Goodbye winter, hello volcanoes, beaches and extreme heat in Costa Rica

As I write this, it feels like ~22° celsius and is headed down to -35 overnight here. For you imperial types, C and F meet at -40.

Add to these temperatures that Toronto has had a record breaking amount of snowfall for a season (and we are but half way through it), and that the city, largest in Canada, struggles mightily with getting rid of the white stuff (especially in bike lanes), and what you’re left with is not exactly a cycling paradise. I still ride daily, of course, but it’s not always particularly pleasant.

So an(other) escape is appropriate. In this case, to Costa Rica. The other extreme end of the climate spectrum 🔥.

I’ll be flying into Liberia this Friday and riding about 70% of the La Gira de Costa Rica route. 70% because that brings me to Sámara where Karen and I will be visiting our friend Jaime like we have for many winter getaways over the last few decades.

The route was actually created by Matt Kadey, the same guy who developed many routes I’ve ridden locally in Ontario, and also the same guy who made the loop in Colombia I tried to ride ;). I know enough about his style to be aware that there will be some suffering. Having said that, I don’t expect or deserve any pity, especially from my fellow Canadians.

Actually, my primary concern on this trip is the heat. The first couple days will be at higher elevations and a little cooler, but once I get down to sea level on the peninsula it’ll be 30°+ and extremely humid. I’m not sure that all day riding and epic distances are going to be possible, so expect to be moving fairly slowly. Let’s call it a beach pace.

As shown on the map below, I have set up 3 possible routes between Limonal and Colorado (between the two green start icons on the right – the brown, blue and green lines). Matt created a total of 7 variations of this route, and I’ve used parts from 3 of them for this section of the ride. I’d like to do the longest version which circumnavigates the largest lake in Costa Rica and gets me up close and personal with a volcano, but let’s see how I feel once I get there.

I have two weeks in total, and the plan is to spit it roughly in half between riding and beach bumming with Karen, Jaime, Paul and Montress. I’m pretty excited about all of it.