Pedaling down a dirt road in rural Costa Rica conjures memories of living here.
You never biked this particular road. You’ve only visited the tourist town of Tamarindo a couple of times before, and you never thought to rent a mountain bike and explore the rural motorways all around. Yet you know this kind of road well—hilly and unpaved, meandering its way through farmland and tropical forest.
In 2014, you rode a bicycle across Costa Rica, from a Caribbean beach to a Pacific beach. This remains a cherished experience, even if the distance was comparatively modest. A decade later, you interviewed David Rodríguez Barrón, a native Costa Rican who biked—and mapped—thousands of miles of gravel backroads. Spending just a couple of hours revives that unique energy; you could ramble for days through these humid hills and valleys, waving to campesinos and fording rivers with your bike.
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