Paradise Lies at the end of a Long and Winding Road

Tuesday 22nd July

Venao was fun and a great place to get my toes in the wax but there were more promising options ahead...

Following a fun 2-3ft dawn session I loaded up the bike and noshed some porridge! My plan for the day was to get to Playa Morillo and the sister hostel of the Remorini brothers. Sold to me as an offgrid paradise right on the beach I was excited!

Playa Morillo was not on any of the maps I had and seemingly unknown to my GPS app! I had been shown on a map that it was just the other side of the Azuero Pennisula and by the look of it only 40miles from Venao as the crow flies... trouble is the crow doesn't need roads and this pennisula is somewhat lacking in tarmac. I would have to ride 3-4hrs North back to the InterAmericana Route #1, buzz two junctions West and then take a wiggly road back South for 2-3hrs!

The journey was awesome... riding North took forever as the road wound through the mountains but the tarmac was fresh and smooth and the bike ate it up! I got a little carried away taking a right hander and caught the board rack on the inside of the bend, fortunately I just scuffed it and no damage was done but I have been very concious of my limited lean angle ever since... (note to self... build board rack higher next time!)

Inevitably I was going to get wet on this trip and on my trek North I sampled my first mid-ride downpour... waterproofs are pointless in rain like this & it was almost impossible to see the road!! Fortunately after five minutes or so I found a bus shelter and bounced off the road and into the dry where a similarly damp dog kept me company. See pic below!

I made a small town called Oku by 3pm and despite being miles from my destination I stopped for lunch at a roadside Fonda. Lovely welcoming people invited me in and we chatted about my trip... check out the big dude and his BBQ!

I still needed to ride a further 2-3hrs South and find the offgrid hostel without the use of GPS and the skies were grey and laden with water. It gets dark here at 6:30ish and the roads are not safe to ride at night due to the varying quality and poor visibilty... 4ft wide potholes half a foot deep are not uncommon and surfaces change from tarmac to gravel with no warning. My mindset changed from enjoying a chilled scenic ride to one of an intense race against time.

I like going fast but keeping up the level of focus required to ride a bike quickly on these sort of roads is draining. Having ridden for 4hrs I was already tired and as the road wound through the mountains I would be going round corners at 40-60mph and find mid way round that the road would turn into gravel and mud for a 20m strip and then back to tarmac with a bump, this continued for the next hour and was super sketchy. Fortunately the rain held off and after a frustrating 15mins of zig zagging back and forth trying to find the hostel I was directed to a gateway with a tiny sign saying Hostel Villa Vento Surf - Morillo. After a total of 6.5hrs I had a very sore bum but I had found paradise!