Mountain biking in Costa Rica 1
Posted in Costa Rica, Mountain biking on Nov 6th, 2008
Brianna, my wife, at Boyette Scrub trails in Florida.
My wife and I love to mountain bike. We enjoy the “mountain” part as much, if not more, than the “bike” part. We’re not the radical types who like to dress up like Star Wars stormtroopers and then throw ourselves off the side of a cliff. What we do like is to ride into remote areas where we can be far away from civilization. We are fortunate to live in Florida where mountain biking is available almost year round. We ride all year except for the hottest part of the summer. Its possible to ride in the summer but you need to start riding just as the sun comes up because by 9 its sweltering.
This is November and the weather is perfect for riding. I can’t wait for the weekend!
We are planning to do some riding while we are in Costa Rica. The only real issue is acquiring the bikes. We considered taking our bikes down there but that is no easy proposition. US Airways charges $100 each way to transport bikes. That’s $400 for a round trip. Not a small sum. We then considered buying the bikes down there. You can buy a mountain bike here in Tampa at Wal-mart for $80 dollars. They’re cheaply made but they’ll hold up for a two week trip. I spoke with family members in Costa Rica and they told me a couple of cheap bikes would be about more than $400. Costa Rica Tariffs are very high. I checked out UPS and Fedex but they were, as I thought, prohibitively expensive.
I found a place that rents mountain bikes for $22 a day. Their website is here. That’s $44 a day for two people. Ten days=$440. Cost wise there is no clear advantage to any option I’ve described. So what to do? Well, transporting bikes by plane is, frankly, a pain in the ass. The bikes must be in a box or a carrying case (more $$$). You don’t have to break it down completely but you have to loosen and turn the handlebars and take off the pedals. You also have to get the bikes to and from the airport and that isn’t going to be very smooth with a regular taxi.
Since this is a relatively short trip we will go with rentals. Its not a money saver but it its a lot less hassle.
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