Day 1 - Playa del Rey (The Pacific Ocean) to Brujo, 10hrs

We set of from the beach at 6am, by 8am the sun was high and it was already starting to get hot. Having stepped over a fer-de-lance (a fairly deadly snake) we passed through a town called Silencio at 12pm. This was turning out to be quite a brutal introduction to the walk it was incredibly hot and humid however we were making good progress and slowly finding our rhythm. 4hrs later after climbing some of the steepest tracks we would come across on the whole trek we reached Brujo. It was a really tough day but a great feeling to have reached our first objective.

Day 2 - Brujo to Savegre, Duration: 8 hrs

Ater a really tough first day, this was reasonably flat by comparison. We passed another fer-de-lance and there were a few navigational challenges as the maps we were using were printed in 1963 so many of the tracks were not shown, however we made good progress and reached Savegre by 3pm. We stayed with a lovely family who told us about a short-cut through some jungle which we could take the following day, this would end up saving us a whole day of trekking.

Day 3 - Savegre to Providencia, Duration: 11 hrs 

 The day started with a steep 2hr climb to reach a town called Saragosa where the friends we made the day before had arranged for a local cowboy to guide us through the jungle shortcut. Our guide was called Billhillio, and he had a horse! We loaded our packs onto the horse for the majority of the rest of the day, it made such a difference as at this early stage in the trek our bags were full (of food / equipment etc) and weighed over 30kg. We covered a big distance through the jungle and made it to Providencia where we pitched out tent inside a half built house (owned by a friend of Billhillio). We found a local shop that sold some vegetables, it was a real treat to be able to add them to our 2 minute noodles.

Day 4 - Providencia to Copey, Duration: 10 hrs 

The day started with more uphill trekking but by midday we reached the highest point of our trek at 3000m. As with all of the previous days we were rewarded with some stunning views. We also had settled into our routine of walking an hour then resting 10 mins and we were making good progress. We spent the second half of the day winding down to the town of Copey. In Copey, the owner of a local shop also owned a small chalet which we rented, giving us the most comfortable night of the trek so far and the first warm shower in days.

Day 5 - Copey to Purisil, Duration: 12.5 hrs

This was always going to be a big day, if we got to our destination it would mean we were still on course for completing the crossing in 10 days. We set off from Copey (with an extra bag of Apples given to us by the owner of the chalet) and began climbing out of the valley. Our first waypoint was a settlement called Trinidad which we reached by 9am. Trinidad had a saloon that sold burgers and as it had been a while since we had eaten any horse we treated ourselves. From Trinidad we climbed further to a point known as ‘The Summit’ before descending again into another valley. We hit the edge of an area of jungle through with we had to pass with no guide. There was a muddy track within the jungle that was reasonably easy to follow but the going was steep and tough. After an hour or so we popped out of the jungle and began a very long, winding decent to what we thought was Purisil but what turned out to be Orosi (about 8km in the wrong direction). However we had made it through the jungle and the 10 day target was still a reality.

Day 6 - Orosi to Humo (via Puriail), Duration: 10hrs 

On the map this looked like a relatively straight forward day however it turned out to be a lot harder than we hoped with hills that were much longer and steeper than we were expecting. We walked for 7 hrs without encountering any other signs of life so started to doubt ourselves and thought we may have taken a wrong turning, however soon enough we came across Humo, our destination for the day. Rather than try and find somehwere to stay in Humo, we taxied up to a nearby town and stayed in a hotel there, when we told them we were crossing Costa on foot, they turned on their hot tub for us – result!

Day 7 - Humo to San Jaquine, Duration: 11hrs

 We taxied back down to Humo. Since midway through day six we had been walking through sugarcane country, but now we where in the heart of it. The first half of day 7 took us through flat open expanses of sugarcane fields. We had dropped down in altitude again by now and it was very hot a dusty, however we were pretty used to the heat and we were also getting fit so we made good progress. The last few hrs of the day were spent on a steep incline up to our destination of San Jaquine where we met a lovely woman who let us sleep on the floor of her saloon!

