The adventures of an ordinary Canadian family on a 6-month, 20 country round-the-world trip.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
L.A. Living
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Down in Costa Rica
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Cafe ..... Can We Say Yummm
turday, October 4, 2008
Mom, I can't pull up my underwear up because my bum is too sweaty
The bus ride went through some spectacular countryside, and we can certainly see now why the 'as the crow flies' distance on the map bears no resemblance to the time it really takes to get between places in a mountainous country. By about 3/4 of the way through the trip the bus really started to heat up and people were crammed in the aisle. Aidan was on our lap, but he never complained or had to go pee, which was good because there was no toilet on the bus! What a trooper.
We arrived in La Fortuna with no accommodation, but had no trouble finding a nice place to say. Forgoing the guidebook, we decided to go with Eco Arenal, a nice quiet hotel about 5 minutes by taxi out of town down a dirt road. We're very happy with the choice as it is a very clean, comfortable and quiet place with a wonderful pool. At $60 per night with breakfast included, you can't beat the price.
La Fortuna is a very fun and touristy place. Its right next to the Arenal volcano and very close to the Monteverde cloud forest. Arenal is the most active volcano in Costa Rica and you can see it smoking away on days that it is not covered in clouds. The area boasts an amazing assortment of things to do from zip-lining and rappelling down water falls to horseback riding and ATV tours and more laid-back things like nature walks and hot springs. We're going to stay here for 3-4 days and enjoy some of the activities before heading on to Monteverde and the coast.
We also got a small taste of what rainforest means. It started raining at 3pm and didn't stop until 10 at night. And when I say rain, I mean rain. Edmonton would have been flooded out with that much water. We really enjoyed sitting in Don Rufino's having a gourmet dinner with the rain coming down .
Pictures here.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Nicaragua by accident...
October 7, 2008
Vipers and Volcanos
It has been an interesting last few days for us. We decided to do the volcano / hot springs tour, which involves a walk in the rainforest followed by some night-time viewing of lava flowing down the volcano and then Baldi hot springs. We booked the tour in the morning when it was beautiful, bright and clear out, but by lunch it was raining so hard you couldn't walk across the street without getting soaked. Needless to say, we were not very happy. As luck would have it, the weather cleared up by 3pm when our tour started, and we were treated to a crystal-clear evening. Pure luck.The rainforest walk was really beautiful. We did not see much wildlife, but what we did see was interesting. It started with toucans flying from tree to tree and ended with a poisonous viper curled up in a tree not 2 feet from the path. Needless to say, when the guides say do not touch anything and stay on the path, they mean it!
La Fortuna is on the eastern side of the Arenal volcano, which has jungle running right up to the top; the west side of Arenal is completely different. Lava is actively flowing down this side, so it is grey and black with nothing growing on it. This is the side of the volcano that blew up in 1968 killing 89 people, throwing boulders 5 km or more. Nowadays it is the side of the volcano with the hot springs and major tourist hotels. Arenal's lava is about 900 degrees, which is not hot enough to see red during the day, but at night you can see it clearly as chunks flow down the side at speeds of up to 150 kmh. I got some great pictures using the low light settings on the camera.
We ended the evening with a trip to Baldi hot springs. By now we were cooler and a hot dip was just what we needed. Baldi turned out to be a wonderful place. There are about 20 pools of varying temperatures, the largest of which is about as big as an olympic sized swimming pool. The sides and bottoms of the pool are all done in rocks instead of tiles, and there is an incredible array of flowers and trees around it. All this really made you feel like you were swimming in a tame jungle. In all, a great experience.
Pictures are up on picasa.
October 7, 2008
This money belt makes me look fat ...
Seriously, I do not like wearing the money belt. This is my only complaint and so I will whine about it and then be done with it. It just makes things look even larger and I really don't need the additional baggage. Oh well, I don't have a choice and so my belly keeps the passports safe.Aidan wanted to say hello to all his friends and family and says "I went to on a boat trip in a swamp. I smelled monkey pee and the howler monkeys were noisy. When I come back home to Edmonton I will have playdates with all my friends."
Yesterday we arrived in Monteverde/Santa Elena from Fortuna. We took the highly recommended jeep-boat-jeep trip, which saves several hours of travel time. The jeep is actually a van that transports streams of tourists to Lake Arenal and then everyone piles into a boat across the lake and then into another van. The road into Monteverde was, shall we say, bumpy. We were all treated to the infamous Costa Rican back massage. It is apparent that not a lot of money is spent maintaining road infrastructure (or much of any infrastructure for that matter). I think 10 km took over one hour travel time. We have taken up residence at the Cabinas Vistas Golfo - again a very interesting and enjoyable family run hotel perched on the side of a hill. The upper floor has about 10 rooms with an open air hammock area, kitchen and sitting areas. It was fun to watch the fog roll through the hotel later in the evening. The staff are amazing and we have also met lots of great people from the US, Germany and Israel.
