Preparing to Leave Costa Rica – 9 January 2018

9 January 2018 – I was awoken with all the guys in the hotel leaving to go to work sometime before 5:30 a.m. Showers, footsteps on the 2nd floor, car doors slamming, cars starting and hotel staff watering plants. I believe most of the blue collar workers are off to work by 6:00 a.m. I went back to sleep and got up about 8:30 a.m. I sent out a couple of e-mails, then went to the office and had them start up my air conditioner. It went out during the night. I paid for another day, did some money changing from Costa Rican Colones back to US Dollars. I moved my motorcycle to a better location, adjusted the rear chain and oiled it. Driving in the rain always washes off the chain oil. I opened my top box and took out my light weight green pants with the legs that zip off to make shorts. I’m going to wear these pants under my riding suit instead of my jeans in an attempt to stay a little cooler. I went in the room and finished researching my border crossing. It’s looking like it maybe an easy or quick border crossing. It sounds good on paper but when you’re in the fray it’s a little different. I got all my paperwork sorted out so it’s ready to go. I went over early and ate another hamburger for supper. I have yet to rearrange my bags so that my rain suit ends up near the top of the bag instead of on the bottom. Otherwise I’m ready to leave for the border tomorrow. I hoping I can get through the border with no rain. 

What’s App? – 8 January 2018

8 January 2018 – I checked my riding suit when I got up, and to my surprise both my jacket and my riding paints were dried out. I was happy. I was going to stay another day to make sure everything was dried out and try to contact my friends in Brazil.  My plan is to spend some time with them on my way back up through the continent, and I had been keeping them updated on my progress. I wanted to get the WhatsApp app, which is what I used to communicate with them before my phone pooped out on me, activated again. I also wanted to research the border crossing to see what requirement were to leave Costa Rica and cross in to Panama. I have found on this trip that reading what others who have gone before encountered at the crossings really helped to prepare me for when I get there. I hope this blog is of some help to others. I also found a hotel in David, Panama I planning to stay at when I get through the border.

I was able to make contact through WhatsApp and did in fact reach my Brazilian friend James Meurer. That made my day right off. I did some research on flying my motorcycle to Bogota, Columbia. That will take some thinking on my part to pull that off smoothly. I have to get my motorcycle and myself there at approximately the same time, and figure out how to navigate once I drop off my motorcycle at the cargo terminal.  I went over to Impala Restaurant and ordered a hamburger and a bottle of water. The hamburger and French fries tasted pretty much like a hamburger you would order in a family restaurant in the USA. I never did get any research done on the border crossing and that irritated me. Because of that, I would be staying another day. I Skyped with Mary and Hissy, and then went to bed.

Rain, Rain, Go Away – 7 January 2018

7 January 2018 – Today was a travel day, so I packed up and checked out of the hotel. Jose cleared me out of the hotel parking lot with the security guard. I was off to the gas station to fill up. I was going to drive around San Jose with my programmed route. The cloverleaf I was to take had two loops closed to road construction and they were the ones I needed. Two kilometers down the road I made an illegal U-turn back to same cloverleaf and picked up Hwy 39 around the city. It was easy driving at 8:00 a.m. in the morning on a Sunday. I almost missed the exit because of lack of good signage, but I picked up Hwy 2, the PanAm highway. There were an untold number of bicycle riders on the shoulders. I also had to put on my rain suit for the first time. While I was stopped and putting it on, I met some other motorcycle riders. I gave them one of my blog cards so they can take a look at my blog. I got back on the road and in 1.25 Miles / 2 kilometers, the rain was gone. It sporadically came and went as I drove through the mountains.

I eventually arrived at a city where the sun was out and it was too hot to wear the rain suit so I took it off, wrapped it up and put it back in my bag. I met a former Kawasaki dealer who moved to Costa Rica to live. He knew all about the Kawasaki KLR650, which I was riding, and told me what great bike it was. I gave him a blog card for both blogs. He said he thought he read my blog where I documented my trip around the world. We shook hands and he left. I finished packing up my motorcycle and took off.

In 2 Miles / 3 Kilometers I was back in the rain, and this was serious rain. Rain drops the size of marbles. I was soaking wet. I broke Dave Reinhold’s rule of rain suits. Put them on before you’re in a rain storm. Now that I reminded myself of that rule, I won’t break it again. The rain eventually went away and I rode until I was dried out and happy again. I was within 20 miles of my stop for the day and guess what: another down pour. I was soaked again and the rain wasn’t going away. I was driving into Rio Claro and it was still raining right smartly.  To make it worse, the Police had an active check point working. They stopped me and wanted to see my driver’s license. I thought for sure he was going to ask me to pull out my paperwork in the rain. He has no idea what his name would have been if he would have asked for that. Since he didn’t and he was nice, I asked him for the best hotel in Rio Claro. He said, the Hotel Impala, so off I drove to find it. It was only down the road 300 yards / 300 meters. I checked in $35 / 20,000 Colons, and that was with hot water, air conditioning, a fan and Wi-Fi. I turned down the a/c to 17 Celsius and the fan to medium, to suck all the moisture out of my riding suit. I put on my riding jacket to sleep, along with two sheets and a towel over me keep warm. I slept really well.

