After spending the days following Christmas chilling by a pool in a blistering hot, sunhine-filled desert of dali´s dreams (it was fine, how was the rest of your December?), we headed up to Lima one last time. We met up with Jamie and one of her friends, again, as well as Geoff (a friend of Stew´s from Peru). G Money, as he is better known, is in Peru visiting his girlfriend´s family, so we all went out for drinks together, which was a nice little reunion.
The next day, we hit the long dusty road again on our way to Arequipa in southern Peru. It is a beautiful colonial town and pretty much every building is made from giant white stones so that the city looks like a conglomeration of mini fortresses. We spent New Year´s Eve in Arequipa watching a hilarious cover band sing a mix of American classic rock and high school dance hits (as well as some Offspring). At midnight, we found ourselves in the top story of a disco (called the ¨couch bar¨) with a 360 degree view of the top of the city. We could see the main fireworks display over the Plaza de Armas, but there were also about 200 smaller displays scattered throughough the city. Not a bad way to spend welcome the new year. On our way home, we ate choripan (chorizo on bread with french fries), which was delicious.
We spent the next day recovering and wandering around the city. The choripans seemed to be a bad idea and we were glad to have an extra day to rest. That night (or the morning depending on your sleep schedule), we left at 3 a.m. for a hiking trip through Colca Canyon.
Colca Canyon is the second deepest in the world at just over 4,000 meters. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. We drove for a couple of hours over mountains and through deserts (the only natural resources appear to be stones) until we came to a little town called Chivay, where we grabbed lunch (coca pancakes and banana dumplings) before heading up to Cruz del Condor. Here, we watched condors swoosh and dive and hunt for dead animals, as they are known to do (like Stew).
After an hour of condor watching, we ate some alpaca before beginning our alpaca-like journey into the canyon. The hike began flat as we left town but soon descended dramatically into the canyon. Though the hike was only a couple of miles, at least one was vertical. Several hours later, we arrived at a little village called San Juan de Chukchuk (spelling is unclear...meaning is Saint Juan of the Plagued because the town was plagued by malaria in recent times). We were exhausted and relieved to find comfortable beds waiting in our straw roofed, mud walled hut.
The next morning, we had an easy day. Just four hours of hiking and only a mini mountain to climb. Unlike the previous day, we didn´t scale either of the canyon walls, but went over and down a small rise in the canyon itself. Actually, it was still a pretty intense hike. We got to our lodge around noon or one in the afternoon and were delighted that, due to a natural spring in the mountain, we had a swimming pool to relax in all afternoon. This was great because we were hot, tired, and smelled bad (even for us). Dinner was nice: huge plates of spaghetti. Stew, however, could not become full no matter how much pasta he ate.
The next morning we had an early wake up call (again!) and were on the trail before the sun was fully up at 5. This turned out to be necessary because the hike out of the canyon was steep, rocky, long, and would very quickly have become miserably hot. We were told the hike took between 3 and 4 hours, but we were alotted 5. The first person in our group finished in 2:12, two semi-sane germans (including a 68 year old that thought it was normal to get out of a swimming pool, pull off his speedo and stand in front of everyone changing) finished in 2:30, and we finished just around 3 hours. By 8 a.m., we were very tired and the sun was incredibly hot. Just a minute or so after Tori came up, a group of five condors flew over head and stayed close by long enough to snap some photos. !que suerte! We still had a 30 minute hike back to town, but at least it was flat. Honestly, distance no longer seems to be difficult which compared to the steepness of Colca.
After our Colca tour, we spent one night more in Arequipa. Yesterday morning we got on a 5 hours bus to Tacna (near the CHilean border) that took 8 hours. Two taxi rides later, we were in Arica, Chile. Because we will be meeting Stew´s parents in a few days, we hurried on past Arica and caught an overnight bus to San Pedro de Atacama in the heart of the desert near the Bolivian and Argentinian borders. We just arrived and found that everything in Chile is really really expensive. Hence, we will be camping in the Atacama desert for the next two nights before we catch a bus down to Santiago, where we will finally meet up with Stew´s parents! Yay!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Oh Peru, how we missed you!
After an epic 40 hour bus experience, we found ourselves back in Lima, Peru where each of us spent a summer studying. For Tori, it was exciting to finally come back to some place that felt familiar. We knew just where we wanted to go, how much it cost to get there, and all of the local delicacies. Score!
We stayed at an upscale hostel in downtown Miraflores, a ritzy neighborhood on Lima´s coast. We could walk to the cliffs overhanging the beach from our hostel...yes, we splurged. Hey, it was Christmas! Strolling about on Christamas eve, we discovered a small spa where Tori could get a manicure and pedicure and Stew could get a massage, all for under 30 bucks. Double score! We left feeling all jazzed up and ready to celebrate the holiday.
Our Christmas preparations included going to the grocery store: bacon, tropical fruits, and mimosas were in order. On Christams day, we slept in...quite the luxury, and also quite easy to do after 40 hours of bus travel. Luckily, Stew´s parents sent down a Christmas package (with express instructions to maintain closed until Christmas morning) with Tori´s parents. It might have been outrageously tempting to carry around for 2 weeks, but it was definitely worth the wait to have a package to tear apart on Christmas morning. We got some awesome goodies, too: earplugs!!, dino flashlight, headlamp, bottle-opening ring, plus some very cool National Geographic maps from Stew´s grandparents...it was a great Christmas!
We spent most of Christmas day eating fruit salad (if you ever come across something called a Pepino Melon, go for it) and bacon, drinking mimosas, and hanging out with some of the folks we met at our hostel. For Christmas dinner, we got to meet up with one of Stew´s friends from his studies at Lima, Jamie from Los Angeles (see earlier blog posts from our drive across the country). We had a great meal at a mediterreanean resteraunt that happened to be open...bizarrely enough, all the chinese places were closed. So much for a traditional Jewish Christmas.
The day after Christmas, we made for Huacachina, our favorite little oasis in the world. It´s an itty bitty town in the middle of the desert on a lake...a genuine oasis. We´ve been hanging out in the sunshine since we arrived. Not a bad way to spend Boxing Day.
We stayed at an upscale hostel in downtown Miraflores, a ritzy neighborhood on Lima´s coast. We could walk to the cliffs overhanging the beach from our hostel...yes, we splurged. Hey, it was Christmas! Strolling about on Christamas eve, we discovered a small spa where Tori could get a manicure and pedicure and Stew could get a massage, all for under 30 bucks. Double score! We left feeling all jazzed up and ready to celebrate the holiday.
