Tilaran

Carlos and his mother sent us off with a big breakfast of Gallo Pinto (rice & beans), eggs, cheese, ham, tortilla and Costa Rican coffee. Thus, we were ready for a day on the bikes. The first 40km were relatively easy rolling on a paved road. It was cloudy, so not too hot, and not much traffic, so we could enjoy the ride.
Then the tough part started. We turned right onto a pretty remote road leading to Laguna de Arenal. In order to get there, we had to gain 700m in elevation over 14km. The first half of the road was paved, the second half pretty rocky gravel. After the heat in El Salvador, we thought we couldn't sweat no more, today prooved us wrong. We may as well have had a bath in a lake with our clothes on...
The lagune area is quite touristy, so once we got there, we noticed some tourist buses and cars with foreigners. The road here was paved again, so the last rolling 30km to Tilarán were a little easier again.
In Tilarán, we stayed with Cristian and his partner Jose who rent out a spare room as an AirBnB. Cristian welcomed us with homemade lemonade and coffee and cheese and crackers. We could use their kitchen to cook dinner and Jose even took us on a short tour to the Tilarán lookout and the centre of the village. We really enjoyed staying with them and were lucky that we found this place!Read more