3 in 1 Day Adventure

Arenal Volcano

Quinn woke up with diarrhea and a splitting headache.  She would not be joining us today. So we brought her some dry toast after our breakfast, kissed her on the forehead, and bid her goodbye.  Coasta Rica doesn't wait for viral infections.

A van picked us up at our hotel with our driver (can't remember his name - he spoke no English) and our tour guide for the day: Jorge.

First stop, the hanging bridges. Jorge was not messing around. He had binoculars hanging from a chest strap, a flashlight, a bag loaded with other survival gear, and full tripod hoisting a telescope. 

The hike is a circle, with very little elevation, that has 15 bridges (7 of them suspension) spanning huge gorges. A couple of the bridges were over 90 meters long and 45 meters above the river valley floor. This hike is within, and above , the rainforest canopy. 

Jorge was insane. We got a full education about ecology and biology and the incredible biodiversity of the rainforests. He pointed out tree types, plants and flowers, including dozens of orchids. He would listen at the sounds of the frogs and the birds coming from far away, cock his head, look up into the forest or sky, and then point to something way far away on a branch. We saw lizards and blue jean poisonous dart frogs.  Three venomous snakes - two of which were camped in trees.  He spotted an owl.  Howler Monkeys. Spider Monkeys.  Toucans. Dozens of bird species. Wild boars.  Wild Turkeys. Several spiders, including a couple of tarantulas. And, of course, the Leaf Cutter ants. 

This tree has been worn down by ant pheromones

Just a little bit about the type of education we got today from Jorge.  The Queen Leaf Cutter ant lays over 3000 eggs per day.  They live in a nest that can be the size of a football field.  Once a year, female ants mate and fly away to start a new colony and become a queen herself. The Queen can live for 25 years or more.  The worker ants are looking for "clean" foliage to bring back to the nest.  They are blind and travel by following the pheromones of other ants.  The cleanest foliage is high in the trees.  Long trains of ants follow well worn pathways thru the grass and forest floor to tall trees where they climb over 100 meters to cut and return fresh leaf pieces.  Among the cutter ants are cleaner ants who crawl all over the cut leaf while a cutter is carrying it to the nest. The cleaners move from leaf to leaf, all while his compadres are carrying them, in order to make sure that no contaminants enter the nest. The ants don't eat the leaf pieces; they are "food' for the fungus that the ants eat.  Leaves that are contaminated can kill the fungus - that is a bad thing.  But if, for whatever reason, a nest comes under attack thru preditor or desease, the colony has a built in disaster recovery plan in place: a pod of eggs and food stored in a safe place that will emerge at a later date to recolonize. 

We had a full day of that.  It was awesome.

After the Hanging Bridges we had a quick snack of fresh-cut watermelon and pineapple before driving to the Waterfall.  

We had to walk way down, via a long staircase, to get to the river valley floor to reach the pools at the base of this immense waterfall.  Not sure if the name or how high, but it was comparable to ones I have seen in Hawaii.  Beautiful.  People were swimming in the main pool where the waterfall was crashing, but only at the edge.  There was a lifeguard on duty warning people of the strong current and dangerous falling water.  Below that pool, people were swimming and sunning in the successive pools.  The water was cold but refreshing.

We swam for about an hour before climbing the stairs back to the van.

From there we went to lunch at a local restaurant for some authentic Costa Rican food.  Casado.  It was delicious. I had mine with pork while the girls ate pollo. We ate with our tour partners for the day: a family of four from D.C. and a single dude from Manhattan.  Aubrey and Shelby were having a good time getting to know the two other girls while I chatted with the adults. 4 adults and 4 kids. All in good shape and up for any adventure. It was a fortunate pairing for us on a beautiful weather day. 

Jorge using Daves Samsung to video an image of a toucan thru his telescope.

From there we went to the volcano. There is a little park called Silencio where you can drive up to the base of the volcano and walk on the lava rocks that rolled down the mountain in 1968, when the Arenal volcano first became active again.  It was a short hike up and back.  Nothing special. But we opted to hike down beyond our van.  He just drove and met us at a lower parking lot.  This 45 minute hike wowed us with monkeys and toucans. Jorge continued to impart his wisdom while calling monkeys and birds. He even had an app on his phone that could call birds - which is how we attracted then toucans.  