Our Christmas preparations included going to the grocery store: bacon, tropical fruits, and mimosas were in order. On Christams day, we slept in...quite the luxury, and also quite easy to do after 40 hours of bus travel. Luckily, Stew´s parents sent down a Christmas package (with express instructions to maintain closed until Christmas morning) with Tori´s parents. It might have been outrageously tempting to carry around for 2 weeks, but it was definitely worth the wait to have a package to tear apart on Christmas morning. We got some awesome goodies, too: earplugs!!, dino flashlight, headlamp, bottle-opening ring, plus some very cool National Geographic maps from Stew´s grandparents...it was a great Christmas!
We spent most of Christmas day eating fruit salad (if you ever come across something called a Pepino Melon, go for it) and bacon, drinking mimosas, and hanging out with some of the folks we met at our hostel. For Christmas dinner, we got to meet up with one of Stew´s friends from his studies at Lima, Jamie from Los Angeles (see earlier blog posts from our drive across the country). We had a great meal at a mediterreanean resteraunt that happened to be open...bizarrely enough, all the chinese places were closed. So much for a traditional Jewish Christmas.
The day after Christmas, we made for Huacachina, our favorite little oasis in the world. It´s an itty bitty town in the middle of the desert on a lake...a genuine oasis. We´ve been hanging out in the sunshine since we arrived. Not a bad way to spend Boxing Day.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Ecuador: stuck in the mitad with you!
Ecuador (all at once)
Sorry for the lack of updates in the last two weeks or so: we´ve been traveling willy nilly with Tori´s parents throughout Ecuador and haven´t had any time to post on the blog. Right now we´re about to leave Ecuador and go to Peru for Christmas, but there´s a lot that has happened since we last posted.
From Panama City, we flew to Colombia and then to Quito, Ecuador. This was momentous because it signified the end of Central America and the beginning of South America. Also, we got really good plane food and Stew talked his way into an extra meal. Plus, we tried all of Colombia´s beers on the plane for free, so it´s almost like we´ve been there.
We met up with Tori´s parents in the immigration line in Quito. It was pretty thrilling to see family after such a long time, plus we got to cut in line. It was probably the most joyous celebration to happen in a 30 minute immigration line at midnight. The next day we took a tour of Quito with the weirdest hippie-spiritual- new age- Incan hating -Ecuadorian ever. He also showed us the equator, and told us some weird hippie stuff about it. Still it was really fun and we loved Quito.
The next day we flew to the Amazon. We stayed in a lodge that was quite a trek from Quito: we flew, took a bus, took a boat, took a hike, and then took a final canoe. It was great, and secluded. From our lodge, we could see big rat like animals named agouti, caimans, tamarinds, pygmy marmosets, and lots of other cool stuff. Like birds, but who cares. Birders are lame-oids with pocket protectors. We went on daily excursions in which we saw anaconda tracks, river otter, big trees, giant smoked toads, tiny poison frogs, crazy lizards, sloths, a gajillion monkeys of a half dozen types, tarantulas, insects, whip snakes, and Austrians. It was a heckuva good time.
Next, we hit the Galapagos, because we hadn´t seen enough animals yet. We found them. More marine iguanas than you could in a stew, more sea lions than you could ever possibly cuddle, lots of land and sea turtles doing it, blue footed boobies (also doing it, but dancing better), frigate birds (trying to do it), penguins swimming cutely, fish doing their thing, flightless cormorants not flying, dolpins playing, and natural formations. These include lava, beaches, giant stone outcropppings, darwin´s toilets (places where the water rushes onto stone beaches and then flushes like a toilet), and others that instead of flushing, shoot up like a whale spout. Also, the cruise director chose our family to lead the Neptune Day celebration as we crossed the equator: Tori´s dad was King Neptune, God of the Sea, and Tori´s mom was Queen Neredia, his beautiful wife. We were pirates, along with Tori´s brother. We got free drinks. It was riotous. Stew, apparently, also knew the cruise director from his days as a sailor on the Pacific.
We returned to Quito, where we saw museums, an orchid farm run by a crazzzzzy senile old dude, the wonderful pool and spa at the hotel, and bar district known as Plaza Foch. It was fun and we recovered from our hectic travels and prepared for some more hectic shopping.
Early the next morning, we hit the road in our familiar van with our weirdo guide through the mountains to a town called Otavalo. Along the way, we met with some of the top weavers and leather makers from Ecuador. We did a lot of shopping and came away with some amazing deals on leather goods. Stew got new boots, Tori got a new jacket, and everyone got christmas presents. The next day we hit up the real market in Otavalo proper, and the shopping was taken to a new level. Anyone who didn´t get a present in leather, got one the second day. We bargained our pants off and got some new pants for 3 bucks a pop. Word.
On the way back, we stopped at a shaman and got rebalanced. There are, we suppose, some advantages to having a weirdo tour guide. Tori´s mom got a cleaning ritual, which entailed getting spit on and fire balls blown around her. She handled it like a champ, and came out smelling good if damp. Due to the snow storm, Tori´s family was stranded in Quito for an extra day, which we thought was great. We had a fantastic time with Tori´s family and miss them already. Stew can´t wait to see his parents in a couple of weeks in Chile. Anyone else want to come visit us, too???
Since they left, we flew to Cuenca where we stayed in a hotel room sick for two days. We did manage to get out and see a great museum run by a bank (sidenote: is the phenomena of great museums run by banks unique to Latin America or does it exist elsehwere?) situated next to huge incan ruins on a hill over the city. Today, we managed to get out of Cuenca (Ecuadorean Andes: lusher and quainter than a farmer´s daughter) and are now heading south to Lima. We´re six hours into our 30 hours bus tour and are taking a break at an internet café in a bus station until our next bus leaves at 11 p.m. Yay buses! Soon we´ll be in Lima and ready to celebrate Christmas.
Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, and maybe we´ll updated before the New Year!
Love,
Tori and Stew
Sorry for the lack of updates in the last two weeks or so: we´ve been traveling willy nilly with Tori´s parents throughout Ecuador and haven´t had any time to post on the blog. Right now we´re about to leave Ecuador and go to Peru for Christmas, but there´s a lot that has happened since we last posted.
From Panama City, we flew to Colombia and then to Quito, Ecuador. This was momentous because it signified the end of Central America and the beginning of South America. Also, we got really good plane food and Stew talked his way into an extra meal. Plus, we tried all of Colombia´s beers on the plane for free, so it´s almost like we´ve been there.
We met up with Tori´s parents in the immigration line in Quito. It was pretty thrilling to see family after such a long time, plus we got to cut in line. It was probably the most joyous celebration to happen in a 30 minute immigration line at midnight. The next day we took a tour of Quito with the weirdest hippie-spiritual- new age- Incan hating -Ecuadorian ever. He also showed us the equator, and told us some weird hippie stuff about it. Still it was really fun and we loved Quito.
The next day we flew to the Amazon. We stayed in a lodge that was quite a trek from Quito: we flew, took a bus, took a boat, took a hike, and then took a final canoe. It was great, and secluded. From our lodge, we could see big rat like animals named agouti, caimans, tamarinds, pygmy marmosets, and lots of other cool stuff. Like birds, but who cares. Birders are lame-oids with pocket protectors. We went on daily excursions in which we saw anaconda tracks, river otter, big trees, giant smoked toads, tiny poison frogs, crazy lizards, sloths, a gajillion monkeys of a half dozen types, tarantulas, insects, whip snakes, and Austrians. It was a heckuva good time.
Next, we hit the Galapagos, because we hadn´t seen enough animals yet. We found them. More marine iguanas than you could in a stew, more sea lions than you could ever possibly cuddle, lots of land and sea turtles doing it, blue footed boobies (also doing it, but dancing better), frigate birds (trying to do it), penguins swimming cutely, fish doing their thing, flightless cormorants not flying, dolpins playing, and natural formations. These include lava, beaches, giant stone outcropppings, darwin´s toilets (places where the water rushes onto stone beaches and then flushes like a toilet), and others that instead of flushing, shoot up like a whale spout. Also, the cruise director chose our family to lead the Neptune Day celebration as we crossed the equator: Tori´s dad was King Neptune, God of the Sea, and Tori´s mom was Queen Neredia, his beautiful wife. We were pirates, along with Tori´s brother. We got free drinks. It was riotous. Stew, apparently, also knew the cruise director from his days as a sailor on the Pacific.
We returned to Quito, where we saw museums, an orchid farm run by a crazzzzzy senile old dude, the wonderful pool and spa at the hotel, and bar district known as Plaza Foch. It was fun and we recovered from our hectic travels and prepared for some more hectic shopping.
Early the next morning, we hit the road in our familiar van with our weirdo guide through the mountains to a town called Otavalo. Along the way, we met with some of the top weavers and leather makers from Ecuador. We did a lot of shopping and came away with some amazing deals on leather goods. Stew got new boots, Tori got a new jacket, and everyone got christmas presents. The next day we hit up the real market in Otavalo proper, and the shopping was taken to a new level. Anyone who didn´t get a present in leather, got one the second day. We bargained our pants off and got some new pants for 3 bucks a pop. Word.
On the way back, we stopped at a shaman and got rebalanced. There are, we suppose, some advantages to having a weirdo tour guide. Tori´s mom got a cleaning ritual, which entailed getting spit on and fire balls blown around her. She handled it like a champ, and came out smelling good if damp. Due to the snow storm, Tori´s family was stranded in Quito for an extra day, which we thought was great. We had a fantastic time with Tori´s family and miss them already. Stew can´t wait to see his parents in a couple of weeks in Chile. Anyone else want to come visit us, too???
Since they left, we flew to Cuenca where we stayed in a hotel room sick for two days. We did manage to get out and see a great museum run by a bank (sidenote: is the phenomena of great museums run by banks unique to Latin America or does it exist elsehwere?) situated next to huge incan ruins on a hill over the city. Today, we managed to get out of Cuenca (Ecuadorean Andes: lusher and quainter than a farmer´s daughter) and are now heading south to Lima. We´re six hours into our 30 hours bus tour and are taking a break at an internet café in a bus station until our next bus leaves at 11 p.m. Yay buses! Soon we´ll be in Lima and ready to celebrate Christmas.
Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, and maybe we´ll updated before the New Year!
Love,
Tori and Stew
Friday, December 4, 2009
TAN BRONZEADOS (SOOO TANNED)
As the title to this entry suggets, we´ve been having a blast in the Panamanian sunshine for the past few days.
Since our last entry...We spent one more day in Boquete so we could enjoy some of the natural beauty in the surrounding mountains. Boquete is known as the land of rainbows, so we figured we´d try our chances at catching one. Success! The combination of strong sun and frequent drizzling rain is perfect for rainbows. From our hotel, we hiked up the road to a trail called Bajo Mono, which we translated as Short Monkey, for no apparent reason (we found no monkeys, and the trail was NOT short). It does, however, make a good nickname for Tori. There were interesting rock formations on the various cliffs overlooking a valley filled with trees, coffee plantations, gardens, and a rushing river. Further along, we came to a waterfall, too. If we had continued we would have come to a castle, but our guide book didn´t make it seem worth it and we had already walked a long ways. Plus, we really watned to go eat at one of the several strawberry themed restaurants we had passed along the way.
The owner of our hotel, Maky, arranged for us to go to San Blas Islands (an archipelago populated by the Kuna indians in the Carribbean between Panama and Colombia) the following morning, but we had to rush to get there in time. From Boquete (in the mountains of northern panama), we had to take a bus to david (1 hour), wait for a spot on a bus to Panama City (everyone was returning from the celebration for independence day) and eventually take an 8 hour over night ride. We arrived at 3 a.m. and waited until 6 a.m. for a guide to show up in his jeep. His jeep was overflowing and we were far from understanding, so we told him to eat it and got ourselves a bed instead. At that moment, neither of us were willing to go on a three hour ride through Panama´s backcontry jungles in makeshift seats in a Jeep´s trunk. It is hard to be patient after an overnight bus ride and the only sleep is what you get on the bus station floor. Plus, the driver was a jerk....we just weren´t having it.
After a day in Panama city, during which we saw pretty much everything we wanted to that wasn´t mysteriously closed, we were ready to try for San Blas again. This time, with a different travel agent, things worked much better. Instead of 8 people in a jeep, there were 4 in a super nice totally pimped out massive pickup truck. Score. Double score was that the only music the driver had were nineties hits (Britney, Destiny´s Child, etc) and Bob Marley. Stew was in heaven...anything is better than reggaeton. After the three hour truck ride through the wilderness, the pan american highway stops and one has to off road through Indian country, take a dug out canoe through another tribe´s territory, and eventually get into a larger dugout with an outboard motor that takes you way out into the sea.
Still, San Blas is more than worth whatever hassle is required to get there. One feels almost guilty witnessing such pristine and perfect beaches....we hope that hordes of tourists and resorts never discover these magical isalnds. Being that the Kuna indians restrict the number of people that visit each day, maybe they´ll remain pristine forever, but we´re hedging our bets.
