to Dominical: back to the Pacific Ocean

June 1, 2017

We're on the road again early. It rained heavily last night again, and this morning the air is very humid, but cool due to lingering cloud cover. We don't have very far to go today, but there are many small hills at first, then between Coronado and Uvita the hills become steeper, the road has passing lanes on the uphills. Overhead, we see pairs of parrots fly, a toucan, and hear howler monkeys in the rain forest, none where we can get a picture. The Pacific Ocean is to our west, the road skirts dense jungle with huge old-growth trees and areas that have been cleared for palm-oil plantations. There are many fancy looking hotel resorts and private homes up in the hills overlooking the ocean.

At our second stop for a cold drink we have a bad experience with the woman overcharging us for our drinks. When Patrick complains he is told because we ate some of our own cookies in the restaurant. There is a poster at the entrance that details the do's and don'ts in this establishment and things get nastier when we take a photo of it, "No photos" the woman says, who has until then been engrossed in her soap opera. Then she explains how we are on CCTV camera. How can there be no photos if you are filming us at the same time? We ride off after one more photo and wishing her well with her restaurant.

Dominical is only a couple of kilometers down the road and obviously a surfers hang-out. We ride through town and see several interesting restaurants. Our accommodations are at the Cool Vibe Hostel, indeed a nice place with private rooms, a small pool, kitchen and walking distance to town and the beach. Lunch is at an American style brewpub, with a nice IPA and cerviche for Patrick and a red-ale and salad for Rachel. Dinner is a little further down the road at a "fusion" restaurant that does a pretty good attempt at Thai food.

We had considered taking a restday here, but these tourist town are expensive. Food and accommodation are same prices as at home and we quickly blow through our budget here.

Today we leave the Pan American that goes inland towards San Jose. We follow route 34 that stays along the coast

Watch out for crossing turtles. We don't see any turtles, but we do see two parrots and a toucan flying overhead. In the jungle we can hear howler monkeys doing their thing.

Lunch stop number one. No problems here, except the baked goods are a bit disappointing.

Lunch stop number two: rules and regulations! We break rule #1 and are fined 500 Colons, just under a dollar. Too bad we had already paid before we figured out we had been robbed.

Arrived at Dominical. The dirt road leads to the beach and our hostel.

Where there are tourists there are t-shirt sellers.

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 32,487 km (20,174 miles)

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