As this is a cloud forest it rains.... it rains a lot... and this is the less rainy season! We didn't let this stop us from doing tours and so we spent the afternoon learning about coffee. This tour guide relayed a lot of Costa Rican history and we learned about the coffee industry in the country, the quality of coffee and how it is made. Even Aidan wasn't bored and enjoyed himself by pretending to be a coffee cherry (bean) picker. It was interesting to learn that all of the beans are hand picked, usually by workers from Nicaragua. The majority of the coffee produced in Costa Rica is first grade and the country's Coffee Institute has very strict regulations surrounding the coffee quality (some of the world's best arabica coffee is produced in Costa Rica). It was interesting to learn that the darker roast coffees have less caffeine than the lighter roasts. He also told us about other types of coffee that is produced in other countries and talked a bit about the process for making decalf coffee, which uses a lot of chemicals, and that instant coffee is made with some very low quality coffee, some sugar, and some chemicals (the guide really did not consider this actual coffee - sorry Shannon). We were treated to several cups of coffee at the end of the tour, and I made the mistake of also eating three chocolate covered coffee beans. Let's just say I didn't sleep very well last night.
Pictures on Picasa.
, October 8, 2008
Where's George ...
We had Aidan at his schoolwork early this morning as we were heading out for a canopy tour at 10:30. Aidan was making observations about the differences between Costa Rica and Edmonton and he indicated that there were no evergreen trees, there was a lot of flowers and plants, and lots of rain. He is enjoying writing and drawing pictures in his own journal book every day. We were picked up by the Monteverde Extremo Canopy tour company and whisked off to somewhere in the forest. As it turns out we were the only ones on the tour. The guide told us that during peak season the tours average 25 - 50 people, three times a day. Of course, we said "yeah us!" We chose this company because we were told it has the highest and longest zip lines and we were not disappointed. Our guides were having difficulty saying "Aidan" so they decided to call him George during the tour - George of the Jungle. We were all put into harnesses and given instructions and a demonstration. Aidan was attached to a guide, who would take him across all of the lines. There are 21 platforms in total and 14 cables, 4 of which are very long: 425 m, 465 m, 600 m, with the longest being 750 meters(over 2250 ft.). The cables have an approximate height of between 225 ft and 450 ft (!!) and there is also a 90 ft rappel. We had an exhilarating time and Aidan couldn't stop smiling the whole time. I saw a beautiful toucan down in the canopy as I zoomed by and only screamed a few times going across some very high parts. Seriously, really really high. The best part was the Tarzan swing, where you are attached to a rope swing, go off the edge of the platform and drop vertically approximately 20 + feet before you actually start swinging up into the canopy. The guides got some great pictures of us on this and said that many people chicken out of doing this one. To be honest, I was ready to say no, but then I was given, shall we say, an encouraging nudge and away I went. Aidan of course was having the time of his life and now wants to go back and be a canopy tour guide when he is older. The most amusing part of the tour was that Aidan kept running slightly ahead of the guides along the trails between platforms. Actually, most of the 2.8 km of walking was up stairs and so as I huffed my way along, Aidan the goat boy was off and running ahead. We all arrived at one platform, where there was a guide waiting - but no Aidan. The guide said that he must have taken the wrong trail and so soon the guides were off yelling "George, George ... where are you ... come back ... you on wrong trail." Aidan was soon back with us and a bit embarrassed - a valuable lesson about staying within site of mommy and daddy. Pictures on Picasa. October 9, 2008
Montezuma's Revenge
Today we left the cloud forests for the Pacific coast. We walked to the bus station at 6:10 am with our packs on to catch the bus to San Jose along with about 35 other travellers. The regular bus was broken so we all piled on the less broken bus for the 3 hour trip. About 10 ft out of town the pavement ended and we were on single lane gravel roads going down the mountain. The sights were spectacular, but unnerving. There are no guard rails, lots of gulleys and sheer drop offs. Navigating down the mountainside was a slow task - it took about 1.5 hours to go 35 km! Once we hit the bottom of the mountains the paved road reappeared and we started to make better time, that is until the bus driver pulled off into a Soda and had his lunch. Most people got off to go to the washroom and get a snack, but instead of getting back on the same bus, another bus came, and after much confusion we all piled on that one. We left the previous bus driver eating his dinner and continued on to a little place called Barranca. After more confusion we all got off and got on a local bus for the 20 minute trip to Puntarenas. An hour later we arrived at Puntarenas and got a taxi from the bus station to the ferry terminal were we got tickets to Paquera.The ferry ride to the Nicoya peninsula was a pleasant 1.5 hours. Once we arrived at Paquera we boarded another bus for the 2 hour bus ride to Montezuma, during which we had our afternoon siesta. Arriving in Montezuma, everyone got off the bus and started off in all directions looking for a place to stay. We decided to go upscale and get a bungalow at Hotel Los Mangos for $65 per night. Its not quite worth it when we compare it to our hotel in La Fortuna, but its right on the ocean and the pool is crystal clear.