We are now back. Quinn is still not well. Poor thing. She missed a fun day.  I hope she gets better soon. 

Base camp

Found it. 

Change of plans.  With Quinnie down for the count, I was able to move our River Raft excursion to Monday.  That left today open.  And since Aubrey, Shelby and I had already crushed zip lining yesterday, we didn't have anything to do.

So we took a yoga class.  It's offered daily here and the instructor was a Costa Rican free spirit with a thick accent.  Honestly I just stopped listening to her after a while and just kept peaking my head up from Downward Dog to see what was coming next. The girls were laughing at how much I was sweating.  All I could see was my daughters cutting corners (corte de esquina - learned that from our psycho driver yesterday who was, you guessed it, cutting corners. Literally.).  Yoga is what you make it, slackers.  That butt muscle isn't going to streatch itself.  Pigeon pose.  You kidding me?

After that I did a half hour on the elliptical before we all (not Quinn, mind you.  She was unconscious with a fever at this point) went to a nature preserve.  It was a five minute walk from the resort and similar to other "private" nature areas.  Kinda hokey.  And gimmicky.  And maybe cheap (hard to tell since we are not in the US).  But is was one of the better ones I have been to.  We passed up the guided tour and went it alone.  They had an amazing butterfly exhibit that pretty much freaked Aubrey out (she HATES butterflies), decent snake, crocodile and turtle exhibits, and a world class frog exhibit.  We saw probably 2-3 dozen species of frogs - all indigenous to Costa Rica.  It was epic.

These ants had an army that streatched for over 100 yards down a path carrying leaves from a tree.  They actually split into two paths to two different nests.

After that we grabbed another average lunch.  There is kind of a lack of food options here.  While there are three restaurants, which, between them have every American food option, the execution is lacking for the most part.

We then went and sat by the pool.  In the rain.  Well, it only rained for a second.  But we had as much rain as we had sun.  I will tell you this: when the sun shines, the temp goes up by 20 degrees.  Not lying.  But under the clouds in the nice humid air I was able to catch a nice nap after reading 3 pages of War and Peace (seriously I am reading it).  Quinn woke me up.  The Ghost of Christmas Past.  She was feeling better so came to join us in the overcast.

But her good health was short lived.  She spiraled before, during, and after dinner until she shut herself down.  Hoping she can rally for tomorrow.  We don't have any more free days here in Arenal.  All business.

San Pedro de Atacama...wonder of wonders.

Cavernas de sal, Valle de la Luna, Atacama Desert

I don't even know where to start.  We got on a plane and have been transported to an alien landscape. One that is stunning and stark and beautiful all at once.

What's new, but I slept terrible since I was worried about Quinn, so what did I do but think about earthquakes because somehow my mind wandered from Quinn's weak voice (she says she is feeling better now, a little...Jeff will update on that) to whether or not we will get to feel an earthquake while we are here.

landing in Calama

Did you know that your phone is useful for even finding out how many earthquakes there are in Chile today? Of course, I found a tracker page and noted that two (5.1 and 5.2)  had already occurred by 4am (when I was up) in the area we were going to be going later today...AND 555 earthquakes have happened in the last year. Yup.  There are hundreds of active volcanoes, too, so wowzers, the people seem so oddly unconcerned about it all.  Which, actually, is a good sign if I thought about it.

I'll report back.

More importantly, we left Valparaìso this morning at 8:30 and spent the first half of the day getting here first by car then by plane and then car again.

So, now we are in San Pedro de Atacama in an oasis in the middle of the driest desert in the world.  For the first 40 minutes of our drive from the airport here, there wasn't a shrub, cacti, even a bird in view, then slowly a small bit of scrub were scattered on the ground until we came down by the San Pedro river where there is a burst of green bounded by sand.

"Drink water."  That's the phrase we've heard the most.  Over the next few days we will be between 8,000 and 12,000 ft. and added to that, the air is so dry you can feel it in the back of your eyelids.  Actually, I'm thirsty now.

