Rainforest Recce

Spinning out of town, the riders will be able to spot the striking Ometepe Island, its twin volcanic peaks emerging from Lake Nicaragua before crossing into the tour’s penultimate country, Costa Rica. A night in the hill top town of La Cruz will provide for some stunning views over the Pacific Ocean. The route winds south along the coast of the beautiful Nicoya Penninsula.

The cyclists now cycle inland towards the Golfo de Nicoya and a ferry ride back to the mainland where they pedal south through a string of beach resorts. Along the way they can, if they have the nerve, stop at the Parque Nacional Carara to visit the park’s famously huge crocodiles and perhaps encounter up to 19 of the country’s 21 poisonous snakes! Closer to the border with Panama the route turns inland and weaves up into the Talamanca Mountain Range and through coffee and sugarcane plantations before arriving in the Panamanian town of Volcan for a well-deserved rest day and a chance to climb up Volcan Baru, the country’s highest peak.

The last stretch of this section takes the riders down off the high plateau, dropping over 1200m in the first 30km. Cyclists now spin east through the rolling countryside with the gorgeous green Chiriqui Highlands on one side and vast agricultural fields on the other. They will pedal past historic religious buildings in Santiago and make one last stop on the beach at Playa Blanca before crossing the famous Panama Canal and pulling into cosmopolitan Panama City, the end point for this section and for the North American Epic.

Highlights

• Costa Rica's amazing rainforests & birdlife
• Manuel Antonio National Park
• Western Panama's tropical mountain paradise
• Cross the Panama Canal