Costa Rica: San Jose

Getting around in Costa Rica can be quite confusing. Buses are very cheap, however taxis are not. Also, many of the taxi drivers are not so scrupulous. On arrival in Costa Rica I had an airport transfer scheduled. It went well at first as I found the guy with my name printed on a sign, however, when he left me to go get the vehicle, another taxi driver showed up and whistled at me. Being new to the city and dazed from travelling all day, I did not recognize that it was a different guy that had pulled up. He, of course, tried to take me to a different location than my booked hostel. After arriving at the correct hostel, I finally realized it was not the same guy and ended up having to pay the outrageous $30 fee the local taxi drivers are charging for airport transfer as well as the $16 for the transfer I had already booked. Turns out, if I had just taken any bus it would have taken me straight to downtown for about a dollar and from there I could have either walked 15 minutes or taken a taxi for a few dollars. And that is how the bus system works: all buses go to downtown San Jose. This makes it very easy to get back if you're hostel is in that area, however, not so easy to figure out how to get out. 

 

The next day, walking around San Jose, I discovered that, despite the thorough dilapidation of every building, the parks were very nice and extremely well kept.

The downtown city center area wasn't quite as dilapidated as everything around it, but extremely busy. Considering almost every bus in the entire country goes here, it's not surprising.

A stereotype of Latin American women is that they generally have larger butts, and the mannequins in this store seem to prove it.

Here was a cool view of a park from a local museum.

The parks were definitely the highlight of San Jose. This was the very large Sabanas Park just west of downtown and was a great area for outdoor activities in the city. This running path winds around the entire park and can be close to a couple miles or longer depending on the route you take.

It even included a beautiful lake.

Scenic picnic areas inside of the trees.

Some dinosaur bones!

And a track which would be packed with runners in the early morning! On the inside is also a skating circle for competitive speed skating.

While traveling through La Fortuna later, I had found that Costa Rica was also known for it's dental tourism. Dentistry work could be done for a fifth to a third of the cost of the States. I looked into it further and settled on Nova Dental in San Jose (novadentalcr.com) as they had all the right international accreditations.

 

It turned out to be a highlight of my trip. I had used a coupon a year ago in Oklahoma to get a teeth cleaning and X-rays for $50 and afterwards I was told I had 3 cavities in between my teeth that would cost $250 each for a $750 total. I tried to bargain. At least take a little bit off that astronomical price. But they wouldn't. And apparently no one in the industry does. Well that price was way too steep, particularly considering the X-rays they showed me were not very clear and did not look very convincing (though I had no idea what I was looking at). I decided to hold off. Which was a very good decision.

 

When I arrived at the dentist office for my appointment, I was shocked at how nice and clean it was. It was just as fancy as the nicer dentist offices I had seen in the States. I told them about how I wanted to get those three cavities fixed that had earlier been identified. Well they couldn't find them. So the doctor himself came in and took several different X-rays all from different angles. And still they were not there. Then he showed me the extremely high quality images and there wasn't a bit of dark spots anywhere. These weren't blurry like the ones I had been shown in the States, these were very clear and easy to see. So either my teeth had magically healed themselves from my decision to start flossing more often or the dentist in the States was looking for money to destroy pieces of my teeth.

 

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I did have two smaller cavities in my teeth as well as a filling that could use fixing. These were easily visible and since they were small they were at the bottom of the quoted price ($50-$90/filling). The doctor stayed with me the entire time and immediately went to work which made the visit extremely short. The total cost was $50/filling and $50/cleaning which came to $150 for a cleaning and two fillings. Overall, it was a great experience to get my teeth fixed so quickly and for such a good price!

So what I found that San Jose had to offer was cheap food, a good wooden crafts market, great dentistry, and beautiful parks with near perfect weather to match (days were typically high 70's with nights in the 60's).

Cali Coast Road Trip Part 4: San Francisco to Salt Lake City

After drinking a bit too much the previous night with newfound friends, I found walking (hiking) around San Francisco to be quite the chore. Even this tunnel was on a grade. Interestingly, there was another road on top of this tunnel!

I decided to stop in Chinatown for lunch on my way through. Not bad.

Had a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge from this high point.

Alcatraz sits behind the American Flag here. 'Merica!

Some day I'll have to try swimming from there. The Escape from Alcatraz triathlon is on my list.