There is no white whiter than the sand of San Blas. Even the ¨ugly¨ islands look like postcards. Most islands take less than 2-3 minutes to walk around, and only 90 of th 360 odd islands are inhabited by much more than palm trees. All the water is a perfect aqua marine with great visibility, coral reefs, sunken ships, and animal life. Turtles and lobsters can be caught (and released because turtles are only caught accidentally) right on the beach where we stayed. We stayed with a Kuna family that ran a teeny hotel of four rooms. Each rooms was an independent cabin with a thatched roof and planks laid above the sand beach. Apparantly, we chose the fancier hotel...most others in San Bas have only sand floors. The walls were made of a bamboo like grass and the windows were....just holes. Our cabin was decorated like Christmas. We also visited two Kuna villages and learned something of their history, though our guide was a bit of an idiot. He didn´t do much more than point out what different buildings were used for, so we had press him for more interesting
Typical cusine is fish, coconut rice, crab, lobster, pineapple, watermelon, and salads. Our last we had a huge feast and gorged ourselves on the abudance of the sea. Imagine -- a mountain of Caribbean lobster and crab, carrots and yucca, delicious salad, pineapple, watermelon...and a challenge from your hosts to eat it all. It seemed like the perfect way to encapsulate San Blas. The people there are so generous and so kind; the bounty of nature is overwhelming. It was definitely the place we found most difficult to leave.
Today we saw the Panama Canal. Stew was bored again...watching water move from one side to the other STILL isn´t interested. Tori was bored, too, but felt like it was necessary to see the canal. When people return from Panama, everyone tends to ask ¨how was the canal?¨without realizing that it is the least interesting thing in Panama. There are so many great things to do and see here...we´re sad to be leaving this country and all of Central America, but the time has come to move on to Ecuador, where we will meet up with Tori´s family! Whippee!
Since our last entry...We spent one more day in Boquete so we could enjoy some of the natural beauty in the surrounding mountains. Boquete is known as the land of rainbows, so we figured we´d try our chances at catching one. Success! The combination of strong sun and frequent drizzling rain is perfect for rainbows. From our hotel, we hiked up the road to a trail called Bajo Mono, which we translated as Short Monkey, for no apparent reason (we found no monkeys, and the trail was NOT short). It does, however, make a good nickname for Tori. There were interesting rock formations on the various cliffs overlooking a valley filled with trees, coffee plantations, gardens, and a rushing river. Further along, we came to a waterfall, too. If we had continued we would have come to a castle, but our guide book didn´t make it seem worth it and we had already walked a long ways. Plus, we really watned to go eat at one of the several strawberry themed restaurants we had passed along the way.
The owner of our hotel, Maky, arranged for us to go to San Blas Islands (an archipelago populated by the Kuna indians in the Carribbean between Panama and Colombia) the following morning, but we had to rush to get there in time. From Boquete (in the mountains of northern panama), we had to take a bus to david (1 hour), wait for a spot on a bus to Panama City (everyone was returning from the celebration for independence day) and eventually take an 8 hour over night ride. We arrived at 3 a.m. and waited until 6 a.m. for a guide to show up in his jeep. His jeep was overflowing and we were far from understanding, so we told him to eat it and got ourselves a bed instead. At that moment, neither of us were willing to go on a three hour ride through Panama´s backcontry jungles in makeshift seats in a Jeep´s trunk. It is hard to be patient after an overnight bus ride and the only sleep is what you get on the bus station floor. Plus, the driver was a jerk....we just weren´t having it.
After a day in Panama city, during which we saw pretty much everything we wanted to that wasn´t mysteriously closed, we were ready to try for San Blas again. This time, with a different travel agent, things worked much better. Instead of 8 people in a jeep, there were 4 in a super nice totally pimped out massive pickup truck. Score. Double score was that the only music the driver had were nineties hits (Britney, Destiny´s Child, etc) and Bob Marley. Stew was in heaven...anything is better than reggaeton. After the three hour truck ride through the wilderness, the pan american highway stops and one has to off road through Indian country, take a dug out canoe through another tribe´s territory, and eventually get into a larger dugout with an outboard motor that takes you way out into the sea.
Still, San Blas is more than worth whatever hassle is required to get there. One feels almost guilty witnessing such pristine and perfect beaches....we hope that hordes of tourists and resorts never discover these magical isalnds. Being that the Kuna indians restrict the number of people that visit each day, maybe they´ll remain pristine forever, but we´re hedging our bets.
There is no white whiter than the sand of San Blas. Even the ¨ugly¨ islands look like postcards. Most islands take less than 2-3 minutes to walk around, and only 90 of th 360 odd islands are inhabited by much more than palm trees. All the water is a perfect aqua marine with great visibility, coral reefs, sunken ships, and animal life. Turtles and lobsters can be caught (and released because turtles are only caught accidentally) right on the beach where we stayed. We stayed with a Kuna family that ran a teeny hotel of four rooms. Each rooms was an independent cabin with a thatched roof and planks laid above the sand beach. Apparantly, we chose the fancier hotel...most others in San Bas have only sand floors. The walls were made of a bamboo like grass and the windows were....just holes. Our cabin was decorated like Christmas. We also visited two Kuna villages and learned something of their history, though our guide was a bit of an idiot. He didn´t do much more than point out what different buildings were used for, so we had press him for more interesting
Typical cusine is fish, coconut rice, crab, lobster, pineapple, watermelon, and salads. Our last we had a huge feast and gorged ourselves on the abudance of the sea. Imagine -- a mountain of Caribbean lobster and crab, carrots and yucca, delicious salad, pineapple, watermelon...and a challenge from your hosts to eat it all. It seemed like the perfect way to encapsulate San Blas. The people there are so generous and so kind; the bounty of nature is overwhelming. It was definitely the place we found most difficult to leave.
Today we saw the Panama Canal. Stew was bored again...watching water move from one side to the other STILL isn´t interested. Tori was bored, too, but felt like it was necessary to see the canal. When people return from Panama, everyone tends to ask ¨how was the canal?¨without realizing that it is the least interesting thing in Panama. There are so many great things to do and see here...we´re sad to be leaving this country and all of Central America, but the time has come to move on to Ecuador, where we will meet up with Tori´s family! Whippee!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Panamaniacs
Since our last post, we´ve been cruisned from Costa Rica into Panama. We spent one more night at Tommy´s – we had to San Jose´s famous nightlife before leaving. We spent the day shopping and going to museums, and Tori even got a spontaneous $2 haircut. Later that night, we met up with Tommy and Susan at San Jose´s infamous Hotel Del Rey. It is a casino, bar, hotel, and fisherman hang out, but is most famous because almost every woman that walks in the bar is a prostitute. Prostitution is legal in Costa Rica, but only if the woman is over 18, self employed, and carries a card certifying regular health tests. As Tommy says, the girl has to be an ïndependent contractor.¨ It is an interesting system, and totally bizarre to witness several hundred prostitutes converge on a bunch of fishermen in a casino. We tried the slot machines, too, but lost both dollars quickly. We are not high rollers.
The next morning, we bid Tommy and Susan farewell and finally hit the road again. It was great staying with them and we greatly appreciate all of their generosity… In fact, we ended up staying in Costa Rica about three times as long as we had planned as a result.
We had both read parts of this book ¨What Happen,¨ which is a folkloric history of the south east caribbean people´s of Costa Rica, so we decided to visit the places that we had read about, namely a small town called Cahuita. Moreover, the part of the Carribean is known to have beautiful beaches…man that phrase is getting played out in this blog.
Cahuita, it turns out, does not have particularly beautiful beaches, nor is the town ¨cute¨or ïdyllic¨in any way. Maybe it was just the torrential, non-stop, clothes-soup generating rain, but that town was lame. Also, Tori got food poisoning. Thus, we left early, cursing Cahuita as we left.
We passed through Puerto Viejo, a similar town known for bigger parties and (yawn) beautiful, long sandy beaches. It was raining there, too, so we stayed on our bus and kept on toward the border with Panama. Once again, we walked across a busted bridge into another country, paying minute taxes along the way and getting confused between lines. Eventually, we got across, however, in time to realize we had just barely missed the bus to Bocas del Toro and would have to take a taxi with a family of missionaries. Yay, adventures!
Bocas is a series of small islands on the caribeña side of north Panama, discovered by Columbus on his fourth and final voyage. It means ¨Mouths of the Bull¨ for reasons that no longer make sense (to us) and have generated conflicting legends. There are no bulls, much less multi mouthed bulls. There are, however, beautiful beaches.
One of them is called ¨playa de las estrellas¨which means beach of the stars because it is covered in star fish of all colors. It´s pretty cool. We played in the wáter with them and took pictures. Some old tourists went by on a tour and we felt cool because we had gotten there on a local bus and hiked down the beach. For lunch we shared a plate of french fries and chicken fingers (the cheapest thing on the menú at the only restaurant near the beach), but really filled up on coconuts we found on the beach. Stew bought a machete for this very purpose, but had left it in the room. Thus, he practiced his technique of holding the coconut firmly in one hand and smashing it against a tree until it leaks delicious milk. Then, he splits it open with his hands he-man style. Tori finds this process hilarious. The coconut was delicious, but contained so much meat we couldn´t finish it.
The second night, we met some fellow travelers from the United States. Two (Megan and Zack) had just graduated from Indiana University and are doing a similar trip to ours, while the other two (Avery and Brittany) are current students at UGA on Thanksgiving Break. Thus, we had another opportunity to party like college kids, and spent the next few days touring the various islands and bars with our new friends (we never found the Ngobe Bugle, prounounced Nooblie Booglie). Likely, by now, there are already facebook pictures documenting our goofiness. We had to skip a couple of beaches because a girl died going to one recently in stormy weather. The seas were still rough, so we, like responsible travelers, decided that we shouldn´t take such unnecessary risks.
Thursday was Thanksgiving. It was hard to be away from our families on this special holiday for the first time. Fortunately we were with new friends. Also, a hostel run by ¨Cosmo¨ an American Harvard gradúate ex patriot, organized an epic feast for only six bucks a person. It was an amazing turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, tropical fruit chutney, green bean casserole, Johnny cakes, mac and cheese, gravy, pumpkin pie – the works.. While it wasn´t on par with our families´cooking (no one can beat Liz Clifford at a Thanksgiving blow-out), it was great to get proper American food. In short, it beat all expectations that we had for finding some semblance of American Thanksgiving in Panama.
The next morning, we decided to head out once more after spending way longer than inteded at a beautiful beach. This time, we set our sites on a mountain town in the highlands of Panama. The hiking is supposed to be great, with volcanoes, waterfalls, hot springs, views, pumas, and quetzals. Also, today is Panama´s Independence day and this is the center of the celebration. Who knew? Initially, this was a bit of an issue, as the first 23 hostels we went to were full, but there was one only a two kilometer hike up the hill (not the direction we started in), so everything turned out well. Actually, Tori fell in a hole and twisted her ankle, but it was kind of funny and everything turned out well when the owner gave us roasted pork and vodka tonics after we checked in.
Today, we went to see a garden called ¨mi jardín es su jardin¨meaning it was free. Also, it was expansive, well maintained, free, epic, and free. We took about 200 pictures of pretty flowers, so when we have a good connections, there will be an inundation of photos. We also watched parades and ate meat on a stick. Panama is awesome.
The next morning, we bid Tommy and Susan farewell and finally hit the road again. It was great staying with them and we greatly appreciate all of their generosity… In fact, we ended up staying in Costa Rica about three times as long as we had planned as a result.
We had both read parts of this book ¨What Happen,¨ which is a folkloric history of the south east caribbean people´s of Costa Rica, so we decided to visit the places that we had read about, namely a small town called Cahuita. Moreover, the part of the Carribean is known to have beautiful beaches…man that phrase is getting played out in this blog.
Cahuita, it turns out, does not have particularly beautiful beaches, nor is the town ¨cute¨or ïdyllic¨in any way. Maybe it was just the torrential, non-stop, clothes-soup generating rain, but that town was lame. Also, Tori got food poisoning. Thus, we left early, cursing Cahuita as we left.
We passed through Puerto Viejo, a similar town known for bigger parties and (yawn) beautiful, long sandy beaches. It was raining there, too, so we stayed on our bus and kept on toward the border with Panama. Once again, we walked across a busted bridge into another country, paying minute taxes along the way and getting confused between lines. Eventually, we got across, however, in time to realize we had just barely missed the bus to Bocas del Toro and would have to take a taxi with a family of missionaries. Yay, adventures!
Bocas is a series of small islands on the caribeña side of north Panama, discovered by Columbus on his fourth and final voyage. It means ¨Mouths of the Bull¨ for reasons that no longer make sense (to us) and have generated conflicting legends. There are no bulls, much less multi mouthed bulls. There are, however, beautiful beaches.
One of them is called ¨playa de las estrellas¨which means beach of the stars because it is covered in star fish of all colors. It´s pretty cool. We played in the wáter with them and took pictures. Some old tourists went by on a tour and we felt cool because we had gotten there on a local bus and hiked down the beach. For lunch we shared a plate of french fries and chicken fingers (the cheapest thing on the menú at the only restaurant near the beach), but really filled up on coconuts we found on the beach. Stew bought a machete for this very purpose, but had left it in the room. Thus, he practiced his technique of holding the coconut firmly in one hand and smashing it against a tree until it leaks delicious milk. Then, he splits it open with his hands he-man style. Tori finds this process hilarious. The coconut was delicious, but contained so much meat we couldn´t finish it.
