El Empalme – San Pablo (20km). Actual 13 miles. 1580 feet elevation gain. El Camino de Costa Rica Section 12
Summary
Today we crossed the continental divide and reached the high point of the walk and it was …. not very dramatic. Neither were marked nor obvious and it turns out that the high point of the Camino de Costa Rica is a truck stop on a highway!
We got a good laugh out of both “highlights” being letdowns. The day’s walk was also kind of boring. The first 2/3rds or so was along paved roads with traffic. We were glad to get back on side dirt roads and enjoyed some nice views of the valleys and farms on the Pacific side. It does seem dryer with different plant life. The earth color is also lighter in color.
Details
Most of our group members that were feeling ill yesterday were better today, but one woman was worse. She started walking with us, but was miserable and very weak. We would stop and wait for her and made very slow progress, until about halfway through the guide arranged transport to take her ahead to our hotel for the night.
We are almost the only ones at the hotel we are staying at. We thought we were the only group, which is pretty common, but we did see a few business people at breakfast. We have a swimming pool that is refreshingly cool and real hot water showers for the first time since the first night. The other places either just had cold water or an attachment to the showerhead that would heat the water, but the showerhead heaters are not very powerful and they would often just take the chill off the cold water. Luckily the weather is warm and cool showers are not that bad. Some people in our group wandered around town a bit. I went to the pool and just generally relaxed.
Not much else newsworthy to report on so enjoy some random photos
Track
