CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
572 km from San José to San José, about 10 h 34 of riding. The stops in between: Grijalba-2, Batambal, Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto and El Silencio. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
San José is not a city people fall in love with at first sight, and it does not mind. It is a working capital in the middle of Costa Rica's Central Valley, some 1,100 metres above the sea, with nearly everything the country needs packed into a grid of traffic, shopfronts, markets and bus stops. What it does have is a climate that is almost always mild, and a ring of volcanoes standing guard on the horizon, Irazú and Poás among them, whose peaks catch the early light when the air is clear.
Read the complete San Jose write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
San Jose is where the day begins. Next is Grijalba-2.
Grijalba-2 is one of the quiet corners of southern Costa Rica where a lost civilisation left its mark in stone. The site is part of the group called the Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Stone Spheres of the Diquís, a UNESCO World Heritage listing from 2014 that covers four archaeological sites in the delta of the Térraba river, close to Ciudad Cortés. The spheres themselves are the puzzle. Carved from hard rock and ground to a startlingly smooth, nearly perfect roundness, the biggest are more than two metres across and weigh many tonnes.
Read the complete Grijalba-2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grijalba-2 comes up about 258 km into the recorded legs. Next is Batambal.
Batambal sits a few kilometres from Ciudad Cortés in the lowland of the Diquís delta, a patch of flat, green, humid country that you could easily ride straight through without knowing what lay under the grass. It is one of the four sites that make up the UNESCO listing for the stone spheres of southern Costa Rica, a recognition that came in 2014 for the remains of chiefdoms that flourished here long before the Spanish. At Batambal, as elsewhere, the spheres lie among the low, rounded foundations of the houses and mounds those people built.
Read the complete Batambal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 264 km into the recorded legs you reach Batambal. Next is Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto.
This is the label for the whole collection, and it deserves a longer look: the Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Stone Spheres of the Diquís. UNESCO placed four sites on its World Heritage list in 2014, all within the lower delta of the Térraba river in southern Costa Rica, a few kilometres from Ciudad Cortés. They are the best preserved remains of a culture that thrived here for centuries before European contact, and the reason the word chiefdom appears in the title is that archaeologists see here a society of ranked leaders, craftsmen and farmers, ruled from house-mounds.
Read the complete Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto, about halfway. Next is El Silencio.
El Silencio sits at 188 km, about halfway. Next is back through Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto comes up about 297 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Batambal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Batambal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 309 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Batambal. Next is back through Grijalba-2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grijalba-2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Grijalba-2, late in the day. Next is San Jose.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete San Jose write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 572 km.
San Jose → Grijalba-2 is 258 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Grijalba-2 → Batambal is 6 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Batambal → Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto is 9 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto → El Silencio is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Silencio → back through Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Sto → back through Batambal is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Batambal → back through Grijalba-2 is 6 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grijalba-2 → San Jose is 257 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.