Beaches and dirt roads in Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica

As mentioned in the previous post, Costa Rica offers excellent back road alternatives that avoid the hell-ish Panamerican Highway. The Nicoya Peninsular is no exception.   Although the altitude probably doesn´t exceed 250 metres (if you follow the coastal road), the steep short inclines in the 30+ C degree heat are enough to challenge the fittest of cyclists with some sections so steep they are only just makeable without pausing for breath.

A lot of the road is well maintained…

An additional bonus that you can take advantage of is that, in Costa Rica, anywhere 50 metres from the high tide mark is public property.  This means two things to me.  Firstly, since construction is generally prohibited in this zone, virtually the entire cococnut-fringed coast looks like untouched wilderness when looking back from the sea.  A beautiful site indeed. Secondly, it means that you can pretty much pitch your tent in any of the unlimited beaches.  I´m told that even properties that have gardens encroaching on the 50 metre mark are fair game (although this would rarely be necessary since there are so many empty beaches to choose from).  This means that camping is free and, incidently, feels pretty safe.

Just south of Playa Sámara

There is no denying that some sections are very touristy resulting in perhaps a less authentic Costa Rican experience at times.  In areas like Flamingo and Tamarindo, there is a mild spike in traffic and, for some reason, poor inconsiderate driving; however, further south becomes much quieter since the roads become inaccessible by everything except two wheelers and 4×4 (between Coyote and Santa Teresa).  Even at its worst points it´s in a totally different league to the Interamericana. There are also normally options to avoid the main roads in the more northern sections if you´re prepared to burn some fat off on the steep inclines.

Just after Flamingo we had our first ATV tour pass us. This mode of transport is very prevalent on the Nicoya due to the rough dirt roads (it was paved in the tourist areas like here). I didn´t find them to be an issue, just noisey and mildy tedious…

Again, may I point you to an excellent alternate summary of the Nicoya Peninsular here by the ispirational mountain bike touring specialist Cass Gilbert on his very resourceful blog WhileOutRiding.com who gave me the idea to cycle it in the first place.  When I was there I don´t think the dust from the vehicles was as bad as he experienced probably because it was the tail end of raining season.

The main road from Liberia to Guardia is a 20km paved section with a fair amount of traffic and is actually not that pleasant to ride.  We found out about an alternate quite route known as the Monkey Trail too late; that would probably be a better alternative and worth a detour.

Fjording rivers is an unavoidable part of the Nicoya if you hug the coast all the way round; no more than knee height when I was there. With the soaring temperatures in the midday sun, this clearly has its advantages.

Eric had to head back home from Sámara and cut back country across the Nicoya to get his ferry. Meanwhile I continued down the coast ´suffering´ on these pristine beaches…

Although there is the odd car on the Nicoya, sections like this after Sámara dramatically reduced the traffic to virtually zero in some areas.

Playa Corozalito has a small two-storey hut with a roof under the coconut trees. I nearly by-passed this beach but the locals told me about this hut.  Being up on the second floor gets you away from the thousands of hermit crabs that appear at night on this beach. I ended up staying for a few days…

…how could I not?

Breakfast – with the addition of a coconut, provided by the limitless supply of Costa Rican nature…

…and the kind local caretaker that looks after the beach…

Turtles frequently lay eggs on numerous beaches on the Nicoya; Corozalito was no different. Protection programs are in place for this threatened species. Each night the volunteers from the program would patrol the beach. They alerted me to this adult female laying its eggs at around 10pm for an extensive period; beating the ground and ´crying´ in the process.

Sunrise is normally the time these turtles hatch. They have numerous predators including racoons, coatis, birds, crabs and, worst of all, humans. I woke at 6am to find excited vultures feeding on these hatchlings. I ran over and one of the birds dropped one out of its mouth. Then found these coming out of the sand…

…heading down to the ocean. Around 50 eventually hatched.

One of the patrol girls came to ensure their safe journey to the ocean…

The time came to leave. But only to be distracted 10 km down the road by this beach… Playa San Miguel and Playa Coyote separated by an estuary that´s crossable at low tide.  I camped in Miguel´s garden after meeting his kind friend Timothy. Miguel is an Argentinian businessman living in the US who invested in a property at San Miguel.  This place remains uncrowded due to the difficulty in getting here. It was great surfing with you guys!

David and Tova also found themselves in San Miguel. They were heading to Santa Teresa by public transport which would have taken all day since you have to cross right over to the other side of the peninsular and back. Another benefit of two-wheeled travel – this route is just a few hours by bicycle. They actually ended up hitching directly along the coast on one of the few 4×4 vehicles that pass that way…

Although it´s not essential, it is possible to ride along the beach at low tide from Rio Bongo to the end of Playa Manzanillo. Since it was possible, I did it…

The road then turns into a nice quite track paralleling the beach to Santa Teresa.

After surfing in Santa Teresa for a couple of days, I headed towards Cabuya stopping at ´Secret beach´ – just continue following the path south after Malpais to get here.

The road to Cabuya consisted of a few short steep climbs before heading back down to the other side…