Costa Rica Coast to Coast – Into the Interior

by Alan Cole · Friday, May 22nd, 2026

Early Morning Stroll

After a fairly relaxing night at the Rio Perlas Resort, I was up early for a wander through the grounds. Oropendola birds could be heard and seen in the trees, and the vegetation was amazing. I checked out the pools, hot tubs, and little natural lake, simply strolling around marvelling at the bromeliads growing on almost every tree. It’s a lovely spot, although the resort itself could probably do with a little updating.

Towards the Tapanti National Park

It was then off to breakfast in the restaurant before getting back onto the bikes once again for a climb up through the town of Orosi, where we stopped to look at the Iglesia Colonial de San José de Orosi, a beautifully preserved Spanish mission built in 1743. Remarkably, it is the oldest still-functioning church in Costa Rica and one of the few colonial-era structures to survive the country’s frequent earthquakes.

We then continued climbing into Tapantí National Park and onto a track lined with huge Alocasia plants. I’ve tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to grow Alocasia as houseplants at home, but here they were enormous and growing like weeds. We descended along the track beneath huge trees to another transition point at a bridge crossing the Orosi River.

Hiking through the Tapanti National Park

After some snacks and making packed lunches, we started hiking up into the cloud forest. We passed more oropendola nests before climbing into the clouds, admiring the views and vegetation as we went. At one snack stop we spotted a beautiful swallow-tailed kite soaring overhead.

We then started descending, as the rain began to fall, along narrow tracks and across rivers deep within the rainforest. It felt quite remote and untamed out here as we ducked under wet hanging branches and watched our footing on the slippery rocks. After undulating around the hillside for a while, we eventually began the main descent towards our next transition point.

My Achilles started to hurt on the descent, but there was little I could do about it out there, although I did take some ibuprofen. We also passed a large group of hikers travelling in the same direction. I don’t think they were doing the full coast-to-coast route though — just a shorter excursion into the national park.

Camp in Humo

After a bit of a slog along a muddy track, we met Memo and the van for another quick transition back into cycling kit before a final fun, gravelly descent into Humo and another indoor campsite in a large hall. It soon started pouring with rain again, so being inside and dry was definitely appreciated.

By now my Achilles was quite sore, so I taped it up, kept topped up with paracetamol and ibuprofen, and rested it as best I could. The taping in particular seemed to help and, with only one day to go before a full rest day, I hoped it would settle down.

Dinner was delicious, and then it was time to relax and head to bed as rain hammered down on the roof above us. Another good day in Costa Rica, and we were now about halfway across the country. Tomorrow promised a long bike ride followed by rafting into a remote camp on the Pacuare River.