Las Vueltas – Birmania – Finca Linda Vista – La Fortuna – San Ramon – Jaco

5 cycling days   |   11 rest days   |   322 kilometers   |   4.596 meters elevation gain

The border with Costa Rica is a piece of cake, fast and painless. Luckily we don’t need the bus tickets that I photo-shopped to show that we will be also leaving the country at some point. When we cycle into Costa Rica after the border we are relieved. Today was a big day, waking up early, leaving Ometepe island with the ferry and afterwards cycling a big distance to the border. We had to make it because it was the last day for Fernanda on her visa. But everything was smooth sailing and we made it to and over the border without problems. We celebrate by buying a big beer in one of the first shops we see in Costa Rica. When we see the prices we have to scratch our heads for a bit. Luckily we were prepared because we heard that Costa Rica was going to be much more expensive than any other Central American country.

It’s our last beer together. We count our days together and come to a total of about 1 month. One month riding our bikes together, overcoming challenges together, spending time together making campfire and dinner next to beautiful rivers, lakes and forests. It’s been an amazing time. I’ve enjoyed time with Fernanda. She is funny, always positive and very patient. Patient with me, because I can be blunt and direct at times. But also patient with our communication. Not only I had a hard time communicating in Spanish, also she had to be patient.

Also she was not able to express herself to the fullest simply because I wouldn’t understand everything. She had to talk baby Spanish with me and I’m grateful that she did, because I learned more Spanish than any course or class would ever learn me. Not only did she learn me Spanish, she learned me valuable tips and tricks for life on the bike. She mocked me for my tidiness, which I didn’t like at first. I loved it when she called me by my nickname “gordito” (fatty). We called ourselves equipo Argentina Holanda or Gorditos On Tour 2023 and I will miss it and I will miss her. But it’s good. I am going to go see my parents, she is going to the Nicoya peninsula to see friends and try to make some money doing her Tarot card readings. I made another friend for life and I wish her all the best. We might see each other again down the road.

We finish the beer, hop on our bikes and start scanning for a place to camp for the night. We see a football field but it’s still being used. Then I see a friendly looking man walking along the road. I stop and ask if he knows a place where we could camp. Five minutes later our bikes are in his kitchen and we are being served a fermented alcoholic liquor called vino de coyol (from the coyol palm tree). We are also served a typical Costa Rican dish, can get a shower (running water and a shower head!) and eventually end up sleeping in the guest bedroom. A great first 5 (!) kilometers in Costa Rica!

I’ve been itching and scrabbling my head for the last weeks and was fearing the worst already. I tell Fernanda to look into my hair and she comes with the slightly expected but devastated outcome: lice. I do have to chuckle a little bit. Of course I am not living the most hygienic lifestyle at the moment. Luckily I’m going to see my mom, the pharmacist, soon so I tell her to bring a lice comb and some special shampoo.

Me and Fernanda say goodbye to our first amazing Costa Rican host and hop on our bikes for our last kilometers together. After La Cruz she will go south and I will go east. However we both miss the signs pointing towards La Cruz and when it’s too late already we notice that I missed my turn. So instead of saying goodbye in a nice central park in a nice little town and having one more coffee together we have to do our goodbyes next to a busy road. We say our last words and thank you’s and then she waves me goodbye.

A mixture of feelings makes the better of me within my first kilometers alone again. I was ready to do some cycling alone again, was looking forward to it. But saying goodbye to a good friend after an intensive time together is never nice. It weighs on me. And then there is the feeling of seeing my parents in two days from now, an ecstatic feeling. This mix of liberation, sadness and ecstaticness makes me feel weird.

Fernanda is gone and immediately it’s chaos in my household. Suddenly there are no shops or villages anywhere so I have to lunch with some cookies. I eat the whole pack. Back in the saddle I notice that the pimple in my buttocks is causing me some annoyance and pain. I tell myself it’s the price I have to pay to see my parents, which makes me continue with a smile. The head wind is terrible today and on the flat I cannot go faster than 10 km/h. I notice that Costa Rica is way more ‘polished’ and developed than its Central American brothers: houses are made from stone, there is good signage on the road and everywhere the eye meets there’s reserves and conservation parks. Also the climate has changed drastically. From dry and hot to lush green and humid. Since I’ve crossed into Costa Rica there’s suddenly clouds and rain again. Like the weather is adhering to and not crossing the borders.