We plan on spending the next few days in Montezuma on the beach and exploring the local countryside.
Pictures on Picasa.
October 10, 2008
Renewing our Wedding Vows
we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in town after dropping off our laundry
($1 per kilo). Then we sat around our bungalow enjoying the view and
having school lessons. By lunch we were on the beach, but the weather
conspired against us and we had to retreat back to town in a thundershower.
We ran from shop to shop and ended up in a store that sells some
beautiful hand-made jewelry. This worked out perfectly, because Susan
and I have been looking for rings to replace our wedding bands which we
left at home. A few minutes later we settled on matching silver bands,
which are being made today. We'll pick them up tomorrow.
After wandering around the 2 main streets of Montezuma for a while we
gave up and walked back to our hotel in the rain. The rest of the
afternoon was spent in the pool and lounging around. The skies cleared
up around 5pm, just in time for dinner and a movie at one of the
restaurants (Jumper).
Given all the rain, we are reconsidering how much time we are going to
spend on the Pacific Coast. The Caribbean is looking more inviting all
the time. Tomorrow we'll probably make a decision.
October 15, 2008
Jet Boat and Martinis from Montezuma to Jaco
We decided to leave the beaches of Montezuma for Jaco and move our way up the coast to Manuel Antonio. Your choices to get there are a) a 7.5 hour bus ride; b) a 2 hour bus ride and 1.5 hour ferry ride followed by another 1.5 hours on a bus, or c) a 1 hour 'jet boat' across the bay. Needless to say we chose the jet boat option ($35 per person).We woke up to a beautiful sunny day, but our luck did not hold much past that. After we all put our backpacks on, Susan took 2 steps (literally!) and slipped on the wet pathway, wrenching her leg and scraping her palm badly. Our first injury of the trip. After a few minutes to recover, she valiantly limped into town. Three steps later, the sole on my expensive Chaco sandals decided to come apart. We had to stop again so that I could make emergency repairs (you can fix ANYTHING with duct tape!). Our first equipment casualty of the trip.
Back to the 'jet boat'. In my head, I'm imagining a cigarette boat that cuts its way majestically between the two ports. Reality is a little different. When walked down to the beach with about 12 other people, we were greeted at a local fishing boat outfitted with a 110 hp outboard motor and a tarp to keep the sun off you. The friendly locals were kind enough to take our backpacks and hermetically seal them in industrial sized garbage bags for the trip. Then they launched the boat and held it in place as we waded out into the surf. A few minutes later we were whizzing across the Pacific ocean.
About an hour and a half later we arrived in Jaco; wet, but otherwise none the worse for wear. In hindsight it could have been a lot worse, especially if the weather was bad. I can't imagine doing the trip in even the lightest wind and rain. For anyone considering following in our footsteps here are our lessons learned:
1) Pray for good weather 2) Wear your bathing suit and prepare to be wet 3) Put ALL your luggage in the plastic bags, even your valuables 4) Girls, put your hair back in a pony tail (it took Susan an hour to get the knots out of her hair) 5) Sit near the front of the boat (less spray, but more sun) 6) Enjoy the ride - we did.
We were picked up at the beach by one of the ubiquitous Turismo busses and dropped off at the Blue Palms hotel ($35 per night). After heading to the local Soda for Casados, we spent the rest of the day swimming in the small pool and resting.
There is not much to report on Jaco. It is a great place to be if you're into the party / bar scene, but otherwise its kind of kitschy and boring in the rain. You can't even swim at the beach because the water is polluted. We spent one day there finding shoes and looking around and quickly left for Manuel Antonio. One good word about the town - we had some great food at the Taco Bar (Mexico meets L.A. meets Japan meets Costa Rica) and Big Bamboo Pizza.
rday, October 25, 2008
Subway - Eat Fresh
October 28, 2008
Why won't this ATM work?
The Children's Museum turned out to be a real treat. Aidan's favourite part was the Egypt exhibit where he got to dress up as a pharaoh and lie in a sarcophagus. Susan and I were impressed by the quality of the exhibits and the number of staff that were available. After the museum, we went downtown to the central square. We had an outstanding lunch at the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, where many heads of state have stayed, and sauntered down the main pedestrian mall.
