Kaboom! 3.5 months in Central A. and base training is done for oh 10.! Capped it off with a splendid 5 day voyage back to San Jose from Panama.
Day 1 was a 3 hr hike a bike, 2 hr ride through the mtns. Met 12 Germans coming down the trail and was told I was out of luck as it was impossible to go up there with a bike. Hahahah. Funny people.
Day 2 got baked for 9 hrs in the sun. 4 crappy flats, 1 crash = broken off front derailleur and eventually a 35 km hitch with a bunch of grungy watermelon workers in there wagon to the un touristic town of Palma Norte.
Day 3 nice 3hr cruise along the ocean to gringo surf vill of Dominical. Spent the afternoon cross training (aka battling riptides and cruising around with a couple of Swedes.
Day 4 another nice cruise to Costa Rice tourist central of Manuel Antonio. Drafted a semi for 35 min. Pretty stoked. Monkeys, iguanas and swimming in the hostel.
Day 5 was a top notch 10 hr ride through the mtns back to SJ. Asked for directions to San Jose and was told ¨Nope, too far to bike¨. Alright, but which way is it. ¨Nope can’t be done on a bike in one day.¨ Alright I get the point. Asked 3 more people for directions (3 is the magic number as everybody will till you a different way). Once I had the 3 different directions and distances I took the average and headed out. First 3 hrs got sun baked royally. Next 3 hrs the road went up. Final 4 hrs were spent between being curled up in a ditch, riding backwards 4 km to pick up a lost glove, eating 2000 calorie sugar load followed by 2 hrs of ripping to my buddy Ronald´s town of Santa Ana. One last 20 min hill effort up to Paolo Montoyas house to watch him pack for his trip to Italia to race world cups for the summer then down to Ronalds house for a sleep.
Today I woke up broken and satisfied as the body is done for a few days.
Tommorow it is off to Vancouver.
Thank you Ronald, Paulo, the Tedman Family, the Wynn´s, and everyone else for helping make this voyage a memorable one!
At least you are making your return alive!