This week is the last week of Dine About Town so we decided to try to maximize and hit as many restaurants as possible. On Monday, we made reservations for the remaining nights of DAT - Fringale (4th and Brannan) on Monday, Asia SF (9th and Howard) on Tuesday, Azie (Folsom and 4th) on Wednesday, and Circa (Chestnut and Fillmore) on Thursday.
Of course, what immediately happened is that our plans ended up changing. My bf's 1-year anniversary at his company is this week and his founders wanted to take him out to dinner, so we cancelled Azie on Wednesday. When we got to Fringale for our 6PM reservation on Monday (only reservation we were able to get all week that wasn't as early as 5 or as late as 8), I was way too full to get three courses. After looking at the prices and the choices for DAT appetizers, I opted for going off the DAT menu and just getting an entree and a dessert. My bf did the same because he didn't like the appetizer choices (mussels, pate, butter lettuce salad) either. I got the coq au vin, which was quite decent. The rooster part itself was all right - tender meat, skin on, flavored ok. The noodles, mushrooms, and onions underneath were tastier. Overall I liked it all right. My bf got the ribeye steak off the menu which ended up looking an awful lot like the hangar steak off the DAT menu our neighbor got, but the waiter insisted it was the ribeye. He said the steak was "fine, buttery and salty, looked disappointing but it tasted fine." Dessert-wise, I got the hazelnut and almond mousse cake, while he got the almond torte (it has a French name, I forgot what it was). My cake I liked just fine - I'm a big fan of hazelnut - though nothing really stood out. For me, the sauce of his dessert made the dessert - the torte itself was very lightly flavored. Overall, it was a nice meal but nothing spectacular.
Tuesday, we went to Asia SF. We were originally supposed to go with friends on Friday but we ditched them to go skiing instead (Heavenly sucks - too much flatness, too much traversing, not enough good black runs - most of their black stuff seems to be skiing through the trees, which I do not like). We decided to try it ourselves - made a 6:30 reservation through OpenTable, only to get a call that morning saying that OpenTable was a bit messed up and they didn't start seating until 7:30. So..7:30 dinner. The place wasn't quite what I expected - a smaller space, and less swanky than I would have thought. We were seated at a small table towards the back corner of the room (right next to where the "girls" went up onto the bar), next to the red bar/"stage" they use for performances. The seats were stools, there was nowhere to put our jackets (we ended up sitting on them) or my purse (it ended up on my lap for most of the meal). Our "waitress" was also one of the performers. We ended up once again not getting the DAT menu b/c that night, they had their "Menage a Trois" menu which was essentially the same thing - one first course, one entree, one dessert for $31.95 - with more options (you could select from the entire menu). We ordered the Asia-dilla and Tamarind Chicken Satays for appetizers, the "Baby Got Back" Ribs and the Filet Mignon for entree, and the Banana Beignet Split (it was for 2) for dessert. Then we sat. And sat. Finally, the tamarind chicken satays came out. These were just ok, IMO. The chicken was a little dry. The sauce was a bit different - supposed to be a spicy peanut sauce but it wasn't spicy and didn't seem very peanuty, but it tasted fine. I've had better satays and I don't think that was by any means a $12 appetizer (its price on the standard menu). When we finished that they took it away. And then we sat. And sat. And sat. Finally, after we'd been there for an hour, my bf flagged down the manager guy to try to tell him nicely that we'd been there for an hour and only gotten one appetizer so far, and he didn't know if that was part of the "dining experience" or if we should be getting our food. The manager more or less apologized and said he'd make sure the rest of our meal came out faster. This would have been ok if 1) we weren't sitting on uncomfortable stools without backs (well the stools were comfortable except the lack of backs) or 2) if there was entertainment. But none of the girls had started performing yet so we were just sitting there waiting. The manager was as good as his word, though. Our next appetizer, the Asia-dillas, came shortly after. These were like quesadellas, but stuffed with smoked duck, some spicy cheeses, and came with a cherry creme fraiche (I think) to spread on top. Pretty yummy, though nothing incredibly spectacular. We had barely finished these when our meal came out. And within a couple minutes of our meal, the first performance started. So we went from an hour of nothing, to everything arriving all at once. The performance was kind of interesting - with the exception of one of the performers who was very clearly male and not very attractive, the other "girls" really did look very feminine (though, my bf thought something was off - they were a bit too OTT or something) with very slim, female figures. They mostly wore these big wigs (or big hair, not sure which) that went half over their faces, so the focus was mostly on their bodies. There has to be at the very least hormones involved in these people, though, b/c just the limb shapes -the shoulders, arms, waist, bellies - seemed to be growing in a more feminine way. Men and women gain weight differently and muscles form differently. The performances themselves were mostly the girls slinking around to music on the bar - nothing spectacular, though one was clearly a lot more talented than the others in terms of actual dance moves and flexibility.
As for the food, which I continued to munch as I watched them - I got 4, I think, ribs in my dish. These were flavored strongly, a tiny bit spicy, and pretty good. Not awesome, but yummy enough. The dish also came with sweet potato crisps that weren't very interesting, and pickled carrots that were ok. My bf's filet mignon cooled off quickly b/c it was presliced, but it tasted pretty good and had a reasonable tender texture - a little chewy in places but overall fine. My bf and I have concluded, though, that we're spoiled by the filet recipe he does with the filets we get off the Costco tenderloin, b/c we've never been all that enamored with any restaurant's filet mignon since then. His came on a pile of Japanese eggplants which were pretty yummy, though I'm not a huge fan of eggplant. We kept smelling the warm chocolate cake whenever they were making one or bringing one out for someone, and my bf was craving it, so I think I enjoyed our dessert more than he did. It was four scoops of vanilla bean ice cream with a slice of banana on top topped with chocolate and butterscotch sauces, and then four pieces of banana fried in a Filipino lumpia so they were kind of like crispy banana spring rolls, and a slew of maraschino cherries. I like fried banana and vanilla and chocolate and butterscotch so I was quite happy with it. After our dessert, they had their "blowout" show around 9:30, where all five "ladies" performed and then the MC (who was also a dancer/waitress) thanked everyone and introduced all the performers.
As I said to my bf last night - I think I'm too dull for that kind of place. It was interesting to do once, but I was very happy to be seated more or less in a corner where the performers wouldn't try to involve us in the show or anything (though one threw her jacket at us). The food was decent, but not spectacular. Fun to do once, but I have no particular desire to do it again.
One big difference between Fringale and AsiaSF? I was way more stuffed after Fringale. The portion sizes at AsiaSF were quite small and I even had a small cookie after getting home without making my stomach unhappy.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Costa Rica - Day Nine/Ten
Combining day 9 and 10 since 10 was just a travel day.
Our last real day in Costa Rica was day 9 - like I said before, this is really an 8-day tour with 2 days of travel. Since the hotel was so large, we were supposed to get our bags outside our doors an hour and a half earlier than departure time, but since our room was so close to the front door, my bf and I opted to bring our bags out ourselves. Sergio told us it was ok as long as we made special care to make sure our bags ended up in the right pile, since two different Caravan groups were loading simultaneously. This gave us a bit more time to pack, which was nice. After breakfast, we finished packing, took our bags directly to our driver, who was in the process of loading the bags, and went wandering around the property for our typical morning-of-departure-photo-opportunity. One place we hadn't visited on the hotel property yet was the pier they had that extended out into the gulf, and gave a nice view of the area. Apparently, the day before, a lot of the tour people could be found there around sunset, enjoying cocktails (there was a bar out there) and sitting and watching the water. The pier also gave a good view of the resort itself. After snapping some photos out there, and snapping photos of the restaurant, bar, and pool area, we were about ready to go.
The actual distance between Dona Ana beach and San Jose is smaller than the distance travelled on our previous travel days, so we had more, and longer stops. First stop was in Sarchi, a village which is apparently well-known in particular for the ox-carts, or carretas, that are still in use in some areas. We first drove around the central square, which featured a pretty church on one end, and a giant ox-cart on display in the middle. We then went onto the ox cart factory where we watched a couple of artists at work painting ox carts (they have intricate, detailed, hand-painted designs all over them). The actual ox cart construction wasn't visible anywhere, just the painting. The main attraction here was a large tourist store, with all sorts of souvenirs - lots of various items made out of wood, ox carts, etc. The prices here, except for the postcards, seemed to me to be on the high side so I refrained from buying anything. There were two more stores obvious across the street - one was a souvenir shop with lower prices, and one was a furniture shop. At this point, my bf had pretty well convinced me that we wouldn't do anything with any of the wood products so we didn't buy anything. What I didn't realize until I just read the Lonely Planet entry on Sarchi two minutes ago, is that Sarchi is apparently a crafts center, with over 200 workshops in the area, and a ton of artists, with lots of different crafts and wood products available for sale and to just look at. We didn't have that much time here - maybe 40 minutes to browse the stores (much of which was spent looking for postcards for me) - so I never got the chance to look beyond the little region of street we were on. Oh well.
Lunch was at the restaurant Las Carretas, right next to (I think probably associated with) the tourist shop and oxcart factory. It was another of the buffet style meals set up in a normal restaurant. Pretty good food, as I recall. Soon after, it was time to load back on our bus and take off to our next destination. We drove through a number of small towns but ended up at Grecia, the "cleanest town in Latin America," famous for its metal church. We originally weren't supposed to be able to stop there, but both our bus and the other Caravan group made a 15 minute stop for us to get out, look around the pretty square in front of the church, and gawk at the Catedral de la Mercedes. This cathedral was made completely of metal, and painted red, presenting a surprisingly pretty sight at a distance, and a pretty unique one closeup where you could see the rivets and joints. Apparently the cathedral was special-ordered from Belgium and shipped in pieces to Costa Rica, where they eventually decided to place it in Grecia, transporting the pieces in carretas all the way through the countryside to its current site. It's a fairly impressive sight - not a Notre Dame cathedral by any means, but far larger than most of the countryside churches we'd seen, with a beautiful altar inside.
Back in the bus again, we wound through the picturesque countryside some more until we reached Cafe Britt, in Barva in Heredia. This coffee plantation had its products all over Costa Rica - every tourist shop we stopped in had Cafe Britt chocolate-covered fruits and Cafe Britt coffee. Apparently, they also have shops all over Latin American in airports, etc. We were here for the coffee tour, but for some reason they had us shop in the store before going on the tour, which meant that we were quite limited in our shopping time and hadn't had a chance to actually see anything before buying their products. Didn't stop us from going crazy on the shopping though. We were greeted as we walked in with small cups of an iced coffee drink that was quite delicious, even though I don't like coffee (tells you how much sugar/cream was in there). In the middle of the store was a large stand with shelves and shelves of Cafe Britt's various varieties of coffee (some from specific regions, like Volcan Poas or Tres Rios) and insulated containers of the brewed coffee in the corners for people to sample. On two sides of this stand there were also bags of various chocolate products, with samples in bowls underneath. On the side were samples of their coffee liqueur. Not surpisingly, there were throngs of people gathered to try the samples. Cafe Britt had specials for buying multiple products as well - each bag was something like $4.50 individually, but if you bought 8, you'd get some discount, and if you bought 20, you got an even larger discount that made each bag come out to something like $4 or $3.50. As a result, my parents were stocking up on coffee and chocolate, my sister was stocking up on coffee and chocolate, and my bf and I both had our small collections of coffee and chocolate to give coworkers or friends. We ended up pooling all our purchases together into one large purchase (along with another couple's stuff) in order to maximize the discounts, but then were so rushed we had a hard time getting them to bag them correctly, and I'm not sure we got the full discounts we should have had due us. Oh well. We rushed to load our purchases on the bus, and then went to gather for the coffee tour.
The coffee tour at Cafe Britt was the most unique such tour I've ever been on. Rather than a dry recitation of facts, delivered by an employee, they seem to have either hired three actors, or gotten three of their most charismatic employees, to conduct this tour. This wasn't clear at first - at first we thought we were just getting a normal general manager guy who led off the tour by telling us about coffee growing, and how some coffee grows really well on volcanos, and then indicating in which direction Poas and Arenal (I think) were. Another "worker" stepped up to tell him he was all wrong, and when the manager went to look up the volcanoes, he told the worker to take over the tour. The worker was all "oh boy, do I get a raise too?" They acted like it was a temporary thing, and it was the worker's first time giving the tour, but this turned out to be very not true. The tour started like a normal tour - we were led into what seemed to be an area of the plantation, filled with coffee plants. We were shown the beans growing on a tree, and then came to a stop in front of a platform where a woman stood waiting for us. Both the woman and the "worker" acted as if English was difficult and they'd try their best, but both were super-fluent. The woman and the worker talked about the process of growing the plants and how they need to be harvested - how one 25lb basket only resulted in something like 3lbs of coffee (or 4 of the vacuum sealed bags they sell). As they talked, the two traded practiced and humorous banter, making fun of each other and themselves as they dropped facts on us. The woman claimed the two of them had been dating for 10 years (the guy: "they don't care, honey"), etc etc. Then we moved on to the next station, where a genial man was waiting - he claimed to be a manager of sorts, and they went through with demonstration pieces telling us how the coffee bean/fruits we saw growing on the plants around us were reduced, layer by layer, into the coffee beans sold into coffee. Also how there are two varieties of coffee - robusto and arrabaciata (??), and how arrabaciata was the best, and the only kind allowed to be grown in Costa Rica (b/c they're no dummies - there was more money to be made off of that). We then moved onto into an auditorium to learn more about the history of coffee, including an opportunity for two audience members to go up and learn how to taste coffee like the quality control coffee tasters did. Then we were to learn more about the history of coffee, which turned out to be an amusing mix of video and stage acting by the three of them, who quickly flipped in and out of silly costumes to go through an array of characters who may or may not have been involved in the development and spread of coffee through the ages. This culminated somehow in the man and woman getting married, with help from audience volunteers, and us leaving the auditorium as if we were leaving the wedding. I can't explain it well at all, but it was highly entertaining, made us laugh out loud several times, and was an enjoyable way to learn about something I never drink myself.
After Cafe Britt, it was time to head towards San Jose to go to the Barcelo Palacio for our final dinner. On the way, I managed to give myself a headache while trying to distribute the coffee back to the right people, and got quite cranky in the process. I do remember that somewhere in the drive that day, Sergio was telling us how the principal industries in Costa Rica were technology, tourism, and agriculture, and how they used to be in the opposite order. Later, we drove by I think Intel's offices where they manufactured microchips. At any rate, we eventually found ourselves back in San Jose, back at the familiar Barcelo Palacio. I ended up taking a nap (we had a 6th floor room this time, which was actually one of the "special" floors with its own lounge and staff and food) because of my headache, while I guess my bf went to hang out with my family. After my nap, we got ready for dinner.
The last dinner was our one "formal" (ie, no shorts, no sandals) dinner, in the nicer restaurant at the Palacio. We all gathered to take group photos before going in, and then were seated in various tables around the restaurant. Our table was my family, my bf, myself, and the other family my parents had befriended, whose son had been hanging out with us for most of the latter part of the trip. We were eventually joined by Sergio, who got peppered with questions by us. We asked him about his history as a tour director (apparently he's been doing this for like 15 years, and fell into it by mistake), his past travels, his views on Costa Rica and the region, etc etc. He's very much enthusiastic about his country and loves to share it with people, and it's very apparent. He also would like countries like the US to invest more in Costa Rica and its conservation efforts, rather than things like war efforts. It was an interesting conversation, though I do think we didn't let him eat very much b/c he had to talk so much. The food was pretty good - we were able to pick from filet mignon, fish, chicken, or pasta. Most of us went with the filet. It wasn't the very best filet I've ever had (my bf has spoiled me with his cooking of the Costco choice tenderloin pieces) but it was quite good and a nice change from the more homestyle food we'd been getting all trip. After dinner, everyone was running around taking photos of each other and sharing contact info. We got the cards of a few people, and got our photos taken with a few people, including Sergio. Finally, it was time to disperse since many of us had a very early morning shuttle to the airport.
The next morning, for an 8-8:15ish flight, Caravan had arranged us a 5:30AM shuttle to the airport. The Barcelo opened the restaurant especially for us, so we did get a breakfast before departing, and Sergio got up to see us off, but it was a rather sleepy two bus-fuls of passengers who departed the hotel that morning. A lot of people were on the same two flights to either LA or Miami, since those were typical stopovers going to Costa Rica. We all had to get in line at the airport for the exit tax - $26 USD per person - and then we got in line to check in. It turned out to be a bit confusing because American had actually created two separate checkin lines for the LA vs Miami flights, but we didn't realize it, and got in the wrong line at first. After a long wait, we were able to check in, where we learned that the LA flight was overbooked, and they were looking for like 8 volunteers to take a later flight to LA, spend the night, and then get booked to their next destination. American would pay an $800 voucher, pay for hotel, transportation, and food. It was a really good deal, but initially we weren't tempted because it seemed we wouldn't be able to get in until the next night, and would thus miss a day of work. As they kept asking for volunteers later, we actually thought maybe we'd try it - you can't make $800 in a day and it was a good deal, but by the time we asked about it, they'd found almost all the volunteers they needed. Oh well. Those vouchers would have been really useful.
There was a bit more drama since the flight from San Jose didn't leave on time, and then when we got to LA, the customs line took forever, they didn't have a carousel for our luggage, and the line out of customs to go through and recheck your baggage was huge. By the time we were able to get through all that, a few of our fellow tour members were convinced they'd missed their connecting flight to SF, since it was supposed to be at 2 and it was 2:10 when we picked up our luggage. As it turned out, their flight was delayed until 3:30 so I think they ended up being ok. After a meal at Chili's Too, and a bit of a wait at the gate, my bf and I were finally on our flight home to SF. I really don't advise flying through LA for international flights. The only amusing part about going through LA was that they had these new 24 color LED displays as you waited in line for customs, and they were playing with them to display random stuff. The one that really amused me was a "Don't Drink and Drive" display - a little martini glass, and then a car comes along and runs into it. Smash! The car sits with its front end all dented, and two stick figures come flying out of the car to land on the pavement - one on its head, with its legs waving in the air. Serious message, but a seriously funny way of delivering it.
A long travel day to end what turned out to be quite a fun and interesting trip. Yay Costa Rica!
