Allergy
Maybe the langostin's head gave me allergic. All better now.
Day 44 – Cerro Iglesias to Las Lajas
Still no Internet so another quick post from my iPhone using the cell
phone network data roaming.
Walked around the village where Kat is stationed at in the morning.
Cool stuff. They have just signed a contract with Tabasco to supply
peppers!
We then went down the mountain to the beach. We got the last few hours
of sun and went into the ocean, played with a Labrador, adjusted some
things on my bike and had lunch.
I ate langostin al ajillo and was bitten several times by small ants.
One of them gave me a pretty good alergic reaction! Probably the
langostin. Never had an allergic reaction in my life!! My face swoll
up, I felt hot, my whole body was itching and my skin was full small
bumps…
Got my medical kit out and read about allergies and took some Ibiprofin.
Swelling and itching came down after a couple of hours… Pretty
funky!!!
Now it's raining cats and dogs.
We're going to dinner once the rain stops at an Italian couple's place
close by once the rain stops.
Tomorrow heading to Panama City hoping the flights run every day to
Medellin 🙂
Photos:
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| From Motorcycle NY to SP |
Video:
Internet
Still no good Internet connection so photos and videos only on
Saturday of Sunday when we get to Panama City 🙂
Day 43 – Manuel Antonio to Cerro Iglesias, Panama
Woke up really early to take some pictures of Manuel Antonio and take
a dip in the ocean.
During breakfast I realized that last year while I was in LA I swam in
the Pacific Ocean for the first time!
We started early and did the dirt road again (fun) back to the
Panamarican Highway (boring).
The border crossing was very smooth. Probably the easiest one so far.
We then stopped for some groceries and headed up the mountain into an
indiginous village in the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle – the second largest
indiginous group in Central America after the Mayans!!
After asking for “la gringa” we met Kat – Marc’s friend who is
volunteering here with the Peace Corps.
She welcomed us into her “humble abode” where we chatted into the
night and drank two bottles of wine 🙂
Camping gear out!
Marc chose to sleep on the hammock which on the first try proved to be
loose on one of the ends. With a big thump he fell to the ground and
we all started laughing histerically.
Photos:
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Video:
Day 42 – San Jose to Manuel Antonio
Woke very early this morning and actually did some work… then Ivan,
the owner of the hotel we stayed in brought us breakfast in the room
since the kitchen was not ready yet 🙂
After gearing up, packing, and loading the bikes we headed out through
San Jose out to the Panamerican highway.
We took a few wrong turns but finally managed to get on to the main
road.
A stretch of the PanAmerican was closed so we ended up taking some
secondary roads which were amazing!
It had been drizzling all morning but nothing bad but once we went
over the pass the rain started to come down steadily.
My new tires felt amazing – but I am sure it was 99% psychological –
the 1% was the fact that they do vibrate less and are give me a more
rounded feel when I go from one turn to the other.
Once we got to sea level again a good stretch of 30km (20miles + or -)
of flat dirt road presented itself.
We thought it would be a nice 2 or 3 hour ride but with the detour,
fog, rain, and the dirt road it turned out to be a 6 hour ordeal.
We got to Manuel Antonio absolutely drenched, stopped for a beer and
picked a hotel mainly because I liked the slogan, "Still more monkeys
than people" – Costa Verde – quite nice hotel with an amazing view.
We just finished hanging up all of our gear to dry – quite sure it
will still all be wet by tomorrow but that's the way it goes 🙂
Heading out to dinner and some well deserved drinks soon.
No internet in the room so don't know if I'll be able to upload
yesterday's or today's videos 🙁
Writing this post offline so let's keep out fingers crossed.
Quick corrections on today's videos – I said 3000 ft but it's 3000
meters (12,000 ft)
Photos:
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Video:
Day 41 – Tabacon to San Jose
Costa Rica continues to amaze me – beautiful, well organized, great roads, varied scenery and great people.
The morning was a little hazy so I ended up not taking the photos I said I would take of the spa – check it out on their site – pretty amazing – we stayed for about an hour or two in the several different pools – it even had a water slide which reminded me of Hotel Toriba in Campos de Jordao in Brazil 🙂
We took the scenic route to San Jose – an amazing ride through the central mountains of Costa Rica.
I am truly impressed, surprised really, by the infrastructure here… I knew that it was the most developed country of Central America but the difference is quite big… I looked up a little bit of the history of Costa Rica and found this good summary.
Sloppy little accidents today.
First I stopped to take some pictures and parked the bike on hill that turned out to be too steep… oops – it toppled over! Fortunately another biker was driving by and stopped to help me out – Marc was having a little snack further up the road.
Here are the photos of when I stopped… it looks so much better in person… the vegetation here is SO lush!!
The bike falling over was also recorded on tape!! Hehehehe
Then my jacket simply flew off the bike – when it’s hot I’ve only been wearing the body armor and tying the jacket down on the back… ooops again!
