Quick update from Cartagena, Colombia. Greatly excited to have made it to South America following an interesting and very challenging route paddling 200+ km in a cayuco (wooden canoe) along the beautiful and rugged coastline of Kuna Yala from Carti (Panama) to Capurgana (Colombia) with Cary Gray. Full trip report and video to follow soon.…
After a few pleasant excursions in Boquete it was time to head to Panama City. I took a side route via Sona which a good alternate to the Panamerican Highway for a short stretch; I cycled it with an awesome couple Janet and Brian for a day or so. I could barely keep up with…
After finally stamping out of Costa Rica for the third time it was time to cross back over the Divide. A back route alternative was hard to find. I was told of a hiking route but no biking route; that’s not to say there isn’t one. Huge areas of wilderness in Panama seem to be…
Discovering La Ruta de los Conquistadores greatly enhanced my experience in Costa Rica. After the ride up Volcano Irazu and around Volcano Turrialba (more here), the final section from Siquirres to Limón follows an interesting route along a semi-used railway track for 60 or so kilometres. Part of it is dirt road that runs along…
My plan was to get to Cahuita that evening after finally arriving in the Caribbean. Unfortunately my puncture that took me an hour to fix (see last post) delayed me significantly and it was fully dark and I was still 10km from my destination. Locals warned me that it was dangerous to travel at night…
This post describes my first attempt to cycle la linea de tren from Siquirres to Limón on a fully loaded bike; crossing the bridges was an unnerving yet exhilarating experience. After arriving from Turrialba in Santa Cruz I didn’t feel like losing more altitude so I took an alternate route which climbed back up via…
Searching out decent back road routes can be exciting and adventurous but often the quality of the route can be unknown. While that can be part of the fun, when a route has been carefully mapped out and used for a race that proclaims itself as ‘one of the toughest mountain bike races in the…
It was good to leave the touristy La Fortuna and head on towards more volcanoes but I also had San José in my way. It’s never fun crossing Central American capital cities on a loaded (or unloaded) bicycle and this was no exception. I couldn’t find a nice route around San Jose unfortunately since I…
As I left Puntarenas and I headed left up the unpleasant Panamerican Highway, I chuckled that I was heading back towards Nicaragua where I’d come from. Would I ever manage to leave Costa Rica? I’d already clocked up 3 months and I hadn’t even traveled a third of this small yet beautiful country. [If you’re…
It´s not possible to cycle up to the top of Chirripó but it´s a magnificent hike. After leaving Montezuma and the Nicoya, I left my bicycle with couchsurfing.com friends in Puntarenas (thanks to Alex and Mel and their families). Although a long hike, one of the hardest parts of Chirripó was probably getting the passes to…