Costa Rica Arrival

We made it into Costa Rica after driving to Denver in a snow storm and narrowly missing a car that had spun in front of us on the black ice and was sideways in the road. Left at 1:00 am and made it to Costa Rica as the sun was coming up, this allowed us to get a view of the landscape as the plane was landing. Some of the hills look like they climb forever.

We waited at the airport for a little as our plane was late and the shuttle was gone which almost lead us to loading up in the wrong vehicle going to the car rental station. We finally found our ride and quickly made it up to the hotel/hacienda.

We are all tired and hungry at this point and happy to relax before taking on Paos Volcano on Tuesday - 9,000' or so at the top and we sit at around 4000' at the hotel.

The rest of the day is spent by the pool and getting our bikes set-up for the riding to come. We have been waiting for Carl, who has been traveling Central America and Columbia, to arrive and he should have been here around 4:00 pm. We are eating diner when he arrives telling us a story of his friends backpack getting stolen out of the car with a passport and some money. It seems they parked, rode down the small hill and then had to go right back to the car and the door had been pried open by then - he thinks it might been two sitting on the wall by where they parked. Moral of the story, don't let your passport get too far from you and if so, separate it from things likely to be stolen.

They will be spending part of today getting a new passport at the U.S. Consulate, a process we hear does not take that long but what a hassle.

Graeme has 3 friend who will be joining the tour and they arrive from Dallas today while we try to organize the transportation of our stuff to the next hotel. We have not talked to Bob or Paulo at this point to see what the logistics are.

More to come.