Pura Vida in Costa Rica
Rob Howard / 15.02.2010
<i>The Costa Rica Adventure Race, one of the newest races in the ARWorld Series, takes place from August 23rd-27th and plans for the new race are progressing well. Race Director Alexander Baker Manley has recently distributed this news to encourage teams to travel to Costa Rica, and to help those teams already entered.</i>Choosing the route for this race was not easy. Costa Rica consists of 57.000.00 square kilometers of pristine land in between two oceans, elevations rising up to 3850 meters, and a wide variety of microclimates with temperatures ranging between 7 and 32 degrees Celsius. This diversity offers us too many options in too little time. A twenty day race should be the ticket, but one week will have to do. There will be more races to come and with them more opportunities to see almost all of Costa Rica.
Considering the race is almost two months away from the world championship in Spain, we decided to start the Costa Rica series with a race that would take top teams around 60 hours and that would work as preparation for those aiming for the world championship. For those of you along for the ride, there will be enough time to finish the entire course. About half of the race will be covered on your mountain bikes and the rest will be divided between trekking, water sports and ropes. (The exact breakdown of the race will be released later in the year.)
Costa Rica has many specialty sports shops; bicycle, running, camping and all outdoor activities. Buying supplies, Gatorade or any power bar or gel is easy and you can buy almost all the food you find in the U.S or in Europe here. We even have a Decathlon shop so spare parts and bicycle parts are cheaper.
Normally when we race in Costa Rica we just cruise to the nearest village and find something cheap to eat at â€pulperiasâ€, or local supply stores, which offer a wide variety of food and fruits. If there’s no restaurant or "soda" you can always show up to a local home and ask them to sell you a plate of rice and beans, a fried egg, some salad and a" fresco" (juice) for under $3.00.
People in Costa Rica are known for their friendliness. We live in the land of Pura Vida, or Pure Life. Whenever you ask a Costa Rican how they are they always reply Pura Vida, no matter how bad things are. If you are ever in need of help don’t feel bad to come and knock on anybody’s door at any time.
We are trying to make it so you can bring the least amount of gear possible. We will provide the climbing gear when needed and the lifejackets, helmets and paddles for the rafting and kayaking legs of the race. However, if you prefer to bring your own gear, we will transport it to the needed locations.
Next week we will go out and do our third run of the course and we will be uploading more pictures and a small video to the website so you can get an idea of what the race will be like
For more information see the website at <a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.arcostarica.com')" class="main">www.arcostarica.com</a>.
