The second and final part of my Costa Rican cycling adventure! This little ride was just mom and me in the morning of our last day in Playa Flamingo. For this ride, we decided to take it easy and explore the coast south of Playa Flamingo. As we head out, the area is obviously scenic and expensive:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Pretty quickly though we get onto dirt roads:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Small stretch of paved road before hitting Brasilito:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Brasilito is scenic:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

A bit farther and we hit Playa Conchal:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

While Playa Brasilito had hard packed sand, Playa Conchal’s sand is made up of coarsely ground sea shells. This makes for a very scenic beach:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

but a poor surface to cycle on! So, we continued on the dirt road right next to the beach for this stretch. We also stumbled upon an incredible lizard:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Talk about perfect camouflage. The dirt/sand road:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

And back to Playa Brasilito:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

At this point, it was agreed that mom would head back to the unit and I would attempt a dirt road heading uphill. This turned out to be rather interesting:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

There were sections that were so steep, so overgrown and so rough that I had to put my foot down every couple of feet. However, after a couple hundred feet, I was greeted by some rather nice views:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Of course, even here, the road was overgrown:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Yet another crazy section:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

And again:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

I actually gave up on this climb. I’ll blame it on the fact that I had shorts on and was scared of deadly snakes popping out of the vegetation. I enjoyed the part that I did though. Even with the heat. And humidity. And steep grades. And rutted surface. And invasive vegetation. It was still fun.

And once I got back down I even got to see some spider monkeys. Looking up, I saw a couple of monkeys:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Then I saw some more:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Videos:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

All told, there were at least a dozen monkeys. Pretty cool! After enjoying that spectacle I headed back to Playa Brasilito and headed along the dirt road up the coast:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

This quickly led to some awesome beach views:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

And, my one viewing of a leatherback turtle:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Sadly, deceased. With turkey vultures guarding the meat.

And, finally, the road back:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

And back to the expensive area:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling
From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Reward for finishing the ride:

From 2009-09-06 – Costa Rica – 1 – Playa Flamingo Cycling

Costa Rica begs to be ridden. If you find yourself in one of the coastal towns, go and rent a mountain bike. You won’t regret it.

And here is the route map:

Enjoy!

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