I have never slept in a more beautiful place, the view when I woke up at 5am was less colourful but just as pretty. I did however pay the price for setting up in the dark! My hammock was out of line with the tarp and when the rain started at about 2am I got wet! Fortunately the rain was not heavy that night and I only woke up twice in a pool of water. At 5am the wind picked up and ripped the tent pegs out of the sand causing the tarp to whip the side of the hammok... a rather rude awakening. I got up and fastened everything down with straps and bungees sure that a big storm was about to roll through. Weirdly after an hour or so the wind just stopped and I got up and went for swim :)
Unfortunately because of the time lost in Changuinola I had to leave town and make the 4hr trek to San Jose... I could have happily spent a week in PV but my Padre was due to land in San Jose for our father son adventure and I had to get a wriggle on. On my way out of town I sat and watched a couple of sets roll over the reef at Salsa Brava and understood why this wave was infamous, the shape is perfect and you get a right or left option!! Despite the temptation I decided not to surf as the 2 wave sets were about 10mins apart with nothing in between and there were already 8 guys on it, so instead I rolled off up the coast to Cahuita in the hope of catching a quick wave on route to San Jose.
In Cahuita a small gravel track runs the length of Playa Negra with a jungle barrier between the road and the waves. Overgrown, swampy paths that look ominously wild provide potential access to the huge and totally empty beach. As I rode the track looking for waves I came across two lazy sloths hanging from a tree!
The waves were about 3-4ft and heavy looking and I had no idea whether there were rocks or not but I needed to get a wave. I came across a wildlife rescue center called 'The Tree of Life' and parked the bike to go check the surf. A couple of workers were stood just inside the gates so I asked them for permission to leave the bike there while I surfed... they had no problem but warned about the rips and the possibility of the bike getting knicked. Then one of the guys started asking about the bike and my trip... he said he had seen one other guy who was doing a similar trip who had stopped by a few years ago, I asked was the bike red? Yes. Was the guy from Canada? Yes. Was his name B.A? Yes! Small world.
BA is a guy from Vancouver who had a red Kawasaki KLR, built a board rack and road all the way to Panama and back to Vancouver... His blog was invaluable in prepping for the trip and provided a huge amount of inspiration to keep me going during the build up. He has even very kindly replied to numerous emails about border crossings and surf spots etc... the guy is a legend. It was a really nice feeling to meet someone who met the man behind the blog.
Sooo... after a funny chat I legged it through the swampy jungle and onto the beach. Everything about this place was intimidating but having spent four days in a concrete cell I was definitely going in. I jumped in a rip and paddled out a considerable way to where the sets were breaking and almost immediately picked up a super fast right hander... I pumped down the line, got my speed up and made a real nice cut back just before the wave shut down. As I popped back up I got hit by the rest of the set and got slammed back toward the shore... I was happy with what I'd caught and knew I needed to get on the road so I called it a day and got out.
The ride to San Jose was supposed to take 4hrs, it was now 12:30pm and I would need to make good time to avoid the darkness which decends at 6:00ish in Costa Rica. Cahuita to Puerto Limon was a nice ride along the Caribbean coastline and only took an hr or so... from Limon the roads turned in land and rolled along the plains for a couple of hours before climbing into the mountains of the central valleys. The ride was really nice and it only started to rain as I climbed the mountains on the Northern edge of San Jose. Here the road switched between two and three lane stretches which allowed traffic to get passed crawling lorries, there were however no priority signs so people would be overtaking on the left and the right and occasionally the odd person would be overtaking coming down the hill! The mountain ride was super fun and I had to stop and get the GoPro out to try and get some video footage... I will upload an instructional video on how to get to San Jose when I get back to reality. (Guess the theme toone!)
Despite only stopping briefly for some lunch at 4pm the ride had taken longer than expected and as I dropped down the other side of the mountains into San Jose the light started to fade. My GPS had stopped working in the mountains and all I knew was that the hotel where my dad had made a reservation was near the airport! The main road took me straight into the middle of SJ at about six in the evening and the traffic was heavy, I knew I had to make a right somewhere and get to the West side of the city but there were no signs for the airport and I was literally in the city center! I picked a junction and went right and came across a policeman who said next left, next right and then keep going straight!! Unbelievably this worked and I picked up signs to the airport! A further 20km's out of town and I had found the airport... I stopped and asked a guard for directions to hotel Mango, he knew exactly where it was and after some sketchy motorway junction shenanigans I had found the hotel! It was 7:30pm and I needed a beer!
Some how, against quite strong odds I managed to meet dad as he walked out through the arrivals door and into San Jose... Boom! The start of a new adventure!
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