We dropped off our stuff and right away explored this beautiful place.  We walked around this theresort a bit, said hello to sheep and cows and then a llama or two when we decided to check into the reception and see if we could go on a hike to watch the sunset.  We signed up with a guide and were on our way with four friends from New York and a couple from Maryland.  We (I am even including myself in this!) are by far the youngest people here except for one other family who have brought their two young (10 and 12) year old sons from Chicago.

And, the only reason I mention that is that we should have had a little fitness test before we all trekked to the Valley of the Moon to catch the views of the salt flats and the jagged sand and rock formations.  Did I mention we are at high altitude?  Did I mention the dry air?  Did I mention Gillian and I were the youngest?

the white in the background...salt!

It was a grind for our group to make it over even the first little hill and then, Gillian and I knew we wouldn't make it to the sunset spot the guide had promised us.  And then, we decided it was going to be more fun to focus on the pictures, while we waited for the group to catch up...a million times.  But...who cares if we got to see the other spot...this place was indescribable (but, I'll try).  The ground is covered in white salt that our guide explained comes up through the ground during rains (which obviously, don't happen all that often) making it look like it is covered in snow.

After a delicious dinner (first fresh veggies we've seen in a while), we laid under the stars.  We are way, way out in the middle of nowhere, really in this little oasis of a place.  Also, the hotel has no outdoor lighting to obscure one single view of the night sky and there is no moon either...so I've never seen the Milky Way as such a bright swath of light across the sky...ever.  Also, the Southern Cross...saw that in its brilliance, and had to sing a little Crosby, Stills and Nash to Gill...she totally loved that.

We love it here.  I am so glad we went to Valpo first, because I am pretty sure we would never have wanted to leave here.  One of the couples from our group today said they just came back from Patagonia, and he promises it is even better than here...I can't wait.

But, until then, we get up early tomorrow and start new adventures.  There will be lots more.  This is an amazing trip.

I'll let Gillian tell you more about it...

Gillian:

Waking up early this morning was tough. I don't think we are quite used to the time change yet. The drives and airplane ride weren't too bad though, all felt pretty short. We were pretty hungry before the plane ride, but the itinerary said we would be getting lunch on the plane. The flight attendant handed us a 'menu' with four options on it: A biscuit, a chocolate muffin, a granola bar, and a dried fruit/nut combo. Mom and I both got the biscuit and fruit/nut mix. Saying that was a mistake may not be entirely true, because we don't know if the other food was any better, but neither of us ate the mix, and the dry biscuits tasted like something taken from the trash can of the county jail. We were starving though, so we ate them.

one of the hotel pools

Arriving at the hotel in Atacama was amazing. It kind of reminded me of the hotels in Hawaii, because they immediately offered us fruit drinks as we got out of the shuttle. The room is cute, with a perfect bathroom, no TV, and, my personal favorite, a cute outdoor patio that has a little furniture. There is this big bench with pillows and a cushion that is super comfortable, and when you sit out there, you can look out at the mountains and the nature that this entire hotel is surrounded by. It was pure bliss, and I know I could lay out there for hours.

At first, I just wanted to relax by the pool or something during the afternoon, but after talking to the adventure planner, and going on the hike to the salt flats, I'm so glad we chose to go out. Mom and I had such a good time on the hike, and took a ton of pictures and videos. And since we were the only people in shape apparently, we had plenty of time to stop and take it in while we were waiting for our group to catch up.

Dinner was really, really, really good. That might be because we didn't really eat lunch, but even so, there was a huge variety of foods, and it was all so colorful, and all tasted amazing. Both Mom and I tried almost everything. Mom really loved the lamb, and I loved the steak. All of it was perfect though, and definitely hit the spot after our hike.

finally, some fresh vegetables

After eating, we noticed the stars in the sky, and I took out my star app so we could see what the names of all of the were. We could see the Milky Way very clearly, and also Orion and the Southern Cross. All of it was breathtaking. It's a bummer that the stars don't really show up in photos, not even on my nice camera. But witnessing it was incredible, and even the best camera couldn't do that justice.

Valparaìso, day 2...