Blogging: it’s Harder Than You Think – 6 January 2018

6 January 2018 – I paid for another day so I could work on my blog. Having access to good Wi-Fi is a plus and I need to take advantage of it. I will send off this word document and some pictures and will call it a day.

Getting Ready to Launch – 5 January 2018

5 January 2018 – My goal for today was to find a route around the City of San Jose, Costa Rica and build a route in Blanche to take me around the city like she knows where she’s going. No trips over hill and dale. It will mostly be Autopista driving, which will be nice. I built the route and it works. There’s one glitch where she goes to a roundabout, does a 180 degree turn, drives back about 1-1/4 mile / 2 Kilometers to another roundabout, does a 180 degree turn and drives back down the same highway. I sometimes don’t follow her craziness. I kept trying to get that out of her until I ran out of battery. So I guess I’ll have to live with it. Have I mentioned that she’s a little finicky sometimes?

I took a trip over to Walmart which is also next to the Marriott Courtyard. I thought I was in one of the Walmarts is the U.S.A. I purchased my usual and reached into my piggy bank again and withdrew some more money. I found something I haven’t treated myself to in months. I found 1 pint / 473 mL of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. It was Strawberry Cheesecake. I ate the whole thing in one setting. I also ate one of my fresh loaves of bread with a banana. I then watched two English speaking movies and went to bed.

Dang Phone – 4 January 2018

4 January 2018 – I got up about 7:00 a.m. to start washing my clothes. I didn’t want to have stand in line waiting for the machines. By 8:15 a.m. I have my clothes washed and dried. I threw the hotel towels into the drawer to help the clothes tumble and dry. 

I tried several more times to get my cell phone to start up. No luck there. Mary had suggested I ask about the Marriott courtesy shuttle, so I went downstairs and paid for another day and asked if anyone knew where I could take my cell phone to be checked out. They told me there was a place in the City Mall Alajuela that is within walking distance from here. I asked if Jose, the porter I met the previous day could accompany me to Samsung Store to interpret for me. His supervisor said it was ok. We took the Marriott Shuttle to the Mall at 11:00 a.m. Jose took me to the Samsung Store where he explained to the guy working behind the counter what the problem was with the phone. 

We removed the SIM and S/D Card and the Samsung guy crashed my phone then rebooted it back up. He downloaded everything back into the phone which probably took an hour. Then Jose and myself worked to get all the apps working again. I lost all my contacts and all my notes I had written along the way including people’s addresses. That part bums me out the most. For the most part between the 3 of us we got my phone back to 90% plus. I can’t thank Samsung Guy and Jose for all the help they provided enough. That phone would have never worked again had it not been for them. I tipped them nicely for all their help. I could have never gotten it going. 

Later that night, Mary and I got the Skype working again. So that works. My AOL account on the phone isn’t working correctly. That ticks me off and I have yet to get the Whatsapp working so I can communicate with my friend Jim Meurer in Brazil. Otherwise, I got everything else pretty much straightened out. It took the vast majority of the day trying to get that phone up to speed. I sure wish that once in a while there would be one day when I didn’t have to think about some insane problem like the cell phone. I watched one of my favorite old movies from 1971 called “The Hard Ride” with Robert Fuller. I liked the Harley-Davidson Knucklehead chopper. She’s a beauty.  With visions of the chopper in my head, I went to bed.

Nicaragua to Costa Rica Border Crossing and The Road To Nowhere – 3 January 2018

3 January 2018 – My alarm went off at 4:30 in the morning. I wanted to get an early start at the border. The hotel was still asleep and I didn’t know if the front door was locked. I walked out in the hall to check and the doors were locked with the night watchman sitting in front of the doors. Good, I can start loading my motorcycle! I removed the cover off my motorcycle and rolled it out where I could load it and squeeze out between the parked cars.

I was off by 6:30 a.m. heading for the border. I had 15 miles / 24 Kilometers to get to the border, about a 30-minute drive. I was about a mile from the Nicaraguan border and despite the fact that I’m there early, the semi-trucks are already backed up 5/8 of a Mile / 1 Kilometer. I can already see the tour buses setting in the parking lots with hundreds of people milling around. I thought to myself that it could be a long day.

I stopped short of Customs and Immigration and removed my paper work from my top box. While I was doing that my helper showed up. We agreed on a price and he set about managing my paperwork. I paid 50 cents for someone one to watch my motorcycle. My helper and I headed toward Customs and Immigration. He asked for 500 Nicaraguan Lempira ($21 US). I asked him what he needed that for and he said, “to speed up the paperwork.” I went and stood in line at Immigration and got my passport stamped. There was some kind of fee for that. He got at a $2 USD gratuity for that because he didn’t have the correct change for a $20 USD bill I gave him, or said he didn’t. When I was finished there, all the paper work was completed on my motorcycle. No checks on the VIN Numbers. Just drive through two check points: one person gets a small piece of paper and the other checks that my paper was stamped correctly. All within less than 45 minutes.

