Day 298 – 311: Pura vida Costa Rica

March 13 – 26, 2025

In this segment we close out our visit to Nicaragua with a delightful visit to Granada, the oldest city in the Americas, established in 1524, and then move onto Costa Rica an ecotourism paradise that brought us closer to nature and had us camping again.

• Day 298 – Leon to Managua (Nicaragua) – 87k/373m climbing
• Day 299 – Managua to Granada – 54k/471m 
• Day 300 – Layover @ Granada
• Day 301 – Granada to Ometepe – 74k/325m
• Day 302 – Layover @ Ometepe – 53k/624m
• Day 303 – Ometepe to Rivas – 5km (ferry back to mainland Nicaragua)
• Day 304 – Rivas to Sonzapote (into Costa Rica)
• Day 305 – Layover @ Sonzapote – 4k (for grocery run)
• Day 306 – Sonzapote to Liberia – 67k/641m
• Day 307 – Liberia to (past) Nicoya – 93k/422m
• Day 308 – Nicoya to Puntarenas – 70k/418m
• Day 309 – Puntarenas to Jaco – 65k/676m
• Day 310 – Jaco to Dominical – 108k/283m
• Day 311 – Layover @ Dominical

Total trip distance: 8,429 miles (13,570 km)
Total trip climbing: 379,624 feet 
Countries: USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica
Number of flat tires (entire trip): 21 (almost all caused by small wires from steel belting of truck tires)
Number of flats (this segment): 1 (woo hoo!)

Granada, Nicaragua

We rode out of Leon, Nicaragua toward the city of Granada with a stopover in Managua. From what we’ve read these three cities have interesting political history with both Granada and Leon vying to be the capital of Nicaragua at one point in time. Apparently, Leon was the more liberal city and Granada was more conservative. A compromise was reached and Managua, in between Leon and Granada, was selected as the capital.

Leaving Managua was the craziest traffic we’d experienced since Mexico City. We rode for at least 10 miles with our “heads on a swivel” going with the flow but trying to be aware of everything around us. There were traffic control lights but they meant nothing – the traffic police at each intersection directed the flow.

The day after our arrival, when walking around Granada, we were approached by a man walking with a cane and his foot in a cast (from a moto accident) who offered us a boat tour of the Islets de Granada. After some negotiation we agreed to do a tour not knowing what to expect. We ended up on a private boat tour, all in Spanish, that was not so eco-friendly but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Our captain baited a monkey onto the boat and pulled flowers for Patricia. Typically our style is to appreciate nature with limited human disturbance – win some, lose some…we went along with the experience and had a nice time.

Ometepe, Nicaragua

We cycled onto Rivas and then ferried out to the double volcano island of Ometepe situated in Lake Nicaragua, Central America’s largest freshwater lake which was once considered the better trans Central American canal location before Panama was selected. This lake is also famous for freshwater sharks! 

We had to purchase three different tickets at three different locations – one for being foreigners, one for the bicycles, and one for the ferry – yet another example of Nicaraguan bureaucracy! 

Our ferry had certainly seen better days yet safely transported us over the 15km crossing. The wind caused 1 meter (3 ft) waves that made us feel like we were on an ocean and not a freshwater lake. We arrived on the island and quickly found the lovely, family run hostel we had booked ahead. We settled in and then went for supplies (food!) in the town just a few blocks away. 

The next day we bicycled unloaded, only carrying critical repair gear, around one of the island’s volcanoes. In total we biked 53 km (over 30 miles) and made several stops along the way to get a feel for island life. Most of the tourists rent scooters and stay off the 10km unpaved section of the loop so we received many curious looks (and several “thumbs up” of encouragement). 

Nicaragua to Costa Rica border crossing

We’d read horror stories about leaving Nicaragua & crossing into Costa Rica – in some reports people had spent 5 hour at the border doing Nicaraguan exit and Costa Rican entry requirement. So when we arrived we didn’t know what to expect but we smiled and nodded a lot and were very lucky we weren’t behind a busload of people. Ultimately we were in and out in 30 minutes, although Nicaragua did made us x-ray all of our bags *again* in order to leave the country.

We made it to Costa Rica!

After crossing the border we pedaled out to our accommodation (very) early but the hosts were understanding that the border didn’t take as long as we’d expected and let us check into our “budget” (read no AC) room. Later we would find out that our room was typically used for personal/small group tour guides while their clients stay in the much larger, nicer, and air-conditioned cabanas. We were delighted our “budget” room had everything we needed including a nice covered patio where we were able to enjoy being surrounded by Costa Rica’s natural resources.

This ecolodge, Cabanas Canas Castillo, was *amazing* – it was run, for almost 30 years, by a couple from Switzerland and it was truly an ecolodge – we didn’t feel greenwashed! They allowed the animals to be observed in their natural environment without baiting them, as we had experienced in Nicaragua. We saw two sloths (a mom & a juvenile), tons of spider monkeys, howler monkeys, and an amazing variety of trees while hiking trails created by the owner. The monkeys played in the trees just feet from our patio – sorry no pictures they move so darn fast!

We had only planned on staying one night but at 5:15 am the next morning we sent them a message asking if we could extend our stay. The room was available for another night but we were going to have neighbors. OK – we’ll take it! It was so nice to spend some time in nature – we felt like we’d been spending a lot of time in busy metro areas of Central America so this time was delectable. We talked a bit with our tour guide neighbors (they actually owned the German tour company) and learned that this ecolodge was one of the best in Costa Rica!

After two relaxing days at the ecolodge we were back on the road headed south and it proved to be one of our toughest riding days because of insanely strong crosswinds. We were both blown off the road a few times, and were so happy to finally arrive in Liberia, Costa Rica and have respite from the wind.

We’ve found Costa Rica to be the most expensive place we’ve traveled in Latin America so far – it is heavily touristed by North Americans & Europeans thus increasing the cost. When we spoke with German owners of a tour company that has been in Costa Rica for 10 years, they said the costs have gone up by 30% in the past 4 years! As a result of higher costs we modified our behavior to stay within budget – that meant back to camping & cooking for ourselves more!

For the next few days we made our way along the hot and humid Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Most mornings the alarm went off at 4:30am and we were pedaling by 6am to *try* and stay out of the hottest part of the day.

So far Costa Rica has delighted us with amazing natural experiences and kind people – we’ve been gifted several different fruits and even a full lunch! The phrase used quite often is “pura vida” meaning pure life or simple life – people here just seem happier. Costa Rica has been a very interesting place with no standing army, dedication to the environment and a significant investment in education (50% greater than world average).

We’ll continue to make our way south through Costa Rica and crossing the border into Panama in the next few days. Once we hit Panama we essentially head east until Panama City and then head north to the Caribbean coast to catch our boat to Columbia. Fingers crossed all goes as planned 🙂

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