Activity Summary
Tuesday 6th June - Day 278
Drive to Chirripó
Check in to National park office
Early night for Luke
Wednesday 7th June - Day 279
Luke:
Cerro Chirripó hike
Nicola:
Cloudbridge Nature Reserve
Thursday 8th June - Day 280
Drive to San Jose
Summary
Chirripó
The National park has a number of trails that wind through a load of different ecological zones which if wanting to spend a few days up top at base camp would be pretty good fun.
Getting to base camp, and as such the other interesting routes around the 3,000m mark, in itself is a challenge. Doing it all in one day was pretty difficult but in Luke’s opinion well worth the visit. There were lower down routes Nicola could spend the morning in as well that was much cheaper to get access to.
The drive here, in particular the road to Hotel Uran from the NP office, was the worst road we had experienced in our time around Costa Rica. Rico needed more floor clearance and 4wd.
San Jose
We didn’t see a whole lot of San Jose as by the time we arrived it was pretty grim weather wise and the direction our hostel was (near the bus terminal) was a proper scabby area. Therefore rain, scab and general tiredness kept us from exploring much of the city. Nicola, who has been before, said there isn’t a whole lot to see apart from shops.
Transport
San Jose
Airport -> [public bus] -> San Jose bus terminal -> [walk] -> Hostel
Alas our fun time of driving Rico had to come to an end. Luke will not miss the treacherous roads that were determined to cripple the car. Despite a few bumps and grazes, these were all well hidden by pre-existing health conditions and had no problems on return.
The public was pretty easy and also cheap. Made a nice change in budget crippling Costa Rica.
Accommodation
Chirripó - Hotel Uran
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £42
The hotels around the area were pretty expensive anyway, the cheapest about £25 a night per person and given the visit here was entirely Luke’s idea of fun he covered the difference for this overly expensive place.
The location however was fundamental. The hotel was right on the doorstep of the National park entrance and starting at 1am and then arriving back after a 45km walk later, being so close was an absolute blessing. The cheapest was 1.5km away so walking would’ve sucked and driving at night would have been horrible so it was definitely the right decision.
Our plush room did come with two single beds, a double, basic kitchen facilities and a fridge. All of this was kind of needed given the distance from the main building & restaurant to our bungalow set up down the road.
The road from the main building to the apartment was the worst road in Costa Rica we had encountered. We were not happy at all having to drive that shit show.
Diary
It was only a couple hours drive to Chirripó so we checked out of the Airbnb as late as we could and set off.
For once it was a pretty painless drive. The roads were all paved, in pretty good condition and had no adverse weather. We arrived at the National park office well ahead of the 4pm cut off in order to sign Luke in for his hike the next day and then went the kilometre up the road to the hotel he had booked right at the entrance to the hike start.
The nice paved road quickly evaporated and Luke was once again swerving to avoid the fissures in the road. It didn’t seem totally awful when we parked up at Hotel Uran but were happy to be done with driving, so we thought.
It was a little early to check in so we sat in the lounge / restaurant area for a bit and got talking to two Americans Tanner and Owen, the latter a 19 year old ultra long distance trail runner and he was frikin good at it. They were also day hiking Chirripó and on the invitation to do it together, Luke politely declined being run rings around by Owen and preferring to go at his much more steady pace without pressure. The option of some buddies were there if he got into trouble anyway and we would see a bit more of them over the next few days.
After 30 minutes or so we parted ways in order to check in, eat some of our lunch that was in the car and get settled. Luke had an awfully painful conversation with the receptionist trying to check in who would not stop speaking to him in fast and complicated Spanish way outside his limited grammatical knowledge. All he wanted was the room key and pay, which by now we had grown accustomed to arranging in Spanish but stuff about breakfast times was completely not needed. Eventually the more adept English speaking owner took over.
Our room however was not in the main building complex. It was 200m up the road and by this point the heavens had well and truly opened. There wasn’t any debate of walking our bags over. What this did mean was Luke was going to have to continue a rather unpleasant drive up a very steep hill with the worst pockmarked rock & gravel roads we had seen to date with absolutely savage jutting rocks chilling right in the only line Luke could take to get the car up.
