Stadt, Land, Fluss, Meer

..or also San José, Puriscal, Rio Parita, Pacific and so much more inbetween. A week passed and I don’t know where to begin and where to end my Post.
For the flight everything went totally fine, no problems to enter Costa  Rica and my lovely bike didn’t get hurt. I rebuilt my companion and was navigated 30 kilometres through San José to my first destination in the eastern part of the town. The Ticos call their town Chepe, which is the nickname of José and a term of endearment. I really enjoyed the time with the people I met and I got rid of my jetlag. The town itself I didn’t like that much, a lot of traffic coming with dirty air, rather less beautiful houses and not many green parts. And although the appearance of the town couldn’t give me anything, it wasn’t easy to leave this place. A first Goodbye of many that will follow.
I got warned of the altitude of my trip to Mastatal and so I took the bus, yeah I really took the bus in my actually first day of cycling. Well, this decision was maybe the best I took in a week. Although I only  had to cycle around 40 kilometres I was out on my feet reaching Mastatal. The heat and the mountains, belligerent dogs, gravel roads and two flat tires withdrew a lot of power and concentration. After one night at the eco-farm, the tour went on through the mountains, down some roads full of stones where it was hard to keep the balance. After reaching the Rio Parrito we were pedaling down towards the ocean, but it would take one more day before we could see the waves crushing on the beach. Another flat tyre was so cheeky to show up, yeah number 3 in 3 days. In the afternoon it came to the point to find a place for our tent for the first time. Not that easy, as I thought before. But at the end of a street in a small village we got offered a place in the back of a house, or let me say, rather tin shack. And although the owners were quite poor, they provided us their place, gave us some cold juice and offered us their bathroom to take a shower.
The next day the Pacific was getting closer, but before that I got really stressed by my back wheel. Day 4 and some more technical presents kept ready to approach. Another 3! Times a had to stuff holes in my inner tube, always somewhere else. After the analysis in the strong heat of the sun didn’t came to conclusion about the reason, my spare outer tyre came to its first employment. 6 flat tyres in 4 days! Unbelievable. Some cold water and a bath in the ocean brought back the good mood. We met two guys from Argentina who will cycle home all the way down. Seems as if it’s high season for long way cyclists, cause I know from another group of four Germans and one Russian guy, who are around somewhere. As we had to move on, we told them that we will definitely meet again on our way south and maybe could watch the upcoming semi final of the champions league together, cause one of them was a big fan Barcelona.
We reached the garden Eden in the evening, where it is raining like standing underneath a waterfall. Before I will write more about this inspiring place, I will leave you with some photos, I uploaded on Flickr:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskanZKST