Underexposed: Costa Rica

No one was certain just how serious we were supposed to be about the karaoke plans. An hour or so after we sat down for dinner during our final evening with the Adventure Meraki group, I grabbed the mic from the DJ and belted out “Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks. It was followed immediately by Meraki’s founder, Matt Mooers, attempting some version of “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot before spending the second half of the song reading the lyrics to himself and nodding along. The moment had everyone in stitches, and it made the walk by to the Meraki house that much more enjoyable, as we all acknowledged a pain in our faces from laughing so much and marveled at how well received these renditions were by the local patrons of the bar and restaurant. It would prove to be the perfect exclamation point for what was a stellar week exploring trails and forging new friendships in Costa Rica.

7 days earlier, I was unloading my Switchblade from the back of Diego’s pickup truck at Adventure Park, a bike park and zipline facility located in Heredia. Situated on 1,700 acres, Adventure Park is part ecological experiment and part functional timber operation. 700 acres have been set aside as an ecological tourism project under a program that protects the cloud forest and sells oxygen to the world. The timber harvesting is done through sustainable means, using a cypress tree plantation as its source of production. 

Adventure Park is the closest major riding network to San Jose, the bustling capital city of Costa Rica, which makes it an extremely popular choice for locals, particularly on weekends. The park sits 6,000 feet above sea level in a cloud forest, which means that the temps here are slightly cooler than what you’ll typically expect in the city while still being quite warm and comfortable throughout the year. You can expect to see all manner of bikes here, with a high percentage of DH bikes draped over tailgate pads in the parking lot, in addition to enduro builds and even a handful of hardtails. The trails are handbuilt and utilize the natural terrain brilliantly, offering riders plenty of loam and high speed technical features, with a handful of wooden features such as wall rides, ladders, and drops accenting the terrain. Riders can opt to shuttle the property or simply climb the access road to reach the start of most descents. The first full day in Costa Rica was a superb day for shuttling, and so we did just that for nearly 6 hours.

My trip for this project coincided with a large Adventure Meraki guided trip, with members of the group coming into Costa Rica from BC, Alberta, and Maine. Meraki has been leading trips to Costa Rica since 2018 after a random comment in a Costa Rica thread on Pinkbike turned into an adventure among strangers. 

“I came here with my family in 2014 on a vacation.” Matt says to me after a day at Adventure Park. “ When I got here I saw the size of the mountains, and as a mountain biker I assumed there must be a lot of riding here. The following year I came back on my own and explored the country with my bike. I found some stuff, but not the goods. I got home a bit discouraged, but one day I was on Pinkbike and saw a comment in a Costa Rica forum. I sent him a note and said, “Hey can you tell me more about your riding in Costa Rica?” He basically told me to come back and he’ll show me. So the next year I went back and met up with this complete stranger, and we traveled all over the country riding various bike parks and trails, and that’s how this whole thing started.

The stranger’s name was Chris Garcia, and he would eventually join Matt in the formation of Adventure Meraki. Meraki is very much a family affair. Chris’ mom, Marcela Montoya, handles meal prep for most of the week, and close friends Diego Somarribas, Pauly Ocampo, and Manuel Fuentes all assist in a variety of roles from trail guide, to translator, to photographer, to shuttle driver and more. The vibes here are authentic and certainly help to create an atmosphere built on comfort and trust.

My itinerary closely followed that of the larger group’s, but with my focus being on filming and production, there were a few divergences in our travels. I managed to take a trip to the Costa Rica Open DH race, a category 2 UCI event, to catch up with race director Alvaro Castillo and see the course firsthand. I also made it out to Providencia, a place of legendary renown among the Costa Rica mountain bike community for its Senderos Retana. Trails here drop nearly 4,000 feet over the course of 6-10 km, and while I didn’t have time to film here, I most certainly intend to return very soon to do just that. The trails are very steep with an unrelenting pitch that goes on for miles at a time, with incredible dirt, staggeringly beautiful scenery, and a rawness that is hard to find anywhere else. Getting here is a challenge, which effectively filters crowds and provides a very real and authentic experience in this rustic community.

