Sept. 22

We got up a 6 am, figuring we'd need a lot of time to get over some hellacious hills in the 44km from Fortuna to Arenal. We had had a preview of some of the hills right outside of Arenal during our volcano tour and some of them were awful.

It was bad but not terrible. To our surprise, we made the first 11km in about an hour. That's when we met a couple, Amy (who rode Ragbrai this year!) and Charlie, also from San Francisco, who told us about the awesomness of Taboacan, the expensive hot springs resort just another 1km up the road.

Fourteen bucks is a huge amount of money in Costa Rica, but I was totally into spending that much to reward me and Eric for making it up the hill. Talking to Amy and Charlie helped whet our appetites.

So one kilometer later, I was ready to stop. Left to his own devices, Eric would have rolled on, but since I'd been lusting after Taboacan loudly, he deferred to my weakness. We went in and had a total blast.

I'll sum it up this way. the place is full of little dipping pools--ranging form quite hot to very cool. All you do is put your stuff in a locker, let the bar run your credit card, and then walk around, dipping all the pools, while drinking batidos or cervezas of whatever. The gardening is amazing. Of course I can't name a single flower, but there were many of them, lining all the paths between the pools. Every pool we sat in I felt like we felt like we were in Eden. From some of the pools you could see Volcan Arenal, a big green cone with its head stuck in the fog.

Eric's favorite was the main pool. You could go in on a waterslide or down a little pool ladder, and at the end, you could swing up to the bar. The bar stools were underwater. All you had to do was get over there, sit down, and then order some drinks, to be charged to your tab. You'd think that drinking like that, with a tab, would be extremely dangerous. But after five hours of sucking down cervezas and batidos, our bar tab was only US$10. We also got lunch. That was awesome but pricey at $18 for two.

Locals get a special cheaper rate. But we didn't see any locals there. If definitely felt weird to be in Costa Rica in a place with no Costa Ricans. But what the hell. We spend most of our days on the road, waving to them and talking to them and eating at their sodas and really experiencing the place, so we figure an occasional splurge isn't so bad.

Of course we paid the price for that. We finally wenched ourselves away at around 3 P.M., to ride the last 33km or so to our next town, Arenal. The ride was brutal, and for the last 9km or so, the road was unpaved. It was black, volcanic sand, so it wasn't nearly as bad as some of the other roads, which had huge rocks sticking up every which way.

We were doing pretty well on the road when Eric got a flat. It took awhile to fix, and by the time we were home, it was dark. After that, the road seemed horrible because we couldn't see it. Our halogen head lamps were running pretty low, and the black color sucked up all the light. Plus, the only way my light would fit on my riser handlebars was to have the light pointing up and to the right--in other words I couldn't use my own light at all. I rode behind Eric and to his right, so he could use some of my light. Finally I had to get out a maglite to help see the road. We went extremely slow to avoid killing ourselves. Fortunately there wasn't any other traffic.

When we finally made it to Arenal, we hit pavement again--and a huge hill that went on for five blocks or so. Asking around for a hotel "muy barato" (very cheap) we ended up at a place called Cabinas Rodriguez.

That night, we met our first expat Americans since Alajuela. We were walking down the street, when they started calling to us, offering beer and hot dogs for sale. They pushed out milk crates for us to sit on.

They were fun to talk to. The fist guy, Dave, had left California, where he said he was working 100 hours a week, about six years ago. We asked why and he said that Costa Rican women were loving and affectionate, compared to American women, who were cold and powerful. I thought it was funny that this guy who came for the women was sitting around only with other guys, so I asked, Where are the women? He answered that he had married a Costa Rican woman, and that she was at their home watching the kids, while he was our having a beer with the guys.

Dave also said he was tired of paying what he figured was 58% tax on US earning (federal, state, and local combined). And what do you get for that? He asked. The police get you with an ounce of dope in you pocket and they say you're a dealer and they take your home and your car and you bank account without proof. Dave didn't say that actually happened to him, but he seemed a bit bitter.

Frank had come from New York, and the last guy, a very very nice guy who I think was named Roger, came from Florida. Roger ran the hot dog stand where we all were sitting.

They filled us in a little bit about the country. They said Limon is a horrible area because the federal government, which collects taxes there as well as elsewhere, doesn't put money back into Limon. Their theory: The government is racist, depriving Limon of funds because most people there are black.

They also talked a little about corruption, saying that basically ,it happens in Costa Rica, too, though not as much or as bad as it happens in the rest of Latin America. If you wont to start a business they told us, everyone tells you NO Problem, until after sink you money in. Then suddenly, you need a signature that costs U.S. $10,000. I have no idea if that's true or not, but hey, it happens in the U.S., too.

They also confirmed one of my suspicions: that there are no--or hardly any--book stores in Costa Rica. All over the country, we've seen places called bookstores, but they are really stationery stores with maybe a few magazines and a few books on how to teach your kids about sexuality, while of course, keeping Christ in mind. That and pornography are the only kind of books I've seen for sale here.

Next: More bike tourists, and the road to Canas.

Costa Rica Main Page  Main Page