Costa Rica is the only country on this trip to Central
America that is not a new one for me . I spent about two weeks in the country in
late April of 2005, split between the beach town of Tamarindo on the Nicoya
Peninsula in the northwestern part of the country and the San Jose area from
which I did a number of day trips to surrounding regions. I quite liked the
country then for its nature and wildlife and the surfing lessons I took at the
beach but also found it to be quite tame a travel destination after some of the
more adventurous ones I had done in southern South America, East Africa, and
the Middle East in the years just before it.

There are many differences immediately notable between Costa
Rica and the Central American countries north of it I had been traveling
through. Costa Rica is, of course, a much higher income and more developed
country than Nicaragua, El Salvador, or Guatemala. And as with some of the
other developing countries I’ve traveled in more than once with a significant
amount of time between trips there are many changes in Costa Rica since my
visit 11 years ago . For one thing, the roads in the country are very good and
improving with more divided highway than existed then. One of the things that’s
notable is the large extent of protected area in Costa Rica as you travel
through the country. Although much of the country has been deforested for
grazing land and cropland, there still is a lot of forested and wild country in
the many national parks and reserves. And there’s plenty of wildlife around in
other places too. On this tour we crossed paths with wildlife such as Howler
Monkeys and Coatis several times nowhere near national parks.

On the other hand, Costa Rica can in places feel a lot like
home with Walmart, McDonalds, and all the other American chain businesses. And
the cost of things is a lot like home too, if not more expensive. I recall
Costa Rica not being a cheap destination back in 2005, but now prices of most
things are at least on par with those in the U.S. But the ATMs work
consistently, the service is good, most people speak English, and you can drink
the tap water .

The drive into the country from Nicaragua was through northwestern
Guanacaste Province, the driest area of Costa Rica in the dry season. The
countryside looks somewhat Texas like with lots of ranchland and cattle and
shrubby open woodland. The first night was in a small town in the cooler
highlands named Tilaran. The cool breeze through my room was wonderful, and I
probably had my best night of sleep in weeks after many in hot rooms with only
a fan in Nicaragua and then a few chilly air conditioned ones after I joined
the tour.

We had an early start the next day for our first day of
cycling in Costa Rica, a 70 kilometer/43 mile ride around the western and
northern sides of Lago Arenal and on downhill into the touristy town of Las
Fortunas. There was option for skipping the first third of the ride, the part
with most of the bigger and steeper hills, but being the he-man that I am I
decided to go for the whole shebang. Heck, this ride will have the normal bus
backup for a cycling trip, unlike the mountain bike ride from hell on Ometepe
Island in Nicaragua .

And I was right in going for the whole deal. Although it was
a long day the scenery around the lake was very attractive and the cycling
entirely on paved roads was significantly easier. It was, though, what our
guide Christopher (“Fez”) calls “Central American flat”, which means no
something like no overall elevation gain or loss but lots of bumps and hills
along the way along the lake.

Lake Arenal in northwestern Costa Rica is Central America’s
second largest manmade lake after Lake Gatun on the Panama Canal, and is a
major hydroelectric power facility completed in the late 1960s that provides
Costa Rica with a major part of its electric energy needs.

With the first and hardest third of the ride over, we met
those who chose the shorter version of the ride at a German bakery in the
village of Nuevo Arenal and continued up and down along the lakeshore. Between
being at a somewhat higher elevation that I was at two days earlier in
Nicaragua and greater cloud cover, the heat on the ride wasn’t quite so excruciating,
but that didn’t stop me from being completely soaked in my own sweat the entire
day .

We stopped for a picnic lunch “Fez” prepared on one side of
the day, a feast that included the usual meat, cheese, and veggie sandwich
fixings plus mashed beans, guacamole, tortilla chips, chocolates, and a wide
variety of tropical fruits. From there it was mostly downhill for the last 11
miles (18 kms) into La Fortuna, a ride with great views of the Arenal Volcano.