Where the magic happens. (Day #1: Route 301, Uvita, Golfito)

On Thursday, April 1, 2021, my friends Jose Alonso, Alex, and I (Aventuras JAS!), set out on another three-night, four-day riding adventure to the Southern Zone. On our first day, we headed over to Acosta to ride down to Parrita via Route 301, then ride UP to Dominical to ride DOWN to Uvita. Yeah! Nothing like fun on two wheels in the wild nature of Costa Rica!

After heading down Route 301, past its switchback curves, we had breakfast at a restaurant near the river. Not sure why my friends are looking so damn serious in the photo below! Hahaha!

Though Route 301 from Acosta to Parrita has some nice views at the top and coming down, for some reason, I am not a big fan of it. It does not give me that magic feeling. 🙂 Nevertheless, it was fun to ride it again, and I liked the vistas on the way down.

This route is mostly paved, but the last kilometers nearing Parrita are easy gravel.

We rode through the African Palm plantations at the end of 301, then headed over to Dominical to ride UP to San Isidro to take an inland route to Uvita beach. The ride up to San Isidro is curvy and has great vistas. It is worth stopping at one of the restaurants along the way to take it all in. We, however, did not stop, as we had a long day ahead of us.

The route from La Esperanza to Uvita is MOSTLY smooth gravel.

At first it has a lot of curves, then some quite steep, loose gravel/rocky sections that are a bit challenging. I thought these steep sections were worse than Quetzal, but who knows? I think I may block out the worst parts of routes!

We had to stop because Jose Alonso lost his back brake due to it heating up. Fortunately, after a while it was OK to continue.

What a joy to see the coastline below as we came closer!

From San Josecito down to Uvita the road is paved. One could drive up from Uvita to enjoy this vista of the “whale’s tail” bay of Uvita beach.

On our way south to Golfito, we stopped for lunch at the Arcari restaurant at Cusinga Lodge in the Uvita area. I enjoyed my chicken curry and the lovely ocean view.

Happily, our adventure was not over. Jose Alonso took a shortcut to Golfito! Yay! More fun! 🙂 This shortcut from Guaria to Gamba to Golfito is easy with no stressful parts. Lovely. I am so grateful that Jose Alonso knows all these off-the-beaten-track roads! How lucky can a biker chick get?!! Hahaha!

And then we arrived in Golfito, our final destination for the day!

We enjoyed a spectacular sunset over the Golfo Dulce from our hotel. I was delighted that my room had a lovely view. What a great way to close a delightful day of fun and great company. (I was also amused that I met my neighbor with the Tryke, whom I had recently bumped into in La Terraza in Atenas where I had gone to listen to live music a few days before. I had never actually met him and his girlfriend, Patty, just had seen them ride down Cerro Atenas. Small world! Hahaha.)