Day 2 Venezia to La Fortuna (Costa Rica)

77km on mostly paved roads today so a relatively short day. However it is ridiculously hot and humid so we are soaking by mid morning. As we climb towards the lunch stop Catharine passes a local guy on his bike carrying his shopping bag of bananas on the handle bars. End up chatting for next 5km in broken Spanish. When we get to the lunch stop he asks if he can rest awhile with the group but it is a firm no from TDA - which in hindsight is fair enough - but it seemed harsh at the time, as he started to well up ! I gave him an apple I had and asked if he needed any food and water but he said no. I felt awful.
Arrived at the hotel about 1pm but unfortunately the rooms weren’t yet ready. Hotel has a nice pool and there is the odd hummingbird on the flowers that surround the private patios.
We head out to local Peruvian restaurant for an excellent steak and sweet potatoes fries and are in bed early again.
Next day is rest day so we have time to change tyres to wider ones ready for the gravel section . We go into town and with the help of a Mexican tourist translating we manage to get the spare part needed for my bike. We have a good coffee and cake in a German type bakery (the last good coffee I had - I am writing this five days later !)
In the evening we go out to same Peruvian restaurant with a bunch of the guys from the Tour.Read more