After yesterday´s relatively long and gruelling ride to Volcan Poas, I decided this morning to go for a longer run, which, when finished, would leave me a greater proportion of the day to relax, read, study or what-have-you.
Rather than run into town, I thought to venture out the opposite direction from my hotel, taking me down a 2.5km gravel descent to a quieter paved road. When I came to Atenas I drove in this way, and was worried it would be the only access to my hotel. I had had enough of gravel roads for the duration of my visit, and that road is steep, replete with sharp gravel and was certainly nasty even for my rental car at the time, let alone a bike, not to mention a long way to walk to the nearest amenities once I had returned my car. I was quite relieved when I learned that was the back route, and travel to the main part of town was well within walking distance.
In any event, only a couple of hundred metres from my hotel along the noted back route, this is the view looking back at my hotel, the red-roofed building at the hilltop.
As my run continued, three or four hundred metres further on as I crested the hill that leads down to the paved road, just past a small town garbage dump, the road looks like this
Just back from this location, farther up the hill behind me here, the view is yet more amazing, but obscured somewhat by wafting smoke from slow burning refuse at the garbage dump.
My run then descended further to the paved road. There I ran up and down more long hills, of about one to two kilometres in length, with a couple of excursions onto side trails. As you go, every few metres is heard rustling in the fallen leaves or the bushes, such sounds created by iguana, salamanders, or perhaps roosters, and always there are long uphills and downhills and around every bend, of which there are many, there are new stunning vistas.
Eventually I found myself on a gravel road that plummeted in corkscrew twists down into valley where a tempestuous river ran, and over which spanned a rather rickety looking old bridge that appeared barely safe or strong enough for pedestrians to cross, let alone vehicles. Even so, after I had crossed, observing carefully the spaces between slats where a misplaced step could spell disaster, a car did approach from the other side, and stood witness that indeed the bridge was sufficiently strong to sustain the load of a car!
As it was about an hour into my run, the bridge seemed a good turnaround point for me and, when I passed the car on the long uphill on the rough gravel, I could not resist but to remark to the driver, ¨It´s faster on foot!¨ I suspect he did not understand my English. I actually remained comfortably ahead of the vehicle for nearly a km up the hill until we hit better pavement. It is a reminder that there are many places in the world where travel on foot is preferable and easier than traveling by vehicle, even on trails that are designed for vehicle travel!
This fantastic run lasted about 1hr 45, having passed on the way back one of the main excursions I had taken on the way out. I had not eaten breakfast, and returned to my room to cook some huevos – eggs – and to consume a couple of bowls of Fruitloops. The kitchenette is well supplied, and very handy! I can save some expense in food over the next few days.
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Here are a few other miscellaneous photos. Moving backward in time, here is a view of the main street market in Puerto Limon, 45km from the village and beaches of Cahuita, my last place of stay. Puerto Limon is a major centre and, when I first travelled to Cahuita, I was under the impression I was to stay in Pto Limon, and was thankful to discover that Cahuita was well away from Limon. The traffic in Limon is the craziest I´ve experienced – not that I´ve driven in a lot of foreign places, but it´s worse than in Mexico and anywhere else in Costa Rica I´ve been, including traffic near the yet larger centres of San Jose and Alejuela – the taxi drivers and others aggressive and quick to anger. So I discovered when my brand of B.C. driving became the source of some local’s frustration more than once!
Here is the main beach at Cahuita, nearly vacant due to high tide. Along this beach, following the line of sight depicted, just a few metres inland, is a hard-packed sand trail, fantastic for running. At 2km long, it is tantalizingly short, but long enough to enjoy the nearly perfect running surface and to observe at least one magnificent blue butterfly.
Still moving back chronologically, as I was leaving my place near Samara, which now seems a very long time ago, this local farmer stopped and allowed me to take his photo. I have heard from previous trips to Mexico that, in such instances as these, it is customary to provide some small monetary compensation to your photo subjects, which I did.
Finally, here is one of the beaches near my first residence. There are few visitors to this beach, as it is several kilometres from the busier beaches of the tourist town, Samara. In the estuary, a few hundred metres out of view to the left of the photo, there are crocodiles. I did take couple of poor quality photos of two of them, which I will post later.
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