San Francisco

Well last night and today were pretty random, but one of the coolest experiences I have had here. Yesterday, I hit up Francisco to ride bikes or dig. He and I are currently kind of injured, so he suggested that we do a mountain (mountain meaning roads and dirt roads here) bike ride. Sounded good to me, this was to be only my second "mountain" ride here.

Francisco's brother's bike. Repping home! And its a Marin Nail Trail. So badass.

 I ended up getting to his house a little later than I wanted, around 3, but we headed out anyways. He said he kind of knew where we were going, but not really. Ok, whatever. We climb for a bit and then get to the top of the hill. Then we start to descend a very steep and long hill. This is the point where he tells me that we are going to his friend Gore's house to say whats up. Alright, sounds fine to me. He calls her and asks for some more directions, and she tells him that we have to get to a bridge and then start going back up. Two hills. Doesn't sound too too bad. We finally get to the bridge after descending about 500 meters. Now comes the dirt roads and two hills. And of course, Costa Rican style, the roads are steeeep (I am finally getting a theme here..shortest possible roads/trails, straight up). We hiked for a little over half an hour (we made it this far, now we had to get there) for what seemed like an endless hike. We ended up passing her house and having to ask a random kid walking in the road (the only person we saw the entire time) and he told us where to go. Luckily, we were only around 400 meters too far.

An hour later from his house, we arrived, and it was already starting to get dark..

The house is on a 50 acre plot of land where they are growing coffee and few other things. The family was super nice and welcoming, and the (step)father happened to be a gringo who lived in Fairfax and went to SF State in the 60s or 70s! 

By the time we got settled in to meeting everyone, it was dark. Their car was in the shop so they couldn't drive us home. Since I have an independent field study class on Thursdays, we sometimes don't have class, and it happened to be my lucky day. So, I called up my mom and told her what was going on, and she was fine with me staying there.

We ate pizza for dinner (a guy came from who knows on a moto to deliver it) and then hung out and walked to the town to check it out (up a very steep road again). It is about a block big, consisting only of the essentials: soccer field, church, school, pulperia (mini mart), and another indoor soccer field.

The next morning we wanted to see the sun rise (even though we were facing west), so we got up at 4:30 and headed right outside. It was still dark, but around 5 it started to get light and it was amazing. We were about 11km west of San Ramon, in the middle of the mountains. My wish finally got granted too, I got an ocean view! And I rode my bike to it. Not much can beat that..

Up above the house, first light

Ocean! Not huge, but then again we are so far away.

After a typical (but delicious) Costa Rican breakfast of gallo pinto, eggs, homemade tortillas, and coffee, we headed out to feed the ducks. While we were by the ducks, we came across Gore's bike that needed some work. Francisco and I fixed it up nice, and then we decided to ride to the river nearby, since we all had bikes now. After some more Costa Rican roads, we got to the river (or creek) and stored our bikes at the house next to the creek (the plus of everyone knowing everyone in this small, small town). We explored pretty down the creek, swimming along. 

This bridge is on their property, with a trail connecting the worker's houses to the main house

Francisco showing off. This is the only real picture I have of the town, but its the whole thing..

Once we returned, we hung out for a bit more and ate lunch (Costa Ricans are so so hospitable). Her front porch looks out to the hills and the ocean, so we spent a good amount of time there just sitting and hanging out, playing with the two dogs and five cats.

One of the many animals that roam around, Wooly

Porch monkeyin it in the Costa Rican countryside, could it get better?

Their rocking chairs in front were really cool

Around 1:30 the fog came in and we decided it was a good time to head out. We continued on the road to complete the circle and it ended up being 17 km back to the house, but less steep (relative as it turns out). It was just as hard getting back, but I guess it was slightly less steep?..the last half hour my legs were literally going to lock up if I stopped moving, but we ended up making it back in an hour and a half and I survived! Pura Vida