Day 8 - San Jaquine – Barbilla Ranger Station,  12.5 hrs 

Like day 5, this was another huge day but we needed to do it to stay on target. We would be crossing dense jungle so needed a guide, luckily the saloon owner from the night before knew of an indigenous family that might be walking part of our route. She put us in touch and we set of to meet up with them. We were desperate to reach our destination but the indigenous tribe just did not think it was possible. They took us a far as their village where they said we should stay for the night and continue the following day, we really needed to make good progress though, and whether you’re in London or a tiny indigenous village in the clearing of a jungle – money talks – we handed over enough that meant the distance was doable after all and were given a 13 year old boy to guide us the rest of our way. What followed was 7hrs of knee deep, sucking mud and dense jungle. Not pleasant but it made the site of the ranger station all the more welcoming when we got there.

Day 9 Barbilla Ranger Station to Estrada, Duration 8 Hrs

After A Comfortable Night Spent In The Ranger Station We Set Of For Estrada. For The First Time On The Trek, We Dared To Believe We Might Do This In The 10 Days. If We Reached Estrada By The End Of The Day, It Would Just Be A Short 15km Trek Across Flat Ground To The Caribbean Sea The Next Day – Easy. After About 5 Hrs It Became Apparent We Had Missed A Turning, We Couldn’t Find It And Decided To Keep Going On The Track We Were On As It Would Bring Us Out Into A Town And We Would Be Able To Work Out Where We Were Again. This Would Add About 15km Onto Our Day And Mean It Was Unlikey We Would Reach Estrada. We Had To Be Off The Roads By The Evening As In This Area A Lot Of Drugs Are Trafficked Up From South America Meaning There Are Quite A Few Gangs. After Making Such Good Progress Up Until This Point It Was So Frustrating Thinking We May Not Make It Within 10 Days. Also We Had More Immediate Problems Of Being Stuck On The Wrong Side Of Some Dodgy Towns With Nowhere To Stay. After Walking Next To The Highway For A Few Hours (Very Unpleasant But Made Up Time). We Came Across Some Potential Accommodation. When We Checked It Out, The Room Was Basically A Garage With Mirrors On The Ceiling, Headboard And Walls And The Owner Was Surprised That We Wanted It Until 6 The Next Morning (I Think Most People Take It For A Couple Of Hours), However It Was In A Beautiful Setting Next To A River And At Least We Would Be Safe For The Night.

Day 10 - Dodgy Garage / Brothel – Caribbean Sea, Duration: 8hrs

Although we messed up on day 9 we were still within range of the Carribbean. We set off and as we had done the day before, spent a couple of hours walking along the side of a highway. There is nothing pleasant about this. Massive trucks and juggernaughts come thundering past jut a few feet away, the noise and smell is terrible and we felt really exposed and vulnerable. The turning off the highway was really welcome and after a couple of kms of quiet track we reached Estrada, the town we hoped to spend the previous night in. We went to a shop and bought breakfast (we had eaten all of the food we bought for the trek). We took our time as we just had 15km to walk and about 6hrs in which to do it. Again we got the feeling that barring any sort of disaster we would complete the trek within 10 days. We set off and followed the track until it ran out, we then had to jump onto a railway line and just follow it until it hit the beach. After a few hot, but flat hours of walking we heard waves, we then saw a few flashes of blue through the trees, then as the railway turned to follow the beach we were presented with the beautiful Carribean Sea. We’d done it! All that was left to do was to take our shoes off and stand in the sea that had been our target for the last 10 days. As with all expeditions like this, rather than an ecstatic feeling, we felt that slow build up of achievement that lasts for a long time, every day had been challenging in some way or another and it feels great to have achieved what we set out to do especially as a husband and wife team.

This was a really fun expedition. Obviously it was quite tough, walking for 10 hrs a day with a heavy bag on your back will always be tough, however the good certainly outweighed the bad. Costa Rica is a beautiful country and for it’s size is very diverse. The people are incredibly friendly, we were made to feel very welcome in most of the towns / villages we ended up in. People invited us into their homes or helped us in other ways. When we initially looked at doing this, we went to a few trekking companies to see if they would provide a guide for the whole trip, but they wanted to put us into larger groups with arranged accommodation. Although we planned the route, the fact that we had no idea where we would end up each night really added something to the experience and I’m glad we did it by ourselves and stayed with locals. We had a fair amount of luck on our side; being introduced to Billhillio who knew the shortcut through the jungle saved us time, and we met some really good people who helped us with places to stay and advice. But in some ways you can help to create your own luck, we trained hard in the UK which meant we could cover large distances each day, we planned the route quite well and we had good kit.