A Magical Adventure in a Magical Country with a Magical Friend

There is a difference between feeling pain and hauling it around with me wherever I go. In my ever persistent practice to shed that which I don’t need to carry (both physcially and emotionally), I strive to leave some heavy emotional weight behind while on El Camino de Costa Rica. I’ve backpacked and lived long enough to know that moving through life minimally, with levity and lightness is always best.

This trail can be travelled lightly (literally). This trail will teach me to receive and connect after hard days. Each night on the Camino, hikers spend the night in home stays or lodges, and enjoy home cooked meals. WHAT?!

This privilege is not to be taken for granted. I’ve always hiked with a tent, sleeping pad, and cooking gear, needing to set up shelter and cook myself dinner each night; always by myself and for myself. But what if this trail could introduce some balance and I could be nurtured at the end of the day, with a nice shower, a hot meal, and lovely company?

When I’m hiking, I usually have to be in my masculine and yang energy constantly. So much output: Energy, go, go, go, navigate, plan water stops, pace?, where to sleep each night?, danger surveilance and evaluation, stay alive, be vigilant, protect, provide, protect, provide, be strong, 100 hard steps, go! There is no time to melt, feel expansive timelessness, or feel pretty. Survival-mode is on high at all times. But this camino would offer a little bit of solace at the end of each day; a shelter out of the elements, a kind host to cook and clean, and a chance to wash my body and be warm in a bed! The luxury of getting to recieve and exhale for a moment in some categories and be in a role of receiving care is something my body and soul crave.

This hike is also about giving myself emotional distance from a difficult autumn. A gift to myself to let my nervous system settle and a chance to feel like myself again. The more I forest bathe and move through nature, the more I feel connected to my heart, body, and soul.

The anxiety and grief of heartache in Austin will begin to feel small and quiet as the sensory stimulation of Latin America’s jungle and people will certainly pull me into the present moment, day after day, step after step, beat after beat.

And... I get to embark on this magical adventure in a magical country with the most magical of women! Red Stripe and Sprout take to the trail again! I’ve had the honor of being the only person to hike a section of each of the big three trails with her as she completed her triple crown (AT, CDT, & PCT). We met on the Appalachian Trail, as 32 and 33 year old women on trail — both feeling so isolated and “old” compared to all the 20-somethings, but younger than the retired crew. She was the ONLY other woman I met in her 30s on that trail. It was both of our first thru-hike and we bonded instantly as we acknowledged how HARD the trail was! (Something many of the boys on trail never admitted…). Finally! Someone who agrees this is NOT easy!

The next year in a last minute whirlwind we found ourselves tackling the Colorado trail together. I initially started out as a section hike with her, but after a few days on trail I decided to hike it thru. Why not? I was in the beginning stage of getting divorced and I needed to be on that trail with her — it healed me in so many ways. We hiked into Silverton together, but due to life/work circumstances we couldn’t finish together. BUT… this incredibly generous woman drove 6 hours to be at my finish of the CT for my birthday with balloons, a picnic, and cheer!

El Camino de Costa Rica (ECCR) will be our first trail to start AND finish together and we will be the first women recorded to complete it self-supported. ECCR is a baby trail and has only existed for a few years. We had a very difficult time finding information about the trail beyond the one book and FarOut App. Most people hire guides for the trail, which we figured we didn't need and wanted to do it on our own.

Day 1:

Start at Muelle Goshen to Barbilla Rainforest Lodge (Stages 1B and 2).

24.3 miles, 3,507 feet gain, 1,518 feet descent.

We spent the night at our first home stay at Casa Yolanda with a lovely couple. Yolanda made us a delicious pre-hike dinner of local cuisine and Manuel drove us to the trailhead in the morning. We had a very early wake up call and a 1 hour drive to the trailhead. We had a very balmy and warm night’s sleep (thankful for the little fan in our room!) and a rooster began crowing at 2:00 AM! We officially woke up at 3:30 AM, and headed out at 4:00 AM.

We started hiking at 4:56 AM and it was still a little dark so we used our headlamps.

Once the sun came up, there was an ominous dark storm brewing over the ocean behind us and it eventually caught us early in the morning. I got my pack cover and umbrella out and Red Stripe put on her rain jacket. It was still really warm and I was glad to have the umbrella so as not to be too hot in my jacket.