An old battleship still sits in the bay here by the Fisherman's Wharf. With all the delicious seafood around this area, I will make certain to eat here next time and skip out on a Chinatown lunch.

 

Leaving San Francisco took quite awhile. In fact, I got so frustrated with sitting in traffic, I stopped in the town of Davis to eat and run (literally, a 4 mile run). I was impressed. While not as many bike lanes and multi-use paths as the larger city of Boulder, I have never seen more people on bikes. It didn't matter that there wasn't a bike lane in some areas, as I saw a whole entire road with hundreds of bikes passing by and maybe 3 cars over a half hour span. I am quite certain more people ride bikes here than cars. It was quite the town.

 

Once I finally arrived at my buddies in Meadow Vista, who originally pulled me down the coast two years ago, I was sick of driving for a bit. Luckily, the trail race we planned on was right down the road. Called the Switchback Challenge, it involved three big climbs over 6.5 miles of tough trail. While I couldn't keep up with the leaders up any of the hills, I definitely made up time with some good, recklessly fast downhill running. By this point, fitness had come back some from the last two weeks of intense running, cycling, and hiking, and I was able to nail a sub hour finish by 6 minutes to not only nab an age group prize but also score a large, liter beer mug that included free beer and food at the town's Octoberfest later that night (given out to everyone under an hour). And another bonus: got to meet Gordy Ainsleigh, the founder of modern ultrarunning in the US, who lives and trains in the area, before the race start. Definitely one of my favorite running races to date.

Found this gorgeous spot on the rocks in Sand Harbor to watch the sunset over Lake Tahoe. By this point, I was mostly worn out and after a failed attempt to swim in the crystal clear lake due to extreme cold (even with a  wetsuit, I had a splitting headache after a minute), I decided to spend these last couple of days resting up and enjoying the scenery.

While I stayed in Kings Beach on the California side, this beautiful spot was in Sand Harbor on the Nevada side.

 

On my way back to Colorado, I stayed overnight in Nevada, where I ate an enormous 5 course meal with a large filet mignon and bottle of wine for less than $30 (or rather attempted to eat) at an old hotel in the town of Winnemucca. The next day was a beautiful run in Salt Lake City around Sugar House Park.

 

Which would be a nice place to play a ballgame!

 

Always amazed at how beautiful Utah is. Here you can see the moon positioned between the mountains at sunset as I leave the SLC area.

And of course the drive back thru Colorado is always nothing short of spectacular. Can't wait to do this trip again for some hiking in the Sierra Nevadas!

 

 

Cali Coast Road Trip Part 3: The Coast

After a quick run in Mission Beach and some delicious fish tacos I left San Diego to head up the coast.

 

Along the way, I stopped for the sunset just north of Santa Barbara.

Upon arrival in Solvang, I went straight to the brewery to see how the beer was since my last visit (2011 cycling trip).

Solvang is a beautiful Dutch town that not only includes multiple delicious pastry restaurants, but even has a windmill in the middle of town! This night also happened to be by far the quietest I've spent inside a town anywhere. I remember being baffled at not hearing a single noise while car camping in a neighborhood.

 

Just north of Solvang is the quaint and quiet Los Olivos. Usually bustling with activity, at this time of day and season, I about had the town to myself.

The weather was overcast upon arrival in San Luis Obispo so I drove on through up the coast to Big Sur.

While it is a much better road by bike, the drive was not too bad.

This is the same bridge I shot a picture of with my bike and put on my first business cards when I first came through here in February 2011.

The rocky coast, even outside of Big Sur is simply spectacular.

Upon leaving Big Sur, I caught a gorgeous sunset in Carmel-by-the-Sea after a nice long run along the beach and up through the trails inside Pebble Beach.

 

Driving around the bay, I spent a quiet morning on a secluded section of beach reading and making tea (as is my morning routine) before going for an incredible run along the coast in Santa Cruz.

 

This was one of those neat spots that would spray water up 15ft or higher on occasion.

Freshly arrived in San Francisco, I booked the downtown HI hostel for a shower and some camaraderie. I picked the right day too, as Thursday happened to be Pub Crawl night.

 

English guys are always crazy. Especially when there's a birthday.

We hit up 6 different bars throughout the night and even went dancing at the last one!

 

 

 

 

 

Cali Coast Road Trip Part 2: Moab to San Diego

After a solid three days of intense non-stop hiking, cycling, and trail running in Moab at a lovely and very cheap hostel (Lazy Lizard- $11/nt), I hit the road again. 

