Dominical!

Shortly after arriving in Costa Rica, Becca received word from home that her "abuelo" wasn't doing well and decided it was best to return to the states to be with him and her family for a week. After dropping her at the airport in San Jose, Rok and I had a 3 hour drive to settle in to our unexpected alone time. It was an eerie feeling to get used to after after 2 months in the close quarters our auto casa provides. It was a peaceful drive, continuing down the Pacific coastline with views of sandy beaches, big estuaries, jungle, and palm plantations. We were excited to reach our final destination of Dominical, where the mountains meet the ocean.

Playa Dominical

I met Nick Crane shortly after my arrival. He pointed me in the direction of a great place to camp right across the road from the beach break at a place called El Coco. Nick offers tours all season long in Costa Rica and takes clients of all experience levels to sites all over the country. He has been flying here for years and has helped to pioneer some of the best flying sites in Costa Rica. If you're looking to get a lot of airtime here I suggest joining one of his or Grandpa Ninja's tours. It's the only way to fly some of their lesser known, difficult access, and very beautiful sites.

We were hoping to settle in to Dominical for a bit and fly some tandems so I started to scope out some housing options and feeling out the town for tandem potential. In the meantime Nick was nice enough to let me tag along with one of his para tours to explore the local sites and get a feel for the area.

The local site above Dominical is a 1700ft ridge about a mile back from the coast. The flying is very consistent with mixed thermals and ridge lift. You fly over the jungle canopy and little developed properties below. You can sometimes even hear howler monkeys! Landing options are near the beach or on it at anything but high tide, and there is a sweet little 650ft ridge right on the coastline that you can soar most days.

Rok on launch at Dominical

We toured South about an hour to place called Foxes Leap. It's like Dominical, but on a grander scale. The access road is a gnarly 4WD track taking almost a full hour and climbs up through a cloud forest at the top. The launch is twice as high and its set back a bit further from the coastline. Many times you start above cloud base and on the clear days you can see all the way to the Osa Peninsula. It's a bit of mission to get there but provides some great potential for some friendly small cross country.

Fox's Leap with Nick

We also went up to Rivas, about an hours drive inland. There are two launches on either side of town. They are on separate ridges leading up toward Cerro Chirripo, the highest point in CR at 12,000ft. A soccer field in the quaint little town tucked into the bottom of the valley is the main landing. From there you are walking distance from the local bar and restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised to launch into some big mountain air with strong climbs and cooler temps. Flying up around higher peaks is pretty committing but there are a few good top landing options along the way before you feel too deep. It's an amazing area and not what I expected from Costa Rica; we will have to spend some more time exploring here.

Nick on Lobo's launch above Rivas

It has been a crazy week. I have learned a ton being forced to use my slowly improving Spanish. I found a little casita to rent a few kilometers down the road in Dominicalito. Its walking distance to a smaller beach with less traffic and a nice waterfall. The landlord, a little abuelita named Julia, wont stop cooking me rice and beans. Rok has enjoyed living a chuck-it's throw away from the waves, but has developed some sort of heat rash on his hindquarters and is generally a bit overheated. I think he is looking forward to having Becca back to give him a haircut.

Along this journey, we've crossed paths with multiple people overlanding solo, some all the way to Tierra del Fuego. Many of them don't speak any Spanish at all. After this week I have a reinforced respect for these solo warriors. As for me, I am very thankful to have such a great travel companion to share the experience with. I cant wait to have her back.

Above our casita in Dominicalito