Our last real day in Costa Rica was day 9 - like I said before, this is really an 8-day tour with 2 days of travel. Since the hotel was so large, we were supposed to get our bags outside our doors an hour and a half earlier than departure time, but since our room was so close to the front door, my bf and I opted to bring our bags out ourselves. Sergio told us it was ok as long as we made special care to make sure our bags ended up in the right pile, since two different Caravan groups were loading simultaneously. This gave us a bit more time to pack, which was nice. After breakfast, we finished packing, took our bags directly to our driver, who was in the process of loading the bags, and went wandering around the property for our typical morning-of-departure-photo-opportunity. One place we hadn't visited on the hotel property yet was the pier they had that extended out into the gulf, and gave a nice view of the area. Apparently, the day before, a lot of the tour people could be found there around sunset, enjoying cocktails (there was a bar out there) and sitting and watching the water. The pier also gave a good view of the resort itself. After snapping some photos out there, and snapping photos of the restaurant, bar, and pool area, we were about ready to go.
The actual distance between Dona Ana beach and San Jose is smaller than the distance travelled on our previous travel days, so we had more, and longer stops. First stop was in Sarchi, a village which is apparently well-known in particular for the ox-carts, or carretas, that are still in use in some areas. We first drove around the central square, which featured a pretty church on one end, and a giant ox-cart on display in the middle. We then went onto the ox cart factory where we watched a couple of artists at work painting ox carts (they have intricate, detailed, hand-painted designs all over them). The actual ox cart construction wasn't visible anywhere, just the painting. The main attraction here was a large tourist store, with all sorts of souvenirs - lots of various items made out of wood, ox carts, etc. The prices here, except for the postcards, seemed to me to be on the high side so I refrained from buying anything. There were two more stores obvious across the street - one was a souvenir shop with lower prices, and one was a furniture shop. At this point, my bf had pretty well convinced me that we wouldn't do anything with any of the wood products so we didn't buy anything. What I didn't realize until I just read the Lonely Planet entry on Sarchi two minutes ago, is that Sarchi is apparently a crafts center, with over 200 workshops in the area, and a ton of artists, with lots of different crafts and wood products available for sale and to just look at. We didn't have that much time here - maybe 40 minutes to browse the stores (much of which was spent looking for postcards for me) - so I never got the chance to look beyond the little region of street we were on. Oh well.
Lunch was at the restaurant Las Carretas, right next to (I think probably associated with) the tourist shop and oxcart factory. It was another of the buffet style meals set up in a normal restaurant. Pretty good food, as I recall. Soon after, it was time to load back on our bus and take off to our next destination. We drove through a number of small towns but ended up at Grecia, the "cleanest town in Latin America," famous for its metal church. We originally weren't supposed to be able to stop there, but both our bus and the other Caravan group made a 15 minute stop for us to get out, look around the pretty square in front of the church, and gawk at the Catedral de la Mercedes. This cathedral was made completely of metal, and painted red, presenting a surprisingly pretty sight at a distance, and a pretty unique one closeup where you could see the rivets and joints. Apparently the cathedral was special-ordered from Belgium and shipped in pieces to Costa Rica, where they eventually decided to place it in Grecia, transporting the pieces in carretas all the way through the countryside to its current site. It's a fairly impressive sight - not a Notre Dame cathedral by any means, but far larger than most of the countryside churches we'd seen, with a beautiful altar inside.
Back in the bus again, we wound through the picturesque countryside some more until we reached Cafe Britt, in Barva in Heredia. This coffee plantation had its products all over Costa Rica - every tourist shop we stopped in had Cafe Britt chocolate-covered fruits and Cafe Britt coffee. Apparently, they also have shops all over Latin American in airports, etc. We were here for the coffee tour, but for some reason they had us shop in the store before going on the tour, which meant that we were quite limited in our shopping time and hadn't had a chance to actually see anything before buying their products. Didn't stop us from going crazy on the shopping though. We were greeted as we walked in with small cups of an iced coffee drink that was quite delicious, even though I don't like coffee (tells you how much sugar/cream was in there). In the middle of the store was a large stand with shelves and shelves of Cafe Britt's various varieties of coffee (some from specific regions, like Volcan Poas or Tres Rios) and insulated containers of the brewed coffee in the corners for people to sample. On two sides of this stand there were also bags of various chocolate products, with samples in bowls underneath. On the side were samples of their coffee liqueur. Not surpisingly, there were throngs of people gathered to try the samples. Cafe Britt had specials for buying multiple products as well - each bag was something like $4.50 individually, but if you bought 8, you'd get some discount, and if you bought 20, you got an even larger discount that made each bag come out to something like $4 or $3.50. As a result, my parents were stocking up on coffee and chocolate, my sister was stocking up on coffee and chocolate, and my bf and I both had our small collections of coffee and chocolate to give coworkers or friends. We ended up pooling all our purchases together into one large purchase (along with another couple's stuff) in order to maximize the discounts, but then were so rushed we had a hard time getting them to bag them correctly, and I'm not sure we got the full discounts we should have had due us. Oh well. We rushed to load our purchases on the bus, and then went to gather for the coffee tour.
The coffee tour at Cafe Britt was the most unique such tour I've ever been on. Rather than a dry recitation of facts, delivered by an employee, they seem to have either hired three actors, or gotten three of their most charismatic employees, to conduct this tour. This wasn't clear at first - at first we thought we were just getting a normal general manager guy who led off the tour by telling us about coffee growing, and how some coffee grows really well on volcanos, and then indicating in which direction Poas and Arenal (I think) were. Another "worker" stepped up to tell him he was all wrong, and when the manager went to look up the volcanoes, he told the worker to take over the tour. The worker was all "oh boy, do I get a raise too?" They acted like it was a temporary thing, and it was the worker's first time giving the tour, but this turned out to be very not true. The tour started like a normal tour - we were led into what seemed to be an area of the plantation, filled with coffee plants. We were shown the beans growing on a tree, and then came to a stop in front of a platform where a woman stood waiting for us. Both the woman and the "worker" acted as if English was difficult and they'd try their best, but both were super-fluent. The woman and the worker talked about the process of growing the plants and how they need to be harvested - how one 25lb basket only resulted in something like 3lbs of coffee (or 4 of the vacuum sealed bags they sell). As they talked, the two traded practiced and humorous banter, making fun of each other and themselves as they dropped facts on us. The woman claimed the two of them had been dating for 10 years (the guy: "they don't care, honey"), etc etc. Then we moved on to the next station, where a genial man was waiting - he claimed to be a manager of sorts, and they went through with demonstration pieces telling us how the coffee bean/fruits we saw growing on the plants around us were reduced, layer by layer, into the coffee beans sold into coffee. Also how there are two varieties of coffee - robusto and arrabaciata (??), and how arrabaciata was the best, and the only kind allowed to be grown in Costa Rica (b/c they're no dummies - there was more money to be made off of that). We then moved onto into an auditorium to learn more about the history of coffee, including an opportunity for two audience members to go up and learn how to taste coffee like the quality control coffee tasters did. Then we were to learn more about the history of coffee, which turned out to be an amusing mix of video and stage acting by the three of them, who quickly flipped in and out of silly costumes to go through an array of characters who may or may not have been involved in the development and spread of coffee through the ages. This culminated somehow in the man and woman getting married, with help from audience volunteers, and us leaving the auditorium as if we were leaving the wedding. I can't explain it well at all, but it was highly entertaining, made us laugh out loud several times, and was an enjoyable way to learn about something I never drink myself.
After Cafe Britt, it was time to head towards San Jose to go to the Barcelo Palacio for our final dinner. On the way, I managed to give myself a headache while trying to distribute the coffee back to the right people, and got quite cranky in the process. I do remember that somewhere in the drive that day, Sergio was telling us how the principal industries in Costa Rica were technology, tourism, and agriculture, and how they used to be in the opposite order. Later, we drove by I think Intel's offices where they manufactured microchips. At any rate, we eventually found ourselves back in San Jose, back at the familiar Barcelo Palacio. I ended up taking a nap (we had a 6th floor room this time, which was actually one of the "special" floors with its own lounge and staff and food) because of my headache, while I guess my bf went to hang out with my family. After my nap, we got ready for dinner.
The last dinner was our one "formal" (ie, no shorts, no sandals) dinner, in the nicer restaurant at the Palacio. We all gathered to take group photos before going in, and then were seated in various tables around the restaurant. Our table was my family, my bf, myself, and the other family my parents had befriended, whose son had been hanging out with us for most of the latter part of the trip. We were eventually joined by Sergio, who got peppered with questions by us. We asked him about his history as a tour director (apparently he's been doing this for like 15 years, and fell into it by mistake), his past travels, his views on Costa Rica and the region, etc etc. He's very much enthusiastic about his country and loves to share it with people, and it's very apparent. He also would like countries like the US to invest more in Costa Rica and its conservation efforts, rather than things like war efforts. It was an interesting conversation, though I do think we didn't let him eat very much b/c he had to talk so much. The food was pretty good - we were able to pick from filet mignon, fish, chicken, or pasta. Most of us went with the filet. It wasn't the very best filet I've ever had (my bf has spoiled me with his cooking of the Costco choice tenderloin pieces) but it was quite good and a nice change from the more homestyle food we'd been getting all trip. After dinner, everyone was running around taking photos of each other and sharing contact info. We got the cards of a few people, and got our photos taken with a few people, including Sergio. Finally, it was time to disperse since many of us had a very early morning shuttle to the airport.
The next morning, for an 8-8:15ish flight, Caravan had arranged us a 5:30AM shuttle to the airport. The Barcelo opened the restaurant especially for us, so we did get a breakfast before departing, and Sergio got up to see us off, but it was a rather sleepy two bus-fuls of passengers who departed the hotel that morning. A lot of people were on the same two flights to either LA or Miami, since those were typical stopovers going to Costa Rica. We all had to get in line at the airport for the exit tax - $26 USD per person - and then we got in line to check in. It turned out to be a bit confusing because American had actually created two separate checkin lines for the LA vs Miami flights, but we didn't realize it, and got in the wrong line at first. After a long wait, we were able to check in, where we learned that the LA flight was overbooked, and they were looking for like 8 volunteers to take a later flight to LA, spend the night, and then get booked to their next destination. American would pay an $800 voucher, pay for hotel, transportation, and food. It was a really good deal, but initially we weren't tempted because it seemed we wouldn't be able to get in until the next night, and would thus miss a day of work. As they kept asking for volunteers later, we actually thought maybe we'd try it - you can't make $800 in a day and it was a good deal, but by the time we asked about it, they'd found almost all the volunteers they needed. Oh well. Those vouchers would have been really useful.
There was a bit more drama since the flight from San Jose didn't leave on time, and then when we got to LA, the customs line took forever, they didn't have a carousel for our luggage, and the line out of customs to go through and recheck your baggage was huge. By the time we were able to get through all that, a few of our fellow tour members were convinced they'd missed their connecting flight to SF, since it was supposed to be at 2 and it was 2:10 when we picked up our luggage. As it turned out, their flight was delayed until 3:30 so I think they ended up being ok. After a meal at Chili's Too, and a bit of a wait at the gate, my bf and I were finally on our flight home to SF. I really don't advise flying through LA for international flights. The only amusing part about going through LA was that they had these new 24 color LED displays as you waited in line for customs, and they were playing with them to display random stuff. The one that really amused me was a "Don't Drink and Drive" display - a little martini glass, and then a car comes along and runs into it. Smash! The car sits with its front end all dented, and two stick figures come flying out of the car to land on the pavement - one on its head, with its legs waving in the air. Serious message, but a seriously funny way of delivering it.
A long travel day to end what turned out to be quite a fun and interesting trip. Yay Costa Rica!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Dining about the town
Continuing the eating in SF saga...
Last Thursday night, we finally made it to Magnolia (Haight & Masonic) for their Fried Chicken night. We've gone to Magnolia twice before and I've never been overly blown away by their food, but the fried chicken was quite good. They gave us each three pieces - thigh, drumstick, and boneless breast. It was kind of a dry fry - not overly greasy, a bit more of a dense breading - but very moist chicken, and yummy. Also came with a large heap of mashed potatoes and gravy which were very tasty, and braised greens of the bitter variety. Almost too bitter for me, but mixed in with the mashed potatoes, more bearable, and made me feel quite healthy. It was a *lot* of food - not cheap for fried chicken, but more than adequate portions, and probably my favorite thing I've eaten at Magnolia so far. My bf ordered the house-brewed orange cream soda and only confirmed my impression that Magnolia's self-made sodas are just kind of bland.
Over the weekend we were mostly down in the Peninsula (yay burrito) and Fremont (Korean food), and Monday and Tuesday I made mango chicken. Nothing overly exciting there.
Wednesday we went to our second Dine About Town restaurant, Sauce (131 Gough St, between Page and Oak). Their whole thing is to take homestyle food items, comfort food, and then gourmetify it (my word). The concept sounded interesting. The execution? I'm not sure it was worth the price, personally - my bf liked it more. I got the portabella mushroom fries (2) + a slider (little lamb burger) for the appetizer - that was pretty yummy. The mushroom fries reminded me of nothing so much as tempura mushroom (except the breaded part was a bit more like fried bar food consistency) and they came with a yummy ranch dipping sauce, while the lamb burger wasn't too strong on the lamb taste, so bearable to me. My bf got the creamy tomato bisque with white truffled grilled cheese toast on the side - the tomato soup was quite yummy, the toast wasn't as different as I thought it'd be, but decent. For the main entree, I got a bacon-wrapped meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans on the side, drowned in gravy. I usually like gravy a lot, but this was on the edge of too much flavor - a little too salty. I need to remember that meatloaf isn't something that thrills me overly much. The dish was overall quite good, but it didn't seem that much of step up from a similar meatloaf dish you'd get at a home-cooking restaurant for half the price. It was extremely filling, though. My bf got the salmon dish, which I didn't try. When I asked him how it was, he said "it's cooked" and shrugged. He must have liked it ok since later when I said I was disappointed with the restaurant he said he liked it fine. For dessert, I got the "PB&J", which was sponge cake layered with a thin layer of gourmet peanut butter, a thin layer of homemade strawberry jam, and a thick layer of vanilla ice cream. I actually quite liked it, except that I thought the ice cream added nothing - it was very solid and icy. I loved the PB - crunchy and delicious. My bf wasn't as impressed with his bite of my dessert, though. He got the cinnamon sugar donuts with a vanilla bourbon dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was the highlight - the cinnamon sugar donuts were really small blobs of fried dough that didn't resemble donuts at all. I like fried dough, and I like cinnamon sugar, so it was yummy enough, but it was the dipping sauce that was really delicious. My bf even drank the remaining part after he finished the donuts. That meal left us extremely stuffed.
Tonight, we hit our third Dine About Town restaurant - I had him choose this time since my previous two choices were sub-optimal. He picked Chiaroscuro Ristorante (550 Washington at Sansome). The restaurant had a nice, clean spare design, though a little odd because the bench seating around the perimeter of the room was stone, so they had a layer of pillows on top to sit on (but, at least for me, sitting in front of the window, no real back to lean against). Service was great. They do their DAT menus a little different - instead of picking one of a group of appetizers, one of a group of entrees, and one of a group of desserts, they had 3 set menus you could choose from (all with the same dessert). One was clearly the vegetarian option - potato leek soup and walnut gnocchi (which looked good, but not worth the DAT price). I got the Ahi menu - fried calamari & shrimp appetizer, seared ahi tuna steak in Barbari wine sauce with shoestring potatoes entree. The appetizer was good - the calamari was a good texture - a bit crunchy, not too chewy - but it was bigger than I expected, so I didn't finish it, deliberately, to have room for the rest of my meal. The entree... I didn't like the wine sauce, and it quite predominated. I'm sure the tuna was fine (texture wise it was great) but I just could taste the wine sauce. Keep in mind, I don't like wine. The potatoes were yummy though. My bf got the osso bucco - pear salad for appetizer (I didn't try it, he seemed to enjoy it), and osso bucco for entree (on a bed of mashed potatoes). We switched entrees halfway through - he put the remaining ahi piece on the broad lip of the plate to keep it out of the sauce, and enjoyed it more than I did. I liked his osso bucco better - it was nice and tender, if a bit bland (but that could have been just b/c I'd been eating the wine sauce beforehand - he really liked the osso bucco). My favorite part of the meal was definitely the dessert - we each got a trio - two little profiteroles with custard in them, a blob of chocolate mousse, and a strawberry topped lemon custard tartlet. They were all delicious, and the perfect amount after the large meal. The crust of the tartlet was crunchy and sugary, the lemon tasty, and the strawberry a nice touch. The mousse was chocolatey and rich, while the profiteroles were the perfect texture. Yummy. Chiaroscuro might be worth a return visit.
Last Thursday night, we finally made it to Magnolia (Haight & Masonic) for their Fried Chicken night. We've gone to Magnolia twice before and I've never been overly blown away by their food, but the fried chicken was quite good. They gave us each three pieces - thigh, drumstick, and boneless breast. It was kind of a dry fry - not overly greasy, a bit more of a dense breading - but very moist chicken, and yummy. Also came with a large heap of mashed potatoes and gravy which were very tasty, and braised greens of the bitter variety. Almost too bitter for me, but mixed in with the mashed potatoes, more bearable, and made me feel quite healthy. It was a *lot* of food - not cheap for fried chicken, but more than adequate portions, and probably my favorite thing I've eaten at Magnolia so far. My bf ordered the house-brewed orange cream soda and only confirmed my impression that Magnolia's self-made sodas are just kind of bland.
Over the weekend we were mostly down in the Peninsula (yay burrito) and Fremont (Korean food), and Monday and Tuesday I made mango chicken. Nothing overly exciting there.
