell so we stopped and took lunch at the Green Room. Wow, did we score! The food was incredible, we had a big plate of home made, exceptional nachos and guacamole followed by an awesome Ceviche (Peruvian dish with raw fish served in lime juice) served on top of a half avocado. By far the best meal I'd had since leaving home and to top it off the style, ambience and service were brilliant. I would strongly recommend the Green Room to anyone going to Jaco.

After lunch we headed further south to a small town called Quepos where we found a really crappy and very cheap hotel and took a walk around the new development and harbour. Whilst the old town is fairly small and run down there is a lot of construction going on around the new marina, in a couple of years this place is going to be a major resort, there were already a considerable collection of flash yachts. We stopped here for two reasons:  The Manuel Antonio national park is only 15mins away and due to it's easy accessibility and size is a major tourist draw for those wanting to see monkeys, sloths, iguanas and many types of birds. It is much cheaper to stay in Quepos than one off the hundreds of high end hotels, lodges and resorts that fill the road to the park. The second was a left point break that peels off the harbour wall and on a good day runs for 100m - 200m!

In the morning we got up at 6am and I made my way across the river and out to the break. It was only small, maybe waist to chest high but it was perfectly formed and you could see the potential. I had some long rides but it was hard work on my 6'0 and I ended up taking a few of the quicker, more punchy rights into the river mouth.

After a bite to eat dad and I drove out of town in heavy, heavy rain to Manuel Antonio NP. The prospect of a 2hr walk in the pouring rain didn't really inspire either of us but on the basis that it was the rainy season and we couldn't not do stuff coz it was raining we donned ponchos and organised a guide. As expected we didn't see much animal action on the hour long walk out to the two spectacular beaches at the end of the main trail but we did see a lot of drenched Human Beings! On the way back we spotted a troop of white faced monkeys eating mangos by the beach and stopped to watch them play. I have no doubt that this would be a stunning place in the sunshine and whilst it was cool to see there are definitely better, less crowded and less commercialised places in Costa Rica to see wild stuff in its element.

From the national park we decided to try and make the journey all the way down to the Osa Pennisula for some proper remote jungle action. On route we stopped at Domincal to check the surf and grab some lunch. At the nothern end of the beach is a river which chucks out everything from upstream into the ocean including mud, silt, branches and big chunks of trees and with the heavy rain of the morning and a southerly rip the ocean was like chocolate soup with tons of jungely debris being churned over by a solid 4-5ft swell... we had lunch!

Despite the funk and risk of getting a log to the head the wave looked too good to pass up so I paddled out while dad got the camera out. Solid barrelling waves were breaking up and down the beach but there was no clear bank so I struggled to get a wave for the first half hour... by this time dad had got bored and wandered off snapping merrily away at clouds and other, evidently more interesting things! Eventually I tagged a couple of really quick head and a half high, hollow rights which were super fun. I came out of the surf covered in bits of leaves and tree, jumped in the car and we hit the road just as the darkness descended. 

The drive to Puerto Jimenez took a little over 3hrs and we rolled into the small town on the Osa Pennisula at 9:30pm. I had found a place called the Jungle Hostel for us to stay that night and called ahead to book a room. A super friendly guy called Kenneth, one of the owners of the hostel, arranged to meet us in Jimenez and take us out of town on the dirt road up to the hostel. Knackered after a long day we cooked up some tuna pasta while Kenneth enthusiastically regaled us with numerous stories of his encounters with the abundant and varied local wildlife. Dad was spent and trying but failing to keeps his eyes open and struggling with new travellers paranoia (a syndrome that affects most people when they arrive in shady, dark unknown places where they think everyone is going to steal your stuff or rip you off!). I think the flight had finally caught up with him.

Our bed for the night was in the form of two separate bunks in a cabin on stilts perched high in the jungle. All around us things buzzed, sqwaked and grunted and we fell asleep with a mixture of excitement and anxiety, unaware of the full extent of our surroundings!