Day 208 - 217: Costa Rica
Entering Costa Rica, I cycled 15 odd kms further to the next town and paid way too much for accommodation. This would be a theme for the next few days. Costa Rica is damn expensive.
The body at this point was in need of rest, so I took a rest day here. I tried to do some bike maintenance while here but ended up causing a major problem. With the rear wheel and brake pads off the bike, I pumped the brakes a little out of habit. This caused the brake calipers to become too far extended. The solution seems to be to gently but forcefully push them back into place. Which I did, but it caused some hydraulic fluid to be released. I guess this caused some loss of pressure or air bubbles in the system. Long story short is that my rear brake no longer works. Who needs brakes anyway?
I decided that a 60 km cycle the next day to the next bike shop would be fine. They tried their best and tuned up gearing and whatnot, but they said there was nothing they could do with the brakes. They said it needed to be replaced and they didn’t stock it. So we decided to swap the broken rear and working front brakes around so now at least it’s the rear brake that’s working.
I decided that this is sufficient and pretty safe, so I’ll try to work with this until Colombia where I’ll be taking enough time off the bike that I can order a replacement.
In one of the hostels I met a Russian couple who are doing a “human-powered circumnavigation of the globe,” including cycling the length of the Americas, skiing across Siberia in winter, and now prepping to kayak across the Atlantic. And people think I’m crazy…
The last few days I’ve also noticed some language differences. For example, people here say “con gusto” rather than “de nada.”
The following day I arrived in Jaco. It’s a cool little surfer town. Though in typical Costa Rican style, it’s very expensive. I did manage to find a cheapish hostel with a pool, so took 2 days rest here. First time taking 2 consecutive days in quite a while. I was a few countries behind on this journal, so got up to date here.
It has gotten so hot lately. Sleeping at night can be a struggle. I’ll be sweating all night. Sweat will form on me in random spots and then gravity will pull it down my body, waking me up by tricking me into thinking I have some creepy crawly on me.
Have started to develop calluses on the palms of my hands due to pressure from holding the handlebars so much.
The Costa Rican jungles are pretty cool.
Lost my bank card too. One of the silly things in Latin America is the ATMs give you your cash first before returning your card. This just seems like bad design. The card is far more important than the cash, so should be given back first so it isn’t forgotten surely… Anyway, I left it in an ATM. I didn’t realize until the next day when I started getting notifications of transactions. They tried a $100 transaction which didn’t go through due to lack of funds. They then made 6 smaller transactions totaling $40 before I managed to cancel the card.
I reported the card stolen and marked the fraudulent transactions. The form asked why I didn’t report it to the police. “I am on tour/holiday and it isn’t enough money to be worth stressing over and ruining my day by dealing with bureaucratic process in a foreign language,” I responded. 20 minutes later the transactions were reverted. I had a spare card which is now my main card. Though I now have no fault tolerance or backup, which feels risky, so I’ll order a new backup when in Colombia I think.
Stayed in another hostel the next night and met some cool people there.
Much of the cycling in Costa Rica is a lot of elevation gain but never getting above 300 feet. This means constant rolling hills without any flats.
Was plagued with punctures for a couple of days. One new and one old that I had plugged that kept re-puncturing.
And then I was at the Panama border. Exchange currency, pay a fee, exit stamp and entry stamp, and then I’m in Panama…
