Happy New Year

Date: 29/12
City: Playa Samara, Costa Rica
Kilometres ridden: 298
Cumulative kilometre: 29443

We packed the bikes, and Sigrid cooked a great breakfast, so we started around 10:30, not too early, but it was already getting warm. Then we left Granada and hardly got lost, since the GPS only showed three roads in Granada. We arrived at the border around lunchtime, ignored the helpers this time and did the border crossing ourselves, yeah! The roads are nice and the border on the Costa Rican side looked clean and organized, quite different to our previous borders. The GPS started to show detailed roads again, I forgot how easy it is if you can see the road that you are on. We had booked the accommodation in Samara starting from tomorrow, but we worked out that we could reach it today. So we pushed on and arrived just before it got dark. We went straight to the beach for the sunset, it looked great.

At night we meet another Tom (not the owner), he lives in the US but is originally from Germany. He bought a property in Costa Rica with some coffee plants on it. He harvests the coffee cherries and processes them. He promised to make a coffee for me.

Date: 30/12
City: Playa Samara, Costa Rica
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 29443

As promised, Tom made us a coffee from his harvested, processed and roasted coffee beans.

I must admit, it tasted really nice. He was there with his two brothers from Germany and the partner of one. We talked about what they were doing in Costa Rica and our journey so far. Tom offered to have a look around for our back tyres; maybe we can get them in Atenas, which is 50km before San Juan, so we could avoid going to the Capital city. One of his brothers was riding as well, so both wanted to have a look at the bikes and sit on them.

And then there was the problem with the water. It went on and off all the time, so we couldn’t really have a shower and sometimes not even flush the toilet. One suggestion was to get the water out of the pool to fill the cistern to flush the toilet. So Tom, the owner, organized a new fuse for the pump and Stephen fitted it. The interesting bit was he didn’t know where the main fuse was so he had to do it with the power on. He wears the glasses to prevent the sparks getting into his eyes! 😉

He did a great job and we had water. In the afternoon we walked to the village down the beach, below is the beach J

We did some shopping and walked back to the beach. At night, Stephen, the manager, asked us to join him for the Rodeo in town but by the time we had made up our minds to join him he was gone. But it had sparked the idea of going and in the end we met a Danish couple; they were driving to town and gave us a lift. We walked to the place, it was a like a fair with a big rodeo in the middle.

The atmosphere was amazing; there were whole families with their kids watching the rodeo. After trying the local cuisine at the fair and watching a few bull rides we walked back to our accommodation along the beach. The weather was warm and we had full moon, it was magic.

Date: 31/12
City: Playa Samara, Costa Rica
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 29443

We set the alarm clock for 7AM to call Australia to wish our family in Australia a happy new year.

Then we went to the beach. There were lots of people stacking up wood for the bonfires tonight.

And then we made a movie of the end of 2012.

 

In the evening we watched the sunset

After sunset we went back to the hostel to have dinner prepared by Stephen for us and some other guests.

We sat together for a while before we went back to the beach to have a look at the bonfires and the fireworks. The fireworks happens sporadicly three hours before midnight. The atmosphere was awesome, particularly that we nearly had a full moon and the sea was slightly illuminated.

We had a beautiful start into the year 2013.

 

Date: 01/01
City: Playa Samara, Costa Rica
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 29443

In the morning we went to the town to get some money and to buy some groceries. When we arrived the grocery shop was still closed, so we had breakfast at a nice coffee shop we’d seen before. It took a while before the food came and you can see how patient Sigrid is.

On our way back we discover some gym equipment, which we had to try, you know the New Year’s resolution and all. Being out of shape didn’t help much…

The rest of the day we relaxed on the beach and in the small pool

And, in the evening we went back to the beach to …… watch the sunset.


Date: 02/01
City: Playa Samara, Costa Rica
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 29443

Today was a no move day. It was a really lazy morning (what do you mean, again?) and watched other people working.

Tim (one of the guests who is working here now) and Stephen (the manager) were painting walls in two rooms; well I guess Stephen (picture on the right) was supervising 😉


François, a fellow traveller woman from Switzerland, managed to colour her trousers a nice shade of purple in the kitchen…

At night we went with Françoise to the beach to have a swim and watch the sunset, and here are more pictures…. The ambient temperature was just right and the water was warm, so it was hard to get out.

Date: 03/01
City: Playa Samara, Costa Rica
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 29443

Coffee Tom couldn’t find a dealer that had our tyres, and after yesterday’s sunset, we decided to stay a day longer and try to organize the tyres in San Jose. It took a while but Sigrid found some recommendation on the net, so we called the shop and they had similar tyres. So we got the directions and had a look at accommodations as well. Below is the picture of a group of ants carrying a bit of our scrambled egg upside down on the sink. I guess that’s happen if you are on a long holiday, you start to observe ants 🙂

During the day we met two Germans, Anja from Leipzig and Sebastian from Hamburg, they travelled together for a while through Costa Rica. Anja is a biologist and lived in Ushuaia for a while before she moved to an Antarctic base for a year, so we could pick her brain about Ushuaia. At night, our small group, Anja, Tim, Sebastian and us went to the beach to – you guessed it – watch the sunset. This is our last sunset in Samara, as usual, I don’t wanna go 🙁


Tomorrow we will heading to San Jose, the capital, and get a new set of rear tyres.

 

 

3 comments

  1. Hi, I am glad you guys are having a great trip. I have been checking the blog regularly and must say I am very impressed with how much you guys have done and are still doing. I hope I will be lucky enough to take a trip of a lifetime one day like you guys and have really enjoyed being able to join you on yours via your blog. If you ever need anything check with us @ Rizzon’s in NJ , Happy New Year !!!

  2. Misplaced your card and just found it this weekend…..I have read every day of your trip since you left San Quintin and it is awesome. We are the foursome you met in San Quintin, Don and Donna Morgan, Norman Melbar and Michael Blind. Good luck on the rest of your journey!!

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