December 10

December 10 -

Sitting at the Tortilla Flat Bar. Packed and ready to head down south, and into Panama. Arrived in Dominical yesterday morning. We woke from the RocaDura Hostel slash restaurant bar a tad before 6 a.m. to catch the 6:30 bus out of San Geraldo de Rivas and back to San Isidro. From my last post, we had one last night in Grecia before we were heading down to meet the English girls in San Jose (the capital), and then heading to the Chirripo base camp. So I’m missing 3 days of stuff…

We arrived in San Isidro for the first time 3 days ago after a decent bus ride from San Jose (2810 C), hmm, maybe like 4 hours or so. Had a pretty easy last night in Grecia, went out to a local Soda (Spanish word for small restaurant), and watched some Spanish subtitled American movie – transformers I believe. Got our breakfast made early at 8 a.m. and were off to get the bus by around 9. (900 C)

So the next goal was Cerro Chirripo. The highest point in Costa Rica – 3820 meters. A two day hike where you hike about 14.5 km to a compound for the night, and the next morning do the 5.3 to the summit. After the Summit you hike the entire way back to town, something like 20 + kilometers. On top of that we had to walk about 2 kilometers just to get to the trailhead….

We pulled into the base camp town – San Geraldo de Rivas around 4:50 p.m. and just caught the ranger station open for a couple more minutes. We digested the feat that awaited us and the prices. $15 a day to be in the park and $10 to stay at the lodgings near the top, total of $40 per person.

We said adios to the driver who brought us over the ridge on a dirt road being repaired – from San Isidro - for $24 split 4 ways. Didn’t see much of San Isidro, got off the bus and immediately started haggling prices to get to San Geraldo de Rivas. No one could beat the first guy’s prices and he even dropped a buck down from $25.

Once through with the ranger we started the walk down the dirt road into the small sleepy mountain town of San Geraldo. Tired, hungry and getting late we settled on the second place we looked at for $10 a person, all splitting the same room with 2 queen beds – called Roca Dura. The first place we checked was the same price but didn’t have a kitchen we could use so that was that. The English girls’ packs were about 60 pounds and I can’t imagine they were really enjoying walking up the steep inclines through town looking for more options. The place was great though. Its was a Sarge Labenski special, gnarly tree limbs for everything – frames, beams, handles, tables, benches, bed frames, etc. The place seemed to have only one room that you could rent, down the stairs into a kind of cave atmosphere set into the rocks, built around a huge rock and walls made of a kind of composite of smaller rocks and concrete, all mixed with gnarled wood designs.

So we all made pasta had some beer and rum and tried to get to sleep early, which wasn’t too much of a problem seeing how buses and travel seem to wear on you, and woke at about 7 a.m.

We grabbed our sleeping bags from a hostel further up the road and on the way to the trailhead, $10 deposit and $6 for the rental fee. Downed a quick cup of coffee for around a buck and embarked on what was to be fairly serious little hike. Armed with rations for two days: tuna, bread, beans, sweets, can of mixed veggies and a can of mixed fruit, a sauce packet, a half kilo bologna, and some trail mix type treats. (~$30)

Maybe the longest single hike I’ve ever done, a total of around 45 kilometers – x (.6) = 27 miles in about 28 hours! Starting altitude around 1500 k (4500ft) to 3820 k (~12000ft), around a 1.3 miles. Legs feeling it 2 days later – with all that said – I was definitely hurting much worse after the Ometepe Volcano hike.

I think I’ll let the pictures tell the story here. One note was that we woke at the mountain lodging at 3 a.m. to hike the 2 hours to the summit for sunrise. Freezing up there!

Beers and pasta to celebrate! Success, and back to Roca Dura for one more night.

… so to get up to date –

Heading to panama in a couple of hours. Leaving from the beach town Dominical, where we arrived to yesterday from San Isidro. Recommendation here. Losts of gringos but real chill and no sign of nutty teenagers just getting smashed. Mostly it’s a surfer spot, nice waves breaking for most of the day, and next a lazy river of I imagine mostly salt for a good ways in. Rigged up the rod and got my first fishing of the whole trip. Shawn and I each catching the same type. Let one go and gave the other to a local.