June 22, 2016
What do you do when you get a flat tire, and all of your spare tubes have holes in them? Cry a little, die a little on the inside.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Jaco, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Destination: Playa Matapalo, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
95.2 km trip, 5:13 time, 42.7 km/h maximum speed, 18.2 km/h average speed
Route Description:
This day seemed flat. While I’m sure we did some small climbs it just felt smooth. Single lane traffic in either direction with a shoulder for some of the time. Traffic was lighter today than it has been North of here. There are restaurants and places to buy food along the way. If you want a shorter day there is the town of Quepos 15 km before the end of our day.
Accommodations:
There are many hotels in Quepos about 15K before where we stopped. We went into the small town of Playa Matopalo. We stayed at a small hotel for 18,000 colones. The other hotel across the road quoted me $80 USD or 40,000 colones. Our room had air conditioning and wifi and was close to the beach.
What happened…
Andrew writes: I think I’m starting to get the hang of these really early starts. I used to give people a hard time (other cyclists I read about) for starting so early, but really it makes a lot of sense. Not only do you avoid the heat and traffic, but you also arrive at a destination (wherever that is) earlier, rather than later.
That doesn’t mean today’s ride was all sunshine and bubble-gum. I had three flat tires today and the constant stopping to unload the bike, change the flat, reload the bike, regain momentum took its’ toll on me. To top it all off, we have several tubes that we haven’t bothered to repair, and I ended up putting two of them onto my bike before realizing that they wouldn’t work. It just meant more time, more frustration, more despair.
Playa Matopalo was a pleasant surprise today. Well off the highway, well, 1km off the highway, it’s a little oasis and left me wishing that I still had my boogie-board. Still, eating lunch in the shade of the palm trees while looking out over the ocean was really nice, and finding such a gem of a posada too!
Amanda writes: Flat tires suck. I won’t go on about it for too long. I’ve mentioned I think our tires are shit and as a result, tubes get punctures very easily. We covered a lot of ground today and finishing early was wonderful. After settling in we even went for a walk in search of howler monkeys. I feel like we’re the only people to visit Costa Rica and not see them. Off we went toward the beach and some trees where our host told us we might have luck. We didn’t get to see monkeys but we did enjoy a nice walk along the beach before retreating to our room.