Day 633
Familia Rosa to the rescue
Back in the Baja I had set up a WhatsApp group for cyclists riding the Americas. It’s now got over a 100 members, riders from all over the world. We share tips on route choice, accommodation, bike shops, low points, high points, and much more. We know roughly where people are, and I knew that Brian who we had met in Nicaragua was close by with Matt from the UK. So we arranged to meet one evening, these encounters are so important. It feels like meeting up with friends. Chatting to a fellow Brit is extra special too. We have a connection, it’s hard to explain but I guess it just provides a bit of home. We are booked on the same boat around the Darien Gap so expect we will see a lot of them in the coming weeks. They had opted for the cheapest accommodation in town, we paid 10 dollars more. They got stairs to carry everything up and as many ants as they wanted. We got agua caliente and considered our extra dollars well spent!
In the morning we stopped at a small park to see some spheres. They are believed to have been made by the now extinct Disquis, and over 300 of them have been found on the Disquis Delta and Isla de Cano. Back in 2014 the area was declared a UNESCO world heritage site, and the spheres were adopted as the symbol of Costa Rica. Awful as it is to say we were slightly underwhelmed by the spheres, but we were enchanted by the park they were set in. The trees were stunning, one had a flower that looked wonderful and the scent was just perfect. Another had a bark that looked as if an artist had painted it. Then it got better. All the way through Central America we had been on the lookout for toucans. We had resigned ourselves that we probably would not see any as they are generally to be found higher up into the hills of the rain forest. Then I spotted something with what appeared to be a large yellow beak. I grabbed my binoculars and there they were. A pair of toucans. They get my vote for the symbol of Costa Rica!
We had to go. We are now at the pre-rainy season. This means dry mornings, unbearable heat by midday, and then the rain comes down. The ride was stunning, rain forest as a back drop, weird coloured frogs hopping along, and picture perfect beaches. But when the rain arrived, with no hard shoulder to keep us safe, Costa Rica lost some of its magic for us, as drivers, clearly keen to get away from the downpour, seemed to put their foot down and blasted by barely giving us any room. We’d had enough. We pushed on and headed across yet another border and into Panama.
Here we had our safety net of a wide hard shoulder back again. The views were not as interesting, the road nowhere near the rainforest that covers over 60% of Panama but at least we felt safe. The problem with riding on the main road is it leads to more punctures. First I had one, then Tom. We rushed to repair Tom’s as the sky was blackening, thunder and fork lightning seemed just feet away, and the rain started to fall. Then disaster, Tom’s spindle, which secures the front wheel to the bike snapped. We had no spare. We were not going anywhere. Miles from any shelter never mind a bike shop, we donned our waterproofs and, thumb out, tried to hitch a lift out of there. For nearly half an hour vehicles flew by as we got drenched. We didn’t look that appealing, I couldn’t blame them for not stopping. I tried a new tactic, thumb out until they were nearly upon us then I put my hands together in prayer. Unbelievably it worked! A family heading home to Santiago (the nearest big town) offered us a lift. Over 100 miles of pretty much empty countryside, so this was perfect. Though sad to break ‘The Line’, this was our only option. Not only did this wonderful family take us to Santiago, they drove us into the city, at rush hour, grid-locked traffic, with monsoon-like rain turning the roads into rivers. First to a bike shop then to a hotel. The kindness of strangers humbled us yet again.
