It'd be nice to spend a couple days unwinding at the beach, but there's more to Costa Rica than that. Before long, you're on the road again. It could be paralleling the coastline north past picturesque Punta Arenas before heading back inland and climbing out of the jungle toward Lago Arenal, a large manmade lake named for a nearby volcano. Like Hawaii, Costa Rica is home to a number of active volcanoes and Arenal is one of the most popular with tourists. Its cinder cone seems perfectly shaped and, if you're lucky, the clouds will break long enough for you to get a glimpse of the smoke wafting out of its crater. On clearer nights, the orange glow of lava spilling out will be visible, and the occasional booms may not be thunder!
MotoAdventures uses the luxurious Montana del Fuego resort as its overnight base in the Arenal area. There's nothing quite like sitting back in the spa after a day on the road and watching the volcano before adjourning to dinner.
You certainly won't go hungry. While Larrabure avoids superfluous stops, he pauses where he knows Americans will enjoy the food. Lunch probably won't be served exactly at noon, but if that's important to you, a cruise may be more to your liking.
Costa Rican cuisine is generally milder than the Mexican fare with which most Americans are familiar. Beans and rice are staples, along with bacon and eggs at breakfast, and a meat dish and salad at lunch and dinner. But there are other types of food available. Be willing to try new things and you should be pleasantly surprised.
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"Road in bad state," reads the sign. Believe it.
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The view from the author's room at the Montana del Fuego resort shortly after arrival, whe
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The beauty of the BMW R1200GS is it allows you to explore dirt roads easier than on a crui
Not far from Arenal is the picturesque La Paz waterfall. It's in a section of tight curves cutting through a rain forest and is a popular stop for both tourists and locals, judging by the number of roadside vendors. A trail leads to the back of the falls and is a short hike from the road. Rows of coffee plants-another prime Costa Rican commodity-line many mountainsides, but you'll also see corn, onions, bananas and other produce, as well as cattle.
Before you know it, you ease back into San Jose traffic and follow Larrabure's lead more intently, as there are many more intersections in the city than there were in the country. The days have passed too quickly, of course, and if you're like 99 percent of Costa Rica's visitors, you promise yourself you'll be back.
MotoAdventures operator Larry Larrabure and his wife Gianna roll through a canopy of trees
Two The Hard Way
Touring Costa Rica, Dual-Sport Style
There are probably more miles of dirt road than paved road in Costa Rica, and a dual-sport tour is a great way to explore the more remote reaches of this beautiful country. You won't match the mileage of a MotoAdventures street/adventure tour, but you'll witness scenery that most tourists will never see.
Where a street/adventure tour is probably 95 percent street and 5 percent dirt, a dual-sport tour is closer to 50/50. Instead of taking the direct route, the dual-sport path is the long way round, often employing the cobby dirt roads that locals use to travel from their farms to the closest village.
Our one-day ride from Hermosa Beach to San Jose took us along spectacular canyons and past a number of out-of-the-way villages. Climbing the mountain roads, a look back revealed a stunning panorama with the blue Pacific slowly giving way to lush, green rain forest and then gradually more and more signs of civilization.
As with the street/adventure tour, the dual-sport ride ended much too quickly and left us hungry for more.
By Mark Kariya
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