I cycle into a village at the end of the day and ask the first shop if there’s a place to camp somewhere. He tells me to go to Saraí. “End of this road, you take a right, second house on the right.” When I get to the second house on the right Saraí is already waving at me. I meet her and her kids and family. I can pitch my tent in the garden whilst the kids are asking me all kinds of questions. She feeds me with amazing food and sits me down on the couch to watch a movie. Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve sat on a couch. Amazing hospitality once again in Costa Rica!

The family takes me on a short walk to a bridge over the river the next morning. Within 500 meters they point me towards the following trees: coconut, banana, avocado, mango, lime, cacao, apple, papaya and maybe I’m even forgetting some. The sheer amount of stuff growing here is absurd. I pack up my tent and say goodbye to Saraí and the family. Before I leave town one other family member cycles along with me for a bit to show me another beautiful hanging bridge spanning the big blue river in the midst of the rain forest. It’s beautiful here, but I have to go now. I still have some distance to gap.

Along the way I suddenly smell the scent of pineapple and soon after I cycle through fields of ananás. Everything is so green here, everything grows, everything crawls, everything lives. Ants as big as a fist, towing big rocks back to their villas. At every river crossing I look to my left or right and see scenes that seem to directly originate from the Jungle Book: lianas, trees covered with green moss, blue water, vividly colored birds.

It’s D-Day minus 1 and tomorrow I will see my parents. I try to imagine our first meeting, try to imagine our first hug. I’ve not seen them for 10 months. I’m not the guy that gets homesick real fast, but man am I excited to spend time with my parents again. I tell everybody I meet today: the lady at the counter of the supermarket, the man at the gas station and the lady of the little store where I have a cola. “Tomorrow is going to be a big day for me, I’m going to see my parents again after 10 months”, everybody is happy for me.

Tomorrow my parents will take a bus around 9AM from San Jose to La Fortuna and I read online that it will take around 3-4 hours. Of course I want to be there when they arrive. So today I want to cover as much kilometers as possible such that tomorrow around lunch time I can be in La Fortuna.

My plan is to just ride until dark and then just throw my tent out somewhere. It doesn’t need to be pretty tonight. Little did I know how different this was going to boil down.

So that’s what I do. I ride. I already cut the veggies for dinner tonight somewhere on a bench in a park in some town. I ride some more. Then suddenly when I’m fiddling around on my phone that’s mounted on my steer and look up, I see a pick-up parked next to the road. The driver is standing next to me and he is gesturing me to stop. So I stop with a big smile, I great him in Spanish and ask how he is doing. He tells me his name is Ricardo, that he drove past me and figured I might need some help. He offers me to stay in his finca (country house) tonight. It’s located like 20 kilometers in the direction that I have to go to. Perfect, even less kilometers tomorrow. So I accept his invitation. Next thing I know my bike is in the back of the truck and I’m sitting next to it.

The house is truly amazing, sitting on a hill and overlooking all the other pretty hills in the distance. I get a room and my first hot shower since El Salvador and I simply cannot leave it. I’ve told Ricardo about the big reunion tomorrow and he tells me I have to go shave and that we have to wash my clothes because he wants me to look good for tomorrow. He also wants me to visit his barber friend, but I tell him about the lice and we both agree it’s not a good idea. He cooks a delicious meal and we drink beer after beer. Later in the night, armed with more beer and really expensive Cuban cigars, we go to another one of his buildings that’s sitting in the middle of a lake. He calls it his Ranchito, his little ranch. We smoke cigars, drink beer and in the meantime let ourselves be enchanted by all the sounds coming from the jungle. It’s crazy how this night took such a turn, how lucky I am once again.

D-Day! I am so excited. I slept amazing, I am shaved and my clothes smell like roses. I am ready. Ricardo cooks my a delicious breakfast and then I set off, off to La Fortuna. The surroundings are amazing. Little winding land roads with perfect asphalt, cute little houses everywhere, happy cows in the meadows. It feels like I’m in Switzerland.