So, as anyone who might be reading this can tell...Jeff is in Costa Rica with Quinn, Aubrey and Shelby and Gillian and I are in Chile.  Gillian thought long and hard about where she wanted to go for her 16th year trip with me (I took Quinn to Vietnam...Aubrey and Shelby on deck), and when we met with a travel agent, she helped us figure out that Chile was the place for us.  We came mostly for the natural wonders and to hike and see Patagonia, in the meantime, our wise travel agent suggested we visit some of the other areas of this beautiful country.

funny sense of humor, here
voting via cigarette butts

So, today was our second day in Valparaìso, on the coast in central Chile.  A town of steep hills.

I had geranium envy

Gillian was out cold last night by 11pm, which is only 9pm our time last night, we were both tired...our hotel is in the central district of the city so that means lots is happening all the time.  Even at 3am, a couple was having a discussion that slowly turned into a fight with tears right outside our window.  I almost woke Gillian up so she could interpret what they were fighting about.  Probably the same kind of fights every young couple has in all parts of the planet: jealousy, a careless word, a past hurt.  Anyway, another way the whole world is not so different.

breakfast for 6, when there were 2

This morning, since there is only one other set of guests at this hotel, we had breakfast all to ourselves and the kind waiter wanted to practice his English on us and also to make us about 500 lbs heavier.  He had to drag up a whole other table to lay out the spread of eggs, breads, jams, butter, cookies, even brownies, bacon, ham and cheese.  We tried our best, but couldn't keep up.  He also spoke German so he spoke to Gillian in Spanish and me in German (my German is so basic, but so was his, so it worked somehow).  He sent us off with a  basket of the cookies and treats we couldn't eat, not sure when we will fit that in, but so kind of him.

Viña Del Mar, the clock works!

We met our adorable guide, Romina (I wish I had taken a picture of her!!), right after breakfast and hopped in a car to take a half day tour of the area.  Valparaìso is a port city and was a significant port until the Panama Canal opened.  Now, most of the city is dedicated to university students and tourists and is kitschy and bohemian with the millions of murals that I wrote about yesterday. The port, though, is still active just not as important as it once was.

She also mentioned the volcanoes and earthquakes...tsunamis, too.  I guess we should have guessed this based on the news and location...we will let you know if we experience one, hoping nothing to brag about living through.

This city is on one end of a bay and this morning we drove along the water up to Viña Del Mar, a coastal resort town that has a completely different feeling to it, much less touristy, more luxurious condominiums with killer views of the Pacific Ocean.  It really reminded me of Malibu, CA.  The buildings/apartments are stacked up the hillsides all facing the water.  On up the coast further, we arrived at Riñaca, a small enclave within Viña Del Mar and watched the seals barking and playing on the rocks just off shore.  We finally drove to the end of the bay (maybe 30 minutes total from Valpo) to a city called Concon, where there are gigantic sand dunes jutting up from the water. They can even be seen from high points in Valparaìso and from here those dunes shine like gold.

Christopher Colon, at the Port

Once we came back to the area near our hotel, Romina took us by foot around the area and then down to the port area (shiftier characters there, I wouldn't go back without a guide or a man).  But, it was beautiful nonetheless because this whole city's vibrancy pulses like a heartbeat in a rainbow of colors which are seen in the houses, the murals, even the clothing of the people who live here.  It is beautiful here in a crumbling, falling apart way.  The houses, from the outside, maintain their original look--corrugated metal exteriors, big tall wooden windows taking in the views, and wide hefty doors (it seems like many are seconds from falling down, and actually some of them have...some of the houses are 200 years old and beat down by time and weather, but still lovely in their own artistic way).

After the tour, we said goodbye to our adorable guide, who has lived in Toronto and hopes to return to Canada, but not yet, because her grandparents are still alive and she doesn't want to miss time with them, so for now, she has returned to the family farm to live with her mother and grandparents.  She showed us pictures of her brother, too, who she said found a girlfriend while she was living in Toronto, which she was a little sad about, since she doesn't speak to him as often...again, the universality of us all.  Same longings, same family sagas, same hopes the world around.

