Chilling at the Caribean coast of Costa Rica is more or less what we’ve done the last few days. Because of the start of the rainy season and the lack of a proper rainsuit we decided to go to Colombia quite soon. We really want to spend most of our time in South America.

The day we entered Costa Rica (april 28) we were forced to stop in Liberia by the rain. We spent the night in a hostel and heard from two other Dutch travelers that there would be a Queensday party the next day organized by the Dutch embassy.  So the next day we were aiming for San Jose. We had a great ride around the lake of Arenal. Curvy roads over the greenest hills,….and we soon found out why these hills were so green. Had to stop for the rain again. But being this close to a (free beer) party made us wanting to go there. So as soon as possible we continued our ride. After a little kiss of Roels bike with Bas’ bike (minor damage) and getting dark, it was really time to find a place to stay. Trying to find a place to sleep, we ended in a garage from an Italian guy we luckily met. The right person at the right moment.

After a quick shower we went to the embassy party. We arrived just in time to miss the speech and to be first in line at the Heineken tap.

A great night with “bitterballen, haring, Hema worst” and free beers. We ended at the bar of Dutch owned restaurant Finca Bonanza, where we had pollo sate and papas guerra the next day (kip sate met patatje oorlog….oh yes!!)

By the time we were even thinking of hitting the road again next day, it started raining again for the rest of the day. After two nights in Paolos garage we continued our track to South America. We tried to avoid the capital San Jose, but again thanks to the lack of proper signs we got ourselves a free tour through the city. We had to make a detour, because due to a landslide the main road to Limon was closed.

A great ride….but too bad all the slow trucks also had to divert. Because it didn’t rain that day we could make it to Puerto Viejo, a real Caribean village.

Here we could have a toast on the birth of Xander (Cheers Jasper & Pien)

Time to investigate how to get to Colombia, flying or sailing. For those who don’t know yet: there are no roads between Panama and Colombia, the Darien gap. Sailing sounds real nice, passing the San Blas islands, but there are quite some different experiences from travelers. Differing from being dropped alone on a beach by smugglers to the best trip ever.

In both cases a good story for our website.

Adios amigos

PS: After our Q-day party one of us had to “call Ralph on the big white phone”. RAAAAAAALPH…..