The second night, we met some fellow travelers from the United States. Two (Megan and Zack) had just graduated from Indiana University and are doing a similar trip to ours, while the other two (Avery and Brittany) are current students at UGA on Thanksgiving Break. Thus, we had another opportunity to party like college kids, and spent the next few days touring the various islands and bars with our new friends (we never found the Ngobe Bugle, prounounced Nooblie Booglie). Likely, by now, there are already facebook pictures documenting our goofiness. We had to skip a couple of beaches because a girl died going to one recently in stormy weather. The seas were still rough, so we, like responsible travelers, decided that we shouldn´t take such unnecessary risks.
Thursday was Thanksgiving. It was hard to be away from our families on this special holiday for the first time. Fortunately we were with new friends. Also, a hostel run by ¨Cosmo¨ an American Harvard gradúate ex patriot, organized an epic feast for only six bucks a person. It was an amazing turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, tropical fruit chutney, green bean casserole, Johnny cakes, mac and cheese, gravy, pumpkin pie – the works.. While it wasn´t on par with our families´cooking (no one can beat Liz Clifford at a Thanksgiving blow-out), it was great to get proper American food. In short, it beat all expectations that we had for finding some semblance of American Thanksgiving in Panama.
The next morning, we decided to head out once more after spending way longer than inteded at a beautiful beach. This time, we set our sites on a mountain town in the highlands of Panama. The hiking is supposed to be great, with volcanoes, waterfalls, hot springs, views, pumas, and quetzals. Also, today is Panama´s Independence day and this is the center of the celebration. Who knew? Initially, this was a bit of an issue, as the first 23 hostels we went to were full, but there was one only a two kilometer hike up the hill (not the direction we started in), so everything turned out well. Actually, Tori fell in a hole and twisted her ankle, but it was kind of funny and everything turned out well when the owner gave us roasted pork and vodka tonics after we checked in.
Today, we went to see a garden called ¨mi jardín es su jardin¨meaning it was free. Also, it was expansive, well maintained, free, epic, and free. We took about 200 pictures of pretty flowers, so when we have a good connections, there will be an inundation of photos. We also watched parades and ate meat on a stick. Panama is awesome.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
We have been busy little bees
Since we last wrote, we spent another couple days at Tommy's farm, went to Satya's (a friend of Tommy's) family's farm up in the coldest mountain in Costa Rica, and visited two (or 4) beaches on the Pacific Coast. We have some good stories, but you'll have to bear with us. Also, you'll have to deal with some brevity and infer more from pictures. Feel free to contact us (we love messages!) if you want elaboration. (This is a shameless plea for love)
Tommy took us to see Volcan Poas and La Paz waterfalls. Volcan Poas was really cool, but we couldn't see much due to the fog. La Paz waterfalls were mainly destroyed by the earthquake last year, but are still magnificent and we could barely tell. According to Tommy, we only saw about fifty percent of the falls, but the zoo there was awesome, too.
The above two pictures are of the la paz waterfalls and a sloth there. Tommy also took us out for any amazing lunch at a French restaurant where we had crepes with mushrooms and cheese, bunny in dijon mustard sauce, blackberry refrescos, and chocolate mousse. It was amazing.
The next morning, we left with Satya (her husband works and lives on Tommy's farm) up to her family's farm high in the mountains.
They are ex-pats from the U.S. who left with no money and six kids to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war. It is a great little farm and it is amazing what one family can accomplish together. 
The majority of what they use is generated on the farm, but they also rent out their farm house as a lodge to travelers. Plus, they're really nice and showed us great hospitality. They taught us a lot about how to live and work on a farm...we started by milking cows, then made cheese, butter, sour cream, and whey milk shakes. Yay for efficiency! Here we are making butter:
The majority of what they use is generated on the farm, but they also rent out their farm house as a lodge to travelers. Plus, they're really nice and showed us great hospitality. They taught us a lot about how to live and work on a farm...we started by milking cows, then made cheese, butter, sour cream, and whey milk shakes. Yay for efficiency! Here we are making butter: 
After Las Vueltas, we headed down to the beautiful beach of Montezuma where we camped out with a bunch of hippies on the beach. Luckily, only our flip flops were stolen. We also went on an awesome hike up through a series of waterfalls. There was an 80 ft, 40 ft, and 15 ft. waterfall. We jumped off the last two, which was awesome!
This is Tori jumping off the 40 footer.After a two days at Montezuma, we headed up to Puntarenas to hang out with some exchange students we had met while traveling in Nicaragua. Brian let us sleep on his floor. It was hard, but free. It was fun to party with college students, just like old times. We had a huge bonfire on the beach and tried to watch a meteor shower (it was cloudy).
Now we are back at Tommy's. We plan to head to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica in the next few days, then Panama. The adventure continues!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Havin a blast on Costa Rican farms
When we left off last, we were enjoying the rain in Monteverde after an exhilarating zipline ride through the rainforest. The rain didn’t really let up for the rest of the day, so we spent the afternoon planning and preparing for a feast that night.
The plan was to make steak sandwiches that Stew had dreamed about a few days earlier. And by dream we mean he actually woke up in the morning with the words “steak sandwiches” on his lips. We have been eating rice and beans for almost every meal, and Stew was craving some seriously filling food. Tori also woke up with a craving and was whispering “salami and cheese” before we even got out of bed. After our strenuous day on the lines (we did actually have to hike, which really means waddling because of the harnesses), we decided we deserved it. Also, rice and beans was getting pretty old.
So we hit the grocery store which was strikingly similar to any grocery store in the U.S. and had anything we could possibly want. There was real cheese, Italian meats, tapenades, ranch dressing…all of our greatest desires. We each gathered the necessary ingredients to satisfy our dreams: good hard cheese, fancy peppercorn salami, a pound of steak, a pound of bacon, a bottle of ranch, sautéed pepper and onions, and fresh tomatoes. The meal turned out to be amazing, but we kind of disgusted some French tourists but their pasta carbonara was crappy and they ate their bacon raw. After dinner, we had a little party in the hostel with the owner and a couple kids from the U.S., including a girl that lives in Georgetown.
The next morning, we decided to brave the rain and go for a hike. We had been really excited about hiking in Monteverde, but the constant rain had dampened our spirits. We had bus tickets for 2:30, so we got up at 9 a.m. to get going. The hike turned out to be a lot more difficult than we expected, partly due to the steepness but mainly because of the slipperiness of the mud. The rain had made the path pretty much impassable, and we gave up eventually and walked back to town. Still, we saw some beautiful views from Cerro Amigos and got to walk through majestic forests.