I would eventually reconnect with the Meraki squad at Rafiki Safari lodge, a glamping resort situated on a 618 acre UNESCO Biosphere private reserve 30 minutes from the Pacific coast. Rafiki is surrounded on all sides by mountains draped in their finest tropical rainforest garb, with the jungle cacophony echoing off of the walls of the steep ridgelines and reverberating throughout the property. Rafiki offers a multitude of experiences at the Safari Lodge, including whitewater rafting, birding, waterfall hikes, nature walks, an unimaginably fast water slide, incredible margaritas, and of course mountain biking.

If you have ever wondered what it might be like to ride your bike on stellar singletrack in the middle of an honest-to-goodness tropical rainforest, wonder no longer. It’s quite warm, to be sure, but it is an experience that combines sensory overload with incredibly fun trails. Rafiki sits in the heart of the Savegre Valley, boasting 113 mammal species, 53 out of 75 endemic bird species, and over 20% of the total plant species of Costa Rica, not to mention countless lizards, snakes, arachnids, and butterflies the size of a soccer ball. The trails are a relatively new addition to the reserve, with Lautjie (pronounced Loki) Boshoff, owner of Rafiki and an avid mountain biker, wanting to provide opportunities for not only guests, but for he and his family as well.

“Rafiki is distinct in the fact that you’re riding in a lowland tropical forest,” Lautjie says. “It’s cool to spend time in an old growth forest. The character of the trails we have is just so different compared to anywhere else in Costa Rica. We have this clay that is kind of mixed in with gravel so that when you cut the trail, it just kinda stays there. We try to create as much flow as we can. Furthermore, we’re pretty deep in the jungle and far removed from civilization, so I tried to steer clear of consequential jumps, gaps, and things that maybe aren’t relevant to our situation.”

If you are, in fact, looking for your fill of the aforementioned jumps, gaps, and senders you need not look too far. After 2 days of riding at Rafiki, it was time to head north along the coast about 100 miles to one of Costa Rica’s newest gems: Buen Camino Bike Park. Buen Camino is 45 minutes from the ocean and also 45 minutes from San Jose (times very much dependent on traffic), which makes for an extremely convenient location for a bike park. The trails sit on 316 acres of mountain forest, with a mountaintop pool and restaurant, as well as lodging and a small bike shop. It is also home to the first machine-built trail in the country, with some of the most intuitive and creative combinations of technical and flow trails I’ve ridden. There are climbing trails available, but shuttling is certainly the way to go if you want to stay fresh for the incredibly fun and rapid selection of descents available here. 

Buen Camino was founded by American Rob Dul,l and Canadian Jason Guihan in 2022. They brought Alvaro Castillo on to manage the trail design and construction, and currently have 13 trails ranging from beginner to pro-only, with plans in place to expand well beyond that.

“Our property is made up of 3 different drainages,” Alvaro notes when asked about the possibility of expanding. “Yeah we have a lot more room. The trails you rode on are all along 1 of the 3 mountains we have there, and we definitely want to utilize the other 2 mountains as well to have a lot more trails converge between them. We just needed to focus on the main area to start, since that’s where we have our shuttle road which leads to the main road where the restaurant and lodging are. We have a full-time trail crew as well, and they take such good care of the trails here. We’re just dialing things in with our first set of trails, and we definitely have plans for expansion. It just takes time.”

Time and patience. Simply getting around in Costa Rica requires both those things. Costa Rica is a country that is half the size of the State of Vermont, but it can take hours to cover even short distances, which speaks to the challenges facing the infrastructure in this otherwise stunning country. Getting trails built here will require time and patience as well. In a country famous for its biodiversity—6% of the planet’s wildlife and flora call Costa Rica home—access to public lands for recreating on two wheels requires plenty of patience, time, and diligence. Costa Rica might be small, but it already boasts some legitimately world-class trails with more undoubtedly on the way as mountain biking continues to raise eyebrows and gain momentum in this Central American paradise.