Wednesday we went to our second Dine About Town restaurant, Sauce (131 Gough St, between Page and Oak). Their whole thing is to take homestyle food items, comfort food, and then gourmetify it (my word). The concept sounded interesting. The execution? I'm not sure it was worth the price, personally - my bf liked it more. I got the portabella mushroom fries (2) + a slider (little lamb burger) for the appetizer - that was pretty yummy. The mushroom fries reminded me of nothing so much as tempura mushroom (except the breaded part was a bit more like fried bar food consistency) and they came with a yummy ranch dipping sauce, while the lamb burger wasn't too strong on the lamb taste, so bearable to me. My bf got the creamy tomato bisque with white truffled grilled cheese toast on the side - the tomato soup was quite yummy, the toast wasn't as different as I thought it'd be, but decent. For the main entree, I got a bacon-wrapped meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans on the side, drowned in gravy. I usually like gravy a lot, but this was on the edge of too much flavor - a little too salty. I need to remember that meatloaf isn't something that thrills me overly much. The dish was overall quite good, but it didn't seem that much of step up from a similar meatloaf dish you'd get at a home-cooking restaurant for half the price. It was extremely filling, though. My bf got the salmon dish, which I didn't try. When I asked him how it was, he said "it's cooked" and shrugged. He must have liked it ok since later when I said I was disappointed with the restaurant he said he liked it fine. For dessert, I got the "PB&J", which was sponge cake layered with a thin layer of gourmet peanut butter, a thin layer of homemade strawberry jam, and a thick layer of vanilla ice cream. I actually quite liked it, except that I thought the ice cream added nothing - it was very solid and icy. I loved the PB - crunchy and delicious. My bf wasn't as impressed with his bite of my dessert, though. He got the cinnamon sugar donuts with a vanilla bourbon dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was the highlight - the cinnamon sugar donuts were really small blobs of fried dough that didn't resemble donuts at all. I like fried dough, and I like cinnamon sugar, so it was yummy enough, but it was the dipping sauce that was really delicious. My bf even drank the remaining part after he finished the donuts. That meal left us extremely stuffed.
Tonight, we hit our third Dine About Town restaurant - I had him choose this time since my previous two choices were sub-optimal. He picked Chiaroscuro Ristorante (550 Washington at Sansome). The restaurant had a nice, clean spare design, though a little odd because the bench seating around the perimeter of the room was stone, so they had a layer of pillows on top to sit on (but, at least for me, sitting in front of the window, no real back to lean against). Service was great. They do their DAT menus a little different - instead of picking one of a group of appetizers, one of a group of entrees, and one of a group of desserts, they had 3 set menus you could choose from (all with the same dessert). One was clearly the vegetarian option - potato leek soup and walnut gnocchi (which looked good, but not worth the DAT price). I got the Ahi menu - fried calamari & shrimp appetizer, seared ahi tuna steak in Barbari wine sauce with shoestring potatoes entree. The appetizer was good - the calamari was a good texture - a bit crunchy, not too chewy - but it was bigger than I expected, so I didn't finish it, deliberately, to have room for the rest of my meal. The entree... I didn't like the wine sauce, and it quite predominated. I'm sure the tuna was fine (texture wise it was great) but I just could taste the wine sauce. Keep in mind, I don't like wine. The potatoes were yummy though. My bf got the osso bucco - pear salad for appetizer (I didn't try it, he seemed to enjoy it), and osso bucco for entree (on a bed of mashed potatoes). We switched entrees halfway through - he put the remaining ahi piece on the broad lip of the plate to keep it out of the sauce, and enjoyed it more than I did. I liked his osso bucco better - it was nice and tender, if a bit bland (but that could have been just b/c I'd been eating the wine sauce beforehand - he really liked the osso bucco). My favorite part of the meal was definitely the dessert - we each got a trio - two little profiteroles with custard in them, a blob of chocolate mousse, and a strawberry topped lemon custard tartlet. They were all delicious, and the perfect amount after the large meal. The crust of the tartlet was crunchy and sugary, the lemon tasty, and the strawberry a nice touch. The mousse was chocolatey and rich, while the profiteroles were the perfect texture. Yummy. Chiaroscuro might be worth a return visit.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Costa Rica - Day Eight
The history of Manuel Antonio National Park is kind of interesting. It was originally slated for development into a beach resort, and was turned into a national park kind of at the last minute before they were about to start building. The park is very popular, and has been receiving all sorts of pressure from too many people and too much development nearby, so the park has started limiting the number of visitors to the park per day. As a result, it's important to get there early - get there too late and they may have reached their daily quota and you won't be able to go in. Sergio was well aware of this and therefore said that we had to leave early in the morning in order to ensure that we'd be able to enter. Breakfast was thus at 6am - an hour earlier than the restaurants usually open, so the hotel set out a "continental breakfast" for us which actually had a fair amount of food...after a while. They were still bringing out food as we arrived. We were on the road by 6:30AM, with a much diminished group of people on the tour bus. So diminished that we were able to spread out and put our bags on seats with no problems.
From a distance perspective, Manuel Antonio wasn't actually a 2 hour drive from the Doubletree's location on the Dona Ana beach in Puntarenas. However, there were two old bridges along the way that were one-way, rickety, weight-limited bridges, which severely gated the amount of traffic that could pass through. Both bridges were in the process of being replaced - we saw the construction on the neighboring bridges, but both were still the only bridge in use over their respective rivers at this time. Apparently these bridges were originally built for the railroad. Sergio said that, depending on traffic, you could get held up half an hour waiting to cross the bridges, which added considerable amount of time to the trip.
As we drove south, part of the time, we were driving right along the Pacific coast, giving us a beautiful view of the gorgeous blue ocean, starting first with the Golfo de Nicoya (which was where our hotel was located) with the Peninsula de Nicoya opposite. At times, we went inland where we could see the hilly countryside and the mountains in the distance, plantations with all sorts of fruits and plants, etc. Our drive took us by the Carara Biological Reserve, apparently, where there was supposed to be a huge variety of tropical birds, particularly the scarlet macaw. Apparently this is one of the few places in the world that the scarlet macaw nests. I'm not sure if we were by the reserve at the time, but we did get lucky enough to see (thanks to either Sergio or Marcos' eagle eyes) two scarlet macaws in a tree by the road. Marcos stopped the bus so we could gawk at the beautiful brilliant red birds for a while - really pretty, and really neat to see in the wild. We also crossed over the Rio Tarcoles, or the river of crocodiles, where you can often see crocodiles sunning themselves...and sure enough, as we crossed, we saw a group of 8 crocodiles, lying on the banks or partly submerged in the water. Then, as we kept staring, we noticed another crocodile closer in the water...and then another pair swimming practically under the bridge. That was neat.
We got lucky on the way there - the first bridge hardly detained us at all, and the second only a little longer, so we arrived in Manuel Antonio after only about an hour and a half. Sergio had to get our tickets, but he managed to get us all in. From the park entrance, we had to cross a short expanse of beach, and then climb up a path over a hill well-worn by people's feet, before emerging on a beautiful beach on the other side. We then had about a 15-20 minute hike over the first beach, through the forest a bit, and down a path to I *think* the second beach (possibly the third) where we staked out a picnic table on which we put our stuff, while Sergio kept an eye on it for us. Apparently the danger here wasn't human thieves so much as monkey thieves. Sergio emphasized we shouldn't bring food in because the monkeys would be bold enough to run by and steal bags up into the trees to get at the food. Before we could get to the picnic table, though, my family ended up lagging rather far behind as we took photos of the beach. My little sister got distracted when she noticed that each time the tide went out, there were distinctive little marks on the beach that would suddenly suck in and disappear, like something was pulling in. Remembering when we'd gone clam hunting on a beach elsewhere, where you could tell where the clams were by the air bubbles they let up as they burrowed into the sand, she started digging to try to find the clams. Feeling bad because Sergio was trying to get us to move while keeping an eye on the rest of the group, way ahead of us, I started moving before she found anything. Turns out the depressions in the sand weren't from clams, but from snails. My sister has pretty sharp eyes - she also spotted most of the wildlife in Tortuguero, seeing monkeys even before the guides did.
On my way to the picnic area, I saw a group of people staring up into the trees, and found out they were looking at a night heron of some kind up in the trees. I'm not sure I ever actually spotted that one. Moving on, I saw another group of people gathered (there were rangers carrying telescopes everywhere, and tours being conducted) and got a quick glimpse of what they were looking at as it ran by - I think it was an agouti or something like that. Further down the path, a family of raccoons were nosing their way down the path - in fact, they got to the picnic area not long after me, and spent some time poking around the area. There were two main choices for the Manuel Antonio area, as far as activities went - lounging on the beach/playing in the water, and hiking on the trails around the beaches. Since I'd heard there was a lot of wildlife in the area, and since I'm not huge on the beach lounging, I really wanted to try the hiking out. I should note, though, that we had been advised to wear hiking boots if we wanted to hike, but we'd only brought our sandals...definitely not the right shoes.
Sergio directed us to a trail that led from our beach which I think led to the next few beaches (there are five total in the Manuel Antonio area, though I think only three or four are actually in the park), but also led to an overlook where you could see the cliffsides that had sheared off along fault lines. As we started up the path, we were quickly distracted by a group of people looking up into the trees - a 3-toed (I think) sloth, just hanging out in a tree fairly near the path. This one was fairly well-hidden in the tree. After gawking at it (and snapping some photos) for a while, we decided to move along since there was quite a crowd gathering and we didn't have all that much time to do the hike and enjoy the beach. Moving on, we next saw an agouti (now I'm not sure the first one I saw was an agouti) - kind of a cross between a rat and a rabbit - peering at us from between the trees above the trail. The next big brown mass we saw in a tree was a termite nest, I think, bigger than any animal we'd seen.
As we climbed the trail, we came across some people stopped and looking at the side of the trail. When they told us there were monkeys, I assumed they were high up in the trees or far off into the forest, and was quite surprised when I saw a couple white-faced monkeys sitting quite close in the trees, staring back at us. Initially, the monkeys we saw were just lounging on tree branches and the forks of trees, but then one crossed over to the other side of the path, and then started climbing down a tree trunk right next to the path. It was literally only about 3 feet away from us. There were a few kids who had stopped as well who almost went up and touched it, but it moved along and stared at us from another tree right next to the path. I had never been that close to a monkey before, but the path was getting a little bit crowded as other people stopped to watch, and we still had a ways to go to the lookout, so I reluctantly moved on.
Along the way, my bf spotted a beautiful lizard (possibly a gecko) in the leaves along the path (I am no good at spotting wildlife, someone else always has to see it and point it out to me). The path grew steeper and slippery, and my sister (who was wearing slip-on sandals without straps) and my parents eventually turned back. We went on, though, and finally managed to reach the overlook. In some ways, the overlook's view was a little disappointing because Sergio had made it sound like we'd see these amazing sheer cliff faces that were very obviously split along fault lines, but what we saw looked a bit more normal cliffs. However, it was a nice point from which to observe another couple of beaches to the south beyond the peninsula the overlook looked at, as well as to get a nice panoramic view of the ocean. It was also really hot, since it was out in the sunlight and we'd just been climbing for a while.
After enjoying the view for a while, the overlook was getting a bit crowded and we still wanted to hit the beach, so we turned and went back. The path was quite narrow so there was quite a bit of maneuvering and standing aside to let people pass as we passed people coming the other way. It was also worse being slippery on the way back - always more of an issue when you're descending rather than ascending - so we made very slow progress. We did spot the same lizard on the way back as on the way up, though it'd moved to the other side of the path. As we reached the area where we'd seen the monkeys before, we discovered that the dynamics had quite changed. I don't know if some of the other people (maybe the kids who were there before) had pissed off the monkeys or what, but they were definitely on edge. As we approached the area, two monkeys ran out on the path ahead of us to assume a defensive or threat/attack stance - one on top of the other, both facing us with fangs bared. This gave us pause, we stopped to take photos, but also because we weren't quite sure how to react. The top monkey got distracted after a bit and took off running down the path away from us, and the other soon followed. Turns out there was another hiker ahead of us - a lone woman - who had stopped to take photos, I think, but soon found herself accosted by several monkeys. The more we looked, the more monkeys we saw in the trees around us, all alert and working in concert. One monkey climbed out on a tree branch over the hiker, unbeknownst to her until it started throwing branches and things at her, baring its fangs and chattering at her. Another monkey started stalking down the path behind her as she stared at the first monkey, on all fours with back arched. Other monkeys started closing in on her. She initially stood her ground, looking at them like she wasn't believing what was happening, before she finally quickly walked out of the area. The monkeys looked quite angry and aggressive, and we looked around us to see more staring at us and climbing up trees. We each picked up a branch, just in case, and then moved quickly through the area, trying not to pose too much of a threat to them. Freaky. I'd originally thought it was really cool we got to see monkeys so close up, but I wasn't so sure after that!
As it turned out, my parents and sister saw even more interesting behavior from this same group of monkeys when they'd passed through the area earlier. One of the people on the path near them had a water bottle sticking out of his backpack, and one of the monkeys actually swung down and stole the water bottle, running away with it until everyone yelled and it dropped it. It sounded like the monkeys, when they saw them, weren't being quite so aggressive with their body language, but they were certainly being bold!
On the way back, my bf and I kept hearing a howler monkey that sounded really close, but could never spot it. We finally saw a group of people off the trail, on a side path that actually had a barrier across it, staring up into a tree. We joined them and finally spotted the howler monkey lounging on a tree above. As we watched, the monkey sat up and let out a big howl, maintaining that position for a while, before finally shifting back down until it once more lay along the branch. We kept watching it, hoping it'd sit up again and howl again, but a couple rangers came along and shooed us all out of the area. As we returned to the picnic area, we saw more people staring at the sloth so we stopped to look up at it, just to make sure nothing had changed, and finally got back to the picnic table. Here, we reapplied some sunscreen, stripped off our outside clothes, put away the camera, and went to the beach for the last 1/2 hour or so before we had to return to the bus.
The sand was white but not entirely clean and nice - lots of seaweed bits, coral bits, etc, that made it less pleasant to walk/sit on. The beach that we were on also wasn't particularly deep in terms of the amount of sandy area. Rather than trying to find a clear spot to sunbathe (it was too hot anyway), we plunged right into the water. I found it a nice temperature and quickly took to it, with the water helping to wash off the sweat and heat from our hike. It wasn't as salty as the water had been by Zihuatenejo in Mexico, where we'd gone the year before - not as buoyant by far - but it was mostly kind of nice to bounce up and down in the water, except when the salt overcame my contacts and I wasn't able to open my eyes for a while for the stinging. Our friend swam out further and ended up getting stung (mildly) by a small jellyfish. That guy got bitten by *everything* - he had more bug bites than anyone, and got bitten everywhere he went, even the ocean! My bf and I stayed further inland, where we could stand up if we needed to, and ended up chatting with one of the women from our tour group, a teacher who travelled a lot. This was a pleasant way to spend some time, but the 1/2 hour went by quite quickly, and we soon had to go back, dry off, and make our way back to the bus.
Before we could leave the area, we spotted another animal - this one a brown basilisk (I think) lizard. Quite a pretty specimen, sitting right on a wood pile next to the picnic area. We snapped a few photos of that one, and then started down the path back to the entrance. We were quickly distracted, however, by the discovery that a whole bunch of white-faced monkeys had come to the area, very likely to try to scavenge food from all the tourists. They were climbing the trees on the beach, walking down the paths, and going all over the place. One bold monkey jumped right onto a garbage can right on the path. The garbage can, which hung from a frame, was tied shut with a piece of string. The monkey was clever - it jumped straight up and down a couple times, and boom, the lid was open. It balanced on the swinging can, and obviously wanted to dig in and grab food, but everytime anyone came near (and it was right on the path so people were very close), it'd stand its ground and stare at the person, ready to defend its rights to the food in the can. In the meantime, other monkeys were overhead, dropping stuff out of the trees on people, helping to defend the monkey and his can. We didn't have time to stay and watch this play out, and continued on our way, though my bf did stop a ranger to let him know a monkey had broken into one of the garbage cans.
On our way from the entrance of the park to the bus, we passed by a bunch of stands selling all sorts of stuff - beach towels, dyed cloths, t-shirts, souvenirs, etc. One stand in particular drew our attention, selling meat skewers grilling on a bbq, but before we could decide whether or not to buy one, Marcos honked the horn and Sergio gestured for us to come back to the bus. Not quite sure why, since we were actually still a bit early. Instead of our freshly grilled meat skewers, then, we ended up with rather lame box lunches that they had brought from the hotel to the bus that morning - small ham and cheese sandwiches on crustless white bread, and a collection of fruit - half-green strawberries, a banana, an apple (whose sticker proudly proclaimed it to be from Washington state), and a kind of sour greenish orange. We were hungry enough to devour it, but the prospect of unlimited snacks from the snack bar sounded more and more appealing after we ate it.
The trip back was fairly subdued - almost everyone was sleeping, worn out from the sun and the early start. I tried to stay awake and look out the window, at one point spotting a cone-shaped mountain that looked like it had smoke coming out of it (though from a different angle, it appeared to be more of a cloud that had drifted near the peak). I was really tired, though, and finally gave in and slept as well. On the way back, we saw how lucky we were - we were held up a bit at one of the bridges but the traffic coming the other way stretched way back - just stopped cars and trucks in a long single-file line, waiting for their turn on the bridge. The line entering Manuel Antonio Park was also really long, so we very much thanked Sergio for getting us there so early so we didn't have to wait in line and risk being turned away (he said it'd happened only once before to a group he'd led). This time, we didn't see any macaws, but did spot another group of crocodiles (or maybe the same ones, moved further down the river) on the Rio Tarcoles. Eventually, we arrived back at the Doubletree hotel.
Since we were all rather hungry, after putting our stuff down, we quickly met up at the snack bar to feed ourselves. The food ended up being just ok - burgers and hot dogs of indifferent quality, as well as a big bin of arroz con beef ;) - looked like arroz con pollo, except with beef instead of chicken. It was good enough for us hungry people though. We also grabbed drinks from the outdoor bar. This drink was the reason I can no longer say I've never had a drink - I got a Coco Amore, like the one my sister had gotten the other day, except without the vodka. What I hadn't anticipated was that when you ask them to leave out an ingredient, they double up on another one to make up for it, and my bartender chose to double up on the amaretto. The alcohol taste was almost too overwhelming and unpleasant for me, but just on the border...for the most part the coconut and almond taste were enough to make it taste good to me. I was jealous though, when my sister came by later and saw what I got, she asked for a Coco Amore without vodka as well but *her* bartender made her one with double the coconut. I would have liked that better. After the beach and the eating, none of us really wanted to get in the pool (which also wasn't that clean looking), so instead we found some lounge chairs by the pool (inadvertently sitting near some tour group members). We ended up chatting with the two women, finding that they were both quite interesting, and one really funny. This was a nice relaxing time - we occasionally ventured across the way to get stuff from the bar (I got a virgin pina colada for my second drink), but otherwise just chatted or read, or relaxed.
