From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

After resting for a day in Heredia, a suburb of San José, staying with April and Jonathan (where, we cooked “gougères,” also known as “cheese puffs” with the comté, and it was amazing!), we headed towards the Atlantic. We had been that way by car, but it was a whole new experience to bike there: a 1600 m high slope welcomed us back on the road, followed by 20 km of downhill to reach sea level. We felt the heat and humidity rise up to meet us the more we descended towards the ocean.

In Costa Rica, everything has been in slow motion since last Friday (April 3), and its only gotten worse since yesterday (Thursday). It’s Semana Santa (holy week), a religious holiday here and everywhere in Latin America. Everyone is on vacation for the week: schools are out and all public services are closed. Since yesterday, overcrowded vehicles have been passing us on the road: it’s a long weekend and everyone is leaving for the coast (Pacific for the most part, but also Atlantic). The stores are closed, and all the hotels/motels/cabinas/campsites are full. We’ve actually been having trouble finding supplies, and so we keep a little extra in our bags, which we haven’t had to do since Baja California in Mexico! In terms of religious celebrations, we haven’t seen much except a lot churches open during the daytime. We’re hoping to see something more this weekend, since there should be more going on.

Thursday we visited a Microfinance Institution. Considering that it was holy week, we were surprised that the manager agreed to see us, but then we discovered that he was from Bangladesh and a Muslim! He had been sent here by the Grameen Bank, started by Muhammad Yunus (who received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on microfinance) who he had worked with for 26 years. It is his job to implement the Grameen model here in Costa Rica for the ACRG (Association Costa Rica Grameen). He was very friendly and answered all our questions, and we learned a little more about microfinance in Bangladesh which is quite different than everything we’ve seen so far.

Tonight will be our last night in Costa Rica, in Cahuita, a little village that we discovered two weeks ago with Sara’s family. We got to visit the beautiful beach and swim in the Caribbean Ocean, and we even saw a sloth, but we didn’t have our camera with us… We were really kicking ourselves for not having brought it!!! As we were leaving, we got a somewhat raucous goodbye from a bunch of howler m!!onkey!!s.

Tomorrow we should be arriving in Panama in the early afternoon. Yup, another country! Panama City, about ten days away, will mark the end of our adventures in Central America.

Sara