We weren’t moving too fast, but the first 12 miles were pancake flat and easy road walking. We walked through banana plantations and enjoyed conversation and catching up with each other’s lives. Eventually, the sun came out and it was instantly hot and humid. The last two miles into Cimarrones became single-track trail and the terrain became a bit dynamic. We reached Yolanda‘s house by 10:00 AM and enjoyed some delicious juice and signed her hiker log. We then set out for the remaining 10 miles of climbing by about 10:30 AM.

The climb into the rainforest was our true intro to the Camino and the jungle. We saw a white-faced monkey and a large non-venomous green snake.

As we reached the top and had a few kms left, we were greeted by a sweet stray dog who escorted us to Barbilla Rainforest Lodge (host, Marine from Sweden).

The driveway to her house was LONG and steep downhill. We were ready to take our shoes off and be done for the day. Eventually, we were greeted by our host and she showed us our lovely room and bathroom. The shower was cold, but not frigid. I rinsed off immediately so it didn’t bother me that much. She then made us a delicious dinner of picadillo, rice, salad, guacamole, and falafel for me.

We ate dinner with another hiker, Simon from Switzerland, who had just hiked Stage 3 (what we had in store for the morning). He was just there to hike that one stage to meet hosts and scout for his travel agency business.

While we were sitting there something stung me on my neck and in the mess of my buff around my neck, the stinger somehow went into my bra. My entire left side suddenly felt like it was on fire. I had to excuse myself pretty abruptly, removed a tiny piece of stinger in my bra, and went to the bathroom to use a wash cloth to wash the area. I took some Benadryl and passed out. Luckily, Red Stripe brought an extra pair of ear plugs, which I used, as Marine’s three large German Shepherds barked all night (because of the friendly little dog that had walked us there).

I got cold for the first time on trail (likely due to the fact I had wet hair from my “shower”) and got my sleeping bag out in the middle of the night to sleep in it.

Day 2: Barbilla Rainforest Lodge to Finca Tres Equis (Stages 3 & 4).

~11.5 miles, 3,572 feet gain, 3,363 feet descent.

No two miles are alike. And the numbers rarely tell the story. This 11.5 mile day felt like a hard 20-miler. These stages (specifics stage 3) were the most technical and challenging stages of the whole trail and we were hitting them early while we were still finding our trail legs and acclimatizing to the heat and humidity.

Sprout & Guía Mateo

Red Stripe regretted instantly not bringing her trekking poles (she didn’t want to check them), and luckily we were in a very dense jungle and our guide was able to procure a perfect hiking stick for her. We had to hire an indigenous guide to accompany us for this section per the law, and our guide, Mateo, was a young man of very few words. He made the steep inclines and downhills look easy, and they were anything BUT! The trail was single track, AT-style vertical terrain with roots and SO. MUCH. MUD!

Guía Mateo

Having been recently traumatized by the clay-mud of Flagstaff, AZ, this mud hardly phased me. I slipped around of course, and one is never to trust a rock or a root as they were even MORE slippery than the dirt, but this mud was pretty high quality mud if I had to choose mud. It didn’t stick to my shoes like it does in Arizona or Vermont, and it wasn’t super deep the whole time (of course there were places where it was quite deep and Red Stripe’s shoe came off in the mud multiple times!)

Red Stripe has a hiking stick!

Simon told us he was followed by a swarm of mosquitoes the whole time he was in this section and strongly encouraged us to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts to protect ourselves from the bugs. We listened to his warning, but figured we were way too hot to preemptively act and decided I would change my clothes if the mosquitoes got bad.

This hiking was HOT and HUMID. I cannot stress this enough. My face was pouring sweat like I was in a hot power yoga class, but for hours on end. I’m not sure I’ve ever sweat this much at once before. It truly felt like someone was pouring a bucket of water over my head consistently for the whole day. I wasn’t “dripping in sweat,” it was streaming out of me like a faucet. It sort of felt good, like a detox or a cleanse. I also felt a little bit like I was dancing with the trail due to its technical nature and it somewhat excited me by engaging my mind and spirit differently than pounding mindlessly on a road.