As it got dark, we stopped to look at the sunset (not nearly as spectacular because the sky was completely clear), and then wandered into the lobby, which was well lit and had a number of comfortable chairs and low tables. We ended up whiling away the next couple hours playing cards in this relaxing setting. None of us were particularly hungry due to our late snacks, so we didn't end up getting dinner until quite late, where we joined the same two women we'd chatted with by the pool. Dinner that night was supposed to be French-themed, but I failed to see the French - they had the same pasta bar again, though this time they also had "crepes", though not crepes like I'd ever seen before - I guess you got filling for the shells and then they would heat it up in sauce. What was good was that they had fresh grilled steaks cut into strips, so we were finally able to eat a lot of beef (there was almost no beef on this trip - always chicken, pork, and fish). That's what we ended up primarily eating that night. The beef was definitely not the best I'd ever had - kind of tough - but it was a nice change. After dinner, we decided to skip out on the cultural show, since it was the same as the previous night's, and headed back to our rooms to rest and go to bed.
From a distance perspective, Manuel Antonio wasn't actually a 2 hour drive from the Doubletree's location on the Dona Ana beach in Puntarenas. However, there were two old bridges along the way that were one-way, rickety, weight-limited bridges, which severely gated the amount of traffic that could pass through. Both bridges were in the process of being replaced - we saw the construction on the neighboring bridges, but both were still the only bridge in use over their respective rivers at this time. Apparently these bridges were originally built for the railroad. Sergio said that, depending on traffic, you could get held up half an hour waiting to cross the bridges, which added considerable amount of time to the trip.
As we drove south, part of the time, we were driving right along the Pacific coast, giving us a beautiful view of the gorgeous blue ocean, starting first with the Golfo de Nicoya (which was where our hotel was located) with the Peninsula de Nicoya opposite. At times, we went inland where we could see the hilly countryside and the mountains in the distance, plantations with all sorts of fruits and plants, etc. Our drive took us by the Carara Biological Reserve, apparently, where there was supposed to be a huge variety of tropical birds, particularly the scarlet macaw. Apparently this is one of the few places in the world that the scarlet macaw nests. I'm not sure if we were by the reserve at the time, but we did get lucky enough to see (thanks to either Sergio or Marcos' eagle eyes) two scarlet macaws in a tree by the road. Marcos stopped the bus so we could gawk at the beautiful brilliant red birds for a while - really pretty, and really neat to see in the wild. We also crossed over the Rio Tarcoles, or the river of crocodiles, where you can often see crocodiles sunning themselves...and sure enough, as we crossed, we saw a group of 8 crocodiles, lying on the banks or partly submerged in the water. Then, as we kept staring, we noticed another crocodile closer in the water...and then another pair swimming practically under the bridge. That was neat.
We got lucky on the way there - the first bridge hardly detained us at all, and the second only a little longer, so we arrived in Manuel Antonio after only about an hour and a half. Sergio had to get our tickets, but he managed to get us all in. From the park entrance, we had to cross a short expanse of beach, and then climb up a path over a hill well-worn by people's feet, before emerging on a beautiful beach on the other side. We then had about a 15-20 minute hike over the first beach, through the forest a bit, and down a path to I *think* the second beach (possibly the third) where we staked out a picnic table on which we put our stuff, while Sergio kept an eye on it for us. Apparently the danger here wasn't human thieves so much as monkey thieves. Sergio emphasized we shouldn't bring food in because the monkeys would be bold enough to run by and steal bags up into the trees to get at the food. Before we could get to the picnic table, though, my family ended up lagging rather far behind as we took photos of the beach. My little sister got distracted when she noticed that each time the tide went out, there were distinctive little marks on the beach that would suddenly suck in and disappear, like something was pulling in. Remembering when we'd gone clam hunting on a beach elsewhere, where you could tell where the clams were by the air bubbles they let up as they burrowed into the sand, she started digging to try to find the clams. Feeling bad because Sergio was trying to get us to move while keeping an eye on the rest of the group, way ahead of us, I started moving before she found anything. Turns out the depressions in the sand weren't from clams, but from snails. My sister has pretty sharp eyes - she also spotted most of the wildlife in Tortuguero, seeing monkeys even before the guides did.
On my way to the picnic area, I saw a group of people staring up into the trees, and found out they were looking at a night heron of some kind up in the trees. I'm not sure I ever actually spotted that one. Moving on, I saw another group of people gathered (there were rangers carrying telescopes everywhere, and tours being conducted) and got a quick glimpse of what they were looking at as it ran by - I think it was an agouti or something like that. Further down the path, a family of raccoons were nosing their way down the path - in fact, they got to the picnic area not long after me, and spent some time poking around the area. There were two main choices for the Manuel Antonio area, as far as activities went - lounging on the beach/playing in the water, and hiking on the trails around the beaches. Since I'd heard there was a lot of wildlife in the area, and since I'm not huge on the beach lounging, I really wanted to try the hiking out. I should note, though, that we had been advised to wear hiking boots if we wanted to hike, but we'd only brought our sandals...definitely not the right shoes.
Sergio directed us to a trail that led from our beach which I think led to the next few beaches (there are five total in the Manuel Antonio area, though I think only three or four are actually in the park), but also led to an overlook where you could see the cliffsides that had sheared off along fault lines. As we started up the path, we were quickly distracted by a group of people looking up into the trees - a 3-toed (I think) sloth, just hanging out in a tree fairly near the path. This one was fairly well-hidden in the tree. After gawking at it (and snapping some photos) for a while, we decided to move along since there was quite a crowd gathering and we didn't have all that much time to do the hike and enjoy the beach. Moving on, we next saw an agouti (now I'm not sure the first one I saw was an agouti) - kind of a cross between a rat and a rabbit - peering at us from between the trees above the trail. The next big brown mass we saw in a tree was a termite nest, I think, bigger than any animal we'd seen.
As we climbed the trail, we came across some people stopped and looking at the side of the trail. When they told us there were monkeys, I assumed they were high up in the trees or far off into the forest, and was quite surprised when I saw a couple white-faced monkeys sitting quite close in the trees, staring back at us. Initially, the monkeys we saw were just lounging on tree branches and the forks of trees, but then one crossed over to the other side of the path, and then started climbing down a tree trunk right next to the path. It was literally only about 3 feet away from us. There were a few kids who had stopped as well who almost went up and touched it, but it moved along and stared at us from another tree right next to the path. I had never been that close to a monkey before, but the path was getting a little bit crowded as other people stopped to watch, and we still had a ways to go to the lookout, so I reluctantly moved on.
Along the way, my bf spotted a beautiful lizard (possibly a gecko) in the leaves along the path (I am no good at spotting wildlife, someone else always has to see it and point it out to me). The path grew steeper and slippery, and my sister (who was wearing slip-on sandals without straps) and my parents eventually turned back. We went on, though, and finally managed to reach the overlook. In some ways, the overlook's view was a little disappointing because Sergio had made it sound like we'd see these amazing sheer cliff faces that were very obviously split along fault lines, but what we saw looked a bit more normal cliffs. However, it was a nice point from which to observe another couple of beaches to the south beyond the peninsula the overlook looked at, as well as to get a nice panoramic view of the ocean. It was also really hot, since it was out in the sunlight and we'd just been climbing for a while.
After enjoying the view for a while, the overlook was getting a bit crowded and we still wanted to hit the beach, so we turned and went back. The path was quite narrow so there was quite a bit of maneuvering and standing aside to let people pass as we passed people coming the other way. It was also worse being slippery on the way back - always more of an issue when you're descending rather than ascending - so we made very slow progress. We did spot the same lizard on the way back as on the way up, though it'd moved to the other side of the path. As we reached the area where we'd seen the monkeys before, we discovered that the dynamics had quite changed. I don't know if some of the other people (maybe the kids who were there before) had pissed off the monkeys or what, but they were definitely on edge. As we approached the area, two monkeys ran out on the path ahead of us to assume a defensive or threat/attack stance - one on top of the other, both facing us with fangs bared. This gave us pause, we stopped to take photos, but also because we weren't quite sure how to react. The top monkey got distracted after a bit and took off running down the path away from us, and the other soon followed. Turns out there was another hiker ahead of us - a lone woman - who had stopped to take photos, I think, but soon found herself accosted by several monkeys. The more we looked, the more monkeys we saw in the trees around us, all alert and working in concert. One monkey climbed out on a tree branch over the hiker, unbeknownst to her until it started throwing branches and things at her, baring its fangs and chattering at her. Another monkey started stalking down the path behind her as she stared at the first monkey, on all fours with back arched. Other monkeys started closing in on her. She initially stood her ground, looking at them like she wasn't believing what was happening, before she finally quickly walked out of the area. The monkeys looked quite angry and aggressive, and we looked around us to see more staring at us and climbing up trees. We each picked up a branch, just in case, and then moved quickly through the area, trying not to pose too much of a threat to them. Freaky. I'd originally thought it was really cool we got to see monkeys so close up, but I wasn't so sure after that!
As it turned out, my parents and sister saw even more interesting behavior from this same group of monkeys when they'd passed through the area earlier. One of the people on the path near them had a water bottle sticking out of his backpack, and one of the monkeys actually swung down and stole the water bottle, running away with it until everyone yelled and it dropped it. It sounded like the monkeys, when they saw them, weren't being quite so aggressive with their body language, but they were certainly being bold!
On the way back, my bf and I kept hearing a howler monkey that sounded really close, but could never spot it. We finally saw a group of people off the trail, on a side path that actually had a barrier across it, staring up into a tree. We joined them and finally spotted the howler monkey lounging on a tree above. As we watched, the monkey sat up and let out a big howl, maintaining that position for a while, before finally shifting back down until it once more lay along the branch. We kept watching it, hoping it'd sit up again and howl again, but a couple rangers came along and shooed us all out of the area. As we returned to the picnic area, we saw more people staring at the sloth so we stopped to look up at it, just to make sure nothing had changed, and finally got back to the picnic table. Here, we reapplied some sunscreen, stripped off our outside clothes, put away the camera, and went to the beach for the last 1/2 hour or so before we had to return to the bus.
The sand was white but not entirely clean and nice - lots of seaweed bits, coral bits, etc, that made it less pleasant to walk/sit on. The beach that we were on also wasn't particularly deep in terms of the amount of sandy area. Rather than trying to find a clear spot to sunbathe (it was too hot anyway), we plunged right into the water. I found it a nice temperature and quickly took to it, with the water helping to wash off the sweat and heat from our hike. It wasn't as salty as the water had been by Zihuatenejo in Mexico, where we'd gone the year before - not as buoyant by far - but it was mostly kind of nice to bounce up and down in the water, except when the salt overcame my contacts and I wasn't able to open my eyes for a while for the stinging. Our friend swam out further and ended up getting stung (mildly) by a small jellyfish. That guy got bitten by *everything* - he had more bug bites than anyone, and got bitten everywhere he went, even the ocean! My bf and I stayed further inland, where we could stand up if we needed to, and ended up chatting with one of the women from our tour group, a teacher who travelled a lot. This was a pleasant way to spend some time, but the 1/2 hour went by quite quickly, and we soon had to go back, dry off, and make our way back to the bus.
Before we could leave the area, we spotted another animal - this one a brown basilisk (I think) lizard. Quite a pretty specimen, sitting right on a wood pile next to the picnic area. We snapped a few photos of that one, and then started down the path back to the entrance. We were quickly distracted, however, by the discovery that a whole bunch of white-faced monkeys had come to the area, very likely to try to scavenge food from all the tourists. They were climbing the trees on the beach, walking down the paths, and going all over the place. One bold monkey jumped right onto a garbage can right on the path. The garbage can, which hung from a frame, was tied shut with a piece of string. The monkey was clever - it jumped straight up and down a couple times, and boom, the lid was open. It balanced on the swinging can, and obviously wanted to dig in and grab food, but everytime anyone came near (and it was right on the path so people were very close), it'd stand its ground and stare at the person, ready to defend its rights to the food in the can. In the meantime, other monkeys were overhead, dropping stuff out of the trees on people, helping to defend the monkey and his can. We didn't have time to stay and watch this play out, and continued on our way, though my bf did stop a ranger to let him know a monkey had broken into one of the garbage cans.
On our way from the entrance of the park to the bus, we passed by a bunch of stands selling all sorts of stuff - beach towels, dyed cloths, t-shirts, souvenirs, etc. One stand in particular drew our attention, selling meat skewers grilling on a bbq, but before we could decide whether or not to buy one, Marcos honked the horn and Sergio gestured for us to come back to the bus. Not quite sure why, since we were actually still a bit early. Instead of our freshly grilled meat skewers, then, we ended up with rather lame box lunches that they had brought from the hotel to the bus that morning - small ham and cheese sandwiches on crustless white bread, and a collection of fruit - half-green strawberries, a banana, an apple (whose sticker proudly proclaimed it to be from Washington state), and a kind of sour greenish orange. We were hungry enough to devour it, but the prospect of unlimited snacks from the snack bar sounded more and more appealing after we ate it.
The trip back was fairly subdued - almost everyone was sleeping, worn out from the sun and the early start. I tried to stay awake and look out the window, at one point spotting a cone-shaped mountain that looked like it had smoke coming out of it (though from a different angle, it appeared to be more of a cloud that had drifted near the peak). I was really tired, though, and finally gave in and slept as well. On the way back, we saw how lucky we were - we were held up a bit at one of the bridges but the traffic coming the other way stretched way back - just stopped cars and trucks in a long single-file line, waiting for their turn on the bridge. The line entering Manuel Antonio Park was also really long, so we very much thanked Sergio for getting us there so early so we didn't have to wait in line and risk being turned away (he said it'd happened only once before to a group he'd led). This time, we didn't see any macaws, but did spot another group of crocodiles (or maybe the same ones, moved further down the river) on the Rio Tarcoles. Eventually, we arrived back at the Doubletree hotel.
Since we were all rather hungry, after putting our stuff down, we quickly met up at the snack bar to feed ourselves. The food ended up being just ok - burgers and hot dogs of indifferent quality, as well as a big bin of arroz con beef ;) - looked like arroz con pollo, except with beef instead of chicken. It was good enough for us hungry people though. We also grabbed drinks from the outdoor bar. This drink was the reason I can no longer say I've never had a drink - I got a Coco Amore, like the one my sister had gotten the other day, except without the vodka. What I hadn't anticipated was that when you ask them to leave out an ingredient, they double up on another one to make up for it, and my bartender chose to double up on the amaretto. The alcohol taste was almost too overwhelming and unpleasant for me, but just on the border...for the most part the coconut and almond taste were enough to make it taste good to me. I was jealous though, when my sister came by later and saw what I got, she asked for a Coco Amore without vodka as well but *her* bartender made her one with double the coconut. I would have liked that better. After the beach and the eating, none of us really wanted to get in the pool (which also wasn't that clean looking), so instead we found some lounge chairs by the pool (inadvertently sitting near some tour group members). We ended up chatting with the two women, finding that they were both quite interesting, and one really funny. This was a nice relaxing time - we occasionally ventured across the way to get stuff from the bar (I got a virgin pina colada for my second drink), but otherwise just chatted or read, or relaxed.
As it got dark, we stopped to look at the sunset (not nearly as spectacular because the sky was completely clear), and then wandered into the lobby, which was well lit and had a number of comfortable chairs and low tables. We ended up whiling away the next couple hours playing cards in this relaxing setting. None of us were particularly hungry due to our late snacks, so we didn't end up getting dinner until quite late, where we joined the same two women we'd chatted with by the pool. Dinner that night was supposed to be French-themed, but I failed to see the French - they had the same pasta bar again, though this time they also had "crepes", though not crepes like I'd ever seen before - I guess you got filling for the shells and then they would heat it up in sauce. What was good was that they had fresh grilled steaks cut into strips, so we were finally able to eat a lot of beef (there was almost no beef on this trip - always chicken, pork, and fish). That's what we ended up primarily eating that night. The beef was definitely not the best I'd ever had - kind of tough - but it was a nice change. After dinner, we decided to skip out on the cultural show, since it was the same as the previous night's, and headed back to our rooms to rest and go to bed.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Costa Rica - Day Seven
The funny thing about the mornings where we departed from a hotel was that we generally had to get our bags outside our door quite early - at least an hour or more before departure time. That meant that we had to finish getting ready and putting away everything - toiletries, pajamas, etc - far earlier than on other mornings, which tended to lead to fairly leisurely mornings after the initial rush. That last morning in the Arenal area, we had a leisurely breakfast (yummy syrup) and then I wandered around with my camera snapping pictures of the property. Less animals here than Laguna Lodge, but more of a scenic property with the terraced levels and cute bungalows, and cloud-shrouded non-volcano in the background.
Onto the bus and rolling down the gravel road from our hotel, when we came to a stop for an extended period of time right before the washout in the middle of the road (where a pond on one side overflowed into a waterfall right off the road into a creek). Eventually, both Marcos and Sergio got out of the bus and started poking around under one of the front tires as we peered out the window at them. Turns out one of the airbags that helps the suspension of the bus was refusing to inflate or deflate, or something, and Marcos was afraid the bus wouldn't make it over the washout. They asked everyone to move to the back of the bus to help put more weight on the back tires and take weight off the front tires. We did so, Marcos started things back up, and got us over the washout with no problem, to the cheers of everyone. We didn't suffer any further mishaps for the rest of the trip, so I guess either the air bag stopped being a problem, or it only was going to be a problem for big ditches.
As we drove out of Fortuna into the countryside, we were stunned and amazed by the extent of flooding there was everywhere. The first signs were rushing brown rivers, engorged by the rainfall of the last several days, but then we started seeing lots of standing water in fields and yards and around people's houses. Finally, we came around one corner to discover one entire field submerged in water, with a number of people standing on the road looking forlornly into the field. On the other side of the street, the ditches were full of water, and cows and horses stood on dry patches amidst marshy land. Sergio remarked that they were used to getting a few hours of a rain but that it'd rained steadily for something like 12 hours already, and the ground couldn't take it - it was oversaturated. All the flooding meant people's farmland was submerged and ruined. Who knows how many crops and how much of a setback that rain was to the people living and farming in the area? It was kind of sad.
As we continued driving, we passed through several smaller villages and some of the larger towns and cities. In every town, there was a church, a school building, and a soccer field, it seemed. In one field, we saw the biggest cattle I've seen anywhere - a big white monster with a huge hump, that dwarved all the other cattle in the field with it. Eventually, we drove into the Monteverde region, through the Children's Eternal Rainforest, which apparently was paid for by money from schoolchildren all around the globe to keep a portion of the rainforest preserved. This was rather like driving through the Braulio Cabrillo National Park early in the trip - everything was shrouded in dense fog, with a ton of moisture in the air. In fact, we even saw a number of waterfalls in one region of the preserve - waterfalls like the ones we were unable to see while driving through the Braulio Cabrillo park. I think all the increased rainfall helped increase the waterflow through the waterfalls. What was really striking was that one of the falls was bright white, but then another waterfall on the same cliffside was completely brown. Says a little about how much runoff there was from the rain, I think.
Eventually we drove out in a more open, hilly area, where the hills were covered with plantations and various cultivated plants, and the scenery was quite striking. Our only stop for the day was in this region, at a cloudforest reserve for a hike into the cloudforest. Cloudforests differ from rainforests in that they largely consist of regions of high humidity, but less rain. There was also something about how the winds converged in the region, but I don't remember the explanation for that. We were split into two groups, and each group was handed a bunch of bamboo walking sticks, and assigned a guide. I don't remember our guide's name, but he was quite informative and interesting. He showed us a pretty pink flower growing by the side of the path, the impatiens, and talked about how he'd heard it was a popular flower in the US, but in Costa Rica, it was a weed. Grew everywhere, and you couldn't stop it from spreading. He told us how the impatiens was like a natural repellent - and possibly also good for stopping itches from bug bites, we weren't entirely clear. Possibly good at both - repelling insects and helping heal the itches when you *were* bitten. In fact, for both the rainforest and the cloudforest hikes, our guides told us about the medicinal value of various plants, most of which involved boiling the particular plant and making a tea or something out of it, and then drinking it each day to help cure various ailments. Just like the various edibles of the rainforest, however, I've completely forgotten what the plants were or what they were for, so I'd just go on being sick.
Some of the highlights of the cloudforest hike were the feeding gallery where they'd set up a few feeders to attract the various birds, particularly various Tanagers, as well as a hummingbird feeder that attracted at least four or five varieties of hummingbirds in the time we stared at it (we passed it both coming and going). Our guide also told us about epiphytes, and how they weren't parasites, but then showed us a true parasite of the forest - the ficus tree which wraps around another tree, eventually strangling it to death until what remains is the ficus wrapped around a dead tree. He showed us one example where the ficus had completely killed the tree inside so that the middle was hollow and we could walk right through. Later in the hike, I spotted another one and asked him about it. In that case, it turned out, the host tree had not yet been killed but you could see places where the ficus roots or limbs had wrapped around the trunk of the host tree and penetrated inwards, thus beginning the strangulation process. Not only that, but there were actually two different ficus contending for that tree. Poor thing never had a chance. Our guide pointed out the red bananas which he said weren't really edible (which is odd b/c I see them sold at our grocery store, but maybe it's a different variety), another huge leaf-cutter nest (he told us some more about the leaf-cutter society and what they do with the leaves), and pointed out interesting facts about the various types of plants you find in the cloud forest. At one point, someone noticed a big black millipede on the path. When he saw us all crowded around trying to take photos, he went and just picked it right up so we could see it better. Apparently that kind of millipede isn't poisonous or anything, but will sometimes curl up into a tight little ball if frightened. I guess crawling around a guy's hand didn't frighten it at all since he even tried poking it a little to make it curl up, and it'd just unwind and keep crawling all over, until he finally put it back down. We eventually found our way back to the hummingbird feeder, where we stopped and watched for a while longer. I always thought that hummingbirds *had* to keep their wings flapping quickly to keep their hearts beating or their metabolism going or something to that effect, but that can't possibly be true since I saw several hummingbirds fly and just perch on a branch. And in a couple cases, apparently the hummingbirds at the feeder would get tired of beating their wings to hover in place, and just come to rest on the feeder, gripping with their feet while they greedily drank. Lazy birds =). It was pretty cool, though, since this second time by the feeder produced even more varieties of hummingbird for us to look at.
Eventually, though, our guide herded us back to our bus since we were only supposed to be at the cloudforest reserve for like a 45 minute hike, and then we had to be on our way. We climbed back out of the cloudforest area and picked up the tour members who'd opted not to go on the hike (I guess maybe b/c it was once again pretty rainy and cold). We stopped at a cloud forest restaurant to get lunch - here was where I mistook cabbage salad/slaw for arroz con pollo, thus accidentally telling my bf not to bother with the white rice and ending up with no rice at all. My excuse is that the food was at a long cafeteria line type thing where you slid your tray down and asked them to add stuff to your plate, and so I was preplanning while craning my neck at the food from a distance, and trying not to take too much food. My bad. During lunch, there was a TV in the corner playing some really cheesy soap opera which had to do with angels and heaven and some girl who was dying, and some romance, and people in white outfits and fake wings, and lots of overdramatic acting. There was no sound (not that any of us understood Spanish), so we were having fun speculating on what was going on. We were among the last to get our food, and wondered where everyone else had disappeared to as we finished eating. Turns out there was a gift shop next door that was actually one of the best ones I'd seen all trip - large, with a huge selection of stuff - wood stuff, photo albums made of leaves and banana paper, banana/coffee paper pads, t-shirts, etc etc - and one of the cheapest as well. Since I'd already bought a lot of wood stuff, I had to refrain from looking too carefully at their selection, but I gave in and picked up a photo album to put some Costa Rica photos in, and at the very last minute as I went to checkout, found a wooden bracelet that I really liked for $4, so I had to pick that up as well. My bf got himself a Costa Rica t-shirt, and poor Sergio ended up standing by the cash register, trying to hurry us back to the bus, since everyone was taking so long. It must be a pain trying to get 44 people moving on schedule! Luckily, the rest of the tour group was in the store too, so it wasn't just us holding things up.
That was our last stop until we reached the Doubletree Resort in Puntarenas on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica (Arenal was somewhere in the middle). It was still quite a drive from the cloud forest restaurant to the Pacific Coast, so we didn't reach the Doubletree until late afternoon, after driving through several more towns and cities. Apparently the Doubletree/Hilton management had only taken over this hotel at the New Year, so they were still in transition, to a certain extent. Doubletree completely embraced Caravan - they had a special orientation set up for incoming Caravan groups in one of the conference rooms, where they gave us fresh-baked cookies and greeted us with information about their events, food, schedules, etc. We were given all-inclusive bracelets, which meant we could get unlimited food and drinks (including alcohol) at any of the bars and restaurants on the resort at any time. Of all the hotels we stayed at, the Doubletree was definitely the most resort-like - several pools, bars, restaurants, dance lessons, pool volleyball, beach volleyball, tennis courts, shows at night, etc. We were assigned our rooms (my bf and I discovered that the signage was very lame when we followed the signs and ended up walking down all four sides of a square to find our room halfway down the fourth side, instead of walking the short half-hallway from the front desk to our room), and went to settle in. We ended up having to wheel my parents' suitcases over to their room because they had sent all the suitcases with my last name to my room. Only such mixup all trip. The rooms were a bit disappointing - they had the Hilton/Doubletree bedding and amenities like nice thick towels and such, but they smelled musty and dank, and they were kind of dim and not particularly attractive. This seems to have been leftover from the previous hotel. While my bf and I had a room with a view of one of the pools, my parents' room had a view (almost) of the ocean - it actually was a view of the small hill between the ocean and the room, but if you walked out from their room, you were a short walk from a gorgeous view. We ended up staking out some lounge chairs facing the ocean along the top of the small hill. My bf went with the guy we were hanging out with to get some drinks, and brought me back a delicious virgin pina colada (I'm not a drinker, so that biases me, but I swear pina coladas are way better if you leave out the rum). I love getting that kind of drink in tropical areas because they use real coconut cream and it is so yummy. We all hung out, watching the sunset, which was really spectacular since the sky was quite cloudy, creating gorgeous patterns and colors.
After the sunset, the four of us young people went off in search of activities for the next day. On the schedule was a trip to the Manuel Antonio Park, which was supposed to have some gorgeous beaches and interesting wildlife, but it was a four hour roundtrip busride to get there, starting off at like 6:30AM or earlier. After spending all day on the bus, no one was looking forward to a four hour roundtrip bus ride, especially since we were only spending like an hour and a half at Manuel Antonio. I had originally wanted to go to the park, but it started to sound less appealing when people put it that way. Talking to the hotel people, we found an interesting looking ziplining company that involved horseback riding to the ziplines, ziplining over waterfalls and canyons, then rappeling down a waterfall, and swimming in the waterfall pool, which sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, they would only send transportation for a minimum of six people (plus it was $99 for the whole package, including transportation and lunch, per person). We spent quite a lot of time trying to find other people who would go with us, wandering around to see if we could find other tour group members, hanging out in central locations and approaching anyone who looked familiar, etc. We actually talked to several members of the tour for the first time that way. In fact, we got to chatting and meeting more of the tour members at the Doubletree than we had for the six days preceding. It was that kind of relaxing place. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any takers - most people just wanted to relax at the resort. We eventually had to give up that idea (and also decided against a different "adventure park" whose highlight feature was a "Superman" zipline - a single line, 3000ft (I think) long, where you rode facing down in a "superman" position instead of facing up, like a typical zip line. That would have been neat, but we decided it wasn't worth the price). We went by the bar that was between the two sections of the buffet restaurant, started chatting with another few people from our tour, and checked out the interesting list of cocktails. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't drink, and am often quite proud of proclaiming that I never have had a drink, just a sip. Can't claim that anymore, though I didn't start that night. That night, I had a sip of my sister's "Coco Amore" (I think it was called) - amaretto, vodka, coconut cream, and evaporated milk, and it was yummy, despite that afterburn of alcohol I don't like. I do love the amaretto flavor - and the coconut cream.
Dinner at the Doubletree was disappointing. They were having an "Italian night" and the food was uninspired. Lots of it, yes. Chefs there to cook up your pasta concoction (you chose what you wanted to put on it, handed it to them, and they basically mixed it up and heated it on the stove, added sauce, and handed it back to you), a meat carving station, salad bar, etc, big dessert bar... but the food was pretty bleah. Actually, our assessment of the food at the various hotels was that Laguna had the best drinks (yummy different juices every day) and Lomas del Volcan had the best food (not that many choices but tasty, filling ones), while Doubletree had the worst food, and Barcelo was somewhere in between. The restaurant area was interesting though - it was this big high roof that didn't appear to have any supports in the middle, just crossbeaming up in the roof, and it was open on the sides to the pool. It was a cute area to eat, even if the food wasn't much good. Somewhere along the line here, we decided to go to Manuel Antonio after all since we'd seemed to exhaust a lot of the possibilities of the Doubletree already, and we didn't really want to just sit around all day. That meant we needed to get an early start, despite having had dinner around like 8pm. We didn't go to bed early though - we stayed up to check out the "cultural show" around 9:15PM, out of curiousity. This ended up being pretty boring. We'd been warned that Costa Rica wasn't long on culture (more on nature), but we thought it could be interesting, but the first three acts were just girls of various ages performing dances that seemed to largely consist of swishing their skirts. This could have been interesting except it felt a lot like an amateur talent show - varying degrees of talent, girls watching each other to see what to do next, etc. Then a moderately talented singer came on and warbled for a while. My bf had bailed by then, but we stuck it out until we discovered the next act was the skirt-swishing girls again, at which point we all left. It wasn't just us young people either - our friend's parents had left earlier, and my parents left shortly after us. We all decided to hit the sack, since we had to be up super-early for Manuel Antonio the next day.
Onto the bus and rolling down the gravel road from our hotel, when we came to a stop for an extended period of time right before the washout in the middle of the road (where a pond on one side overflowed into a waterfall right off the road into a creek). Eventually, both Marcos and Sergio got out of the bus and started poking around under one of the front tires as we peered out the window at them. Turns out one of the airbags that helps the suspension of the bus was refusing to inflate or deflate, or something, and Marcos was afraid the bus wouldn't make it over the washout. They asked everyone to move to the back of the bus to help put more weight on the back tires and take weight off the front tires. We did so, Marcos started things back up, and got us over the washout with no problem, to the cheers of everyone. We didn't suffer any further mishaps for the rest of the trip, so I guess either the air bag stopped being a problem, or it only was going to be a problem for big ditches.
As we drove out of Fortuna into the countryside, we were stunned and amazed by the extent of flooding there was everywhere. The first signs were rushing brown rivers, engorged by the rainfall of the last several days, but then we started seeing lots of standing water in fields and yards and around people's houses. Finally, we came around one corner to discover one entire field submerged in water, with a number of people standing on the road looking forlornly into the field. On the other side of the street, the ditches were full of water, and cows and horses stood on dry patches amidst marshy land. Sergio remarked that they were used to getting a few hours of a rain but that it'd rained steadily for something like 12 hours already, and the ground couldn't take it - it was oversaturated. All the flooding meant people's farmland was submerged and ruined. Who knows how many crops and how much of a setback that rain was to the people living and farming in the area? It was kind of sad.
As we continued driving, we passed through several smaller villages and some of the larger towns and cities. In every town, there was a church, a school building, and a soccer field, it seemed. In one field, we saw the biggest cattle I've seen anywhere - a big white monster with a huge hump, that dwarved all the other cattle in the field with it. Eventually, we drove into the Monteverde region, through the Children's Eternal Rainforest, which apparently was paid for by money from schoolchildren all around the globe to keep a portion of the rainforest preserved. This was rather like driving through the Braulio Cabrillo National Park early in the trip - everything was shrouded in dense fog, with a ton of moisture in the air. In fact, we even saw a number of waterfalls in one region of the preserve - waterfalls like the ones we were unable to see while driving through the Braulio Cabrillo park. I think all the increased rainfall helped increase the waterflow through the waterfalls. What was really striking was that one of the falls was bright white, but then another waterfall on the same cliffside was completely brown. Says a little about how much runoff there was from the rain, I think.
Eventually we drove out in a more open, hilly area, where the hills were covered with plantations and various cultivated plants, and the scenery was quite striking. Our only stop for the day was in this region, at a cloudforest reserve for a hike into the cloudforest. Cloudforests differ from rainforests in that they largely consist of regions of high humidity, but less rain. There was also something about how the winds converged in the region, but I don't remember the explanation for that. We were split into two groups, and each group was handed a bunch of bamboo walking sticks, and assigned a guide. I don't remember our guide's name, but he was quite informative and interesting. He showed us a pretty pink flower growing by the side of the path, the impatiens, and talked about how he'd heard it was a popular flower in the US, but in Costa Rica, it was a weed. Grew everywhere, and you couldn't stop it from spreading. He told us how the impatiens was like a natural repellent - and possibly also good for stopping itches from bug bites, we weren't entirely clear. Possibly good at both - repelling insects and helping heal the itches when you *were* bitten. In fact, for both the rainforest and the cloudforest hikes, our guides told us about the medicinal value of various plants, most of which involved boiling the particular plant and making a tea or something out of it, and then drinking it each day to help cure various ailments. Just like the various edibles of the rainforest, however, I've completely forgotten what the plants were or what they were for, so I'd just go on being sick.
Some of the highlights of the cloudforest hike were the feeding gallery where they'd set up a few feeders to attract the various birds, particularly various Tanagers, as well as a hummingbird feeder that attracted at least four or five varieties of hummingbirds in the time we stared at it (we passed it both coming and going). Our guide also told us about epiphytes, and how they weren't parasites, but then showed us a true parasite of the forest - the ficus tree which wraps around another tree, eventually strangling it to death until what remains is the ficus wrapped around a dead tree. He showed us one example where the ficus had completely killed the tree inside so that the middle was hollow and we could walk right through. Later in the hike, I spotted another one and asked him about it. In that case, it turned out, the host tree had not yet been killed but you could see places where the ficus roots or limbs had wrapped around the trunk of the host tree and penetrated inwards, thus beginning the strangulation process. Not only that, but there were actually two different ficus contending for that tree. Poor thing never had a chance. Our guide pointed out the red bananas which he said weren't really edible (which is odd b/c I see them sold at our grocery store, but maybe it's a different variety), another huge leaf-cutter nest (he told us some more about the leaf-cutter society and what they do with the leaves), and pointed out interesting facts about the various types of plants you find in the cloud forest. At one point, someone noticed a big black millipede on the path. When he saw us all crowded around trying to take photos, he went and just picked it right up so we could see it better. Apparently that kind of millipede isn't poisonous or anything, but will sometimes curl up into a tight little ball if frightened. I guess crawling around a guy's hand didn't frighten it at all since he even tried poking it a little to make it curl up, and it'd just unwind and keep crawling all over, until he finally put it back down. We eventually found our way back to the hummingbird feeder, where we stopped and watched for a while longer. I always thought that hummingbirds *had* to keep their wings flapping quickly to keep their hearts beating or their metabolism going or something to that effect, but that can't possibly be true since I saw several hummingbirds fly and just perch on a branch. And in a couple cases, apparently the hummingbirds at the feeder would get tired of beating their wings to hover in place, and just come to rest on the feeder, gripping with their feet while they greedily drank. Lazy birds =). It was pretty cool, though, since this second time by the feeder produced even more varieties of hummingbird for us to look at.
Eventually, though, our guide herded us back to our bus since we were only supposed to be at the cloudforest reserve for like a 45 minute hike, and then we had to be on our way. We climbed back out of the cloudforest area and picked up the tour members who'd opted not to go on the hike (I guess maybe b/c it was once again pretty rainy and cold). We stopped at a cloud forest restaurant to get lunch - here was where I mistook cabbage salad/slaw for arroz con pollo, thus accidentally telling my bf not to bother with the white rice and ending up with no rice at all. My excuse is that the food was at a long cafeteria line type thing where you slid your tray down and asked them to add stuff to your plate, and so I was preplanning while craning my neck at the food from a distance, and trying not to take too much food. My bad. During lunch, there was a TV in the corner playing some really cheesy soap opera which had to do with angels and heaven and some girl who was dying, and some romance, and people in white outfits and fake wings, and lots of overdramatic acting. There was no sound (not that any of us understood Spanish), so we were having fun speculating on what was going on. We were among the last to get our food, and wondered where everyone else had disappeared to as we finished eating. Turns out there was a gift shop next door that was actually one of the best ones I'd seen all trip - large, with a huge selection of stuff - wood stuff, photo albums made of leaves and banana paper, banana/coffee paper pads, t-shirts, etc etc - and one of the cheapest as well. Since I'd already bought a lot of wood stuff, I had to refrain from looking too carefully at their selection, but I gave in and picked up a photo album to put some Costa Rica photos in, and at the very last minute as I went to checkout, found a wooden bracelet that I really liked for $4, so I had to pick that up as well. My bf got himself a Costa Rica t-shirt, and poor Sergio ended up standing by the cash register, trying to hurry us back to the bus, since everyone was taking so long. It must be a pain trying to get 44 people moving on schedule! Luckily, the rest of the tour group was in the store too, so it wasn't just us holding things up.
That was our last stop until we reached the Doubletree Resort in Puntarenas on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica (Arenal was somewhere in the middle). It was still quite a drive from the cloud forest restaurant to the Pacific Coast, so we didn't reach the Doubletree until late afternoon, after driving through several more towns and cities. Apparently the Doubletree/Hilton management had only taken over this hotel at the New Year, so they were still in transition, to a certain extent. Doubletree completely embraced Caravan - they had a special orientation set up for incoming Caravan groups in one of the conference rooms, where they gave us fresh-baked cookies and greeted us with information about their events, food, schedules, etc. We were given all-inclusive bracelets, which meant we could get unlimited food and drinks (including alcohol) at any of the bars and restaurants on the resort at any time. Of all the hotels we stayed at, the Doubletree was definitely the most resort-like - several pools, bars, restaurants, dance lessons, pool volleyball, beach volleyball, tennis courts, shows at night, etc. We were assigned our rooms (my bf and I discovered that the signage was very lame when we followed the signs and ended up walking down all four sides of a square to find our room halfway down the fourth side, instead of walking the short half-hallway from the front desk to our room), and went to settle in. We ended up having to wheel my parents' suitcases over to their room because they had sent all the suitcases with my last name to my room. Only such mixup all trip. The rooms were a bit disappointing - they had the Hilton/Doubletree bedding and amenities like nice thick towels and such, but they smelled musty and dank, and they were kind of dim and not particularly attractive. This seems to have been leftover from the previous hotel. While my bf and I had a room with a view of one of the pools, my parents' room had a view (almost) of the ocean - it actually was a view of the small hill between the ocean and the room, but if you walked out from their room, you were a short walk from a gorgeous view. We ended up staking out some lounge chairs facing the ocean along the top of the small hill. My bf went with the guy we were hanging out with to get some drinks, and brought me back a delicious virgin pina colada (I'm not a drinker, so that biases me, but I swear pina coladas are way better if you leave out the rum). I love getting that kind of drink in tropical areas because they use real coconut cream and it is so yummy. We all hung out, watching the sunset, which was really spectacular since the sky was quite cloudy, creating gorgeous patterns and colors.
After the sunset, the four of us young people went off in search of activities for the next day. On the schedule was a trip to the Manuel Antonio Park, which was supposed to have some gorgeous beaches and interesting wildlife, but it was a four hour roundtrip busride to get there, starting off at like 6:30AM or earlier. After spending all day on the bus, no one was looking forward to a four hour roundtrip bus ride, especially since we were only spending like an hour and a half at Manuel Antonio. I had originally wanted to go to the park, but it started to sound less appealing when people put it that way. Talking to the hotel people, we found an interesting looking ziplining company that involved horseback riding to the ziplines, ziplining over waterfalls and canyons, then rappeling down a waterfall, and swimming in the waterfall pool, which sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, they would only send transportation for a minimum of six people (plus it was $99 for the whole package, including transportation and lunch, per person). We spent quite a lot of time trying to find other people who would go with us, wandering around to see if we could find other tour group members, hanging out in central locations and approaching anyone who looked familiar, etc. We actually talked to several members of the tour for the first time that way. In fact, we got to chatting and meeting more of the tour members at the Doubletree than we had for the six days preceding. It was that kind of relaxing place. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any takers - most people just wanted to relax at the resort. We eventually had to give up that idea (and also decided against a different "adventure park" whose highlight feature was a "Superman" zipline - a single line, 3000ft (I think) long, where you rode facing down in a "superman" position instead of facing up, like a typical zip line. That would have been neat, but we decided it wasn't worth the price). We went by the bar that was between the two sections of the buffet restaurant, started chatting with another few people from our tour, and checked out the interesting list of cocktails. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't drink, and am often quite proud of proclaiming that I never have had a drink, just a sip. Can't claim that anymore, though I didn't start that night. That night, I had a sip of my sister's "Coco Amore" (I think it was called) - amaretto, vodka, coconut cream, and evaporated milk, and it was yummy, despite that afterburn of alcohol I don't like. I do love the amaretto flavor - and the coconut cream.
Dinner at the Doubletree was disappointing. They were having an "Italian night" and the food was uninspired. Lots of it, yes. Chefs there to cook up your pasta concoction (you chose what you wanted to put on it, handed it to them, and they basically mixed it up and heated it on the stove, added sauce, and handed it back to you), a meat carving station, salad bar, etc, big dessert bar... but the food was pretty bleah. Actually, our assessment of the food at the various hotels was that Laguna had the best drinks (yummy different juices every day) and Lomas del Volcan had the best food (not that many choices but tasty, filling ones), while Doubletree had the worst food, and Barcelo was somewhere in between. The restaurant area was interesting though - it was this big high roof that didn't appear to have any supports in the middle, just crossbeaming up in the roof, and it was open on the sides to the pool. It was a cute area to eat, even if the food wasn't much good. Somewhere along the line here, we decided to go to Manuel Antonio after all since we'd seemed to exhaust a lot of the possibilities of the Doubletree already, and we didn't really want to just sit around all day. That meant we needed to get an early start, despite having had dinner around like 8pm. We didn't go to bed early though - we stayed up to check out the "cultural show" around 9:15PM, out of curiousity. This ended up being pretty boring. We'd been warned that Costa Rica wasn't long on culture (more on nature), but we thought it could be interesting, but the first three acts were just girls of various ages performing dances that seemed to largely consist of swishing their skirts. This could have been interesting except it felt a lot like an amateur talent show - varying degrees of talent, girls watching each other to see what to do next, etc. Then a moderately talented singer came on and warbled for a while. My bf had bailed by then, but we stuck it out until we discovered the next act was the skirt-swishing girls again, at which point we all left. It wasn't just us young people either - our friend's parents had left earlier, and my parents left shortly after us. We all decided to hit the sack, since we had to be up super-early for Manuel Antonio the next day.
Costa Rica - Day Six
I was woken early in the morning on day six to the sound of pouring rain drumming off our rooftop and running down the gutters onto the ground, and wind whistling through the trees. I drifted back to sleep only to be woken again at 5:30AM to the sound of howler monkeys in the trees outside. This wasn't as bad as it could have been, given that we were planning to get up at 6AM anyway. I was deeply amused though - every time the rain gained in intensity, the howlers would set off enthusiastically and loudly roaring away, and then the rain would die down and the howlers would subsist. Then the rain would fall harder and they'd start howling again. It was almost like they were either objecting loudly to getting wet, or letting each other know it was raining. "Hey guys, it's raining! Dude! Check it out! It's raining! I'm getting wet, this sucks, man!"
Luckily for us, the absolute drenching downpour seemed to have subsided into more of a periodic drizzle by the time we went out at 7AM to meet our transportation to SkyTrek. A van pulled up to the hotel's reception area, the driver introduced himself, and off we went. SkyTrek was located on the other side of the volcano from the hotel, on the more active side, and also on the side where Arenal Lake was located. It was approximately a 30-35 minute drive that started on the gravel road from our hotel, went on paved roads for a while, and then went approximately 7km on another unpaved road that was utterly pitted with potholes to get to SkyTrek. That was an interesting drive - our driver would drive practically in the drainage ditch at times to avoid them, cross over to the other side of the street at other times, and sometimes, when it was unavoidable, drive right over the series of potholes. We were circling the volcano the whole time, but the whole time, it was shrouded in fog.
Upon arrival at the SkyTrek departure point, we spent some time staring at a poster they had up illustrating all their ziplines and their lengths. Somehow, in that short amount of time, my bf memorized all the numbers - he says "I know numbers. I also know fear of death." There were eight lines total. The first two were training lines, fairly short, but after that the remaining lines (except the last, which was mainly to get back to ground level) were all 1500 ft or more long. The highest one off the ground (which was also the third longest) was 660 ft high. The longest one was 2460 ft, or about 1/2 a mile. Actually, looking at the poster now, the exact lengths were 65ft, 82ft, 1525ft, 1476ft, 1344ft, 2000ft, 2460ft, and 164ft. Right around this time, looking at the specs (and then going to look off the back of the building at the view below), my bf and sister were both reiterating my insanity (if I'm insane, why are *they* going?) and apprehensive. They took us into a side room, where we were each fitted out with harnesses, helmets and gloves (which all went on over our shells/raincoats, which we definitely needed since it kept raining). Our group turned out to be 10 people plus two guides - two Costa Rican couples who mostly spoke Spanish but did understand enough English to be very amused by us, a mother and her teenage son, and the four of us. The two guides, Leo and Jaz (sp??) were great - Leo in particular was very funny and personable, but also very responsible. Both guides made sure we understood everything thoroughly, and both were very careful about safety.
We started off with a tram ride up into hills/mountainside. The SkyTram only had 3 cars, each of which held 6 people (I think), which meant that they could take a maximum of 16 people up (with two guides). This was nice, because it meant less waiting. The other group of people from our tour group who went to the other place said they had a group of like 20+ which meant they had to do a lot of waiting at each intermediate platform. The tram ride itself wasn't particularly interesting - we passed through/over a lot of trees, and eventually got a pretty decent view of Arenal Lake, but like the rainforest aerial tram, we couldn't see animals b/c they stayed away from the tram. Once on top, Leo and Jaz carefully explained to us the position we needed to get into (basically, they hook the harness to the line with two lines, the harness is attached to your midsection, so you're supposed to lay back, hold onto the bar attached to the pulley on the line, and keep your legs bent and up). They told us what to do if we ended up stopping before the end of the line (but only if you're near the end. They didn't tell us what to do if you stop in the middle but that didn't end up being an issue). You're supposed to grab the line with both hands, front and back of the pulley, turn yourself around, and then walk yourself hand over hand up the line until you reach the platform. They explained the braking system to us - how there was a 3 pulley system on each platform that they would operate so we wouldn't have to worry about braking ourselves. All we really had to do was get in the right position and hold it, and the rest of the work would be done for us by gravity and the guides.
The first two lines were training runs - the first one just went from the SkyTram platform to a small platform not far off, and not far down. The second one went from that platform to another one below the SkyTram platform (Jaz walked from the SkyTram platform to the second platform, which tells you how close it was). The first run was to "practice best position." The second was to "practice better position." My little sister surprised me - despite her fear she stepped up to be one of the first to go, and after going on that first line, had completely changed her mind about ziplining - she was having the time of her life and her fear seems to have evaporated. My bf took longer - he was ok on those first two lines because they weren't high up, but when we got to the second platform, looking at that line disappearing into the mist (this was the highest line - 660 ft at its highest point over a canyon - and the third longest line), he was not a happy camper. However, there was another woman in our party - the mother of the teenage son - who was even more terrified. She went because her son wanted to go and her husband really didn't, but it was clear the whole thing just freaked her out. She was very funny about it, though - both terrified and funny at the same time - and said that she and my bf were kindred spirits every time Scott said something negative or fearful about the experience. On that first long line, she said she needed to hear someone yell "It's all right!" but apparently when my bf went (after me), he led off by yelling "FUUUUCCCCKKK!!!!" (and not just to freak her out) which didn't make her feel any better. When she arrived at the next platform she was all "you didn't yell that it was all right!!".
I have to admit to a tiny bit of apprehension with that first non-training line - just how would it be to go that far for that long? - but mostly just excited anticipation. It was a bit eerie how the line just disappeared into the mist so you couldn't see where it went (though at one point the mist did clear long enough for us to squint at the platform on the other side before it came back). The way the whole guide thing went was that one stayed behind to attach each of us to the line, coordinate via walkie talkie with the other guy, and then send us on our way, while the other guy would go on ahead to get to the platform first so he could brake us. That first line was a bit of a learning experience. I learned that ziplining is both fun and also somewhat uncomfortable, since all your weight is resting on the harness straps. I learned you can't really see anything unless you look around, because the riding position is facing upwards, so you don't actually get a sense for how high you are. And if you look around, you need to be careful how you do it, because you may end up twisting, which slows you down. I learned that if you zipline in the rain, the force of the rain hitting your face is kind of painful, and that you get splattered with mud/dirty stuff coming off the rope via the pulley (though you don't always realize it until someone else tells you you're filthy and you notice they are too). And I learned that ziplining is really fun and exhilarating, that the speeds are awesome (at least if you go with SkyTrek), and that you get a great view of Arenal Lake with absolutely nothing (except maybe your own arm) obstructing your view as you cross the canyon on the zipline. My bf later said that the height and the fog lent to a kind of sense of detachment and unreality so your brain didn't fully comprehend just how high you really were, and therefore made it easier to deal with it.
On that first non-training line, I was a little paranoid I wouldn't know when I reached the end, since we were supposed to uncross our legs and keep them in a kind of outstretched V-shape so if we braked suddenly, we wouldn't swing up and hit our feet on the line. As a result, I tried too hard to look around my legs and see what was going on, therefore not riding in the "best position" and ended up slowing down too much and not making it all the way to the braking zone. I therefore had to use the technique they had taught us (with much prompting from the guide) and pull myself hand over hand back up to the platform. I was apparently not the only one in this position. The freaked out mom, though, had no such problems. I guess she was so scared she just stayed in the best position possible, basically curled up in a little ball with her legs firmly up as far as she could get them, determined not to get stuck anywhere in the middle. As a consequence, she tended to come speeding into the braking area like a bullet, shooting all the way to the end at top speed. The guides were quite amused by her and rather impressed by just how good of a position she managed to achieve in her terror. After the fifth or sixth line, Leo was like "you are the fastest person I've seen! Oh my God!" In fact, when we got to the fastest line (the seventh one - also the longest one), he told all of us to relax our positions and told her in particular not to do "better" or even "best" form - she was to ride along with her legs *down* and apart to keep herself from going too fast.
My sister and I were having the time of our lives, just enjoying the hell out of the ziplining and looking around to take in the view (I remember the first time I saw her doing it - you could see her helmeted head turning from side to side as she went). My bf was having more of a "ahhh! oh fuck oh fuck..i hate you!... wheeeeee!!! ah!!! oh fuck oh fuck!" experience - fear at the beginning and end of each run but fun in the middle. When we got to the sixth line, the second longest, and slowest line (it dipped down but then went back up again to get to the platform), Leo volunteered to take our cameras with him, and take photos of each of us as we arrived (with a prearranged order of camera use). I think this was because we'd be going slow enough we wouldn't need him to brake us so he could use his hands to operate the cameras. We gave him our camera first, and he ended up asking us if it was ok if he took a video with it. We didn't mind having a video, though we weren't sure we had disk space, so we ended up saying yes, and got a great souvenir. The video shows the lake, he dips it down to show the trees below, swings it around to show himself, and then shows the trajectory of the line as it goes past a bunch of trees (I didn't actually realize how close those trees were until I saw his video) until he reaches the landing. Only one of the guides could have taken this since the rest of us firmly had both hands on the handle. My bf did some math based on knowing how long the line is, and how long the video is, and estimated that he averaged about 34mph. Keep in mind this was the slowest of the real lines (not counting the first two or the last one), and you'll get an idea of the speeds at which we were going. So much fun. On the minus side, I'd forgotten about the photo at the other end, so didn't remember to put my legs down (which he was yelling at me to do but I didn't comprehend), so the photo he got of me is basically of my butt and my legs, way up in the air, which is rather amusing. Oh well.
Actually, did I say I had my hands firmly on the handle the whole time? There was one line where for some reason I thought it felt like my helmet might be blowing off (it was firmly strapped to my chin so I didn't expect to lose it, just thought it was slipping back) so I forgot myself and let go with one hand to try to check where it was. Apparently holding on with one hand makes you twist a bit. Putting my hand back on the handle fixed it, though, and since this was the fastest line, it didn't end up slowing me down unduly either. But..oops =).
On that second to last line - the 1/2 mile long line - I got a nice, prolonged view of the lake below, which was really quite pretty. Unfortunately, because I was going so fast, and because the skies chose to rain on me (it'd been raining on and off intermittently all morning), the raindrops hitting my face got quite painful so I was struggling to keep my eyes open to look around, while at the same time squinting in pain. Ow ow ow! That particular line also went through a stand of trees, which I wanted to look around at, but again, rain. It'd be interesting to try the ziplining thing again when it wasn't raining, because it must be quite exhilarating without being quite so painful ;).
The second to last line took us to a raised platform that kind of looked like a suspension bridge, except it was a bridge that connected open air to a spiral staircase, so not so much. This actually was the part of the whole experience my bf had the most problem with, since being able to see the ground and the tops of the trees far below him when he's not on solid ground is unnerving to him. The spiral staircase, in particular, where you could see through the grating of the stairs to the ground below while going around and around... In fact, I think if the trip hadn't more or less ended with this bridge and staircase (the last line was a short one from the bottom of the stairs to the parking lot), my bf's overall impression of ziplining might have been better. What can you do? In the meantime, the freaked out mom was telling her son that after this, she'd fulfilled her obligations of doing anything like this again - more ziplining, rollercoasters, whatever. I think they might actually have gone ziplining again later in the trip, though, because we heard them say something about having another trip planned. I wonder if she blew those guides away with her speed of landing as well?
After we'd gotten back on the ground, gotten our equipment off, thanked (and tipped) our guides, and wiped off our faces with the towels they provided, we ventured into the gift shop where we discovered much better prices on the wood stuff than we'd seen so far. My bf and I ended up buying a wooden turtle that's really quite pretty (but we have nowhere to put it), a set of coasters (not quite as pretty, but the coasters were each made from the wood of a different tree, which was interesting), and I got a SkyTrek t-shirt since it was the neatest thing we'd done on the trip thus far. Unfortunately, it turned out that their "adult medium" (which was the largest size they had) seemed to be more like a child's size - it's way too tight and way too small, but I couldn't try it on there so I didn't know. C'est la vie. We then realized that the shuttle driver had been waiting for us, so we quickly piled back into the van, and back to Lomas del Volcan we went.
With all the babbling I just did, you would think that our ziplining took us all day, but we were back at the hotel by 10:30 or 11 or so. We were all hungry since we'd missed breakfast (they started serving at 7am) and lunch wasn't until 12 or 12:30. My sister realized she was locked out of her room since my parents had gone on the Cano Negro trip and taken the only room key with them. We ended up bumming around the gift shop for a while (where I bought another shirt - a cute blue tie-died tank with "The happiest monkey in the rainforest" in front - apparently once I opened the floodgates on buying souvenirs, I charged right through). They had a computer with free internet there, so we took turns checking our mail. As far as the official schedule went, they weren't supposed to return from Cano Negro until 2pm, though Caravan had arranged with the hotel to provide lunch for those of us that didn't go. At 2pm, the rest of the group would be taken directly to downtown Fortuna to explore the town, and then around 4pm, it was time to go to the Baldi Hot Springs. We were kind of curious to try eating in Fortuna at an actual restaurant or cafe, instead of a pre-arranged buffet meal, but none of us really wanted to explore downtown Fortuna for 4 hours. On the other hand, we were too hungry to wait until 2pm or whenever to eat. We decided to try to eat a light meal at the hotel and then take a taxi into town, where we'd try to find something more unique to eat.
At lunch, they had a number of dishes, including a rice dish that seemed kind of like fried rice - kind of stir-fried rice with chicken and some other stuff. We fed ourselves, trying not to overindulge, and I took advantage of the opportunity to write my postcards. I figured, halfway through the trip I had enough to write about, plus this was a rare extended period of downtime. While I was doing this, my bf was poking through my Lonely Planet book, trying to figure out where we could try eating. He sketched out a rough map of downtown Fortuna (which essentially consisted of two long parallel streets on either side of the central square, and then some side streets connecting them). We called a cab, and then went up to our rooms to get our stuff together (we needed our bathing suits from the hot springs since we were going directly there from Fortuna). When we came back down to the front desk, the cab was already there, but I got distracted when I realized that the clouds were blowing away and, for the first time, we actually could see the hazy outline of Arenal Volcano. As we watched, the clouds kept blowing away and suddenly, we could see the entire volcano. We started hurriedly snapping photos, and the poor cab driver ended up having to wait even longer while we tried to capture this rare sight. Finally, we felt bad and climbed in the cab, but then halfway down the unpaved driveway, I got all excited because the volcano was even more visible, and was trying to take photos out of the cab window. The cab driver was very sweet - without saying anything, he patiently stopped the cab long enough for me to get a stable shot or two out the window, and then started up again. As we drove, the clouds blew back and soon, it was as if there was no volcano there at all. It turned out that would be our only glimpse of the actual volcano for our entire stay in the Arenal area. Those who went to Cano Negro never saw it at all, and anyone who wasn't looking outside for that 5 minute period also never saw it. We just got *really* lucky in our timing for catching that cab.
Whereas in Tortuguero, it seemed like our luck was totally in our favor, with it almost always raining when we stepped indoors, and stopping when we came out, in Arenal/Fortuna, it was entirely the opposite. It seemed to stop raining whenever we went indoors and start when we stepped out. Case in point - as we stepped out the cab at the central square in Fortuna, the rain started up. We decided to go to the post office first and get my postcard mailing out of the way before we wandered, and I think the rain abated a bit while we were in the post office. The whole post office trip took longer than expected - there was some guy there shipping off an odd-shaped package and they were busily taping it up, so we had to wait for quite a while...and that seems to be symbolic of their postal service in general since it's been like 19 days since I sent out those postcards and no one has received them yet. At any rate, afterwards, we stepped into the rain again after debating what to do. We swung by the church in the central square, which was quite a pretty building. We thought maybe we'd walk by a number of our earmarked restaurants to see what looked interesting, but after stopping by one and not being particularly inspired, and getting rained on, we ended up just eating at the second one we went to. This one, the Soda el Rio, was off the main drag but "recommended" by the Lonely Planet. It seemed to be favored by locals - lots of Costa Rican families and such eating here. The menu was largely set plates (I think they're referred to as casados), and the prices went from maybe $1 to appetizer/dessert/drinks to about $3-$5 for entrees. After much consultation, my bf and I decided to split an "arroz con pollo" (ie rice with chicken) because that was a dish I'd liked a lot in San Diego - the dish that had turned me onto Mexican food, in fact. Turned out to be a bit of a foolish mistake - arroz con pollo ended up being exactly the rice dish we'd eaten at our hotel buffet only a couple hours earlier. As my bf said, this one was good - better than the one at the hotel - but almost identical. Our new friend and my sister both got arroz con leche - a dessert of rice with milk that was quite yummy, and which they got because they were too full from lunch to eat more. My bf managed to order us four fried plantains, which were really yummy, and we also got fruit drinks.
After finishing our "authentic Costa Rican" meal (and learning we'd been eating authentic Costa Rican food all along), we went in search of pastries, still dreaming of the apple pies we'd eaten in Tortuguero. The Lonely Planet book (which I should note was from 2004 - I borrowed it from my other sister) had listed a Cafeteria Lo Nuestro thta had "homemade pastries" so we went in search of the place. What didn't help was that there were no street signs, and apparently street names were only recently added (well, as of the 2004 book's writing). When we tried to ask directions of someone, he 1) didn't understand English, and 2) had no idea what we were talking about when we asked for the street. He was very friendly about it though. Eventually we found a local who spoke great English (we discovered this after trying to convey in very limited Spanish what we wanted and he responded in English) who didn't know the restaurant we were looking for but directed us to a cafe in the approximate location. That cafe didn't have anything that looked interesting to us, but we noticed across the street there was what appeared to be a very popular bakery. I saw what looked like cases of baked goods and a long line of people. I've forgotten the name of the place now, but it turns out this was actually a bakery chain (I later saw one in the streets of a different town) and it looked like a lot of different fresh-baked breads and pastries (with accompanying flies buzzing around the cases) and a lot of local customers. We ended up buying an apple pie, a pineapple pie, a big flat piece of pastry with sugar crystals on it, and what looked like another fruit pie that was labeled "flauta." These we saved to have as dessert with our dinner that night. By the time we had located this place and bought our pastries, it was getting near the time we were supposed to meet up with our bus to go to the hot springs, so we headed back to the square at the center of the town. Here, we snapped a few photos and met up with my parents again. They told us they'd seen a lot of rare birds and that the trip was quite nice, but no, they didn't see anything particularly excitingly new or different, so we felt better for having missed the trip.
Next was Baldi Hot Springs. According to Lonely Planet, the Tabacon Hot Springs are better, but Baldi was quite satisfying. It's comprised of a series of pools, man-made but supposedly fed by natural hot springs heated by the volcano. Each pool is a different temperature, and the temperature is marked on a sign by the entrance of the pool. Some pools fed to others, some were deeper and you could really soak or even swim a bit in those, some were quite shallow, some had lounging "chairs" built right into the pool floor. Interspersed there were occasional "cold" pools where you could jump back and forth between the cold water and hot water. Supposedly the pools went up in temperature as you went up the mountain, but that didn't turn out to be true. One of the hottest pools we encountered was right by the third pool we visited - it was marked as 45 celsius, but comparing it to the other pools we later encountered and what they were marked as, that can't have been right - it was far hotter. In fact, the signs often seemed to either be off, or only be talking about the temperature of the source of the water, which often got diffused in the rest of the pool. The pools at the very top were not much warmer than some of the ones further down, but they were a fun series of linked pools with water from the top falling as a waterfall onto the level below, etc. Our favorite pools had such hot showers - hot water pouring down that was of barely bearable temperatures. Kind of felt like some kind of funky massage. Our poor parents - they wanted to just soak somewhere in comfort, but we kept leading a charge to find a yet hotter pool to see if we could stand it. They didn't have to follow us, but of course they did. The path up to the last series of 3 pools was actually quite painful on our bare feet - I'd advise anyone who visits these pools to wear either flip flops or water shoes. Something you don't mind getting wet but something that feels better than asphalt and rough stone. I seem to remember that the "right" temperature for me was just about 43 or 44 celsius. I could be remembering wrong. But that was right at the level of hot, almost too hot, but for the most part quite comfortable. BTW, hot springs on a rainy day is nice, except the part where you get out and run through the cold air to the next pool. In two of the cooler pools, there were swim-up bars, while in another large cool pool, there were three waterslides into the pool. One was under construction, one was very twisty and looked quite insane, and the last was supposed to be the lowest key - more of a straight one which I didn't *think* was too steep. Turned out the last part of it was quite steep indeed, and a little scary. Fun, but I declined to go on it again or to try the other slide. Waterslides make me a bit nervous b/c there's nothing tying you down or making sure you don't slosh out the side of the slide, and because it's quite easy to bang limbs as you go down. See, I'll zipline over a 660 ft canyon because it's smooth and comfortable and I trust the equipment. Watersliding, I stand a much larger chance of getting a bruise and it wouldn't feel too good if I hit the water wrong or got turned around in the slide, all of which can happen! Excuses, excuses.
We had about 2 hours at the hot springs, and then it was time to head back to the hotel for dinner. The hot springs were a *great* way to unwind and finish off the day, especially after the cold and rainy and exhilarating ziplining start we got. We'd already laughed because, by ordering the arroz con pollo, we'd just gotten food we'd had at the hotel. We laughed even harder when we saw what was for dessert at dinner that night - arroz con leche. And IIRC, there were fried plantains either that night or the next day for breakfast. Which just about covered all our "unique" culinary experimentation at the Soda el Rio. Though, as my bf kept insisting, the food was done better at the Soda el Rio, even if it wasn't different. Our various pastries that night were a bit disappointing - the fresh apple pies we'd gotten in Tortuguero were way better. Ah well, it's all about trying stuff. At dinner, we had the opportunity to talk to a few other people who'd gone to the other ziplining tour, which only reaffirmed that we made the right choice. They said the ziplining itself was fun but overall they seemed quite disappointed by the experience. Too much rain, too many people, too many lines... people were apparently bailing out after 3 or 4 lines (which is not possible on the SkyTrek tour), plus it sounded like the platforms in between were all high off the ground, which would have freaked my bf out more than the side of the mountain platforms we got at SkyTrek.
Sad - I started this post 6 days ago and finally am finishing it now. On the somewhat positive side, the remaining days on tour weren't quite as full, so there should be less to write about...
Luckily for us, the absolute drenching downpour seemed to have subsided into more of a periodic drizzle by the time we went out at 7AM to meet our transportation to SkyTrek. A van pulled up to the hotel's reception area, the driver introduced himself, and off we went. SkyTrek was located on the other side of the volcano from the hotel, on the more active side, and also on the side where Arenal Lake was located. It was approximately a 30-35 minute drive that started on the gravel road from our hotel, went on paved roads for a while, and then went approximately 7km on another unpaved road that was utterly pitted with potholes to get to SkyTrek. That was an interesting drive - our driver would drive practically in the drainage ditch at times to avoid them, cross over to the other side of the street at other times, and sometimes, when it was unavoidable, drive right over the series of potholes. We were circling the volcano the whole time, but the whole time, it was shrouded in fog.
Upon arrival at the SkyTrek departure point, we spent some time staring at a poster they had up illustrating all their ziplines and their lengths. Somehow, in that short amount of time, my bf memorized all the numbers - he says "I know numbers. I also know fear of death." There were eight lines total. The first two were training lines, fairly short, but after that the remaining lines (except the last, which was mainly to get back to ground level) were all 1500 ft or more long. The highest one off the ground (which was also the third longest) was 660 ft high. The longest one was 2460 ft, or about 1/2 a mile. Actually, looking at the poster now, the exact lengths were 65ft, 82ft, 1525ft, 1476ft, 1344ft, 2000ft, 2460ft, and 164ft. Right around this time, looking at the specs (and then going to look off the back of the building at the view below), my bf and sister were both reiterating my insanity (if I'm insane, why are *they* going?) and apprehensive. They took us into a side room, where we were each fitted out with harnesses, helmets and gloves (which all went on over our shells/raincoats, which we definitely needed since it kept raining). Our group turned out to be 10 people plus two guides - two Costa Rican couples who mostly spoke Spanish but did understand enough English to be very amused by us, a mother and her teenage son, and the four of us. The two guides, Leo and Jaz (sp??) were great - Leo in particular was very funny and personable, but also very responsible. Both guides made sure we understood everything thoroughly, and both were very careful about safety.
We started off with a tram ride up into hills/mountainside. The SkyTram only had 3 cars, each of which held 6 people (I think), which meant that they could take a maximum of 16 people up (with two guides). This was nice, because it meant less waiting. The other group of people from our tour group who went to the other place said they had a group of like 20+ which meant they had to do a lot of waiting at each intermediate platform. The tram ride itself wasn't particularly interesting - we passed through/over a lot of trees, and eventually got a pretty decent view of Arenal Lake, but like the rainforest aerial tram, we couldn't see animals b/c they stayed away from the tram. Once on top, Leo and Jaz carefully explained to us the position we needed to get into (basically, they hook the harness to the line with two lines, the harness is attached to your midsection, so you're supposed to lay back, hold onto the bar attached to the pulley on the line, and keep your legs bent and up). They told us what to do if we ended up stopping before the end of the line (but only if you're near the end. They didn't tell us what to do if you stop in the middle but that didn't end up being an issue). You're supposed to grab the line with both hands, front and back of the pulley, turn yourself around, and then walk yourself hand over hand up the line until you reach the platform. They explained the braking system to us - how there was a 3 pulley system on each platform that they would operate so we wouldn't have to worry about braking ourselves. All we really had to do was get in the right position and hold it, and the rest of the work would be done for us by gravity and the guides.
The first two lines were training runs - the first one just went from the SkyTram platform to a small platform not far off, and not far down. The second one went from that platform to another one below the SkyTram platform (Jaz walked from the SkyTram platform to the second platform, which tells you how close it was). The first run was to "practice best position." The second was to "practice better position." My little sister surprised me - despite her fear she stepped up to be one of the first to go, and after going on that first line, had completely changed her mind about ziplining - she was having the time of her life and her fear seems to have evaporated. My bf took longer - he was ok on those first two lines because they weren't high up, but when we got to the second platform, looking at that line disappearing into the mist (this was the highest line - 660 ft at its highest point over a canyon - and the third longest line), he was not a happy camper. However, there was another woman in our party - the mother of the teenage son - who was even more terrified. She went because her son wanted to go and her husband really didn't, but it was clear the whole thing just freaked her out. She was very funny about it, though - both terrified and funny at the same time - and said that she and my bf were kindred spirits every time Scott said something negative or fearful about the experience. On that first long line, she said she needed to hear someone yell "It's all right!" but apparently when my bf went (after me), he led off by yelling "FUUUUCCCCKKK!!!!" (and not just to freak her out) which didn't make her feel any better. When she arrived at the next platform she was all "you didn't yell that it was all right!!".
I have to admit to a tiny bit of apprehension with that first non-training line - just how would it be to go that far for that long? - but mostly just excited anticipation. It was a bit eerie how the line just disappeared into the mist so you couldn't see where it went (though at one point the mist did clear long enough for us to squint at the platform on the other side before it came back). The way the whole guide thing went was that one stayed behind to attach each of us to the line, coordinate via walkie talkie with the other guy, and then send us on our way, while the other guy would go on ahead to get to the platform first so he could brake us. That first line was a bit of a learning experience. I learned that ziplining is both fun and also somewhat uncomfortable, since all your weight is resting on the harness straps. I learned you can't really see anything unless you look around, because the riding position is facing upwards, so you don't actually get a sense for how high you are. And if you look around, you need to be careful how you do it, because you may end up twisting, which slows you down. I learned that if you zipline in the rain, the force of the rain hitting your face is kind of painful, and that you get splattered with mud/dirty stuff coming off the rope via the pulley (though you don't always realize it until someone else tells you you're filthy and you notice they are too). And I learned that ziplining is really fun and exhilarating, that the speeds are awesome (at least if you go with SkyTrek), and that you get a great view of Arenal Lake with absolutely nothing (except maybe your own arm) obstructing your view as you cross the canyon on the zipline. My bf later said that the height and the fog lent to a kind of sense of detachment and unreality so your brain didn't fully comprehend just how high you really were, and therefore made it easier to deal with it.
On that first non-training line, I was a little paranoid I wouldn't know when I reached the end, since we were supposed to uncross our legs and keep them in a kind of outstretched V-shape so if we braked suddenly, we wouldn't swing up and hit our feet on the line. As a result, I tried too hard to look around my legs and see what was going on, therefore not riding in the "best position" and ended up slowing down too much and not making it all the way to the braking zone. I therefore had to use the technique they had taught us (with much prompting from the guide) and pull myself hand over hand back up to the platform. I was apparently not the only one in this position. The freaked out mom, though, had no such problems. I guess she was so scared she just stayed in the best position possible, basically curled up in a little ball with her legs firmly up as far as she could get them, determined not to get stuck anywhere in the middle. As a consequence, she tended to come speeding into the braking area like a bullet, shooting all the way to the end at top speed. The guides were quite amused by her and rather impressed by just how good of a position she managed to achieve in her terror. After the fifth or sixth line, Leo was like "you are the fastest person I've seen! Oh my God!" In fact, when we got to the fastest line (the seventh one - also the longest one), he told all of us to relax our positions and told her in particular not to do "better" or even "best" form - she was to ride along with her legs *down* and apart to keep herself from going too fast.
My sister and I were having the time of our lives, just enjoying the hell out of the ziplining and looking around to take in the view (I remember the first time I saw her doing it - you could see her helmeted head turning from side to side as she went). My bf was having more of a "ahhh! oh fuck oh fuck..i hate you!... wheeeeee!!! ah!!! oh fuck oh fuck!" experience - fear at the beginning and end of each run but fun in the middle. When we got to the sixth line, the second longest, and slowest line (it dipped down but then went back up again to get to the platform), Leo volunteered to take our cameras with him, and take photos of each of us as we arrived (with a prearranged order of camera use). I think this was because we'd be going slow enough we wouldn't need him to brake us so he could use his hands to operate the cameras. We gave him our camera first, and he ended up asking us if it was ok if he took a video with it. We didn't mind having a video, though we weren't sure we had disk space, so we ended up saying yes, and got a great souvenir. The video shows the lake, he dips it down to show the trees below, swings it around to show himself, and then shows the trajectory of the line as it goes past a bunch of trees (I didn't actually realize how close those trees were until I saw his video) until he reaches the landing. Only one of the guides could have taken this since the rest of us firmly had both hands on the handle. My bf did some math based on knowing how long the line is, and how long the video is, and estimated that he averaged about 34mph. Keep in mind this was the slowest of the real lines (not counting the first two or the last one), and you'll get an idea of the speeds at which we were going. So much fun. On the minus side, I'd forgotten about the photo at the other end, so didn't remember to put my legs down (which he was yelling at me to do but I didn't comprehend), so the photo he got of me is basically of my butt and my legs, way up in the air, which is rather amusing. Oh well.
