The Costa Rican Experience
The Costa Rican Experience
It's a jungle out there!
ARE YOU OKAY?" ASKED YAMAHA R&D technician Mike Ulrich. "Uh, yeah." I replied, shaking my head groggily. "I just went to put my foot down, and the next thing I knew, I was upside down, sliding down the hillside."
As it turned out, falling down was the least of my troubles. Regaining my footing and righting my mount in the slippery Costa Rican muck-not to mention negotiating the rest of the steep, rutted trail-proved to be the toughest task I had ever undertaken on a dirtbike.
I was in Costa Rica for the introduction of the year-2000 WR400F. Normally, Off-Road Editor Jimmy
Lewis would have gotten the call, but he was discs-deep in the Dakar Rally. Tough luck, I say. Despite my inopportune tip-over, I was having the time of my life.
Bordered to the north by Nicaragua and to the south by Panama, Costa Rica is smack in the middle of Central America. An increasingly popular vacation destination (more than 1 million visitors annually), the country is known for its conservation. More than a quarter of the land is protected in one way or another, with some 11 percent included within the national park system. All of which makes it easy to spot crocodiles, monkeys, turtles (some as big as Volkswagens!), exotic birds and other wildlife in their natural habitats.
Yamaha hired Jose “Larry” Larrabure, a five-time ISDE competitor and 1997 Costa Rica CrossCountry Champion, to be our guide for the four-day affair. Bom in Peru, the 35-year-old mns Motoadventures Costa Rica (www.motoaventura.com), an off-road tour company he co-owns with four Americans.
Thanks to a notepad full of updates, the WR now more closely mirrors the motocrossing YZ426F. Fast, roomy and stable, it’s an incredibly versatile package. Some riders bemoaned the absence of an
electric starter, especially when momentarily marooned on the slippery hillsides. Larrabure, however, who uses Honda XR400s on his tours (“They never break”), was duly impressed. “I like this better,” he admitted. “The suspension is the best that I’ve ever ridden-and it’s stock!”
Following a taxing 75-mile trail ride that traversed half a dozen mountain ranges, we arrived at our beachfront hotel in Jaco. Our accommodations were excellent. The food (rice and beans are staples) was top-notch, and air-conditioning, cable television and a swimming pool were standard fare. And yes, you can drink the water. “Costa Rica is what everyone wishes Mexico was,” quipped one intro attendee.
Costa Rica’s dry season runs from December to April, while the rest of the year tends to be wet, with as many as 20 days of rain per month. During our mid-January stopover, temperatures topped 90 degrees, but fog and rain clouds were omnipresent over the mountains. These “micro-climates” make for oft-changing conditions. In fact, trails can be transformed-for better or worse-overnight.
Though not on our tour to-do list, volcanoes are a popular draw. If the trail is passable, riders can even venture into the yawning maw of the
10,922-foot Volcan Turrialba, as former Daytona 200 winner Dave Sadowski did for tour coverage on Speedvision’s “Bike Week” show.
Program host and long-time enthusiast Dave Despain joined Sadowski on the trip. “Beautiful place, spectacular,” he said. “The right mix of civilization, and all the benefits that offers, with
pretty adventuresome things to do and see. The places where you stop range from the lodge at the foot of the volcano, which is very rustic and remote but still very civilized, to the beach resort, which is perfect if you’re ready to just flop on the sand.”
As Despain will attest,
Larrabure is an excellent judge of riding ability. Moreover, he’s quick to oblige any skill level, from Novice to AA enduro. Former 500cc World Roadracing Champion Kevin Schwantz recently took one of Larrabure’s tours, popping for the full, weeklong $2395 experience.
“The great thing about Larry’s tours is his ability to accommodate any level of rider,” Schwantz confirmed. “My dad just turned 60 and a friend of his is 65. Both are pretty regular off-road riders, but you start sending them up the side of a hill and the fitness thing comes into play. Once they started getting tired, it would have been easy for them to get hurt. But Larry was able to find trails for us to ride that more than satisfied everybody’s desires.”
As for our group, one writer went home a day early with a shoulder
injury, but as with my experience, most get-offs were simply laughed off. “If the bike would have slid any farther,” kidded one rider, “I would have needed to make a crane out of bamboo to haul it out of there.” Another participant, after having launched himself into the undergrowth, blamed his bent handlebar and soiled gear on a “gravity storm.” Crashes aside, no one was in any hurry to head home. In fact, some were even improvising plans to return as soon as possible. Like all smart business people, Larrabure and crew leave their clientele wanting more-one more rocky stream crossing, one more rutted-out downhill, one more fifth-gear fireroad, one more breathtaking vista. California sprint-car team owner Don Otomo was so impressed he bought into the business. “Americans are always saying, T want this. I want that,’ ” he said. “After you’ve ridden here, you go home and reassess your priorities.” —Matthew Miles
