Day 2

We wake up early to get ready for an 8:30 pick up. After a light breakfast I go out on the street to mark the Hotel in the GPS in case we need to find it in this old part of San Jose which is very confusing. Two Honda Shadows are parked on the sidewalk. Nice to see that cruiser guys like straight pipes even in Central America.

Joey drives us to the outskirts where we meet Hernan who will get us sorted out on the KTM 690 Enduros. His Triumph Tiger 900 is parked out front. We communicate in broken English and Charlie’s smattering of Spanish. The bike are in decent shape and have some shagged saddlebags and new KTM tankbags installed. I break out me stubby 10mm wrench and pile on the electronics. Charles is running a GPS. Mine will have a GPS, and HD video camera and a Spot GPS locator so Tana can follow me in real time. It sends my position to her every 10 minutes. It also allows me to hit either the “help” or “911” buttons if the need arises.

Hernan seems to like all the gadgets.

After signing away our lives we suit up. Charlie puts on his untried Flak Vest by Rockgardn. Looking like a Star Wars extra we mount up.

Hernan is nice enough to lead us to the Pan-American Highway and we follow in convoy behind him for a few kms till he pulls over and shakes our hands. We are on our own. Our first obstacle is a toll both. Hernan was nice enough to give us a coin that would cover both bikes. We take the right most lane only to be told with a little gesturing that it is for exact change only. A little u-turn and a few meters going the wrong way against traffic and we are through. Charlie is the navigator on this jaunt so he leads. We start up the Highway of Death. It is steep and twisty but not as crazy as the name implies. We see lots of bikes and are passed at one point by a KTM 990 with nice aftermarket pipes. At one point we are in the clouds and it gets chilly. The highest point on the road is 4o00 meters above sea level. We stop at a Soda (Snack Bar) and I find out where all the old Canada dry bottles went.

Everyone we meet is friendly and likes the looks of the funky KTMs. A young boy wants to sit on Charlie’s bike and we oblige.

We continue down Highway 2 looking for the turn off for the Tarragon lodge in san Gerardo de Tota. We initially pass it since it looks more like a trail than a proper road. Farther along we hit km marker 82 and know we have gone too far. Charlie’s initial reckoning was spot on. The serpentine road to the resort proves very interesting. We drop over 2000 feet over the 7 kms of hairpins with a mix of gravel and potted asphalt. We both pass a couple in a Yaris who are descending very gingerly. We park our 690s under cover and check in to this cluster of little cottages perched on the slopes of a steep valley.

We are too late to join the zip-line tour since it is full. We plan on going on the 6am bird spotting walk the next morning. Our neighbours {an eldery couple from Zurich just finishing up a 2 week tour} highly recommend it.