Half way I get a message from my parents: We made it La Fortuna and we’re drinking a coffee close to the central park. Another shot of adrenaline and excitement shoots through my body. I tell them to sit tight. I am very close to La Fortuna now. I pedal as fast as I can. Soon after when I drive into town I see them standing on the sidewalk next to the coffee bar we were supposed to meet.

They struggle with their phones because they want to capture this moment for eternity. The feeling in my stomach is overwhelming. We hug for minutes. People come down from their tables to ask if they want us to make a picture. When we finally sit down it feels like we are three adolescents that just came back from their first concert. We cannot stop talking with excitement and tumble over each other with stories. When the adrenaline and most of the excitement is settled we make our way towards our apartment for the coming week. We do some groceries and arrive at our place: an amazing apartment with pool and outside kitchen. At night we go out for dinner and I have a pizza with ice cream as a desert. It’s been months since I’ve eaten this good and I happily let myself get spoiled.

I don’t know where I begin to explain how nice our time together is. I think it says enough that when my mom got back home I received a message after about a week: “I miss our time together. I feel homesick to Costa Rica, but moreover: to you”. Never have I felt my heart crumble inside my chest like that.

In the first days in La Fortuna I regularly find my dad waking up around the same time as me and then we just stand outside, and watch the Arenal volcano and listen to all the bird sounds in our underwear. We don’t speak more than a “good morning”. It’s brings back memories from when I was a kid and still lived at home. My dad and I woke up early, me to cycle to school and my dad to go to work. We didn’t say anything to each other in the morning other than that same “good morning” and maybe a “ready to swap the news-paper for the sports-paper?”, and it felt amazing. The best connection you have with someone if there’s no necessity to talk.

Days fill themselves easily. We visit the Arenal waterfall, a huge water drop in the midst of a lush green rain forest. We see our first wildlife and my parents couldn’t be more stoked.

A coati is roaming the waterfall-park paths for food and on our way back to the apartment we see two beautiful toucans from very close. We drink cups of cappuccino in the afternoon when we see cute little cafes. It’s a holiday vibe that seems so unreal but so comforting after 10 months in the bushes.

At night we play board games like Rummikub and I absolutely love it. Not only because I’m crushing my parents at it, also because of the absolute simplicity and nostalgia. We played this game a lot when we were out camping with the Caravan somewhere in Europe in one of many holidays. It brings back amazing memories and I am so thankful for the fact that my parents used to drag us along on these holidays, introducing us to concepts like camping, outside life and different countries and cultures.

And in my turn I’d like to give my parents a glimp of the life on the bike, but of course it’s hard because we’re not traveling with the bike. So I try to explain them by telling all my stories, answering their questions and walking them through all the stuff that I carry with me on the bike to give them a small insight. Also that first night I make one of my infamous rice meals for them to show them what I normally eat.

Every day is fiesta when it’s breakfast time. The kitchen is fully equipped so we make amazing smoothies with the blender, make eggs, coffee, tea and much more. Today we go and visit the rain forest at Mistic Hanging Bridges Park. And just like the name reveals, the pathways in this park are connected by many Hanging Bridges bringing us from one side of the lush green valley to the next one. We see funny parades of ants, all of them carrying little green leaves. We watch them from up close and try to see where they are coming from and where they’re going. Employees of the park point is to a venomous camouflaged snake curled up against the bark of a tree. Many more agouti’s (like red panda bears). At night we drink a beer in La Fortuna and back ‘home’ dad makes his infamous pancakes complete with tossing them in the air to flip them, just like he used to do it. Like I said before, this encounter is one big trip down memory lane and I love it.

The next day we decide to hang about the house a little. I’ve seen Howler monkeys in Nicaragua and remembered the sound they make (it’s easy to remember, because it’s a horrible sound). The last days I’ve been hearing them every day and I told my folks that these are monkeys, but I could never show them the proof that I wasn’t messing with them. Until today. We finally see a couple in some trees very close to the apartment.

My parents brought me a lot of stuff from home, like sweets and typical Dutch food. But most happy and most important for me are the new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires they bring for me. Today I’ve put them on my wheels and I surely hope they will bring me another 14.000 kilometers further south. They might even bring me to Ushuaia!