The five hour bus ride turned out to be only three hours, which is the first time a time estimation has erred in that direction. When we arrived in San Jose, Tommy Thomas, a friend of Tori’s parents from the 80s who’s been living in Costa Rica since the late 80s, picked us up and took us back to his cool herb farm in the Central Valley, about 30 minutes outside of San Jose. We’ve been living the high life since!
Tommy’s house is awesome. It’s inside his farm, in the mountains above San Jose. It’s nestled above jungle ravine on his farm, so when you look out from the window it feels like you’re in a forest. After an unfrigginbelivable dinner of homemade Indian food (Tommy worked as Peace Corps volunteer in India during the 60s), we went to sleep in preparation for an early morning trip to Tommy’s buddy Bob’s house. Susan, Tommy’s girlfriend came by in time for breakfast that morning. We left about 9:30, after the best Costa Rican coffee and smokey thick-cut bacon ever. Bob is a motocross racer/surfer who also owns businesses in Costa Rica and spends about 1/3 of his time there. He owns lottts of acres on the banks of a river near the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Bob’s house is also totally awesome. Apparently it’s the fashion to have a farm in Costa Rica, because Bob has a business growing ornamental plants for the US, and also leases land to a pineapple grower that supplies pineapple to the largest fruitcake producer in the world. A less bizarre but equally sweet thing about Bob’s place: he uses part of land for a tourist adventure center which runs canopy tours (ziplining through the jungla) and white water rafting trips.
The afternoon we got there, we jumped into duckies, or inflatable kayaks for white water rafting, and headed down the Rio’s class III rapids. Tommy and Bob were each in a kayak, while Stew and Tori took the double. Apparently we still haven’t learned that we are not the best kayak partner pair. To be fair, white water kayaking is a lot more difficult than rafting. You’re on your own, so you’re doing the work.
We started off with Stew in the back and Tori in the front, which was pretty hilarious. We managed to hit almost every single object in the river that we intended to avoid. We managed to get stuck for a solid 45 seconds on a rock, hit the bank of the river, go over the rapids at their most gnarly areas. The ride was a lot of fun, though occasionally painful when we slammed our butts on the rocks, or when wasps attacked stew’s face about ½ through. He powered through, to the amazement of all. When we switched seats about 2/3 of the way down the river at the suggestions of our guide, we manage to do a little better on the directional front – the kayak doesn’t really move where you steer if it’s heavier in the front than the back, according to our guide.
That night at dinner, we discovered that Bob makes a mean pina colada and tenderloin steak. We had fun hanging out with Tommy, Bob, Susan, and their friend Maria.
The next morning it was time to zipline again! The course was totally different from the course at Monteverde: instead of going through cloud forest, we went over a river and through the jungle in a big loop. We also got to pass over a garden that Bob is starting. The garden has many of the same plants as Tommy’s, but they look different here because of the wildly different altitude levels.
Bob was heading back to the U.S., so we had to close up his house before we could leave. Apparently, people will steal just about anything if he doesn’t secure it. Someone broke in and stole some guitars so he put bars over the windows. Then, someone used a crow bar to remove the house siding and broke in that way. Now, Bob goes so far as to remove the ceiling fans. Pretty hilarious, but I guess necessary.
Back at Tommy’s, we had another party before Bob flew out in the morning. We got to stay in Tommy’s tree house, which is pretty much the coolest place in the world. There are three rooms: one with food, fridge, and hot plate, a bathroom, and a three walled bed room with a great view of the central valley and San Jose’s lights. With plumbing, electricity, a comfortable bed, and a nice view, we were as happy as could be.
The next day, Tommy and Susan gave us a tour of the farm. We got to see all of the herbs which he grows and sells. There is an amazing variety and more basil than you can dream of. Even more impressive than the herbs is his personal garden. There are plants from all over the world, some exotics, some natives, fruits, cacti, gingers, bamboos, and a thousand gorgeous varieties of each. It really is impossible to even describe how great the garden and its well maintained paths.
After lunch, we decided to make dinner for Tommy and Susan in appreciation for all of the wonderful meals and hospitality they had given us. Lasagna is our specialty and something we haven’t made since California. Plus, access to an herb garden makes cooking really fun and delicious. In the end, we wound up with red pepper, artichoke heart, hearts of palm, spinach and goat cheese lasagna, along with a caprese salad, and garlic bread.
Today, Tommy took us to Zoo Ave, where we got to walk through a jungly area filled with ever specie of animal in Costa Rica, and a few others. Maybe they don’t have absolutely everything, but darn near. The birds are especially impressive, but caimans and mountain lions and monkeys are pretty cool too. We really can’t list every species that we saw, but they were all pretty cool. Evidently, there was an artist on staff, too. All around were well done paintings in various styles (cartoons, dark/trippy/creepy, realistic) warning against the harms of eating turtle eggs or buying endangered animals or advising children of the importance of conservation. It was a great zoo and it really made us miss our camera (which had been destroyed the day before in unfortunate circumstances.)
Afterwards, we went out for pizza and bought a new camera at the mall. It was kind of a pain and they screwed up the purchase. After some awkward arguing in Spanish and a long wait, we eventually walked out with a wad of cash and a camera, and all we had to do was sign this little receipt. Tommy took us to see his spice warehouse, his factory, his office (Tommy runs a spice import/export/processing company in addition to the herb garden), and the storeroom where Susan keeps all of her imported furniture from Indonesia (a business she runs). It was the first time we’ve seen a proper factory and it was really cool. Plus, it smelled great.
Now we’re going out for Peruvian food. Tommy is great and really generous. We’re having a fabulous time and this is one of the most amazing places we’ve been. We posted a photo album on Stew’s facebook. They should be available for anyone to see, but if you can’t find them let us know and we’ll figure something out.
The plan was to make steak sandwiches that Stew had dreamed about a few days earlier. And by dream we mean he actually woke up in the morning with the words “steak sandwiches” on his lips. We have been eating rice and beans for almost every meal, and Stew was craving some seriously filling food. Tori also woke up with a craving and was whispering “salami and cheese” before we even got out of bed. After our strenuous day on the lines (we did actually have to hike, which really means waddling because of the harnesses), we decided we deserved it. Also, rice and beans was getting pretty old.
