Jairo said “breakfast at 6”, and so the sound of 5.30 phone alarms resounded across the site from each of the lovely little “pods” in which we were sleeping.  Awaking in the half-light we packed up and got our stuff down for breakfast at 6.  But this was 6am Costa Rica time, so it was nearer 6.20 before the food arrived.  I only mention this because of 2 reasons. 

First, the group (of westerners) have pretty much stuck to time.  In contrast, Jairo assured us that the overall approach to time-keeping in Costa Rica is far more relaxed, which is consistent with the more relaxed approach to time across most of the world.  In fact, those working with the Urritrek team have been very good to date and this was the first experience of “Costa Rican” time keeping, and only to a limited extent.  It is perhaps illustrative of where Costa Rica is in economic terms – not quite a fully paid up member of the group of developed nations but a long way ahead of the economic positions occupied by its neighbours to the North, Nicaragua and Guatamala. 

We started the walk in the cool of the morning, along a dirt track leading from the campsite towards the town of Quepos.  This was not supposed to be a strenuous day but I (David) started to feel the heat as the day warmed up.  The vegetation gradually changed as we dropped towards occupied areas, with more coffee and palm oil areas and less virgin jungle.  The birds and monkeys were plentiful (we saw squirrel monkeys, meaning we have seen all 4 native costa rican monkey species now) were and the trees were alive in the relative cool of the morning.

After about an hour and a half we reached a paved road and were picked up by the minibus.  Doing the full camino (EFI – “Every F’ing Inch”) inevitably requires quite a lot of walking on paved roads.  The huge and developed networks of publicly accessible paths we have developed in the UK over centuries don’t generally exist in Costa Rica (or possibly anywhere else in the world) so the route is mainly on dirt roads but ocasionally on paved ones.  One advantage of our “cheat’s camino” is that we can avoid the asphelt walking and enjoy walking on surfaces that have some give under the foot and have less traffic.

After a stop for coffee and buns – and Costa Rica does really great coffee (or course) – we were dropped on another dirt road and walked towards the coast.  This was palm oil country and we saw bullocks working as beasts of burden, pulling carts through the planted palm oil forests.  These trees look good but they are a bit rubbish for biodoversity as they cannot support the abundance of wildlife which existed before the forests were cleared.  It is a world-wide problem but palm oil is a lucrative crop and so the fight (and maintaining the balance) between biodiversity and economic progress is a real issue here.  Generally Costa Rica has a better record on this than almost anywhere else, but Jairo has his concerns that the “environment first” philosophy may be slipping in practice.  There are elections next month and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.

After another hour or so we reached the bus that allowed us to skip another part of the route on paved roads, stopping a nominal 700m before the end of the camino.  We then filed out of the bus and walked “single file” under Jairo’s strict instructions towards the formally marked end of the coast to coast route.  We soon saw the sea, reached the end marker and took obligatory photos with our white Urritrek Camino T shirts.  The sense of achievement was, of course, mooted by the fact that we had not walked EFI!  But the group has melded over the 8 days and it felt the end of an adventure.

We then went down to the beach.  Bernie and I had a delightful swin in the salty water, along with Heather and Laura.

We adjourned to a restaurant for a final meal and goodbyes.  I have no idea if we will meet up with any of our fellow walkers again (apart from Laura of course).  That is the nature of these trips – quite intense friendships evolving from shared experiences and then separation.  If any are reading this, they all will have a warm welcome in rural Shropshire, England but we recognise that it’s a long way out of any tourist itinerary.  But, just as this walk allowed us to see the “real” Costa Rica, having a pint at Stanton Lacy Village Hall on a Wednesday night or sharing chat and coffee there on a Saturday morning is about as authentically English as you can get.

We said our farewells and got a taxi 3km out of town to a bus stop to wait in the afternoon heat for the bus going south to the small town of Puerto Jiminez where we start the next leg of our great Costa Rican adventure. We were to pick up the long distance bus from San Jose, so the arrival time was a bit vague and we had been told that if the bus was full we wouldn’t be able to get on – but this was the only possiblity of arriving the same day (apart from a 280 dollar taxi fare!!). We therefore had a plan B and C, which involved an overnight stay along the way. Time ticked by and at 3.45 there was no appearance of the San Jose bus (due vaguely 3-3.30). A fellow traveller from California started to get highly anxious (especially after I had enlightened her that we may not be able to get on the bus).  Our plan B bus arrived, but we decided to risk it and wait. A few minutes later the San Jose bus arrived and there was loads of space – all anxieties unecessary but such is the nature of independent travel on publlic transport. The tour had been brilliant and a fantastic experience that we would not have been able to do on our own (and we highly recommend Urritrek) but we were excited to cut loose to do our own thing – experience tells is it nearly always works out!