We were a bit early for breakfast so Rachael did some poses on the yoga platform.
Yesterday was a bit overcast, the first overcast day we have had on the whole trip. It was still very hot though. Today was blue blue blue and hot hot hot. It is mental how soaked you get after just ten minutes of riding, or pumping up a flat tyre. This morning we loaded the bike and did our count down. Three, two, one, go and no go. Flat front tyre. It must be a slow one as it was fine the previous night, so I just pumped it up to see how long it would take to go down. As I was pumping the tyre up we heard this massive thud next to us, followed by some falling branches. Then once we focused we noticed that a big iguana had fallen out of the tree and just landed next to us. We don’t know if it was its plan to jump, or whether it was dozing and slid off. One thing for sure you don’t want one of those landing on your head!
We left our accommodation on a nice quiet gravel track. Within minutes we were in the centre of the town called Nosara. Where our accommodation was they told us the land across the road was going for 1.7 million dollars. You could tell all the houses around there were in the millions. The owner of the converted shipping containers where we stopped said their business was on the market for 2 million dollars. It is a nice area, with a centre with boutiques style shops, a bakery and an organic supermarket but we could not understand why people would want to spend that much on a property when it is so busy and noisy just five minutes down the road. There were lots of places that we rode through that were rural and quiet and you would have thought that would be more desirable. If you are thinking of retiring or emigrating to Costa Rica then you will find land for sale all over . Signs are everywhere. Places in the mountains, places on the beach and places in between. You could have your pick here.
Tut tut taxis are all around this town.
We were only on this busy road for about ten minutes and we turned off on to the peaceful gravel roads. Within minutes we had Turkey Vultures flying over head.
We were not riding long before we had to cross another river. I think if we would have had more rain these crossings would have been more difficult and more worrying with the amount of crocodile signs we are now seeing.
We saw quite a few birds again today. Including the Crested Caracara and a Great Egret.
We also saw a teeny tiny blackbird. Probably the smallest bird I have ever seen in the wild. I am still doing research to find out what it might be.
By the way we have been seeing and calling them cows, but their official name is a Zebu.
The real treat today came when we were just about to start a climb and Rachael said “Look, there is a monkey right above us!” I quickly stopped to grab my phone. It was a Howler Monkey using its tail on another wire for balance.
We stopped at a photo sign to take in the views. They were very good.
With about four mile to go we needed to lube the chain as it was squeaking after the river crossing, we did that at a bar whilst having our daily refreshing smoothie.
There are always plenty of dogs around. Here they have loads of my favourite breed, the Australian Cattle Dog.
We got to our accommodation and checked into a posh little cabina. It has a pool and a nice restaurant attached to it. It is actually called Buddha Retreat Hotel.
We had a shower and headed to the beach.
On the way stopping off for fish tacos.
The beach is like a double cove and you can bathe on either side. The tide was out so more rocks were exposed, but it was lovely and would look completely different with the tide in.
I had a little dip in the see. As the waves came in and out over the rocks loads of crabs would be exposed and then run away. They are called Sally Lightfoot Crabs.
As mentioned, the Turkey Vultures are everywhere!
We then went back to the accommodation and used the pool with my inner tube to find the tiny tiny hole. Once repaired it was time for swimming.
