2-2-10 Manuel Antonio

I packed up and was enjoying a cup of coffee before leaving Monte Verde when I glanced at the front page of the newspaper.  A fuel-tanker had crashed on a bridge the day before and burned for several hours, weakening the bridge which was now closed.  I didn't think twice about it.

I saddled-up the bike and got directions to some backyard mechanic who sold me a few gallons of gas, enough to get me back to a larger town where it would be half the price.  I snaked down the winding dirt road that I had ascended a few days earlier, though didn't recognize much, only the occasional odd-looking tree or bright sign.  I rounded a corner and saw a huge rainbow off in the valley in front of me and decided to stop for a picture.  I had slowed to about a mile an hour when I pulled my front brake a little too hard, causing the front tire to skid sideways which threw me off balance enough to drop the bike. We both landed ungracefully on our left sides.  As I sat in the road I was provided with an interesting view- a rainbow in the background with my bike, on it's side, at the end of the rainbow.  No damage, I picked it up (barely) and rode off, happy to hit pavement eventually.

I rode for a hour before I came to a long line of vehicles waiting on the side of the road.  I adhered to my usual technique of passing stopped vehicles that are stopped for unknown reasons and rode until I saw a few guy standing around and asked them what was going on.  I was told that a truck had exploded on a bridge the day before and it wasn't passable, the same truck that I'd read about in the morning newspaper.  I kept riding to the front of the line where I saw a charred chassis and blackened bridge.

I found out that there was some heavy equipment in the midst of making a river crossing just upstream of the bridge and rode up a little dirt road, paralleling the river to investigate. I dismounted and walked around the river for a bit trying to get a good view of what lay ahead.  The largest rocks were basketball sized, but most were between the softball and baseball range.

I decided to cross much to the delight of the group of people on the far side.  I started off slow, chugging through the water which started pouring in the top of my boots.  The water got gradually deeper which started pulling my feet backwards, making it hard to balance, so I slowed down to a crawl, lunging the bike over the rocks ahead of me.  One spot of the river dropped about six inches quickly and submerged the engine sending off a good plume of steam but the bike didn't hesitate and kept rolling.  I then ran directly into a large rock that I didn't see. I tried to throttle over it but the bike died.  I held my breath as I thumbed the starter button and the bike fired.  A little more throttle this time and I cleared the rock and was home free receiving an applause from the observers.

I stopped for a few pictures then linked a few dirt paths together before surfacing on the southbound Pan-American Highway.  I was the only guy headed south for a while and passed miles of cars wanting to go northbound but were stuck.  I rode until the beach town of Manuel Antonio where I found a little concrete bungalow/prison cell with no AC that was painfully hot.  I unloaded the bike, stripped down and ran off to the beach where I splashed around for a while.

It was about 3pm and I wanted to find out how much it would cost to rent a beach chair for the rest of the day.  Some local guy was clearly proud of his chairs as he let me know they cost $5 per day.  I asked him how much it would cost for the rest of the day and was told $5 as well despite there being two hours of daylight left.  He didn't seem to understand why I might want a discount.  This seems to be typical down here.  For example, it doesn't matter if you buy a Pepsi that is 500ml, 750ml or 3000ml, they all cost the exact same per milliliter, no bulk discount.  So on principle alone I decided not to rent the guys chair and instead dug a little sand chair for myself.  I guess it was more of a depression for my butt and a mound for my head, but it was comfortable enough for me to fall asleep in.  Apparently I slept with my arms over my head as I now have painfully sunburned arm pits and have to walk around with my hands on my hips.