Left: Our boots were waterlogged all week, but the wind coming from the lake helped to dry them a touch. Right: One unique meal worth seeking out is the“ caldosa,” essentially the walking taco of the ceviche world.
backs. They were quieter than the monkeys we’ d heard that morning, but the occasional howl rang down from above.
Back on the bikes it was our turn to make some noise. We had to show our cojones too, if we wanted to keep up with Justin on his KTM. We tore down gravel roads, bouncing over rocks and sending thick dust into the air. The roads stretched out ahead of us, winding through the hills of Guanacaste. The vegetation was thick in spots, like riding through a scene from Jurassic Park. In other areas it was open green farmland with roaming cattle.
At the end of the day, we found a small creek that had been dammed into a swimming hole. Without much discussion, we jumped into the water, gear and all. Little did we know, our boots wouldn’ t dry out for the remainder of the trip.
BioDivErsIty
Costa Rica forces you to slow down. Not in an obvious way, like someone telling you to“ just relax.” It happens naturally,
because the environment demands your attention in a way that makes rushing feel completely out of place.
The country covers just 0.03 % of the world’ s land area but contains roughly 5 % of its biodiversity. Birds, mammals, insects, plants … Everywhere you look, something is happening, and if you’ re moving too fast, you miss it.
We spent half a day at a sloth sanctuary, walking trails under a dense canopy with binoculars glued to our faces. Two- and three- toed sloths are creatures that seem designed to exist on a different timeline than the rest of the world. Everything about them is slow. They spend most of their lives in the trees, and once a week they climb down – to poop. It’ s the most dangerous thing they do.
We joked about it constantly. The odds of actually seeing it felt low enough to make it absurdly funny. Then we rounded a corner and it happened: a baby sloth, slowly making its way down the trunk of a tree. Our guide stopped and watched quietly.“ Incredibly rare to see,” he said.
We spotted howler monkeys, poison dart frogs, sloths, and a variety of other wildlife. The running joke of the trip was“ cojones blancos,” which kept the laughter going for days.
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