We tried to find a climbing gym on Sunday while exploring the city, but our first attempt landed us at a hiking/climbing/sporting good store that was closed for the day, whose gym is currently under construction/renovation.
Eskalar was our second attempt, a bit further away but open till 10pm every night. We called before heading there Wednesday night, a good thing since they were closed due to a power outage. Last night we finally made it there!
It was in a gated area with a security guard who took down Lucia’s name, ph#, and license before letting us park. Eskalar is a small gym, but has a compact low hanging bouldering area, top rope, and lead climbing. There was what sorta looked like a small store on the second floor, but I never made it up there to look. Too much to climb in so little time!
It was either $10 USD or ₡5400 CRC for a day pass which included shoe rental, chalk, and a lesson, if you wanted—no waivers needed. Jon and I brought our own shoes, and once we got a bag of chalk we went straight into bouldering. It was Lucia’s first time so we had to try their top rope section too.
Jon noticed that the routes were probably set by someone short (my kind of routes!) but it made it nearly impossible for him to start some of them ‘cuz with his long limbs sitting on the floor was unavoidable. Interestingly, there were several routes that were just 2-3 moves, some of the shortest I’ve seen.
They had a slackline, which was fun to play with just before closing time. Jon got pretty good at it for having only about 10 minutes with it. He even caught my one moment where I stood on it for a significant amount of time! The staff and other members were really friendly and helpful, many even spoke English.
It has been a while since either Jon or I have gone climbing, so this was a treat!