We took a few breaks and one time as we were sitting on the ground we noticed a GIGANTIC flying and venomous ant coming toward us as we got up from our spot. Glad we didn’t linger at our break spots too long as the ants would no doubt find us! I did notice the leaf-cutter ants in utter awe. We saw one 7-lane highway of them in this section and it was pretty incredible to see them march with so much coordination in their lanes while carrying chunks of leaf 100x their size.

We heard many birds and enjoyed the shade of the jungle. When the jungle is thick, it is quite dark. The trails we were on were used by the indigenous communities and the few people we encountered (including Mateo) all wore big rain boots. I could not believe how quickly they would glide down or up these trails in non-breathable footwear!

Imagine power hiking in a humid sauna for hours on end. Now add AT-style obstacles, mud, and insects to the mix. At one point, I slipped on a downhill so hard I almost did the splits. Miraculously, neither one of us fell in this terrain!

I could not even begin to imagine what state I would have been in if I had been wearing pants and a long sleeve. No sir. It was too hot and sunny for the mosquitoes so we lucked out with the weather and I never had to face the dilemma of pants versus mosquitoes. Phew!

We took a break at the “camping area,” drank some water, ate our “lunch” (for me, a ‘smoothie’ and a bar), and continued on.

We reached a river with a cable car crossing and this is where our guide left us. We paid him and he sent us on our way across the river. Luckily, there were some people on the other side of the river to help pull us because we were too far for our guide to get us all the way to the platform. In hindsight, we should have had our guide stay with us all the way until the town of Tres Equis, as there is a section through an active cattle farm with very dangerous and angry bulls between Río Pacuare and Tres Equis. Having a guide is strongly recommended, as they can route you around the bulls. I had read reports from other hikers noting that the section could take all day because the detour around the bulls can add a ton of mileage. However, our guide coordinator and our guide failed to communicate this to us, and I had simply told them we needed to hire a guide only for the sections where it was required. I had failed to verify that this “angry bull section” was beyond where our guide left us behind! This was an oversight on our end, but we got VERY lucky and did not encounter any — phew!

We arrived at Finca Tres Equis, where the owner Alfredo greeted us with lovely homemade maps of his farm and the town area. This was our only homestay where we had to fend for ourselves for dinner. I was a little nervous about being vegan on this trail, so I had packed enough food to last me two weeks! (Oops!). But in my panic-packing, I had stashed two ramen noodle packets in case it was impossible to find vegan food on trail.

We went into the tiny town of Tres Equis and found the one “soda” (casual counter-seating ‘restaurant’) and ordered dinner #1 at about 3:00 PM. I had gallo pinto, avocado, plátanos maduros, and a delicious jugo! I was well-fed and we had so much daylight left to wander around. We peeked in all the mini supers and found some stuff to snack on later in our room for Dinner #2. I got a small ripe avocado and decided to eat that with some frito chips I had from Austin. Red Stripe got some stuff at a bakery.

We had been told there was hot water, however, our shower was quite cold, again. I started to think maybe we were missing something and we needed to turn on the hot water separately somehow? Did everyone know something we didn’t about hot water access?

Alfonso had showed us where the hose was to wash our shoes. My shoes were filthy muddy, but dry. Hosing them off was probably a bad idea in hindsight as nothing dries in Costa Rica. Ever. I hand-washed my clothes in the sink with some soap and hung them out to dry in the sun. My dry-fit shirt and shorts were damp the next morning, and my bra still pretty wet. Washing was necessary as the stench from profusely sweating all day clung to my clothes. They actually smelled good the next day for about 5 minutes before I began sweating again.

TMI, but being so drenched all day in my spandex shorts caused me to get some booty chafe! I didn’t have anything for it, but I had a stick of sunscreen that sort of acted as a skin barrier, so I applied that and it helped. I had one pretty itchy and painful bite from the day on my leg. I started to get concerned it was a tick bite, but I convinced myself it was an ant bite instead.

We were a little nervous about all the farm animals right next to our room as we had a rooster and dogs the last two nights. However, we were quite lucky to have quiet farm animals all night!

We settled in for the night early, as we knew we wanted to start quite early to try to knock out some miles before getting blasted by the sun and heat the next day.