Off to Liberia CR

October 29, 2022

Today was a fairly short ride with a long downhill so we didn’t set off until 9AM. The first half had some ups and down but our guides failed to tell us how steep 2 of the climbs were. If you are a cyclist you have probably heard the term Spanish flat which means a 1-3% up grade not actually flat. Costa Rican rollers are not 4-6% as I would expect but rather 10-15%. Once again we ride quite a bit of gravel and some roads with serious pot holes. The best part of the day was the 20km downhill into Liberia. The whole route was about 50-50 gravel and pavement. It was still hot with the temperature reaching 31C/89F with a humidex of 39C/102F at lunch time.

There was more gravel than this maps shows and that little blip before the 10km was a 22% climb for about a km.

At the top of the big climb we reached another wind farm.

A group selfie at the top by the wind farm.

Stream coming out the volcano area near where we stayed last night.

We are leaving the volcano region and heading toward the beaches.

I did not fall here I just wanted to give you an idea of the size of some the potholes that we have to navigate.

The biggest climb of the day which only 4 people managed to ride to the top, I was not 1 of them. My heart rate was 145 pushing the bike up the hill.

Resting at our fruit and water stop before the start of the downhill.

Standing back while a farmer moved his cattle across the road.

This is where we stopped for lunch and the food was so good we went back for dinner. The woman who runs the place loves Canadians because she studied at the University of Ottawa.

Tim and I had a wonderful steak dinner with “savage” potatoes aka grilled potato wedges with rosemary.

Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 142 km (88 miles)

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