Monday morning dawned bright and beautiful. We were off to the airport at 7:15 for our flight to Peru. Check-in was straightforward, but we forgot that our Swiss Army knife was still in Susan's purse. Needless to say it was confiscated. We boarded our jet on time and were pleasantly surprised to find that the plane was brand-new and had more legroom than anything we've ever flown on before. The service was also fantastic and we have no trouble recommending Taca Airways to anyone.
We arrived in Lima, Peru in good shape. Our first order of business was to get some local currency (Nuevos Soles or New Sun in English) for the taxi ride to the hotel. The first ATM we tried stymied us with an unusual screen asking us to re-enter the amount we wanted in multiples of 50 or 100 soles. No matter what we entered, it didn't work. The second ATM did the same thing. We were starting to think we might have to exchange some of our American money, but we walked over to a third ATM in the Departures area and it worked perfectly. We quickly realized that the other ATMs were simply out of money, because the same thing happened in the Arrivals area in Costa Rica. One other interesting point about the ATMs - they would only let you take out 400 nuevos soles at once (about $150). Thus you were forced to do multiple transactions and incur more fees to take out a reasonable amount of money. Tricky!
Getting a taxi in Lima is an adventure unto itself. The 'official' airport taxis charge about double what the other taxis do to go downtown. If you are brave, you can walk out to the main street to flag down an 'unofficial' taxi and haggle about the price (you have to bargain for all taxis here), but there is also a small element of danger when doing this. Not speaking the language, we decided to use the official taxis, which cost 45 soles ($17). The ride to Miraflores in the chaotic traffic took about 40 minutes. You start in the poor outskirts with kids running between the cars trying to sell stuff end end up in a nice, modern suburb that looks like a chunk of Europe.
We are staying at the Inka Lodge ($36 night), which is a very nice hostel just off the main avenue in Miraflores, so its nice and quiet. More on our Lima adventures tomorrow.
anuary 4, 2009
KL Rocks
We were out late into the night walking around our neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur. Everyone is out at night and we are a block away from a Chinese night market area. Mike was happy to find roasted chestnuts and I was happy to see the many fruit vendors. We stalked up on oranges and dragon fruit for breakfast. After a late morning start we headed out to see the KL sights. We caught the monorail and headed toward KL Tower. We took a wrong turn off the monorail and eventually had to ask for directions. We ended up walking up to the tower through a lovely nature conservation area, which was nice and cool in the heat. We headed up the tower to the observation deck and had a spectacular look at the city (just like being up the CN Tower). KL is home to 1.4 million people and looking out at the city left us in a bit of an awestruck state.
The city is densely populated with many many towers and high rises in clusters around large park areas. These are then repeated and are linked by both LRT and Monorail systems. After riding both systems, we were moaning about how horrible our own public transportation systems are in Canada. We are really going to miss the transportation systems of just about every city we have been in on this trip. Buses and trains run every 3 - 4 minutes. Here there are dozens of pedestrian malls where the LRT runs that would rival any of the malls in Edmonton.
The other thing immediately apparent about KL is that everyone speaks English and we have never had so many strangers offering to help us (without wanting us to buy something). I also noticed that this is a real mix of cultures and styles. On the same street you will find women fully covered, partially covered (just head scarf) and wearing western clothes. We have seen Muslim women with tropically coloured head scarves and flowing skirts, Indian women wearing sari's and adorned with bindis, and others in jeans and flip-flops - and nobody bats an eye.
After getting impressive views of the city, we headed to the Petronas Towers and the KL shopping mall at the base of the towers. We headed to the food court for lunch and were treated to some amazing food choices - Malaysian, Thai, Japanese, etc. All on actual dinnerware and people actually clearing the tables. I have never seen such a multicultural selection of food types. That being said, Aidan had a hot dog. After lunch and a quick look around a really fabulous and beautiful mall, we headed outside to the big park at the base of the towers.
The very large greenspace is also home to a huge playground and water splash park for kids. There were many people out and Aidan had a great time playing. The backdrop of course was the towers. They really are impressive and beautiful structures and it was hard not to stop looking at them or taking pictures. Honestly it was hard to believe that we were in KL and not some big city in Canada or the USA.
We were unable to go up the towers because there are only so many people allowed up each day. We will try and go on Tuesday as they are closed on Monday.
We ended our day with a trip to Aquaria, which is in the convention centre across from the towers. Again, a great and inexpensive way to spend a few hours. Aquaria is a great education resource about aquatic species and has a huge array of fish, reptiles and spiders. The biggest thrill was a 20 metre long tunnel that is beneath a huge aquarium. Here we had a close up look at tiger sharks, reef sharks, manta rays, groupers, eels, turtles, many species of fish, etc. It really was amazing. They have done a fabulous job and the information is available in several languages. Can's express enough how great this was.
Anyway, we hope to get to see some other sites tomorrow. I didn't know what to expect from KL, but I am very impressed from what I have seen so far.