Man it feels nice to wake up, put on the coffee machine, wait for your intestines to capture the smell and taste of coffee and just go to the toilet whenever you need to. Making smoothies on the spot. Ice cubes from the fridge. Wait, let alone a fridge! A bed with clean sheets and one that doesn’t make me sleep on the ground whenever the air has escaped from my sleeping pad. A full fridge. My parents are really amazed by the amount of food that I eat every day and I have to say I’m a bit surprised myself as well. I’ve been eating to little for too long, lost too much weight and I think my body has begun to make up for it.

And besides eating me and my folks have been exploring the areas of La Fortuna some more. We went down to some hot springs to sip on a cold beer whilst laying in the river with perfect Jacuzzi temperature. We meet Lauren and Ollie, a backpacking couple from the island of Jersey (UK) that I met in Guatemala, saw down the road in El Salvador and happened to be here in Costa Rica now to. The five of us have dinner and catch up on travel stories and of course they get to meet my parents which makes for a fun encounter.

We walk to another waterfall and I succumb under the peer pressure that my parents put on my to jump in the water. And in my turn I almost get us three in trouble when I peer pressure my parents into trying sneaking into a Sloth Park to see sloths. After having found a back entrance we are quickly caught red-handed by one of the security guards. Oops, sorry for that embarrassment, mom and dad.

But besides seeing the beauty of Costa Rica the time that we spend together in and around the house is just as valuable for me. I recognize a lot in my parents. Just like me they both are so tidy. And although I don’t like this characteristic of myself, it’s fun to see where I have my tidiness from. In the evening it’s been raining a lot and tonight we even have a full blast storm raging over the area with big thunderstorm strikes that are close and loud. I’m glad I’m not in my tent right now.

Today it’s time to move to our second destination together. Together with my brother my parents have decided to spend one week in the lush green rain forest in La Fortuna and one week on the Pacific beach in Jaco. However that means that I have to conquer 150 kilometers and a mere 3250 height meters to get there as well. And of course I don’t want to miss any second that I could be together with my parents so I better get to it.

The beauty of Costa Rica compared to for example Nicaragua and Guatemala is that there are perfectly asphalted B-roads. In Nicarague you had only two options: highways with asphalt or small road with gravel. So the road is a beautiful one-lane winding road through the lush green rain forest. The gradients of the climbs are irregular and at times super steep. During lunch and at the end of the day I’m pretty cooked. No wonder because at the end of the day I find out that I’ve beaten my old personal record of amount of height meters in a day with a hundred meters. At the end of the day it starts to rain again and I find a little playground with a little roofed shelter. I ask around and the neighbors are fine with me camping there. The rain turns into a massive storm that blows over with deafening thunderstruck real close by.

I shoot into my cycling clothes that are still wet. I make myself a good and heavy breakfast and top up with coffee. Afterwards I need to poop and I instantly miss having a holiday home at my disposal. So the plan is to quickly pack up and cycle to the nearest big supermercado of which I know has public toilets. However when I hop on my bike I notice I have a flat. First things first: armed with my baby wipes I search for the nearest bushes that are out of sight and do a number two. Nothing beats pooping in the wild, why don’t I do this more often?

When I start pedaling I notice that yesterday was a big day indeed. My legs feel sore and my body empty. My clothes never get fully dry because when I hit the first climb of the day the humidity makes me swim in my clothes another time. The surroundings are beautiful with rolling green hills and clouds that are just skimming over the top. After all the climbing I fly down over curly cute farm roads. I descend a buzzing 1500 meters and before I know it I’m back on sea level. The heat and humidity slaps me in the face again. I find myself sitting in an air conditioned gas station for an hour trying to find some remaining energy.

At the end of the day I cross the ‘crocodile bridge’. People told me about it, but I thought it would be a tourist scam, like a theme park or a zoo for which you have to pay entrance. But I’ll be damned! There really are just crocodiles chilling on the banks of a wide brown river here. There’s like ten of them and they don’t do much besides letting themselves be photographed by the numerous tourists that stop here on there bus tours.

