December 27, 2013, Rio Claro, Costa Rica, 34 degrees C.

Christmas day was kind of lonely this year without the kids, family and friends. We did get to Skype my folks and the kids on the 24th and get caught up on what's happening with all of them. I took the bike to the auto spa to get a wash on the 24th and when I returned to pick it up some guy is spraying a shiny liquid on it, none of the guys spoke English but another customer was able to tell me it was to make it look beautiful. It turns out to be like Armorall and when I get to the first red light I have no brakes (oh shit), quickly down shift to slow down and stand on the brake pedal to finally stop. By this time all the auto parts stores are closed so I wait until the 26th and buy a can of brake cleaner and make three applications over the day which helps but the pads are too full of the Armorall and will need to be replaced ASAP.
We spent a fair amount of time at the pool on Christmas day and had Christmas dinner at Pizza Hut with lots of the locals as not many restaurants were open.
Well, we had a change of plans and decided to go to the highlands of Costa Rica on boxing day rather than the Pacific coast. This is the scenic route to San Jose where I'll purchase brake pads at the BMW dealer and install them at the hotel.

Laguna de Arenal

 This is the real pineapple express.

 

Coatimundi looking for food (not quite sure what they are eating) Check out the following video of them.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWU1aL15_Ns

 

The highlands are spectacular and the temperature is very pleasant (20 degrees C.) We drove around Laguna de Arenal but the clouds were hovering at the top of the volcano so we were unable to see it clearly.



Friday morning we are off to San Jose from San Ramon only to find out BMW is closed until the new year. Oh well, who needs brakes while driving in the mountains. We decide to head south towards Panama and the first 3 hours are spectacular with a twisty climb up the mountains where we summit at 3340 meters above sea level and at time are driving through clouds so thick that we are traveling at less than 40 KMH.

 Waterfall that flowed into Rio Catarata.

 Lush jungle vegetation at about 3000 meters above sea level.

 

 

 

 

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 Check out the elevation, temperature was 53 degrees F.

 This road became too steep for us to venture further into the valley.

 Lots of time spent driving through the clouds today.

Small villages could be seen in the valleys and farmers were growing crops up the sides of the valley.