After I extensively enjoyed a last shower at home, I will let you know about my last days before my departure. It was full of different preparations, encounters and thoughts.
Yesterday was the first day during the last week, where I felt a little bit stressed and therefor felt tired at the end of the day. This was caused by the luggage, the entry requirements to Costa Rica and some equipment, which is not easy to find. Its definitely good to exactly know what are the weight restrictions for the flight. At the end it will all work, but instead of 65 kg (35 bike+23 luggage+7 hand luggage) I just had 56 kg (30+20+6) and caused by the 5 bags, which will decorate my bike, I had to find a big old suitcase to fit in some of the bags. First my idea was to put most of the bags into my bike carton, but with around 23 kg weight of my bike, I couldn’t pack much more into the bike carton. Now everything is being well locked.
In case you want to fly to Costa Rica and continue your journey by bike, your task is to approve at the airport, that you will leave the country again. There are two practicable options, how to solve this issue: you can by a ticket for a flight, which at best should be fully refundable or get a bus ticket to Panama or Nicaragua. A bus ticket can only be purchased from there, no direct online possibility. On costaricabustickets.com you can contact a service, which will take care of the bus ticket, but they charge you more then the actual price. So I choose the path of asking my kind Couchsurfer Karol, who bought the ticket for me (copy of the passport necessary). Furthermore I got to now that the ticket includes a commission for leaving Costa Rica and an entry fee for Nicaragua. Well, today she sent me a photo with the necesary ticket, really kind and so this issue is solved.
Concerning to get a ground sheet for my tent and/or a tarp is nowadays a challenge, if you want to buy it directly in a shop. Some weeks ago, I also tried to get carbon brushes to repair the washing machine- impossible in local shops. I have the feeling, that this time is up in which you could get these things in specialized shops. The online market has won its crusade – really sad. I called around 10 shops along the way to the airport and only one could offer me a something similar to what I need.
I got asked a lot of questions in the last few weeks about my journey. And due to this I will answer the Top5 now:
1. When will you start your journey? Today, at 21:50 my airplane will leave from Frankfurt.
2. Are you already excited? It keeps within limits. I tend to get really excited some hours and minutes in advance. But I’m looking forward to.
3. How did you plan your route? I haven’t planned. At least not so whole way to Patagonia, impossible and against my idea of this journey. I checked the route to my first destination trough San José and roughly the way to Paula, who will accompany on my journey.
4. Will you travel alone? No, I will travel with Paula, who I met „on the internet“. Later on Tobias will join us for a couple of months.
5. What are you taking with you and how heavy is your luggage? I will have a couple of things which I will carry with me. Some of my equipment is already listed here. I will add some more in the next days/weeks. I never cared about the weight until I had to check my luggage weight for the flight. My bike should be around 23 kg and the equipment around 27 kg. So roundabout 50 kilos should be the overall weight.
Well, it’s time to carry out some final stuff. In 24 hours I will sweat in the heat of Costa Ricas sun while finding my way to the center of San José! Adios Alemania!
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Die deutsche Version kommt bei Zeiten. 🙂
radrauschen 