Costa Rica!

Posted by Fin on 26 February 2010

We stupidly ignored the sound advice and arrived at the Nica / Costa Rica border at 5pm on Sunday Evening...right behind 3 coach loads of tourists and hundreds of locals returning to Costa Rica to work for the week...We queued into the night for our passports to be stamped and pedalled off into pitch darkness a few hours later. The first sign of light was at a gas station, where we promply set up our tents behind petrol pump number 4..an ideal first nights accomodation in beautiful Costa Rica.

We decided to cycle down the Nicoya Penninsula on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. It was an immediate contrast to the other Central American countries. With tourist development comes cash and with cash comes better environmental and natural resource management. After all, if the decision makers have any sense, they will realise that its worth protecting the very resource that the tourists come to see. It appears Costa Rica's Government has got it right...very right. Gone was the domestic waste on the side of the roads and in its place household metal bins with said domestic waste waiting to be collected once a week by the Government waste services trucks. I was impressed.

Costa Rica has not let me down - and is very much the picture perfect image you see in post cards or holiday brochures. The Government had the foresight to protect 23% of the country as National Park back in the 80s and is now reaping the rewards. Tourists flow in and out bringing in essential dollars to help the Government manage and protect rainforests and beaches. Money that would have been spent on a National Army, is redirected towards education and health - nice!

We steered clear of the touristy beach areas, having had a good dose of beaches already and headed straight for Jaco where Alex's had some friends running a horse riding business. Chris and Andrea moved from Cornwall in the UK about 8 years ago and have never looked back. One can hardly blame them - they live in a lovely condo equipped with pool right opposite gorgeous Hermosa Beach and lease a huge area of pristine virgin rainforest for their daily horse riding tours. Alex and I spent 3 wonderful says with them chilling out, horse riding in the rain forest and generally taking it easy before heading south towards the untouched Osa Penninsula. (Video below of us being ovetaken by a road race and then managing to keep up with 50kg bikes!)

28 comments. Tags: Fin, Alex. Location: Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica