Cusco High

Yesterday we had to get up at 3am for our 5:40 flight to Cusco. The trip to the airport was uneventful and check in went well, but the plane had technical problems and was delayed by an hour. We were on a bus on the tarmac waiting to go out to the plane when they told about the problem and had us head back to the departure lounge. It was a little disconcerting because they kept making announcements telling people to come to the counter, but never told us why. It sounded like they were putting people on other flights, but we later found out that that they were calling all the people on standby.

We arrived in Cusco and got a taxi to our hostel. They don't waste any time trying to sell you tours because we were joined on our taxi ride by a travel agent. He was nice enough and we listened as he outlined options and prices. In the end, we decided to organize things ourselves. The rest of the day was spent acclimatizing to Cusco's elevation (over 10,000 ft above sea level). We ran into several people who were suffering from altitude sickness, but luckily none of us have had a problem.

The Hostal Llipimpac where we are staying ($40 per night), is a wonderfully cozy and rustic place. The rooms are spotless, the beds are very comfortable with big blankets, and there is hot water for showers. The blankets come in handy because it gets quite cold at night and there are no heaters. The hostel is behind a courtyard so it is dead quiet at night. We really like it and would recommend it for any travellers staying in the city.

They say Peru has the best food in South America and we are beginning to see why. We had an excellent 3 course lunch for less than $10, and dinner at Chez Maggy on 'Gringo Alley' was the best pizza either of us have ever had. We had another extraordinary lunch today. It remains to be seen whether we will try typical foods like Alpaca steaks or roast Guinea Pig.

This morning we went down to the PeruRail office and purchased rail tickets to Aguas Calientes, which is the town just below Machu Picchu. After listening to everyone tell us that we might have problems because we hadn't booked in advance, we were relieved to get tickets for tomorrow ('backpacker' fare - $96 per person round trip). Our plan is to stay overnight in Aguas Calientes and see the ruins the following day. We are leaving most of our gear at the hotel in Cusco and just packing overnight bags.

I should mention something about the wonderful people of Peru. Cusco is about 350,000 people, and many of them are quite poor, but they are warm and wonderful and almost everyone has a smile on their face and a polite word for you. Everyone tries hard to make your stay enjoyable. I can honestly say that we are quickly falling in love with the country.

More pictures of Cusco here.

Of Bones and Potatoes....

I cannot believe that I am in South America. The first thing that we noticed was the change in weather. It is much more temperate and somewhat cool and we actually put on our fleece sweaters to walk around. We also found out that Lima gets very little rain - only 5 mm each year. The resident of Lima who was telling us this had never used an umbrella in his entire life! (I should note that Aidan and I will be making some comments on life in Peru for my good friend Sherri Humphry's grade three class).

Lima is situated right on the Pacific Ocean and has a population of approximately 10 million. It is known as the Cty of Kings and was founded by the Spanish. At one time, Lima was the continent's richest, most important town, though all this changed when an earthquake devastated most of the city in 1746. The European influence is very noticeable in the architecture of the buildings in the historic centre of the city. We took a taxi to the city centre and visited the Monasterio de San Francisco, which is a Franciscan Monastery famous for its catacombs and thousands of antique texts dating back to the Spanish conquest. The underground catacombs are home to about 70,000 burials so you can imagine that this was Aidan's favourite part of the tour.

I should make a couple of comments about our trials and tribulations because we do not speak Spanish. This was less of a problem in Costa Rica because most everyone spoke some English - not really the case in Lima. First example, we got confused by the money given back to us by our cab driver who was trying desperately to use our Spanish/English book to show that he gave us the correct change. The real problem was that he gave us much of it back in coins and we didn't realize that many were 5 soles coins. Second funny adventure occurred when we went for lunch. Since it is typically the main meal of the day, most of the restaurants have a set lunch menus and you choose from options under each. A typical lunch might include soup or salad (e.g, ceviche - raw marinated fish, mixed salad, meat and cheese and vegetables), a big bowl of soup, a drink and a main course such as chicken with rice and potatoes and might cost about $2.50 Canadian. Anyway, back to my story. So the menu was in Spanish and we thought we ordered correctly, but we ended up not ordering salads and so didn't get these and then found out the hard way that the word coffee and hot in Spanish (when pronounced with a horrible accent) are actually similar. So we ended up receiving hot milk instead of coffee with milk. I really do not like hot milk.

One more interesting fact about the food. Peru is home to the largest variety of potatoes and there are about 3,000 different kinds. Peruvians have been eating potatoes since before Inca times. Most are cultivated high up in the andean mountains over 10,000 feet. A popular dish is made from both dried and fresh potatoes and llama meat. I had great fun looking at potatoes in the grocery store I visited.

After lunch we walked between the two main plazas in downtown - the Plaza de Armas is linked to the Plaza San Martin by a pedestrian street mall called Jiron de la Union. The plazas were beautiful and we took in the many sites, such as the presidential palace and the cathedral church of Lima. The street between is lined with shops and restaurants and there are many many street vendors as well. Almost half the population of Peru lives below the poverty line, and employment is very high. This means that many people work as street vendors selling everything from chocolates to clothespins in the streets to try and make extra money. To be honest we really have not seen the poverty that we know is part of the city. We are staying in Miraflores, which is a middle to relatively wealthy part of the city. We have heard from other travelers coming in on buses from other areas that the areas farther out are very poor and can lack electricity, water and adequate sanitation. There is definitely a large gap between the rich and the poor.

We ended up heading back to the hostel earlier than expected because Aidan was not feeling well. By early evening he was running a temperature and then this degenerated to vomiting. Most of the night was spent tending to him. The good news is that by morning he was as right as rain.

We met a very nice young couple from Oklahoma and discussed U.S. politics and Naomi Klein's book Shock Doctorine - very fun conversations. They are are traveling extensively through Central and South America and John is doing a six month stint in a medical clinic in Bolivia in a few weeks. We were in awe as they had just come in from Equador on a 36 hour bus ride. Honestly yikes. We also enjoyed talking with a different John from Michigan who just arrived in Lima and had not done much traveling. He spent five years in the navy as a submarine mechanic and was off on a big adventure through South America. We hope that they all have a wonderful time and keep on traveling and experiencing the world. Everyone really made us feel like we made the right choice doing what we are doing.

We started Wednesday with some school work and then walked 10 minutes from our hotel to Huaca Pucllana, an adobe pyramid of the Lima culture dating from AD 400. We went on a guided tour of the site, which is being excavated, and thoroughly enjoyed the ruins. From here we took a taxi to a mall that is built into the side of the cliffs along the Pacific Ocean. We picked up some lunch and Aidan had fun in the playground. We ended our day at the Artisans market (near our hotel) and had fun bartering for souvenirs (or at least Mike had fun). There were a lot of items to admire like the silver, knitted sweaters and scarves and woven items. I am looking forward to shopping in Cuzco!

Well our flight leaves at 5:40 a.m. so we will be off to bed early tonight as the taxi picks us up at 3:30 a.m. Off to Cuzco we go!

Why won't this ATM work?

Sunday was our last full day in Costa Rica. We started with our usual breakfast of toast and eggs at Mi Casa Hostel. After eating we did some school work and took a taxi to the Children's Museum, which is part of the National Gallery, and housed in a restored penitentiary.

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.

Subway - Eat Fresh

Not much to report today. We're back in San Jose after a 4 hour bus ride back through the mountains. We've gone from sweltering heat to pleasantly warm. After dropping off our gear at the hostel we sauntered through La Sabana park to Soda Tapia, a local favourite. We had a huge lunch there (sandwiches with black beans on top are good!) and waddled back. Aidan enjoyed the children's play area until he fell in the mud. We've spent the rest of the afternoon on school work and loafing around. Dinner was half a sub from Subway - we're still full from lunch. Tomorrow is our last day in Costa Rica. We're probably going to hang around the city and might look for a book store with English books. We've read everything we brought from Canada. After that, we confirm flight arrangements and start planning for South America.

Montezuma's Revenge (for Real!)

Today was our last day in Cahuita, and we're sad. It's a wonderful place. We will miss being surrounded by beautiful flowers and tropical plants, and the sounds of insects, birds, and animals (even those howler monkeys). We will also miss Yvonne and Thomas, our wonderful hosts at the Alby Hotel. Finally, we will miss the beautiful beach. It seems we were so relaxed this week we were almost catatonic. Each day was simple - have some breakfast, answer some email, do some schoolwork, read, have lunch, go to the beach, have dinner, read, go to bed. Today was a busy day as we had to not only get bus tickets back to San Jose, but we also had to mail a small package home. Sending the package home (Mike's broken sandals and a few souvineers) was a small adventure. The very cramped and very hot one room post office actually looked like an abandoned and cluttered old office space. The very nice postal worker, who had completely sweated through his nice white collared shirt and had to undo it during our discussion, had us fill out paperwork in triplicate and insisted that I write the names of four items on the customs form. Not two items or five items, but four items. Thank goodness there was more than one item in the box. The whole procedure of forms and payment took over 45 minutes. We were all very ready for the beach once the transaction was completed. Actually, the other reason for the very slow week was that we were all afflicted with a case of Montezuma's revenge. I had it the worst, followed by Michael and finally Aidan. Aidan doesn't really count though as his lasted a total of one hour, whereas Mike and I have been taking Imodium for several days. It was bound to happen sooner or later and we still cannot figure out what we ate or drank that may have been the cause. We do know that we have enjoyed everything that we ate and drank and wouldn't change anything. Other interesting things that happened during the week involve creatures and water. We have enjoyed seeing new insects, including a huge locust type insect as long as my middle finger - we have pictures to prove it - that we chased out of our room one night. We also happened to look up into the mosquito netting the other night and saw a blue crab hanging in the top and on the inside. We don't know how it got in there but we had fun trying to catch it as they scuttle very quickly. Finally, Aidan managed to slip and fall in the ornamental pond/water garden here at the hotel. He was out in the morning looking for frogs and in he went. Luckily the pond is only a few feet deep. He managed to walk out just fine but was quite shaken up by the whole thing and is quite embarrased - currently we are not allowed to talk about/discuss/mention/or tell anyone else about the pond incident. Our day ended with another great swim at the beach and a nice dinner. We are off to San Jose tomorrow and then fly to Lima, Peru on Monday. We will definitely miss Costa Rica. Pictures of Cahuita are here.

Reggae Retreat

Well its been a while since our last post. We were starting to get inquiries about why we dropped off the face of the planet. Never fear, we're here, but so laid back right now that writing blog entries seems like a lot of work. After leaving Manuel Antonio, we took a 3.5 hour bus ride back to San Jose where we decided to try Hostel Pangaea for the night ($40) instead of Hostel Mi Casa. What can say about Pangaea...If I were 20 again and wanted to party with 60 other like-minded people this is where I would head. For a family of 3, it was good for a laugh. Our room looked like a jail-cell: 2 beds in a 10x10 enclosure, no other furniture. The place was a maze with a tiny pool in what looked like the parking area and a quirky roof top bar/restaurant. The hostel is in the wrong area of town, so they give everyone a wrist-band to ID them as guests and the door is locked and guarded 24x7. On the positive side the food was cheap and good, its completely safe and fun inside, and the place was very clean. The next morning we went down to the bus station only to find out that the 10 am bus to Carribean coast was sold out. Shame on us for not buying tickets the day before. We completely forgot that it was the weekend. We ended up waiting around for 2.5 hours until the noon bus and then had a long, hot 4 hour bus ride to Cahuita ($8 per person). We arrived in Cahuita at about 4:30 pm, sweaty and dehydrated. We knew the place where we wanted to stay was booked, so we started looking around town for a decent alternative. Running short of choices and light we ended up at the Sunshine Hotel ($35), which is shall we say slightly run down. Susan was not happy at all. Then we all changed to go to the beach at the National Park for a swim only to discover that it closed a half hour earlier at at 5 pm. Aidan went ballistic. Needless to say, it was not a good day. Luckily, we went out to dinner and joined up with a nice couple from Israel we met earlier and spirits lifted considerably. The next day we got a chance to really look around Cahuita. Its the kind of place where everyone walks down the middle of the streets because there are so few cars. There are lots of rustic little restaurants and places to stay catering to backpackers and you can hear reggae music everywhere. The beach in the National Park is absolutely spectacular. Miles of white sand and palm trees with no development in behind. A day later we moved out of the Sunshine motel leaving Wilbur the cockroach running around in the tub and headed over to Alby lodge where we have been for the past 4 days. Imagine little grass-roofed huts on stilts with polished wood floors, a big hammock out front, bug-nets over the beds and full bathrooms with a shower and toilet. Now imagine these huts set back in the trees surrounded by beautiful gardens. Its a little slice of paradise, and a steal at $50 per night. We are very, very happy here in Cahuita, and very, very relaxed. The place is so laid back, the food is great, the water is warm as soup, and the only sounds we hear are the crickets chirping. Well, that and the Howler monkeys, which paid us a visit at midnight, 3pm and 5 am in the morning the first night, and boy were they loud. They kept us awake and laughing for several hours. We've had many other wildlife adventures here including almost getting pooped on by a monkey, seeing fish, a manta ray, a moray eel, an octopus and a lobster when snorkeling on the coral reef (including Aidan!), blue crabs under our deck and a bug on our door as big as your hand. Aidan's favourite are the dozens of geckos running around the shared kitchen area. We plan on staying here for the remainder of our time in Costa Rica, which is quickly drawing to a close. We fly out to Peru this coming Monday. We're already sad about leaving this place and we're not even gone yet.

It's raining, it's pouring....

I do believe that the family has a new theme song. According to the locals, we are here in green season. Everything is a beautiful green - due to the incredible amounts of rain.

We caught a local bus out of Jaco and headed to Quepos (1.5 hours and $6/person) on Tuesday morning. From Quepos we would be able to catch another bus to Manuel Antonio. There had been a tremendous amount of rain over the previous two days and we had heard that there was some flooding in Quepos. On the outskirts of Quepos a main bridge had been reduced to one lane. As we waited in line we could see that a new and much higher bridge was being built along side the old one. Due to the rain, the river was raging and the water level very high. It was a little scary crossing what appeared to be a very unsafe bridge (think rusted beams and railway ties). In Quepos we quickly boarded another bus ($1/three people) and made the 8 km trek to Manuel Antonio.

Manuel Antonio is a little resortish type place with beautiful beaches and a national park. We decided to splurge and stay at a "nice" hotel for a couple of days - large comfortable room, large sitting areas around the hotel, monkeys, a swimming pool, and included breakfast. We didn't count on the $20 per load charge for laundry - absolutely absurd considering that it has not cost us more than $5 anywhere else. We were told it would cost $10 and because we didn't want to walk into town in the pouring rain we said okay. Turns out this was not the right price - "Didn't anyone show you the price chart?" Mental note - don't assume anything and always confirm the prices.

After a beautiful Tuesday, we awoke on Wednesday to rain .... buckets and buckets of rain. Considering the beaches and hiking trails in the park that we wanted to explore we were a little depressed. We spent the morning doing school work with Aidan, cataloging photographs, and watching television. Took a bus into Quepos for lunch and a quick wander of the streets. I ordered vegetable soup. It was the brightest green soup that I have seen in a very long time and tasted like limes. Not bad actually. Since we are trying to stick to our budget, we picked up a few staples at the grocery for dinner - good old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fruit.

We did some more school work with Aidan, which was necessary considering the bit of a struggle that we had in the morning. Aidan has been a little out of sorts the last couple of days and isn't showing much interest in his school subjects. According to Aidan he "hates all school and only like to play." Insert big Susan sigh here. In once instance I resorted to acting out the animals that he was spelling just so he wouldn't be so miserable about any work that he has to do. We are trying to keep things interesting ... but he is easily frustrated when he makes any type of mistake. It's not so bad and we are making progress - I have been breaking up the work into very small segments - work, play, work, listen to music, etc. Kudos to all the great teachers out there - please don't underestimate the tough job that they have. If anyone has any other suggestions for keeping Aidan engaged we are all ears!

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.

Renewing our Wedding Vows

Not much to report today. It was bright and beautiful this morning and
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nicaragua by accident...

We have been kicking back in La Fortuna and exploring some of the surrounding area. Yesterday was spent taking a boat tour in the wildlife reserve Cano Negro. This area is approximately 1.5 hours northeast of La Fortuna and is known for incredible bird watching and wildlife. We were not disappointed. The tour van picked us up at 7:00 a.m. and we headed off with five others. The guide with Canoa Aventura was very knowledgeable and along the way stopped the van so we could all see a sloth hanging in a nearby tree. We also stopped to see the 'chicken of the trees.' Along the route a shopowner started feeding the iguanas and now there are hundreds that occupy the trees along a small river below his shop. Apparently they taste like chicken, but we were assured that they were not being served in the adjacent restaurant. We reached Lost Chiles, a small town three kilometers south of Nicaragua. It used to serve as an important supply route for the Nicaraguan Contras. Today tourists ply the waters of the Cano Negro or take boats into Nicaragua. We spent three hours on a boat and with the help of an "eagle eye" guide were very fortunate to see many different birds and animals, such as cayman, Basilisk lizard (Jesus Christ lizard), Anhinga (snake bird), cormorants, kingfishers, howler monkeys (phew they stink and are very loud), long nose bats, snow egrets, eagles, vultures, limpkin bird, white-faced monkeys, the common potoo (king of camouflage) and spider monkeys. We were really astounded by how hard it was to spot all of the wildlife and how good the guides were at finding everything hidden in the jungle. Prior to going back to the dock we went north along the river and low and behold suddenly we were in Nicaragua. Everyone got off the boat at the boarder crossing and had pictures taken. Later today we are off to Arenal Volcano park and the Baldi hot spings. It is so hot here..... I am sweating and gross just writing this. Aidan is handling things just fine and has been a trooper about doing his school work. He can also swim the entire length of a pool now unassisted - yeah! Tomorrow is the jeep-boat-jeep ride to Monteverde. Aidan will get to do his zip line canopy tour in the famous cloud forest. Pictures are on Picasa.

Mom, I can't pull up my underwear up because my bum is too sweaty

Yesterday we took the bus from San Jose to La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal. We got to the San Carlos bus terminal around 8:00 am and boarded the bus at 9:00 after eating a quick breakfast of toast and yogurt back at the hostel. You have to love the value of the country; our taxi ride to the terminal costs $3 and a 4.5 hour bus trip costs $6 per person.

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.

Cafe ..... Can We Say Yummm

Yes, Costa Rican coffee is very delicious (Note to Shannon - I have not used that particular word in a long time so it must be good!). Our day started waking up to the sounds of birds outside our window and then some eggs and toast for breakfast. Aidan amused himself by observing the three large turtles that live in the courtyard area of the hostel. While Michael did a bit of reading in the guidebook, Aidan buckled down and did a good bit of school work and journal writing. By this time it was noon and so we called a cab and went downtown to the San Carlos bus terminal to purchase tickets to La Fortuna for tomorrow morning. La Fortuna is a town near the Parque Nacional Volcan Poas (volcano national park). Yes for $7 we can go to the visitor center and then to a lookout over the 300 m deep active volcano. As you can imagine we can hardly wait. We spent much of the afternoon wandering around the central market of San Jose. Hundreds of open air stalls and stores collect along the streets and in enclosed areas that reminded me of mazes. Many of the stalls are selling food - meats, fish, spices, cheeses, etc. and Aidan really took notice of the various smells. At one point we passed a man throwing pig parts and offal into barrels in the back of a truck and various things were spilling out onto the street - Aidan had a lot of questions about this. Although the guidebooks often warn to be vigilant with respect to money and personal safety - honestly we did not feel unsafe at any point during our wanderings and had a fun and relaxing afternoon. Well that's all for today. I am off to enjoy a beer and then pack a few things in preparation for our early departure tomorrow.

Down in Costa Rica

Not much to report today, other than we made it to Costa Rica safely. The flights from LA to Houston and Houston to San Jose were uneventful. We arrived at LAX at about 8:15 in the morning for an 11:30 flight thinking that it will take time to get through security and such. Much to our surprise, we were through in less than 25 minutes. So the rest of the day was spent waiting, teaching Aidan and eating every now and then. We arrived in San Jose at 9:30 pm where it was raining pretty hard. Henry and his wife from the Hostel picked us up at the airport and drove us across the city. We had enough time to say hello and check in before bed, which is where I'm heading. We're looking forward to seeing San Jose in the daylight.