Goodbye to the parents and Costa Rica

Once more, we were back on the dirt roads to leave the Monteverde region and head back towards the plain. We got the opposite weather effect, leaving the cool and misty mountains for the dry and hot plain. Amazing how fast the weather changed only by driving a few miles. We got to enjoy the views to the Pacific Ocean one more time. The focus of the day would be to get closer to Alajuela, from where Margot and Dominique would leave early morning in two days, and see some of the local handicraft in Sarchi.

Our last day traveling in a car with the family

Sarchi is a well-known little town for its handmade furniture and handicraft work. We, read especially the girls, wanted to do a day of shopping and buy souvenirs before we would all leave Costa Rica. We were indeed in the perfect place for that. We went to a few shops and after that all met at the central plaza where they had a beautiful church. There was also a huge coffee chariot, decorated in the typical local way, with hand painted patterns in bright colors. We just sat there for a while, enjoying a little lunch snack and reflecting back on the last tow weeks we had spend together. It had been a lot of fun: the parents got away from cold Alsace and discovered a new part of the world that they really enjoyed and we were happy we spent the time with them, being as a family for the holiday season and taking a break from the motorcycle adventure.
We took our last drive in the car together to head back to Alajuela where we had started our trip yogether. It was nice to go back to the same hotel, where the bikes were waiting for us. The parents finished their packing for the big plane trip and we got everything ready ourselves: started and prepared the bikes for the road, did our luggage and made photocopies for the border crossing. When we were all done, we enjoyed a drink on the terrace, a little sad that our time together was getting to an end. The next morning, we were all up at 4:15am and after a quick breakfast for them, we drove Margot and Dominique to the airport. We all said goodbye and the two of us went back to the hotel to sleep two more hours before the rental car agency would open for us to return the car.

A race to the Panamanian border

For the next few days, we would be riding as much as we could each day to reach Panama City and find a way to get to Columbia. Yes, we changed our plans: we heard so many good things about this country from other riders and all the people that have been there recently confirmed that the security had improved so much. Not to mention the most important: we have many good Colombian friends and they are all so nice and friendly that we were looking forward to visiting their country and meet more Colombians. The best leads we had so far to get there were two different captains who had sailboats going from Panama to Cartagena, spending both a couple of days at the St Blas islands. Both boats would be leaving between the 10th and the 15th of January so we had a few days to figure things out.

The day Margot and Dominique left, we were able to ride all the way to the border and stayed in a small town about 20 Kms from Panama. But the ride was not really the piece of cake we were hoping for. Crossing San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, was quite a challenge as the town had few signs to tell you where to go. After taking a few random turns that we thought were in the right dirdection, we gave up and stopped at a gas station for directions. We were lucky there to meet a guy that was going in the same direction. We just had to follow him and twenty minutes later, we were on the right way, out of the city. Good, no more city before the border but we had not anticipated the challenge of the mountains we were about to cross. The temperature really started dropping and we were now in the clouds, with very little visibility, high humidity, cold and a pretty curvy road to deal with. We rode as long as we could but eventually had to stop for hot food and drinks... and to put on some more layers. We had to dig out of the suitcases clothes we had not worn since Alaska. Five minutes after we had put them on, we were starting our descent into the plains and the heat came back. We had to remove all the layers; from there, we had an easy ride to the border.

The next morning, we were shortly after nine at the border. Surprisingly, exiting Costa Rica was not only fast and easy but also totally free. We checked our passports out at immigration and canceled the temporary import for the bikes. We could now go to the Panama side. We started at immigration and for the first time since we left, there was a different process for one of us. Caroline just had to pay a $1 immigration fee and get her passport stamped. Chad however had to get first a Visitor's card that he paid $5 and only after, he could go through the same process as Caroline. First time that the French passport was better! After that, a pretty straight forward process where everyone was helpful: get insurance for the bikes for $15 each valid 1 month, get the temporary import card and finally fumigate the bike for $1. By 11:30am, we were back on the road, crossing into Panama and eating the miles on the famous Panamerican Highway.