Cue the worst 5 minutes of driving Luke had to do, really needing to crawl up to ensure the tires hit the very fine line he needed to not get the wheels, and therefore the car, stuck in a ditch while having enough pace to actually get up the steep incline. Nicola ended up walking behind trying to guide in the rain (and also freeing up some weight in the car) and would witness a hell of a lot of smoke and tire spin. He did manage to beach one of the wheels in a middle of the road ditch which required a quick reverse and also ended up whacking the undercarriage on one of the savage jutting rocks but it all worked out in the end.
To give credit to Luke (an assertion supported by the carload of people when we left Chirripó) he did a bloody good job getting a 2 wheel drive, lower wheel based car up and down that terrible stretch of road. Once we were in the room he was now pretty stress tired and there was no chance that the car was moving until we checked out.
We didn’t leave the room for the rest of the afternoon and evening as Luke packed for his hike and Nicola chilled. We had a fridge and all the utensils needed for cooking / food prep so tried to carbo load Luke up with nachos, refried beans, avo, salsa and some pasta.
Luke tried sleeping at 8pm in order to pack in as much sleep as possible before starting to hike at 1am but of course this didn’t work all that well and only got a couple hours in. Lack of sleep however doesn’t really phase him too much and was fine getting up and going.
Luke story time:
When the 12.30am alarm went off I cursed the fact I hadn’t really slept and then immediately went to check the weather. If it was raining, there was fudge all chance I would have started walking. On reflection that would have been the right choice, it was difficult downhill in the rain and would have been so unpleasant doing that on the way up as well.
After what has been months of eating Central American corn flakes I had decided enough was enough and for the big boy hiking day treated myself to some proper hearty granola, banana and yoghurt. Even if it was super frikin expensive. I was out of the room by 1am and on the trail up the Cerro Chirripó, the highest point in Costa Rica.
It wasn’t long before I’d caught up with Tanner and Owen who had also planned to start at a similar time. I was walking with them for about 5 minutes but ended up walking off ahead of them. I thought about hanging around with them but at 1am I really didn’t want to talk to anyone. I really enjoy the time alone with my thoughts and really dislike the stress of pacing with unknown people.
That said, the first 4 hours hiking from the start to about 3,000m altitude was pretty dull. It was pitch black with nothing but all encompassing forest jungle and the path. There are big cats that roam in the national park and on being left to his own thoughts, with large round footprints and moist sizable turds lining the track I got pretty shook about being attacked by a jaguar. Cometh the hour cometh the walking stick. I ended up using Basil not for hiking but as a weapon to protect me from any attacks from jaguars.
I held that stick for dear life for 3 hours until clearing the dense tree line and the welcome embrace of the start of daylight. I then found out the ‘paw’ prints and poop was actually from horses that trek the path up and down serving the Crestones base camp rather than being a recent jaguar movement that was going to maul me to death. Woopsie. I did however see a lot of rabbits that would run up the path, stop and then carry on running again when I got close.
At 3,000m however the walk got really fun. The views from the thinned out tree line into the distance had a number of high ridge lines that were being bathed in the first morning light.
Over one there was the remnants of the red hue of sunrise which I was very happy to see.
As I continued along the path I had a mass of different types of bird chirping all around me, jumping and flying throughout the path as I walked. All in all it was a pretty wholesome section, levelled out quite a lot and actually ended up being my favourite part of the walk.
The motivational signs and markers were also pretty entertaining the whole way up.
I got pretty tired approaching base camp, the signs stating distance not being overly motivating and I really just needed a quick rest and some decent food. Once getting to the base camp view however a sense of renewed energy took over and the views were pretty good again.
I got to base camp just after 6am, so I had been walking for 5 hours to get to around 3,400m (~1,800m of the climbing) and 14km of distance per AllTrails. It wasn’t a particularly quick time but I wasn’t trying to gun it for fear of bonking hard.
One of the base camp workers came and spoke to me while I was getting some food out of my bag and ended up having to use our phones to communicate that I needed to register inside. He did look a little concerned I wasn’t going to stay long before carrying the 5.5km to the summit. Inside I registered with my SINAC pass and passport, had some power pasta and a banana (god I love bananas when hiking) and then set off.
