to Puntarenas: crocodile river

June 4, 2017

"Look at the parrots" Patrick says. We see three pairs of parrots and a lone parrot take off flying together. Then the pairs peal off in different directions with the single one flying with one pair. A little way down the road, Patrick hears the squawking and gets a photo of a pair of parrots in a tree.

There were two brutal hills today, the first starting after 14 kms to Jaco. As we passed through Jaco, we saw a parking lot full cyclists getting ready to ride. It must be a Sunday and ciclovia time.

In between the two climbs we cross the "crocodile bridge". Well named, we stop along with other tourists to have a look, so many huge crocs! As we are about to set off, two cyclists pulling Bob trailers come across the bridge. So we all have a chat, exchanging information on routes. They are cycling Alaska to Ushuaia, then fly home to Australia.

The second hill is hot, after that we have a gradual downhill to the intersection with the highway between San Jose and Puntarenas. There is a toll booth but nobody tries to stop us as we zip by the barrier. At other on-ramps we see no-cyclists signs, but it doesn't seem to be enforced. We see a couple of racers and nearer to Puntarenas a large group of Sunday riders. The road gets back to the ocean at a large bay with a harbor. There is a bit of beach and people are swimming. We stop for some ice cream.

One more hill, then the turn-off for Puntarenas. The town is long and narrow on a spit of low laying land between the bay and a river estuary. It is the closest Beach town to San Jose and popular with Ticos on the weekends. It is not a pretty place though, fences, abandoned buildings and razorwire. Not a place to be out after dark.

The first budget hotel we check doesn't have the rooms cleaned yet. It looks okay and has a small pool, but no WiFi. We swing by another place that has been recommended by other cyclists expecting it is over our budget. But since it is off-season and the weekend crowd has departed she drops the price to 20,000C or about $35 for a nice room.

It is only a short walk to the beach where we find a nice seafood meal for dinner. This might be our last night near the Pacific Ocean.

We see several pairs of macaws fly over. These land in a nearby tree.

Crocodiles galore at the "crocodile bridge".

This one has its mouth open to cool down.

We meet two cyclists at the crocodile bridge. Ed and Gale are from Australia and are riding from Alaska to Ushuaia.

A statue for unknown reasons. we like the Costa Rica hat.

Cabinas Goosen in Puntarenas. It seemed over our budget on Booking.com, but they are willing to drop the price a bit on an off-season Sunday night.

Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 32,667 km (20,286 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0