I don’t know how, but I make it to Jaco. My parents have picked up the live-location beacon I’ve send via WhatsApp and again are there to welcome me like two very proud parents. Luckily dad has also received my “Dad, I’m almost there, please put some beers in the fridge.”-message.

SegmentHeight meters
1. La Fortuna – San Ramon (Costa Rica)2.209
2. Tuxtla Guttierez – San Cristobal de Las Casas (Mexico) 2.109
3. San José – La Fuente (Costa Rica)1.867
4. Panajachel – Antigua (Guatemala)1.855
Height meters in one day record with the Koga Miyata Worldtraveler-S with a weight just below 50kg.

It rains like crazy in the night and I’m seriously wondering how my tent would survive this whenever all of this luxury comes to an end. The showers here are full-on tropical and whenever it starts it doesn’t drizzle, it pours down. Within 15 minutes the streets are drowning and the water reaches to above the ankles.

I’ve been pushing these last two days to get to Jaco as fast as possible. It’s weird because I don’t want to miss a second being together with my parents on the one hand but on the other I also feel that being around them for too long sometimes makes me feel annoyed. I want to be around them and take as much advantage of this quality time as possible, but also I am used to doing my own thing for so long now and this requires some patience hanging out with them.

I enjoy the little things that are totally new for my parents but for me are normal by now. They’ve never been on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. My mom constantly has to make pictures of all the beautiful and bright colored plants that she sees. My dad wonders why there’s bars in front of the windows and why the houses don’t have living rooms. And then on top of it we get to experience an earthquake whilst having dinner at the KFC (don’t judge us, it was a long day and we needed a quick dinner). First the three of us all independently think that we are just dizzy or a bit light in the head. But then we realize it is our surrounding that is shaking and making everything wobble for a bit.

We visit the National Park of Manuel Antonio, a true paradise where jungle meets white sandy beaches. We swim in the warm waters while overlooking all the beauty around us. We see howler and white-faced monkeys and are amazed by the human features in their faces. And then five minutes before the park closes we finally see a sloth that we so desired to see. These animals only appear in this corner of the world and are hard to spot. With that our Costa Rica Wildlife Counter finalizes to this list:

  • A Sloth
  • Green and red parrots
  • Two snakes
  • Multiple toucans
  • Hummingbirds
  • Many coati (like red panda or raccoon)
  • Howler and white-faced (capuchin) monkeys
  • Many beautiful birds

Something that isn’t fun is to see that my parents are becoming older. Just like any other kid I always thought that my parents were indestructible, that my parents would be there for the rest of my life. But now seeing them here, little cracks in these indestructible appearances slowly are getting visible. Not only are they getting older in their faces, they also have all sorts of ailments now: pains while walking, bad vision, etc. I guess it’s a good wake up call that one day they’ll be gone and I’d better make use of the time that I can still spend together with them in this life.

My dad really wants to rent two more bicycles so we can make a little trip on the bike together. We cycle along the pan-american highway for a bit before deviating into a little coast road. We stop for panoramic views and to make pictures. We spot some beautiful red long-tailed parrots. We make sufficient ice-coffee stops and make our way back to Jaco for a good lunch.

The lice are gone by now due to numerous treatments with the shampoo and the comb. The park we are staying has a nice big swimming pool which we frequently visit for a pool-side beer around 4PM. We play some more Rummikub and other board games in the evenings. And before I know it our last night together is there. We have dinner at a restaurant and have our last nightly walk along the boardwalk of Jaco.

In the morning everybody packs their bags and we head out for one more breakfast together in an American diner-style restaurant with pancakes and coffee-refills straight from the pot. We cannot seem to get enough of this, of each other, of our time together. I walk them to the bus station where we have our last hugs and goodbyes. It’s been precious and enjoyed every second of it.

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2 Replies to “Costa Rica I: Big Reunion with my Parents”

  1. Op dit verhaal zaten we al even te wachten vooral ook omdat wij een van de hoofdpersonen waren . Dit keer heb ik het niet droog gehouden , omdat ik weer voelde hoe fijn en bijzonder het was om na 10 mnd met elkaar weer 2 weken intens samen te zijn
    Dankjewel Marijn voor die tijd en dit mooie verhaal xxx

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