The first half of the hike to the summit was again pretty nice. The gradient had evened out a lot so the uphill struggles became quite a bit easier, which was nice considering the altitude effect on effective oxygen levels (at 1,500m = 17.3%, 3,350m = 13.7%, 3,820m = 12.9%). The views were more like the Lake District and even had a proper NZ DOC style route pole system in place over the rocky bit which I was so gassed about.
There were also various flowing streams and waterfalls.
Most people were coming down at this point who had clearly camped overnight and gotten up for the sunrise. Sensible plan.
From about halfway up from base camp to the summit I started to hit some problems.
This experience has taught me never to eat refried beans before a hike. I have never been as gaseous as I was walking up and down Chirripo, letting out tree felling raspers that for the first 75% of the uphill hike to summit was actually hilarious. I even debated recording this to send to Nicola. It was that consistent.
What wasn’t so funny was when innocent farts started to mature. All of a sudden my hapless passing of gas felt properly risky biscuit and I had to hold them in. Unable to now get rid of what was a savage amount of gas build up ended up putting a whole lot of pressure on my stomach which then moved in phases from passing pressure into my asshole. This cycle of intense stomach pain to being one lapse in concentration away from sharting carried on the whole time up to the summit and only dissipated when making it back to base camp for easily one of the top 3 poops of my life.
This put quite a bit of a downer on what was supposed to be the nicest part of the hike, but also made arguably the hardest part much more challenging. The views looking up at the peak however were still pretty great.
The very last part of the summit hike involved a decent scramble up near enough a vertical cliff but with pretty decent foot and hand holds so it wasn’t particularly challenging (minus the sharting risk).
I reached the summit at around 8am and was up there completely alone. I had plenty of time to take pictures with the victory sign and have a good take in of the panoramic views that were clear as day, thankfully summiting before the rainy season clouds had a chance to roll in.
It was pretty nice sitting with my feet hanging over the edge of the mountain, chowing down on a bit of pasta and watching some other hikers I had passed coming along the path to start the climb. I didn’t expect to see Tanner and Owen until on the way down but from the distance I could see a figure going at some considerable pace along the track. It was Owen who had decided to extend the hike by leaving Tanner for a bit and running from base camp to the summit and back to Tanner where he would reclimb the summit with his friend. Nutter. He also ended up clocking such a fast time he’s now the Strava local legend… the dude was up and down the summit before I could barely go anywhere.
I didn’t linger at the top much longer than 20 minutes because my stomach was cramping so much. The number of times I debated dropping a deucey on the highest peak of Costa Rica was a lot but the lack of trowel and just general shame of it all stopped me, especially knowing it was only 5k down to base camp and proper toilets. I chose not to go further down the mountain because I didn’t want my ass to be bitten by one of the many venomous vipers in Costa Rica.
The journey down felt like it took forever. There was a bench at the halfway point that I ended up lying on, feet in the air to try and release some pressure without shitting myself. It gave me some respite for about 15 minutes before the agony once again took over.
Once at base camp I was a man reborn. I got a large mug of black coffee and chowed down on some cookies I had. The 30 minute rest plus sustenance was so needed.
It was 11am when I started descending and while I was a much cheerier man (talked to a fair few people coming down) it had started to cloud over and the 12pm rain the windy forecast had predicted (hence the really early start to get the views) was starting to come true.
Being higher up the rain didn’t hit too hard and it was actually quite refreshing so I still enjoyed myself at this point.
The last 10km however it felt like I was being battered by an unrelenting monsoon. I got soaked to my core, none of my waterproof covers could withstand the pelting and especially my bag. I wouldn’t have minded this too much but the track turned into a rocky, slippery river that became increasingly annoying to walk down, especially when it got steeper. This also led me to having a not so pleasant fall back on my wrist when misjudging the grip of a moss covered rock in a proper noob hiker moment. My left LCL started twanging like it usually does when I descend down long stepped routes which wasn’t overly pleasant.
The rain intensity did subside towards the end of the walk and at this point I felt like I could take my phone out of my drenched pocket and grab a photo. Prior to that I could barely get my phone to work with the water saturation levels and was too tired and annoyed to try.
Once back at the hotel room at just after 3pm, I dumped all my soaked to the core items on the floor and went straight into the nice warm shower Nicola had pre-run for me. She then spent the next 20 minutes rubbing cream into my weathered face and massaging my areas of significant pain. She is the absolute best.