 

 This is one of my favorite stops along I-70 east. Took a nice little nap in the parking lot before heading on.

 

Past there are tons more great scenic stops right on the highway. This is just one of them.

Heading south on I-15 towards Vegas, mountains were once again in sight.

Incredible lighting from this sunset.

Outside St. George, this tough hike up to the top of Signal Peak provides views of the Grand Canyon far off on the right and Zion National Park on the left. It's a long, rough off-road drive (ground clearance required) to the trailhead, but there are lots of nice, free camping spots along the way, and the views even at the start of the trailhead are quite spectacular. The hike itself is quite rough as well with lots of overgrown trees and foliage blocking the trail, and climbing quite a bit with a few sketchy sections of loose dirt and rocks to cross, but the payoff is well worth the effort.

The leaves were changing at the time and made the Signal Peak hike quite a beautiful one.

In total, the hike took a bit over 3 and a half hours at a brisk pace. One bottle of water was certainly pushing it...

A quick stop was made in Vegas for a big buffet dinner after the rigorous hike. I went to the Bellagio for an approximate $45 dinner and loaded up on fresh sushi (with excellent spicy mayo), prime rib, various vegetables, and incredible desserts. I had orange juice with dinner and it was deliciously fresh squeezed. The crab legs were quite disappointing, however, as they were cold, hard and not too tasty. Overall? Well worth it.

 

After Vegas, I stopped overnight at the first rest stop I hit in California. It was, luckily, still far enough away from LA that it allowed overnight parking. The next morning, I made it into San Dimas for the Bonelli Olympic Distance Triathlon which included a beautiful swim in a clear lake with a view of mountains in the background transitioning into a tough 3-lap bike of climbing and descending followed by a tough run around the lake with a lot of nice off-road sections. My swim and run fitness weren't great at this point, but the bike power was good and it set me up for a top-10 finish and age group award. 

On arrival in San Diego, I headed to the suburb of Chula Vista to hang out with my old roommate. Because of his work schedule, I spent a good amount of time hanging out at this park, reading and enjoying the view.

The sunset over Chula Vista.

The next day we went for sushi and some down time at the beach in the Sunset Cliffs area. This was a nice, quite spot in relation to the other beaches around. With cliffs.

Got a couple nice shots of the sunset here.

Finally, after attending his bible study group, we finished off the night walking around the Gaslamp district. Was surprised to see how busy the place was on a Monday!

Cali Coast Road Trip Part 1: Moab

Recently, I decided it was time to return to the place where my adventure started. Well, not the adventure, per say, but the idea for the adventure. The inspiration behind it. The magical, raw beauty of the California coastline.

 

As I packed up and left my new, temporary home of Boulder, CO, I caught the sun descending over Lake Dillon.

 Wherever this particular bike path goes, I plan to find out next time I come through.

After a beautiful, starry night at my favorite free campsite in Rabbit Valley, I crossed the border into Utah with a nice sunrise backdrop.

 

From there, I again took my favorite scenic drive (Highway 128) along the Colorado river down into Moab.

 These shots show how incredible this drive is.

Along the way, I found my new favorite hike/run along the Negro Bill Trailhead to Morning Glory Arch. It's a nice 4 miles with only a few stream crossings and such to interrupt the run.

Fisher Valley is another beautiful area along the route. If you do the La Sal Mountain loop on your road bike, you will pass the same sights though.

Next up was a hike in Hunter's Canyon, but I found the trail too rough to run, so I turned around and went for a run on one of the many mountain bike trails along the way. It's incredible the terrain some are able to ride bikes over.


To finish off the day, I hiked up to the top of the ridge overlooking Moab for a look at the town at sunset. In the distance, are the La Sal Mountains which can be biked up to by road (about 64 miles with 6k+ft climbing for a round trip loop; that one was made tough by insane always in your face winds...) or by mountain bike with a shuttle ride.

From the top of the Moab Rim Trail looking down on Cane Creek Blvd, Hwy 279, and the Colorado River.

The sunset was well worth the steep hike.

In summation, Moab is not just a climbing/mountain biker's paradise. The road riding and trail running is quite fantastic as well. For trail running, I recommend the Pipe Dream trail for good up and down and side to side flow and for road biking, Highway 279 east from 191 for a nice scenic and flat out and back ride through the canyon.