"Nothin like a couple of Over-Achievers!" Hanging with Pablo at Playa Negra

First of all...before I go hogging all the attention, let me give a big congratulations to the 2 "Sling Shot South" Followers who just got engaged this last weekend, you know who you are. Wish I was home to congratulate you but this will have to do for now. Very happy for you guys. I better be invited by the way... :)

So we headed out South from Tamarindo along the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica but didn´t make it too far. About 10 miles in fact. We had to stop, you´d be crazy not to. The beaches along the peninsula are absolutely beautiful, and largely empty to add. We hesitantly passed Playa Negra driving down a small dirt road with little traffic. We made it to Playa Junquillal and couldnt take it anymore. It was scorching hot and the water looked too perfect. After a quick dip and a couple cervezas we decided to head back to Playa Negra to find a place to crash and a little more beach time. That reminds me I have to give a shout out to our friend Chris who we met and rode with down the Baja and also stayed at his place in Cabo. He too is publishing his adventures. Using the word "adventure¨to describe his trip is a complete understatement. I would use something more like "complete madness" to describe his trip. Chris thanks again and we definitely need to hook up for a ride afterwards, minus the dislocated shoulders and broken feet. Here´s his blog http://superadventura.blogspot.com/

That´s when we found Pablo´s Picasso Restaraunt and Hotel right next to one of Costa Rica´s great surf breaks at Playa Negra. You couldn´t miss Pablo´s with a sign like that, see above. After we pulled up Pablo comes strolling out wearing a pair of shorts, sandals, a cook´s apron (no shirt), and he´s wiping his hands with a rag that made me think he was chopping up a cow in the back kitchen. "Damn you guys must be hot! You look like you´re wearing space outfits. Where you headed?" he says. "Buenos Aires, Argentina" we replied. "Oh great...nuthin like a couple of over-achievers" says Pablo. From that moment we knew we had found the right place....

Let´s just say Pablo is a pretty cool guy. He came down to Costa Rica 15 years ago and opened up this bar and restaraunt. In addition to a cook, Pablo is a surfer, painter, chess player, poker player, and comedian. We had a great time hanging with Pablo, pretty hilarious. And the burgers really are as big as your head...

Here´s a mural of Pablo surfing at Playa Negra a few years back. It´s painted on a wall of his hotel, pretty cool. Uncle Bob I see you just signed on to our blog with the unmistakable Notre Dame Logo (I just threw up a little in my mouth). Anyways this painting reminds me of you a little. You need to come check out these breaks in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

And another shot of Pablo, this time he´s taking our money in poker. Kyle hung in there pretty good but got the short end of the stick on a couple hands. Gotta know when to hold ém, know when to fold ém they say. All in good fun.

It´s amazing that it hasn´t happened until now actually, but we´ve gotten a major dose of corrupt cops while in Costa Rica. Maybe it´s due to the fact that they´ve gotten a good taste of the tourist dollar and think they can take all tourists for fools. We were flagged down by policemen 3 times while in Costa Rica, and everytime they had the same act. It´s always a single cop standing by the side of the road next to his vehicle with a radar gun in his hand. As soon as he sees youre a tourist he flags you down and shows you the gun with a totally fake number on it. They tell you they are writing you a ticket and you have the choice to pay it here or in the bank at a higher price. One guy even threatened to impound our bikes if we didnt pay now. It´s all a complete scam, and obviously scares a lot of people into offering money on the spot. The trick (as we already somewat knew due to our extended research) is to act dumb like you don´t really understand and just keep asking for the ticket. Don´t let them get you worked up or scarred. One guy said he was going to keep our licenses and all this other BS. They will tell you the bank is closed or you won´t be able to leave the country with the ticket or whatever. They just want to be payed off. After a while of you just standing there and asking for the ticket they get impatient and finally just tell you to scram, unhappy that they´re corruption didn´t work. Meanwhile locals are flying by in their cars twice as fast as you were. Oh well, we left Costa Rica completely unharmed by these guys and leared a valuable lesson.

Yesterday we had an amazing ride up into the highland jungles of Costa Rica after we passed through the capital City San Jose. It was scorching hot in San Jose and then all of the sudden really cold and started raining on us pretty hard when we got up into the mountains. Visibility got pretty poor and we had to reduce our speed quite a bit. It cleared up quickly as we started down the Southern face of the mountain. Check out the picture to the left.

So I really need to wrap this up so I´ll add a couple more pictures and call it a night. We made it into Panama this afternoon. Let me just say one thing about Panama: Freakin awesome roads. 2 lane highways in each direction, no potholes, no animals darting across, and somewhat realistic speed limits. We´re staying in David, Panama tonight and tomorrow we head for Panama City. We have to stop by the hostel that booked the Catamaran for us, check out the Panama Canal of course and then head to the Carribean side to lad the boat on the 12th. Enough for now, catch y´all later.

Here we are at the Panama Border. It was stifling and I was ready to get the paperwork overwith, hence the enthralled look on my face.

Here´s Kyle squeezing every last drop of lime into his mouth after some guy (one of the cops that pulled us over actually, funny) told us that jugo de limon is settling for an upset stomach. I think it worked.

This is one of the spots we got flagged down by the Policia. Not a bad spot to be pulled over I guess...