Goshen Dock – Cimarrones (25km). 17 miles. I recorded1300 feet elevation gain, but that seemed too much. Camino De Costa Rica sections 1a & 1b
Today’s word is Hot! Hot as in we started walking at 10:00 am. Most of our group started the day in San Jose around 4:00 am. They made it to Julio’s Cabins (also called Aventuras del Caribe on Google maps)
around 7:30am. We met the group as they walked down the pier and we all had breakfast together. We then took a boat across the river (Rio Madre de Dios) and followed the trail to the Caribbean coast. Most of us took off our shoes and got our feet wet in the Caribbean. It was sunny and hot and humid. We then turned around and made the reverse trip back to Goshen dock (Muelle Goshen) and started walking for real. It got hotter. We walked some more and it was still hot. We kept walking slower and slower as the heat didn’t let up. 7 hours later we finished for the day and made it to the place where the guides had scheduled lunch. We were all famished and exhausted by that time. Lunch wasn’t until about 4:30 pm, but it was delicious. The fresh cold fruit juice was divine.
While it was hot today, we were treated to some pretty sights and views of rural life. We were lucky enough to see a two-fingered sloth in a hedge right by the side of the road. It was so close that we could have easily reached out and touched it. We also saw howler monkeys in a large tree on the outskirts of a small town. We walked through kilometers of banana plantations and saw some pineapple fields towards the end of the day. We had one stop early afternoon where Urritrek had planned a fruit break and stopped at a store or two along the way where some people bought snacks. I really felt the heat and lack of nourishment today. I felt like I was drinking plenty of water and tried to keep my body from overheating, but by mid afternoon I was struggling and felt like I was on the verge of heat stroke. I had stopped along the side of the road next to our support vehicle on an uphill section and noticed that there was a large water tank with a valve. I took advantage of that water by getting my head wet and then soaked my shirt. That seemed to help as I was then able to catch up to the group who were also hot and tired. I was able to keep up after that, though I am afraid I the slowest one in the group today.
After our late lunch, at a local house in the outskirts of we took a short ride to the Hotel Pacuare. We were all happy to have air conditioned rooms and a nice shower. We had dinner around 8:00 pm since we had such a late lunch. The food was fine (the beer was super cold), but paled in comparison to the homemade food we had for lunch. We were all exhausted and went to bed right after dinner, wondering if every day was going to be as long and hard as today.
The following video of monkeys in tree
