Some of you may have read and remember the ride report from last year’s spring break trip that my Son and I took to Baja.
https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,71204.0.html. This year we went bigger with a off road riding trip to Costa Rica with
https://www.mototourscostarica.com/ As I mentioned in the first ride report, my Son and I have been riding off road since he was old enough to ride and XR50 , but now he is in college and I have to bribe him to spend time with me.
First of all before I get into the pictures, I’d like to say that Moto Tours Costa Rica is a first rate outfit. Very professional, delivered what they promised on time and with no extra costs. They picked us up from the airport in San Jose and took us to our Hotel, then picked us up in the morning where we were taken to meet our guide and mount up on our KTM 450 EXC’s. All lodging, bikes, fuel, guide, breakfast, and lunch were included in the trip. We were only responsible for Suppers and any drinks or snacks we purchased on the road or in the evening.
Ok, into the pictures.
Here is a shot of me in the beginning of the trip, notice the dirt on my face, there was lots of dirt/dust it was the dry season in Costa Rica.
My Son Robert, as you can see we carried our street clothes, toiletries, and spare riding clothes in back packs. As there was just myself, my Son, and our guide we chose to carry our stuff in backpacks. For larger parties of at least 5 a chase truck carries your stuff from one overnight stop to another. This is also available for smaller tours, but at additional cost.
Here is a shot of the machinery, KTM 450 EXC’s expertly prepared and in excellent condition.
Here is a shot of my Son and I
Here is a shot from a typical Costa Rican trail, the country is very mountainous, hence the rocks, notice the lack of dirt and the abundance of rock on this trail. This trail is much steeper than the picture shows, my Son had gotten crossed up and I parked and walked up to assist and fell down just getting up to him!
This shot if of my Son crossing a cable suspension bridge.
This shot is the manitory food shot taken at one of our two costal overnight locations on the Nicoya Penninsula. All the food was excellent. In both the coastal towns there are tourists and resteraunts offered both Costa Rican and American food choices, we always chose the Costa Rican food and were never disappointed. This is fish, mussels, tomato, baked potato.
Here is a shot from a lunch spot on the coast, very nice open air restaurant, with good food.
A shot of me, as you can see by the dust on my face, I truly got a taste of Costa Rica each and every day.
Here is a shot of the three of us, Willie our guide, myself and my Son Robert at a carnival that was being held down the beach from where we ate one night. The main event of the carnival was a Rodeo with horse riding, calf roping and bull riding, really big and mean bulls. The local girls were out in force at this carnival and my Son had a great time flirting with them in his limited Spanish. Along with our guide Willie’s help he was having lots of conversation with some very attractive Costa Rican ladies, or “chicas” as Willie called them. I think Willie was checking out some “chicas” when this shot was taken.
It was the week of Easter when we were there and as you might imagine, Costa Rica is a predominantly Catholic country where Easter is celebrated all week. The Beer we are drinking is a Costa Rican beer called Pilsner, it has been brewed in Costal Rica since 1888. Due to the warm climate of Costa Rica this is a lighter lager beer, but has more flavor than a typical American lager. There is also the Imperial beer brand which we also drank a few of. My Son is only 19 years old and a big fan of the more lenient drinking ages of both Mexico where we visited last year and Costa Rica.
Here is a shot of Robert as we are waiting to board a ferry for a 70 minute ride across the Gulf of Nicoya back to the mainland.
Here is a shot of more difficult trail on the mainland. We were in the jungle or forest where it was more moist slick clay than the dry dusty trails we had ridden on previously.
More of the same, Costa Rica is nowhere to learn how to ride off road, trails were quite challenging at times. We road dirt roads, asphalt and trials, slick eroded trails, rocky dusty trials and some extremely steep. And while going up ascending these trails is difficult, going downhill was just a difficult at times, traction was always sketchy and gravity can be cruel.
Here is a shot of our guide Willie working on my bike. We had just filled up with fuel a short time ago, but after climbing this steep rutted slick trail to this point my bike stalled and wouldn’t start. Turns the extra fuel filter they had added to these fuel injected bikes has additional fuel line that had rubbed on an engine bolt till a hole was worn though and all my fuel had leaked out! I was out of fuel. No worries Willie quickly removed the additional filter, re-routed the line, siphoned fuel from the other bikes and we were on our way.
Here is a shot of a river bed in the dry season. The locals used it as a highway, the river or what was left of it wandered back and forth along the river bed for many kilometers. We followed this for the majority of one morning and crossed the river 30 – 40 times during this portion of the day. We were quite wet by our lunch stop that day, but no worries as it felt good being so warm.
This gentleman was the proprietor of one of the places we stopped for lunch. His pet parrot would pretend to talk into his cell phone.
This is a shot from our last day. My Son is standing next to a vertical fin from an aircraft that crashed into the mountain top many years ago. This is part of the memorial to the victims of that crash.
This is a shot of me from the same mountain top, I think we were at approximately 7000 feet in elevation. Willie our guide is in the background.
This was a fantastic trip, our guide Willie treated us and introduced us to others more as friends than tourists. We were really submerged in the Costa Rican culture. These photos and descriptions are just a sample of the experiences and people we encountered on this trip. I highly recommend this to anyone considering a trip like this. As for off road experience, this is not a trip for beginners, although I’m sure they could customize a trip to individuals with less off road skills, sticking to mostly dirt and asphalt roads.