Palacio Barburizza,
Art Museum

Finally, Gillian and I walked all over some more and ducked into a couple of shops, mostly little touristy art galleries.  We wrapped up our afternoon with a walk through the museum that is just outside the door of the hotel.  It is a house that was once owned by the wealthiest Chilean immigrant, a man from Croatia, who invested in mining nitrates here in Chile and his unbelievable house has the most magnificent views of the whole city and a wide variety of art.  I wish I was more refined.  I told Gillian that maybe she could civilize this family by becoming an art major and make us all classier.  Crossing my fingers, she'd have her work cut out for her.

One last note from me...something I haven't mentioned is the billion stray dogs that are roaming around leaving little presents all over the sidewalks. They are friendly and follow us tugging at our heartstrings (as well as everyone else) looking for a treat, which I think, they often get because none of them are skin and bones.  It is actually crazy, people drive around the dogs who lie in the street, and wow would the humane society have a heyday here.

Gillian here:

We accomplished a lot only being here for a day and a half. My phone says we walked 5.7 miles and climbed 47 flights of stairs. I think both my mom and I started to get the hang of walking around. We remembered land marks and could usually find our way back to the hotel pretty easily. For all the winding streets and high hills, it wasn't that bad. And walking around is quite the workout. My mom probably already mentioned how steep all the roads are. I think it's so cool that they just built into the landscape, instead of disturbing it. It really gives the city some character. The colors here are also beautiful. Everywhere you look, there are hundreds of colors. It's so different than Minnesota, where our red house is the only colored one for blocks.

I liked the tour we went on today, the tour guide was super nice and spoke very good English. And it was nice that it was private, and we could ask her any questions we wanted. She showed us places that we definitely would not have seen had it not been for her. Vina del Mar was such a pretty city, and so high end. It was very well taken care of, and had such nice buildings and houses. And seeing the ocean was also so cool. I didn't even know we would be seeing the ocean at all, and I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful beach and turquoise waters. One thing that was kind of a bummer was that it was cloudy almost the entire tour. The sun finally started to peak out only during the afternoon, but with it came a pleasant warmth. The city transformed in the sunlight and looked so pretty and vibrant.

There are funicular to carry you up and down,
only a few, though

Mom and I had fun walking around too. We saw most of the best parts of the city, I think, and are ready to leave tomorrow. I didn't really know what to expect, but I am definitely happy with Valparaiso. The hotel we are staying in as beautiful, and the spa in the basement was an awesome way to finish off our night. The pictures we took are super cool, and I'm excited to take more as we continue our trip. It's also been a fun challenge trying to talk to others in Spanish. My mom has been favoriting the word "hola" and I've been saying almost everything else. I had the opportunity to translate for a store owner and waitress today, and in signs in the museum. Testing my knowledge of the language is a good opportunity for me.

finished our day with a little hot
tub in the basement of the hotel
made out of a barrel

This adventure has been great so far, and I'm excited for what else is to come. This trip will only get better as we continue on, which is exciting.

Arenal

Shelby overlooking Arenal Lake

After a quick workout, breakfast, and a half-dose each of Dramamine, we were on the road to Arenal by 8am.  Travel time: 3 hours - about half of which was windy.  Actually it was windy too.  Not only did the roads traverse the mountains much like the road to Hana, but also the wind blew hard.  Our driver, Edwin, did a nice job engaging me in Spanish conversation, tho we often converted to English when I could not piece together a coherent phrase.  He drove really fast and we almost lost our lives 8 times.

Coati - Costa Rican raccoon

The infrastructure is better here than other parts of Central America.  The roads we drove on today were nice.  Very few potholes.  There are dams and wind turbines everywhere.  The farms have canal systems in place to the point that they are growing sugarcane and rice.  And I have yet to see a sign forbidding you from throwing your toilet paper in the toilet - maybe I missed those.

We arrived at Arenal Springs Resort and had a bite to eat.  My sushi was average (shocker), but Shelby's burger was good and Aubrey's quesadilla was decent.  The ketchup here sucks.  When is the rest of the world going to just accept that Heinz 57 is the only ketchup needed on this planet?