At this time I was introduced to my next helper who would get me through Customs and immigrations on the Costa Rican Border. We agreed on a price but before I left I changed my Nicaraguan Lempira currency in to Costa Rican Colon currency. I think I got taken for a ride there, but I road through both check points successfully. When I reached Costa Rica I gave my helper all the copies he would need for his job. I went through Immigration and he set about pushing my paperwork through the Customs Bureaucracy. The women who helped me spoke English, which was helpful. She had a problem swiping my passport through her scanner. I told her they swiped my passport in Nicaragua Immigration and it worked ok. She asked where I was staying and I gave her the hotel address. By the time I finished, I had to sign some forms and get some forms filled out and signed. Then it was off to purchase Insurance. That cost me $32 USD. With all the forms signed and money paid I had to go through two more check points. Someone checked my passport and another checked my insurance and passport. I was done in about 1-1/2 hours and free to go. Hurrah!!!!

I punched in the coordinates for the Hotel in Liberia, Costa Rica, which I was planning to stay at. I arrived right on its doorstep. Blanche did a fine job of navigating. Right across the street was McDonald’s. I parked in their lot and walked 100 Yards / 100 Meters to the bank and purchased more Costa Rica Colon. I goofed up on the decimal and thought I had more money than I had. Anyway, I went back to McDonald’s and ordered lunch. After I finished eating it I Skyped Mary. We talked some but the Wi-Fi signal was weak and she kept fading in and out. So we hung up with hopes of better Wi-Fi tonight. I got on my bike and went back to the bank and withdrew $100 in Cost Rican Colon.  Now off to the hotel.

I was back on my bike heading toward Alajuela, Costa Rica about 125 miles / 200 Kilometers away, an easy drive in 5 hours. I rode some very nice roads until we entered the mountains and then it was switchbacks and slow traffic 30 to 40 Mph / 48 to 65 Kph. I eventually broke free of the mountains when I neared Alajuela. Blanche was navigating and doing a good job. We exited off the Autopista into the city to the Airport Hotel. Eventually we came to dead end. No road to follow anymore. It was gone.

So, I took Blanche past the hotel where she could bring me in another direction. Then she found the hotel, but took me to the back side of it. I was thinking the hotel was out of business. It has happened to me before. I asked, a husband and wife walking along side the road if the hotel went out of business. They said, no, follow this road and bear left and you will come to this road. Sure enough, there was a road right alongside the Autopista which to took me to the Airport hotel.

I arrived at the gate and I had a bad feeling about the place. The guard asked if I had a reservation. He finally let me through with a pass. I drove up to reception and asked if they had a room. The receptionist spoke very good English, thank God for that. I asked if he had a room for the night. He asked if I had a reservation. I said I didn’t, and he told me they were booked up, no rooms available. Everything this guy was saying sounded very phony to me, like he was lying to me. He told me to go online find a hotel and book it. I told him I couldn’t because my cell phone was broken. I said that I looked for this hotel for over an hour, and can’t I please stay? He said they were booked up. He told me I could use his computers to find a hotel to stay at. I thought for sure I would be sleeping outside tonight. I told him I would check my motorcycle for hotels. I had Blanche check for hotels. Guess what popped up? The Marriott Courtyard. I told Blanche take me there.

After a bunch of staggering around I eventually got back on the Autopista. It’s not as easy as you think. I had to get on going west, then get off and go through several roundabouts and get back on going east. I drove 2 Miles / 3-1/2 Kilometers of stop and go traffic. I eventually got to the Marriott exit and made my way to the hotel. I parked my bike and security comes over and tells me to move my motorcycle. It’s only for car parking. I asked if I could park for 10 minutes while I check on a room for the night. He was ok with that. I went inside and checked on a room. The have a room and I booked it for the night. Whew, what luck. I have a place with the internet and a place with secure parking. When I was done with registration, I went outside and thanked the security guard for letting me park until I got registered and then moved my motorcycle to the hotel parking lot behind the building.

I enlisted the help of a porter to move my bags from my motorcycle to my room. He was a friendly chap who could speak really good English. I was still having this problem with my cell phone. Man, what am I going to do about that?  Even though I got my first smartphone just a few months before I left for my trip and navigated around the world without one in 2009, I’ve gotten so used to using it on this trip that I can’t live without it anymore.

I got myself all settled in my room, got out my computer and hooked up with the Courtyard’s Wi-Fi. It has a good strong signal. I sent Mary an e-mail hoping she can help me unlock my cell phone. She replied back quite quickly. We both worked together trying to unlock the phone. We didn’t have any success. We both went to bed stumped by the problem. The phone worked well in McDonalds in Liberia, Costa Rica. In between Liberia and Alajuela, Costa Rica the phone locked up for an unknown reason. Before I went to bed, I asked about washing clothes and Marriott provided a complementary washer and a dryer but you have to purchase the soap. First thing tomorrow is wash clothes. I know my shirt hasn’t been washed in three weeks.