Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Bitter Sweet - Costa Rica







Dec. 16, 2009



Day 35
Travel: 350km
Accomodations: $26
Border crossings: $22
Exchange rate: 568 colons/$1 US
Happy Birthday Ian (dad)

Playa Tambor, Costa Rica

Our favorite coffee shop/bookstore in San Juan del Sur opened at 7am and we were the first people in the door this morning. With the bike packed up and ready to head out of town, we stopped in at Gato Negro for our much needed cafe con leche and pancakes. We were on the road by 8:15 and made it to the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border just after 9am.

We made it through the border in two hours flat with the help of a paper handler to get us out of Nicaragua. Nicaragua had five different desks in five different buildings with one building a considerable distance away from the others and none with posted signs.

Costa Rica was a smooth ride for the first 300km. As we made our way down the Peninsula De Nicoya, with only about 50km to our destination of Bahia Tambor the road turned to dirt. The road wound and twisted it's way through the hills around the coast line. There were crazy loose dirt hairpin turns, with cliffs to fall off of and eroded ditches to fall into. There were also numerous one lane bridges around blind bends that we had to navigate. We were excited to finally reach our destination, that is, until Greg noticed oil dripping from his beloved Progressive rear suspension. Only 10,000km into our trip, the shock has blown and we must now determine a way to either fix or replace the shock.

Greg has befriended several (two to be exact) local dogs. Greg, being a victim of a tick bite only one week before our departure on this adventure, has taken it upon himself to remove the ticks from our furry little friends with my Red Cross blood donor card. The poor little dogs are defensless and are completely covered with blueberry sized ticks on their legs and bellies. Greg says they are painless and the poor fellows aren't in pain.

In the morning we will figure out a plan of where we're going and how we're going to fix our motorcycle problem.

Update:

I found a hose that was disconnected running from the airbox past the monoshock. Tracing the line back, it lead to the airbox and back to the crankcase and acted as a vent. Oil was venting to the airbox where it was supposed to accumulate in a reservoir. Unburnt gasoline tends to accumulate here as well and is then vaporized and reburnt to control emmissions. We bought a short length of garden hose to route the spray away from the bike should this problem continue. I don't know why it all of a sudden started doing this but the bike still runs fine so on we go!

2 comments:

  1. Amazing stories..... keep them coming. Hope Santa knows where you are!

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  2. What beautiful pictures and exciting adventures, it really is almost like being there, love it!!

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