Quinn didn't eat.  Uh-oh.  She looked pail and like she wanted to cry.  She stood up and sat down quickly because she said she might faint.  Then she almost threw up.

Awesome!

She has been in her room ever since.  Sleeping.  Feverish.  Weak.  Stomach ache.  Soar throat.

While Quinn rested in her room, Aubrey, Shelby and I went zip lining.  Fun.  13 lines that travel through the canopy forest on the slopes of the Arenal Volcano.  The guides were great.  The scenery was amazing.  And, despite hanging a hundred feet above the ground and traveling rediculously fast, I felt much safer up there than I did in the van that drove us to Arenal.

Showers.  Italian dinner.  Tending to a sick Quinn.

And now I am watching Costa Rica vs Mexico in the Men's World Cup Qualifiers.

Junction high in the trees

Liberia, Costa Rica

Not much to report. Typical travel day yesterday. We arrived to Liberia via Atlanta at about 7:30 local time, which is US Mountain Time, even tho we are East of Minnesota. That puts us 3 hours behind Chile.

Atlanta airport

We spent the night in a Hilton outside the city, but near the airport. I would not have minded being closer to Liberia - if not to see the city, at least to get some decent food. We ate at the hotel. It was below average at best.

After a late dinner, Costa Rica made my day. On one of the TV sports channels was, can you believe it, WOMENS FUTSAL!  It was as if a sports channel had fallen out of heaven. Costa Rica has a women's Futsal league and two of the teams were playing. Maybe I need to live in Costa Rica if this is what watching TV is like here.

Anyway. It is morning and we are waiting to grab a private ride to Arenal. More to come.

Hello, Chile

Gillian and I are currently sitting in our hotel room in Valparaíso, Chile overlooking the harbor and beyond that, the Pacific Ocean.  The hotel is bright red stucco with white trim, which complements the rest of this bright and colorful city.

But, of course, we are watching the soccer/futbol game that has the whole place dead quiet tonight.  Argentina, as I write this, is up 1-0 and if Chile doesn't win, I am glad we are leaving the city in a couple of days.  But, then again, if they win...maybe it's best to head out of town either way.

We just arrived late this afternoon via Los Angeles; Lima, Peru and finally into Santiago at about 3pm Chilean time...which happens to be an hour later, even, than Eastern time.  Believe it or not, Chile is east of New York.  What?  Then, we had a driver waiting for us to bring us to Valparaìso an hour and a half away.

Anyway, all of that is to say, we haven't been here long, so this is just a hello, get my feet wet with writing on this little blog again kind of post.

What I can tell you so far:  Chile is mountainous.  Gorgeous in a breathtaking way.  The Andes along the border with Argentina and Bolivia on the east and the Chilean Coast Range on the...coast.  There is a narrow valley between the two in this long, thin country.  On the drive here, we learned that Chile has some of the best soil for growing anything, has some of the best wine and also has the second most volcanoes in the world and many earthquakes...yikes.

Regarding that last part:  Ignorance was bliss.

Anyway, we were dropped off at our hotel, in Valparaìso and told we should just wander around the city (after a long lecture about not carrying our camera out in public and leaving anything we cared at all about in our hotel room...I was really missing ignorance at this point).

But, after freshening up, we headed out the door and started wandering, ducking into shops where Gillian tried out her Spanish (thank goodness for that), and talking about what we should do for dinner.  There were lots of other tourists like us, carrying hotel maps and snapping pictures.  Everyone seemed much less sinister than we had begun to think.  But, a little healthy fear is not so bad, I guess.

As we were headed toward our hotel earlier in the day, our driver had said, "You know why Valpo women have the best legs?"

We didn't.

BUT, We found out during our little jaunt this evening.  It is hillier and steeper here than San Francisco.  More hills and more cobblestone sharp curves that make Lombardi Street look tame.  It gave us an awesome stair climber workout whether we wanted it or not.

But, the other thing so far about this place is the cool graffiti.  I will put up some pictures, it is everywhere and tucked into corners and crevices everywhere surprising you with the color, the subject matter and the raw artistic power of it.

More to come tomorrow when we get a real tour.

Update:  Chile has lost the match, and even the announcers look ashen.

outside our hotel