Overall, the hike was fun because it was such a challenge. I would have enjoyed it infinitely more had my stomach not caused me problems, the latter not so nice hiking down stages just being part and parcel of it really. The views were nice but nothing iconic really. Climbing 1,800m for hours through forest and without much view change is pretty monotonous, both on the way up and down and therefore won’t come close in hype to those hikes that we have done with constant changing scenery. Costa Rica however doesn’t seem particularly hot on decent hiking opportunities and this one did deliver in being a challenge and give nice contrasting views outside of what we had done in the country.
Strava distances:
45.13km distance
2,621m elevation
Max height = 3,820m
Moving time = 11hrs 58mins
Elapsed time = 14hrs 11mins
Luke story time over.
Nicola story time:
I woke up in the morning well rested after my midnight wake up call from luke. I decided to head straight out to Cloudbridge Nature Reserve to make the most of the morning weather. After walking for 1km along the road I was greeted by a young German volunteer, paid my $7 enterance fee and started the walk. There was a mix of cloud forest, river, waterfalls and a odd stone circle as the hike headed up the valley. The paths were very slippy but thankfully there were a range of bamboo walking poles to use in place of my donated stick to Luke.
I hiked around 8km in a nice loop, before heading back at around 11am to call Tilly and wait for Luke's return.
Nicola story time over.
Luke had to muster what remaining energy he had to try and stay awake and make it to dinner. He had arranged to meet up with Tanner & Owen for dinner at around 6pm but he hadn’t heard anything back from them so we ditched the plan and betrayed them with a beer and burger. Luke would have demolished the entirety of the mcds menu if he had the chance but instead we were served the driest, overcooked burger we have ever had. It was like sawdust in our mouths but Luke was so tired and hungry he still enjoyed it. Nicola was less enthused.
The Americans did make it to the restaurant close to 7pm, about 3.5 hours later than Luke because Tanner was getting really into taking pictures on the hike. One spot he spent 20 minutes loving life while Owen just had a lie down. Luke couldn’t understand this and just wanted to be down as quickly as possible. We didn’t socialise for long before heading back to the room and that sweet sweet bed.
Neither of us really wanted to get up. Unexpectedly Nicola woke up the more tired and fragile.
We set off at 9am to drive the 4 hours to San Jose and drop the car off back at Jumbo. Tanner & Owen were also heading to the airport for a very similar time so being the good Samaritans we are, brought forward our car drop off time and gave them a free lift.
First challenge of the day was navigating the disgusting Hotel Uran road back to the tarmac. It was a hell of a lot easier going down hill, Luke again catching the undercarriage on the same rock that got him the first time, but otherwise was fine. Crawling down the hill in the dry sunshine with Nicola as backup guidance worked out alright. The two lads and Nicola did end up having to walk to the tarmac a good distance away as we were concerned with the weight impact on the height of the car.
Now safe (ish) from war torn roads everyone got in the car and we made our way to Jumbo. Our only stop was at the Walmart for some food and the toilet along the way, which the Americans found hilarious. Pretty painless journey from that point, bar the terrible back road entry requirement to Walmart (more pockmarked roads), aggressive city drivers and being forced into the hard shoulder by what appeared to be a teenage girl. Clearly Luke has gotten used to this as he wasn’t really stressed at all.
At Jumbo we returned the car seemingly without any recharge problems, despite the nose taking a few whacks and the undercarriage getting a nice massage from the Chirripo rock. Once all signed off we got into the shuttle, dropped off at the airport and said goodbye to Tanner & Owen.
Nicola had already worked out where the city bus was in relation to our drop off so it was a quick job walking over to a pulled over coach, dropping our bags in the hold and before we knew it we were in San Jose.
It wasn’t raining by the time we got off the coach so we walked the 800m to our hostel through a pretty horrible part of town. No one looked particularly savoury and there seemed to be a lot of druggys knocking around. We were pretty happy to reach the hostel and more so because Luke’s shoulders and legs were not in the best of shape. Nicola managed to step in some form of shit on the walk, so we had to do an emergency show clean with the hostel hose pipe but thankfully it wasn't too bad!
Once checked in we spent the evening sorting out our bags, now forced into the normal backpacker set up once again, cooked dinner and chilled.
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