So we hit the grocery store which was strikingly similar to any grocery store in the U.S. and had anything we could possibly want. There was real cheese, Italian meats, tapenades, ranch dressing…all of our greatest desires. We each gathered the necessary ingredients to satisfy our dreams: good hard cheese, fancy peppercorn salami, a pound of steak, a pound of bacon, a bottle of ranch, sautéed pepper and onions, and fresh tomatoes. The meal turned out to be amazing, but we kind of disgusted some French tourists but their pasta carbonara was crappy and they ate their bacon raw. After dinner, we had a little party in the hostel with the owner and a couple kids from the U.S., including a girl that lives in Georgetown.
The next morning, we decided to brave the rain and go for a hike. We had been really excited about hiking in Monteverde, but the constant rain had dampened our spirits. We had bus tickets for 2:30, so we got up at 9 a.m. to get going. The hike turned out to be a lot more difficult than we expected, partly due to the steepness but mainly because of the slipperiness of the mud. The rain had made the path pretty much impassable, and we gave up eventually and walked back to town. Still, we saw some beautiful views from Cerro Amigos and got to walk through majestic forests.
The five hour bus ride turned out to be only three hours, which is the first time a time estimation has erred in that direction. When we arrived in San Jose, Tommy Thomas, a friend of Tori’s parents from the 80s who’s been living in Costa Rica since the late 80s, picked us up and took us back to his cool herb farm in the Central Valley, about 30 minutes outside of San Jose. We’ve been living the high life since!
Tommy’s house is awesome. It’s inside his farm, in the mountains above San Jose. It’s nestled above jungle ravine on his farm, so when you look out from the window it feels like you’re in a forest. After an unfrigginbelivable dinner of homemade Indian food (Tommy worked as Peace Corps volunteer in India during the 60s), we went to sleep in preparation for an early morning trip to Tommy’s buddy Bob’s house. Susan, Tommy’s girlfriend came by in time for breakfast that morning. We left about 9:30, after the best Costa Rican coffee and smokey thick-cut bacon ever. Bob is a motocross racer/surfer who also owns businesses in Costa Rica and spends about 1/3 of his time there. He owns lottts of acres on the banks of a river near the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Bob’s house is also totally awesome. Apparently it’s the fashion to have a farm in Costa Rica, because Bob has a business growing ornamental plants for the US, and also leases land to a pineapple grower that supplies pineapple to the largest fruitcake producer in the world. A less bizarre but equally sweet thing about Bob’s place: he uses part of land for a tourist adventure center which runs canopy tours (ziplining through the jungla) and white water rafting trips.
The afternoon we got there, we jumped into duckies, or inflatable kayaks for white water rafting, and headed down the Rio’s class III rapids. Tommy and Bob were each in a kayak, while Stew and Tori took the double. Apparently we still haven’t learned that we are not the best kayak partner pair. To be fair, white water kayaking is a lot more difficult than rafting. You’re on your own, so you’re doing the work.
We started off with Stew in the back and Tori in the front, which was pretty hilarious. We managed to hit almost every single object in the river that we intended to avoid. We managed to get stuck for a solid 45 seconds on a rock, hit the bank of the river, go over the rapids at their most gnarly areas. The ride was a lot of fun, though occasionally painful when we slammed our butts on the rocks, or when wasps attacked stew’s face about ½ through. He powered through, to the amazement of all. When we switched seats about 2/3 of the way down the river at the suggestions of our guide, we manage to do a little better on the directional front – the kayak doesn’t really move where you steer if it’s heavier in the front than the back, according to our guide.
That night at dinner, we discovered that Bob makes a mean pina colada and tenderloin steak. We had fun hanging out with Tommy, Bob, Susan, and their friend Maria.
The next morning it was time to zipline again! The course was totally different from the course at Monteverde: instead of going through cloud forest, we went over a river and through the jungle in a big loop. We also got to pass over a garden that Bob is starting. The garden has many of the same plants as Tommy’s, but they look different here because of the wildly different altitude levels.
Bob was heading back to the U.S., so we had to close up his house before we could leave. Apparently, people will steal just about anything if he doesn’t secure it. Someone broke in and stole some guitars so he put bars over the windows. Then, someone used a crow bar to remove the house siding and broke in that way. Now, Bob goes so far as to remove the ceiling fans. Pretty hilarious, but I guess necessary.
Back at Tommy’s, we had another party before Bob flew out in the morning. We got to stay in Tommy’s tree house, which is pretty much the coolest place in the world. There are three rooms: one with food, fridge, and hot plate, a bathroom, and a three walled bed room with a great view of the central valley and San Jose’s lights. With plumbing, electricity, a comfortable bed, and a nice view, we were as happy as could be.
The next day, Tommy and Susan gave us a tour of the farm. We got to see all of the herbs which he grows and sells. There is an amazing variety and more basil than you can dream of. Even more impressive than the herbs is his personal garden. There are plants from all over the world, some exotics, some natives, fruits, cacti, gingers, bamboos, and a thousand gorgeous varieties of each. It really is impossible to even describe how great the garden and its well maintained paths.
After lunch, we decided to make dinner for Tommy and Susan in appreciation for all of the wonderful meals and hospitality they had given us. Lasagna is our specialty and something we haven’t made since California. Plus, access to an herb garden makes cooking really fun and delicious. In the end, we wound up with red pepper, artichoke heart, hearts of palm, spinach and goat cheese lasagna, along with a caprese salad, and garlic bread.
Today, Tommy took us to Zoo Ave, where we got to walk through a jungly area filled with ever specie of animal in Costa Rica, and a few others. Maybe they don’t have absolutely everything, but darn near. The birds are especially impressive, but caimans and mountain lions and monkeys are pretty cool too. We really can’t list every species that we saw, but they were all pretty cool. Evidently, there was an artist on staff, too. All around were well done paintings in various styles (cartoons, dark/trippy/creepy, realistic) warning against the harms of eating turtle eggs or buying endangered animals or advising children of the importance of conservation. It was a great zoo and it really made us miss our camera (which had been destroyed the day before in unfortunate circumstances.)
Afterwards, we went out for pizza and bought a new camera at the mall. It was kind of a pain and they screwed up the purchase. After some awkward arguing in Spanish and a long wait, we eventually walked out with a wad of cash and a camera, and all we had to do was sign this little receipt. Tommy took us to see his spice warehouse, his factory, his office (Tommy runs a spice import/export/processing company in addition to the herb garden), and the storeroom where Susan keeps all of her imported furniture from Indonesia (a business she runs). It was the first time we’ve seen a proper factory and it was really cool. Plus, it smelled great.
Now we’re going out for Peruvian food. Tommy is great and really generous. We’re having a fabulous time and this is one of the most amazing places we’ve been. We posted a photo album on Stew’s facebook. They should be available for anyone to see, but if you can’t find them let us know and we’ll figure something out.
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