MTB / Nature / Surf Ski, Kayaking and Canoeing / Travel
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Costa Rica Coast to Coast – Reaching the Caribbean

by Alan Cole · Published Tuesday, May 26th, 2026 · Updated Monday, May 25th, 2026

Today was the day we would finally reach the Caribbean coast and complete our coast-to-coast journey across Costa Rica. The Pacific now felt a very long way away as we prepared for the final push.

Early Start

We had another early start, which suited me perfectly. Everyone else had been going to bed incredibly early — often around 7 pm — so it shouldn’t really have been a struggle, but people are never at their best early in the morning.

Doty mentioned that I’d apparently spent much of the night wandering around camp. I don’t think I’d been up all night exactly, but I had gone to the toilet a couple of times and then got distracted by wildlife and ended up roaming around with my torch watching frogs, spiders, and insects. My next toilet trip was around 4 am and, to me, that’s a perfectly reasonable time to get up, so I didn’t bother going back to bed. Instead, I relaxed in a hammock waiting for breakfast.

Breakfast once again involved an impressive spread, along with plenty of leftovers from dinner because the others hadn’t really been eating properly. The same thing happened again at breakfast, so there was more than enough food to go around. Hopefully the camp staff and their families benefited from the leftovers afterwards.

Biking through Banana Plantations

It was then back onto the bikes for a mostly flat ride along rough tracks interspersed with river crossings. One crossing was more involved than the others, requiring us to dismount and wade through thigh-deep water over slippery boulders to reach the far side.

Not long afterwards we finally spotted another sloth — this time a three-toed sloth sitting in a roadside tree.

We continued along increasingly rough tracks through pineapple plantations, banana plantations with bunches wrapped in blue polythene sleeves, and vast palm oil plantations. The support truck leapfrogged us periodically, giving me something to chase, so I occasionally rode off ahead on my own.

By now the others were visibly tired and not particularly enjoying the relentlessly bumpy terrain. Spotting a capuchin monkey in the trees briefly lifted everyone’s spirits though.

Eventually we arrived at a small quay on the Río Madre de Dios where we stopped for snacks and changed into kayaking kit. That marked the end of the cycling section of the trip, so while the others rested, I did some bike maintenance and removed my pedals and saddle.

Kayaking to the Coast

We then climbed into our kayaks. Doty had decided I should paddle solo because of my previous kayaking experience, which would also slow me down slightly and should make life easier for everyone else, including him as they would be paddling doubles.

I had imagined a lightweight single kayak.

What I actually received was a double kayak entirely to myself, complete with a massive cool box containing all of our lunches, snacks, and assorted equipment. I therefore had all the disadvantages of a large, heavy double kayak — extra weight and reduced manoeuvrability — but none of the advantages of either a proper single kayak or a two-person crew.

Still, it was a lovely relaxed paddle downstream, first through dense rainforest and then out into wider waterways edged with floating rafts of water hyacinth.

Wildlife sightings continued throughout. In the forested sections we saw howler monkeys, spider monkeys, green iguanas, green basilisks, and countless birds including kingfishers, green herons, bare-throated tiger herons, and great blue herons.

The more open sections held egrets, cormorants, jacanas delicately walking across the floating vegetation, and more herons. At one point something large splashed away through the water beside the hyacinths as I approached — probably a crocodile, although I never got a proper look at it.

We stopped for lunch on a muddy riverbank before continuing downstream as butterflies drifted above the water. One in particular seemed very attached to my yellow hat and repeatedly landed on it while I paddled along.

For quite some time we had been able to hear the distant roar of the sea, and then finally we rounded a bend and saw waves breaking ahead of us.

We were at the Caribbean.

Having crossed Costa Rica entirely from coast to coast, we pulled our kayaks onto the beach where I discovered that I had also unknowingly been transporting a large bottle of pink prosecco and plastic glasses in my kayak for a celebratory drink on the sand.

There were high fives all round before we loaded the kayaks onto a speedboat that had arrived moments after we did — perfectly organised, as always. Our human-powered journey was complete and we could once again use engines.

My GPS had drawn an entire, self-powered line across Costa Rica.

The boat ride back to the quay was quick, although we did spot turtles basking on logs beside the river as we sped past.

Back at the quay we said our goodbyes to Doty, who would now head off for a few well-earned days of rest. Once our kit was sorted, we boarded a minibus for the 2.5-hour drive to Cahuita.

Cahuita

The driver was immensely proud of his country and enthusiastically pointed out rivers, viewpoints, sloth sanctuaries, and other places of interest as we drove.

At Cahuita, on the Caribbean coast, we checked into Hotel Atlantida, spotted agouti wandering around the grounds, and settled in. I went for a swim in the sea, diving under the waves and body-surfing back to shore, before cooling off again in the pool and catching up with Anna by text.

Later, after a shared pizza, we wandered into town, spotted more sloths in the trees, ate ice creams, and then headed back to the hotel where I had a full pizza to myself. K joined me for a pizza but the other had retired to their rooms. I also ordered a Mojito and when it arrived discovered that I had order just in time for the final order of ‘Mojito Happy Hour’, so got two for the prioce of one! I then headed to bed as heavy rain poured down outside.

The end of an Adventure

We had completed our adventure: hiking, biking, rafting, and kayaking all the way across Costa Rica from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea.

We had travelled through rainforest and cloud forest, crossed the Continental Divide, camped in all manner of places, unexpectedly stayed in spa hotels, rafted jungle rivers, and paddled out to the Caribbean coast, all while surrounded by incredible scenery and wildlife.

As always, the organisation and planning from Much Better Adventures had been excellent, and the food throughout the trip had been remarkably good. It was genuinely a shame that the journey itself was now over.

Still, we had one more morning on the Caribbean coast and another full day in San José to come, so there was still time for a little more adventure yet.