Bike: 17 miles; Kayak 7.5 miles

Not your average early morning alarm clock, this one was jungle style, as the resident howler monkeys boldly announced the new day to the world. We roused to our last delicious campsite breakfast of rice and beans with fried plantains.

We were reunited with our bikes for one last session. Our final bike ride was all on dirt roads, so not what you’d call easy going but certainly the flattest terrain we’d encountered on the bike the whole trip.

Reflecting back on the changes in landscape over our journey, it was like traveling through the lands at the top of the Faraway tree (and for any non-Enid Blighton fans, I’m sorry, but you’re never too old. Read it now, you won’t regret it). After leaving the Pacific coast, we started our adventure biking and hiking through coffee plantations in the mountains. This was followed by a land of muddy foothills dominated by sugar cane, and we were now firmly in the tropical land of bananas. (They’re banana plants by the way, not banana trees.) With the odd field of pineapples thrown in for good measure.

Out of the four disciplines involved in this trip – biking, hiking, rafting and kayaking, I was most looking forward to the kayaking. Little did I realize when I signed on the dotted line, that the kayaking didn’t appear until the last day. Well we were finally here, and so were the kayaks.

The kayaks were double sit on tops, YAY! Today was not the day to play “wait for me…” singleton catch up. And my glutes gave a sigh of relief – it felt sooo good to be sat in a kayak instead of on a teeny tiny bike saddle for a change. As the minibus disappeared with our gear, we launched the kayaks one by one into the smooth flowing Pacuare river. This was (thankfully!) nothing like the rapids we had rafted through, just a gentle current to encourage us along. For over a week we’d been heading east, destination the Caribbean. And now we were…. Oh… So… Close.

We reminded ourselves it’s not about the destination, it’s the journey. And the kayak section of the journey was a treat not to be wished away. For a start, it wasn’t raining, 🙂 it was sunny with blue skies. And as the paddles quietly plip plopped into the water, we soaked up the atmosphere, embracing the tranquility. There were so many birds it was stunning to see – great herons, snow egrets, pink spoonbills, cormorants, pelicans, and many others I don’t even know the names of. We watched in awe as a flock of maybe a hundred birds took off at the same time, circling above us and escorting us down the river. Magical.

We took it easy but the miles flew by. As we stopped to re-group, there was an a-ha moment. That gentle rumble we could hear was none other than the waves crashing on the shoreline. The anticipation was building. We were within spitting distance.

We’d been warned that the river mouth wasn’t what you’d call picturesque. But nothing could dampen our enthusiasm. We beached the kayaks and took the last few hundred yards by foot, grinning from ear to ear. Woohoo! We made it!!!

Our guide Fez brought out the bubbly and $#%… whoah! What WAS that? Something along the lines of non-alcoholic blackberry-ish fizz (think cough medicine). Sparkling yes. Drinkable, errr. Not wanting to appear ungrateful, I balanced my plastic glass in the sand between photos and then damn, a wave came out of nowhere and drowned out the contents of my glass. Shucks. I glanced around and caught a wink from some of the others who’d had the same misfortune.

All that remained was a motor boat transfer to Cahuita. We relaxed on the boat, feeling the wind in our hair and checking out the crocodiles on the banks. Dare I say it even felt odd to be in motor powered transport, having only moved under our own power across the entire width of the country.

And then it hit us. Other than a little recovery time the next day by the beach, our epic adventure was over. We came, we saw, and through blood, sweat and tears (or hills, sweat and rain), we had conquered Costa Rica. The only thing still on the list was that damn adorable sloth we never got to see. I guess we’ve got a reason to come back then…