Once we got to the city we had to drive quite a bit to find the KTM dealer – I was in a bad mood when we arrived there and to top it off they were not expecting me even though I had been emailing the owner for about a week or so warning him I would arrive.
After talking to the mechanic and explaining our situation (traveling, schedule, emails) he told me to bring the bike around and that it would be done in a couple of hours!
Excellent!
Marc went to the BMW dealer to replace his starter.
I actually fell asleep at the dealer…
The bike was ready in what seemed to be no time and as soon as I packed it back up Marc arrived with the good news that his starter was also replaced in no time and for a reasonable amount of money. My service was half of what I paid for in LA.
So now I have new fluids on the bike, systems checked and new rear tires – these should last the whole way down to Brazil. In LA they only had more off-road tires (knobies) that last a lot less than “regular” tires.
As we were leaving we ran into Ivan – an Italian who races motorcycles and has a hotel near the dealer – Hotel Luisiana – perfect! He also convinced us to change our route from going to the Atlantic side of Costa Rica to staying on the Pacific side and go through the central mountains – 4000m high! On a good day you can see both the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean!
So we followed him to the hotel and are now settled in and getting ready for dinner 🙂
The video for the day:
Day 40 – San Juan del Sur to Arenal, Costa Rica – Tabacon
OK – so it keeps getting better.
This morning was amazing at the hotel in San Juan del Sur – breakfast with Miguel and Lorena, who stayed behind once we left to Costa Rica.
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Short ride to the border which was not that bad once we selected a “helper” – the border crossing itself was pricey but it all went quickly as far as border crossings go – not the chaos we’ve seen in some other borders.
Driving into Costa Rica wasn’t all that different initially but then we started to realize that the roads were immaculate, the cars were all better and faster, the vegetation was more lush… less stray dogs, people, and street vendors on the side of the road… you can start to
see clearly that it is a richer country.
About 65 miles outside of San Jose we stopped to eat a little and met Gabriel. Turns out him and his family work with tourism – they build high end hotels in Central America.
He convinced us to go back a little ways on the road we just came through to go see the Arenal Volcano and to the resort his family built – the Tabacon – according to him the best and largest thermal spas in he world – not to mention an amazing drive along the lake and a very special rate he called in for us.
It was getting late and we didn’t want to drive on the small roads in the dark so we opened the throttle – ok ok – we just wanted to go faster and have some fun.
But our fun was cut short by a radar gun – yes – they have them here!
It was a 60km/h zone – he clocked us at 127km/h to my relief… let’s say we were going a little faster than that.
After saying I was really sorry, didn’t see the 60km/h sign, bla bla bla – he said it was a very serious offense, loose your license, apprehend the vehicle, go to court, 8 days, US$150 each driver bla bla bla…
Anyway – he let us off after a hand$hake worth more than a couple cups of coffee.
We slowed down and turned towards the secondary roads that were going to take us up to the lake and volcano region and finally to the spa.
The road was amazing, and then got better when we decided to take a short cut that showed up on our GPS – definitely the most technical/challenging off road stretch we’ve gotten so far. I enjoyed it immensely. Unfortunately I did not record it – thought I was recording but in all the excitement I did not start it properly..
We finally got to the spa on some secondary but well marked roads.
I guess we’re trying to break the world record of most luxurious motorcycle trip across Central America!
We checked in and went to spa – a large area full of natural pools of varied temperatures and mini water falls that massaged our tired backs.
Tomorrow back on the road to San Jose and get my bike serviced after I take some photos of this amazing place in the morning.
Quick update
Having a marvelous time at the Pelican Eyes this morning – great internet, amazing views, and great wind – makes me want to go out and windsurf!
Just wanted to post some pictures Lorena took of during last night’s ride and a video from the volcano I forgot to include:
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Day 39 – Granada to San Juan del Sur
Another WOW day! Very different from yesterday!
Had a good breakfast at the hotel with Martin and Lorena and went
with them to see the Masaya Volcano near Granada – very toxic and
beautiful!
Then stopped at the Laguna de Apoyo to have lunch.
Here’s their blog http://nyc-tdf.blogspot.com – very cool blog –
mostly pictures – sometimes I wonder if I write too much 🙂
After lunch we went to San Juan del Sur – was a short ride today but
put us right next to the border of Costa Rica which we we’ll do
tomorrow.
In San Juan I did a little beach riding which was great fun (check the
video tomorrow probably) and then we found a very – very – very nice
hotel. The lobby was incredible with an infinity pool overlooking the
beach and the town.
Since we were in four we got a “casita” – a small house – when we got
it we were all flabbergasted. For $75 a person we got this amazing
house for the night.
We just had dinner, and are now chatting away… a very great day…
one of those days that the whole trip dawns on you and you feel
blessed and infinitely happy in that moment.
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