Fight Against Nature

Ricardo heard of a road that could take us from San Marcos de Tarrazu all the way to Quepos. As you’ll notice from the map, there doesn’t appear to be any road there, and to tell you the truth, there barely really is any. It was a nice sunny Sunday morning, so we decided to give it a try.

We headed east, but instead of passing through Cartago this time we went south towards San Isidro. We followed the 226 to San Marcos, where we left the main road and rode towards San Lorenzo.

At first we missed our turn to take the dirt path (I will call it a path since it doesn’t really qualify as a road in my eyes) to Quepos. But thanks to Ricardo’s great new GPS app on his phone, we were able to make a quick u-turn to get back on our previously anticipated route.

Once we got on the “path”, we were mesmerized by the beauty of the landscape. Aside from the path, we found ourselves in completely untouched nature. It was gorgeous. But then, in a worried voice, Ricardo told me to look ahead: dark clouds. Clouds and dirt roads are not a good combination because it often means mud and thus difficult maneuvering. We decided to continue on anyway and hope for the best. Unfortunately, we were right: mud! Ricardo did his best to keep the bike steady, but the wheels slid and we fell. We don’t let this discourage us. We pick up the bike (yes, my tiny muscles did help slightly in pushing the bike back up, so I can say we!) and try again. To help out, I walk the very muddy parts of the path to give Ricardo more stability. However, down we go again a few minutes later. We took a break and analyzed our options: (a) we keep trying and hope the path gets better further down, (b) we turn back around. We had only gone a few kilometers down the path so we decided it would be best to turn around at this point. Plus, we were alone on this ride and hadn’t told anyone where we were headed, so it sounded a bit risky to keep going.

As we turned around, Ricardo mentioned that the handlebar felt off. As soon as we got off the dirt path, we stopped to take a look. Sure enough, the whole front part of the bike had shifted (noooo, our new baby!!). When we slid the first time, we hit the side of the mountain (which, in my opinion, is a much preferable choice than sliding the other direction down the cliff!). The shock seems to have been hard enough to damage the front wheel’s shock absorber, displacing the handlebar and tank forward. After a quick call to the BMW mechanic to make sure we would not be damaging the bike more by riding it in this condition, we decided to call it a day and head home.

Although the mountain may have defeated us that day, we won’t give up. We’ll be back another day, more prepared, and make it through to the other side. Maybe we should think of investing in off-road tires…

Distance:		183,7 kilometers
Elapsed Time:		4:09:37
Avg Speed:		44,2 km/h
Max Speed:		147,3 km/h
Avg Pace:		01′ 22″ per km
Min Altitude:		1.087 m
Max Altitude:		2.343 m