El Camino de Costa Rica
Shannon went to Costa Rica in early May for yoga instructor training, of which she was a star student. But of course she was! Since Shannon was already down there, she thought to take advantage and hike from one coast to the other and invited me to join.
El Camino de Costa Rica isn’t so much a trail as it is a way through the mountains, plantations, and towns of a beautiful country: a Camino! Aside from a little more than 20 kilometers on single track trail, the route follows mostly dirt roads with some pavement mixed in near towns. Random camping is never permitted; each night accommodations are in local households, native lands or small eco-tourism lodges. The vast majority of these provide meals and excellent company.
The people of Costa Rica are some of the most welcoming, happy and friendly people I have ever come across. They are consistently smiling, generous and stoked to share what they love about their home, even with us tourists. Not only do they live in an astoundingly beautiful place, they run on entirely renewable energy, expect to be carbon neutral by 2050, invest in rural public transportation, spend twice as much of their GDP as the western world on education and abolished their military in the 1940s.
Distance: 276.9 kilometers
Termini: Caribbean Sea to Pacific Ocean
Total Elevation Change: 19,975.4 meters
Average Daily Distance: 34.6 kilometers
Days taken: 8