Actually, did I say I had my hands firmly on the handle the whole time? There was one line where for some reason I thought it felt like my helmet might be blowing off (it was firmly strapped to my chin so I didn't expect to lose it, just thought it was slipping back) so I forgot myself and let go with one hand to try to check where it was. Apparently holding on with one hand makes you twist a bit. Putting my hand back on the handle fixed it, though, and since this was the fastest line, it didn't end up slowing me down unduly either. But..oops =).
On that second to last line - the 1/2 mile long line - I got a nice, prolonged view of the lake below, which was really quite pretty. Unfortunately, because I was going so fast, and because the skies chose to rain on me (it'd been raining on and off intermittently all morning), the raindrops hitting my face got quite painful so I was struggling to keep my eyes open to look around, while at the same time squinting in pain. Ow ow ow! That particular line also went through a stand of trees, which I wanted to look around at, but again, rain. It'd be interesting to try the ziplining thing again when it wasn't raining, because it must be quite exhilarating without being quite so painful ;).
The second to last line took us to a raised platform that kind of looked like a suspension bridge, except it was a bridge that connected open air to a spiral staircase, so not so much. This actually was the part of the whole experience my bf had the most problem with, since being able to see the ground and the tops of the trees far below him when he's not on solid ground is unnerving to him. The spiral staircase, in particular, where you could see through the grating of the stairs to the ground below while going around and around... In fact, I think if the trip hadn't more or less ended with this bridge and staircase (the last line was a short one from the bottom of the stairs to the parking lot), my bf's overall impression of ziplining might have been better. What can you do? In the meantime, the freaked out mom was telling her son that after this, she'd fulfilled her obligations of doing anything like this again - more ziplining, rollercoasters, whatever. I think they might actually have gone ziplining again later in the trip, though, because we heard them say something about having another trip planned. I wonder if she blew those guides away with her speed of landing as well?
After we'd gotten back on the ground, gotten our equipment off, thanked (and tipped) our guides, and wiped off our faces with the towels they provided, we ventured into the gift shop where we discovered much better prices on the wood stuff than we'd seen so far. My bf and I ended up buying a wooden turtle that's really quite pretty (but we have nowhere to put it), a set of coasters (not quite as pretty, but the coasters were each made from the wood of a different tree, which was interesting), and I got a SkyTrek t-shirt since it was the neatest thing we'd done on the trip thus far. Unfortunately, it turned out that their "adult medium" (which was the largest size they had) seemed to be more like a child's size - it's way too tight and way too small, but I couldn't try it on there so I didn't know. C'est la vie. We then realized that the shuttle driver had been waiting for us, so we quickly piled back into the van, and back to Lomas del Volcan we went.
With all the babbling I just did, you would think that our ziplining took us all day, but we were back at the hotel by 10:30 or 11 or so. We were all hungry since we'd missed breakfast (they started serving at 7am) and lunch wasn't until 12 or 12:30. My sister realized she was locked out of her room since my parents had gone on the Cano Negro trip and taken the only room key with them. We ended up bumming around the gift shop for a while (where I bought another shirt - a cute blue tie-died tank with "The happiest monkey in the rainforest" in front - apparently once I opened the floodgates on buying souvenirs, I charged right through). They had a computer with free internet there, so we took turns checking our mail. As far as the official schedule went, they weren't supposed to return from Cano Negro until 2pm, though Caravan had arranged with the hotel to provide lunch for those of us that didn't go. At 2pm, the rest of the group would be taken directly to downtown Fortuna to explore the town, and then around 4pm, it was time to go to the Baldi Hot Springs. We were kind of curious to try eating in Fortuna at an actual restaurant or cafe, instead of a pre-arranged buffet meal, but none of us really wanted to explore downtown Fortuna for 4 hours. On the other hand, we were too hungry to wait until 2pm or whenever to eat. We decided to try to eat a light meal at the hotel and then take a taxi into town, where we'd try to find something more unique to eat.
At lunch, they had a number of dishes, including a rice dish that seemed kind of like fried rice - kind of stir-fried rice with chicken and some other stuff. We fed ourselves, trying not to overindulge, and I took advantage of the opportunity to write my postcards. I figured, halfway through the trip I had enough to write about, plus this was a rare extended period of downtime. While I was doing this, my bf was poking through my Lonely Planet book, trying to figure out where we could try eating. He sketched out a rough map of downtown Fortuna (which essentially consisted of two long parallel streets on either side of the central square, and then some side streets connecting them). We called a cab, and then went up to our rooms to get our stuff together (we needed our bathing suits from the hot springs since we were going directly there from Fortuna). When we came back down to the front desk, the cab was already there, but I got distracted when I realized that the clouds were blowing away and, for the first time, we actually could see the hazy outline of Arenal Volcano. As we watched, the clouds kept blowing away and suddenly, we could see the entire volcano. We started hurriedly snapping photos, and the poor cab driver ended up having to wait even longer while we tried to capture this rare sight. Finally, we felt bad and climbed in the cab, but then halfway down the unpaved driveway, I got all excited because the volcano was even more visible, and was trying to take photos out of the cab window. The cab driver was very sweet - without saying anything, he patiently stopped the cab long enough for me to get a stable shot or two out the window, and then started up again. As we drove, the clouds blew back and soon, it was as if there was no volcano there at all. It turned out that would be our only glimpse of the actual volcano for our entire stay in the Arenal area. Those who went to Cano Negro never saw it at all, and anyone who wasn't looking outside for that 5 minute period also never saw it. We just got *really* lucky in our timing for catching that cab.
Whereas in Tortuguero, it seemed like our luck was totally in our favor, with it almost always raining when we stepped indoors, and stopping when we came out, in Arenal/Fortuna, it was entirely the opposite. It seemed to stop raining whenever we went indoors and start when we stepped out. Case in point - as we stepped out the cab at the central square in Fortuna, the rain started up. We decided to go to the post office first and get my postcard mailing out of the way before we wandered, and I think the rain abated a bit while we were in the post office. The whole post office trip took longer than expected - there was some guy there shipping off an odd-shaped package and they were busily taping it up, so we had to wait for quite a while...and that seems to be symbolic of their postal service in general since it's been like 19 days since I sent out those postcards and no one has received them yet. At any rate, afterwards, we stepped into the rain again after debating what to do. We swung by the church in the central square, which was quite a pretty building. We thought maybe we'd walk by a number of our earmarked restaurants to see what looked interesting, but after stopping by one and not being particularly inspired, and getting rained on, we ended up just eating at the second one we went to. This one, the Soda el Rio, was off the main drag but "recommended" by the Lonely Planet. It seemed to be favored by locals - lots of Costa Rican families and such eating here. The menu was largely set plates (I think they're referred to as casados), and the prices went from maybe $1 to appetizer/dessert/drinks to about $3-$5 for entrees. After much consultation, my bf and I decided to split an "arroz con pollo" (ie rice with chicken) because that was a dish I'd liked a lot in San Diego - the dish that had turned me onto Mexican food, in fact. Turned out to be a bit of a foolish mistake - arroz con pollo ended up being exactly the rice dish we'd eaten at our hotel buffet only a couple hours earlier. As my bf said, this one was good - better than the one at the hotel - but almost identical. Our new friend and my sister both got arroz con leche - a dessert of rice with milk that was quite yummy, and which they got because they were too full from lunch to eat more. My bf managed to order us four fried plantains, which were really yummy, and we also got fruit drinks.
After finishing our "authentic Costa Rican" meal (and learning we'd been eating authentic Costa Rican food all along), we went in search of pastries, still dreaming of the apple pies we'd eaten in Tortuguero. The Lonely Planet book (which I should note was from 2004 - I borrowed it from my other sister) had listed a Cafeteria Lo Nuestro thta had "homemade pastries" so we went in search of the place. What didn't help was that there were no street signs, and apparently street names were only recently added (well, as of the 2004 book's writing). When we tried to ask directions of someone, he 1) didn't understand English, and 2) had no idea what we were talking about when we asked for the street. He was very friendly about it though. Eventually we found a local who spoke great English (we discovered this after trying to convey in very limited Spanish what we wanted and he responded in English) who didn't know the restaurant we were looking for but directed us to a cafe in the approximate location. That cafe didn't have anything that looked interesting to us, but we noticed across the street there was what appeared to be a very popular bakery. I saw what looked like cases of baked goods and a long line of people. I've forgotten the name of the place now, but it turns out this was actually a bakery chain (I later saw one in the streets of a different town) and it looked like a lot of different fresh-baked breads and pastries (with accompanying flies buzzing around the cases) and a lot of local customers. We ended up buying an apple pie, a pineapple pie, a big flat piece of pastry with sugar crystals on it, and what looked like another fruit pie that was labeled "flauta." These we saved to have as dessert with our dinner that night. By the time we had located this place and bought our pastries, it was getting near the time we were supposed to meet up with our bus to go to the hot springs, so we headed back to the square at the center of the town. Here, we snapped a few photos and met up with my parents again. They told us they'd seen a lot of rare birds and that the trip was quite nice, but no, they didn't see anything particularly excitingly new or different, so we felt better for having missed the trip.
Next was Baldi Hot Springs. According to Lonely Planet, the Tabacon Hot Springs are better, but Baldi was quite satisfying. It's comprised of a series of pools, man-made but supposedly fed by natural hot springs heated by the volcano. Each pool is a different temperature, and the temperature is marked on a sign by the entrance of the pool. Some pools fed to others, some were deeper and you could really soak or even swim a bit in those, some were quite shallow, some had lounging "chairs" built right into the pool floor. Interspersed there were occasional "cold" pools where you could jump back and forth between the cold water and hot water. Supposedly the pools went up in temperature as you went up the mountain, but that didn't turn out to be true. One of the hottest pools we encountered was right by the third pool we visited - it was marked as 45 celsius, but comparing it to the other pools we later encountered and what they were marked as, that can't have been right - it was far hotter. In fact, the signs often seemed to either be off, or only be talking about the temperature of the source of the water, which often got diffused in the rest of the pool. The pools at the very top were not much warmer than some of the ones further down, but they were a fun series of linked pools with water from the top falling as a waterfall onto the level below, etc. Our favorite pools had such hot showers - hot water pouring down that was of barely bearable temperatures. Kind of felt like some kind of funky massage. Our poor parents - they wanted to just soak somewhere in comfort, but we kept leading a charge to find a yet hotter pool to see if we could stand it. They didn't have to follow us, but of course they did. The path up to the last series of 3 pools was actually quite painful on our bare feet - I'd advise anyone who visits these pools to wear either flip flops or water shoes. Something you don't mind getting wet but something that feels better than asphalt and rough stone. I seem to remember that the "right" temperature for me was just about 43 or 44 celsius. I could be remembering wrong. But that was right at the level of hot, almost too hot, but for the most part quite comfortable. BTW, hot springs on a rainy day is nice, except the part where you get out and run through the cold air to the next pool. In two of the cooler pools, there were swim-up bars, while in another large cool pool, there were three waterslides into the pool. One was under construction, one was very twisty and looked quite insane, and the last was supposed to be the lowest key - more of a straight one which I didn't *think* was too steep. Turned out the last part of it was quite steep indeed, and a little scary. Fun, but I declined to go on it again or to try the other slide. Waterslides make me a bit nervous b/c there's nothing tying you down or making sure you don't slosh out the side of the slide, and because it's quite easy to bang limbs as you go down. See, I'll zipline over a 660 ft canyon because it's smooth and comfortable and I trust the equipment. Watersliding, I stand a much larger chance of getting a bruise and it wouldn't feel too good if I hit the water wrong or got turned around in the slide, all of which can happen! Excuses, excuses.
We had about 2 hours at the hot springs, and then it was time to head back to the hotel for dinner. The hot springs were a *great* way to unwind and finish off the day, especially after the cold and rainy and exhilarating ziplining start we got. We'd already laughed because, by ordering the arroz con pollo, we'd just gotten food we'd had at the hotel. We laughed even harder when we saw what was for dessert at dinner that night - arroz con leche. And IIRC, there were fried plantains either that night or the next day for breakfast. Which just about covered all our "unique" culinary experimentation at the Soda el Rio. Though, as my bf kept insisting, the food was done better at the Soda el Rio, even if it wasn't different. Our various pastries that night were a bit disappointing - the fresh apple pies we'd gotten in Tortuguero were way better. Ah well, it's all about trying stuff. At dinner, we had the opportunity to talk to a few other people who'd gone to the other ziplining tour, which only reaffirmed that we made the right choice. They said the ziplining itself was fun but overall they seemed quite disappointed by the experience. Too much rain, too many people, too many lines... people were apparently bailing out after 3 or 4 lines (which is not possible on the SkyTrek tour), plus it sounded like the platforms in between were all high off the ground, which would have freaked my bf out more than the side of the mountain platforms we got at SkyTrek.
Sad - I started this post 6 days ago and finally am finishing it now. On the somewhat positive side, the remaining days on tour weren't quite as full, so there should be less to write about...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Munch, munch, munch
Still blogging Costa Rica with exceeding slowness, too much detail, and a rapidly declining memory. In the meantime, some SF eats.
Last week, I tried making Chicken Stew with Coconut Milk (I need to get off this coconut kick). It turned out all right - kind of tasted like a standard chicken curry, actually, the type you get if you buy the Golden Curry mild flavor at an Asian grocery store. The curry sauce/stew itself was fairly easy to make - curry powder, cumin, chicken broth, and coconut milk being the primary components - so I don't really see a reason to get the prefabricated grease blocks of curry anymore. I made too much, though, since the only chicken breasts I had in the freezer came in packs of 3 (ie 1.75 lbs), so I had to up the amount of everything else I put in (plus I put in a bell pepper for the hell of it, and used frozen peas instead of lima beans), and we ended up eating it for like 4.5 days. Oh, and I *didn't* use the microwave like the recipe says. I did it stovetop - pre-cooked the chicken slightly (not sure if I needed to do this) by tossing it around the pot until the outsides were white, brought everything to a boil, and then simmered for an hour. That was all approximated from some beef stew recipes I saw that *didn't* require a slowcooker. Don't know if it was the best way to do it, but everything got cooked and it tasted reasonable.
I also tried making fried plantains to supplement the 1/2 portion we had left the last day, but that kind of failed. I got a green plantain without realizing that to make *sweet* fried plantain, you need an almost overripe (yellow with brown spots) plantain. Puerto Ricans (the recipes I was seeing on Allrecipes) seem to use the green plantain to make a savory starchy side dish, like potatoes or cassava root, rather than a sweet side dish. I tried to approximate sweet fried plantains by combining directions from Sauteed Sweet Plantains (specifically the butter + oil, though I used canola, and the brown sugar) with Puerto Rican Tostones (Fried Plantains) (minus the cold water step, or the salt). A couple recipes and comments had said with green plantains, you need to smush them halfway through and then refry, so I made sure to do that, but I tried using the brown sugar + butter to make them taste better. The experiment didn't work out right for a few reasons - aside from having the wrong plantains, I cut them in wedges instead of slices for some reason, so they weren't shaped right, and the final product ended up being starchy and bland on the inside with an overly sticky, crunchy sweet shell. I thought they were ok, my bf thought they were nasty. If I try that again, I guess I'll try ripening the plantain first!
On the restaurant front, we've tried a few places in the last couple days after our curry finally ran out. On Tuesday, we hit the 2223 Restaurant at 2223 Market St (between Noe and Sanchez) for their $12 Tuesdays. On Tuesdays they have a special menu with $6 appetizers and $12 entrees, and we'd been meaning to try it out. We both ended up getting both an appetizer and entree (b/c I'm a pig these days). My bf got the tomato soup, which was surprisingly spicy but good, while I got the smoked salmon flatbread, which was super yummy, but came in a larger portion than I'd been anticipating. It was smoked salmon on top of a delicious flatbread with I think sour cream and chives (or cream cheese and chives?) layered in between. Then for our entrees, I got the crimini mushroom risotto, while he got a Salvadorian style braised pork shoulder dish. I think my expectations of risotto don't fit what a lot of restaurants do - I expect something creamy, I often get what seems like soft rice in broth. The risotto was decent, though a bit overly salty and peppered, and there was some flavor in there I wasn't fond of (but keep in mind - I hate cilantro, basil, and a lot of strong tasting herbs). The risotto had chicken, mushrooms, a green leafy vegetable that might have been spinach, butternut squash chunks, and possibly some other stuff. My bf's pork was interesting but when I saw it on the menu, I didn't think he'd like it. Pork is more my style than his. The pork was tasty - actually quite strongly flavored - though not as spicy as billed, with a spicy slaw piled on top (which I didn't try), and sitting on a sort of corn mush cake thing, surrounded by black beans. My bf doesn't like black beans or corn mush, and often doesn't like Latin flavors, so I don't think he liked it as much as he'd hoped. The bite I tried seemed decent. My overall assessment of what I tried there was the food was interesting and decent, but a bit overflavored. The restaurant was cute, and the service was very good. The restaurant gets really good reviews, especially for brunch - would be interesting to try something off the main menu.
On Wednesday we did our first Dine About Town restaurant, deciding to hit Namu, an Asian (Japanese/Korean) fusion restaurant in Richmond, at 439 Balboa between 5th and 6th. They had a slightly odd DAT policy - if both people were ordering off the DAT menu, they had to get the same items. Something about their plating being unique and time-consuming, and having a small kitchen, and wanting to get the food out in a timely manner for everyone. This was odd, considering they usually suggest 2 people get 4-6 dishes total anyway (DAT = 6 dishes total), but whatever. Not really an issue because we wanted to order the same items for the most part anyway. We were allowed to have one person order DAT and one person order off the regular menu which, again, made little sense, but I digress. For our first course, we got the albacore tuna tataki, which was served 6 pieces on one long plate for the 2 of us to share. This was all right - I didn't find the fish particularly flavorful, despite my love of albacore, though the texture was good. This was followed by the vegetable tempura (the other choice was shiitake dumplings, and my bf hates mushrooms) - a nice heaping plate of lightly breaded and fried zucchini, kabocha squash, broccoli, onions (onion rings!), and..I think that's it? with a delicious dipping sauce. Good tempura. The last course took a little longer to come out but we both got a plate of kobe skirt steak - kobe-style skirt steak with a kalbi-style sauce, cooked medium rare. We've concluded that I probably shouldn't order medium rare b/c I have enough difficulty chewing meat. At any rate, this was decent - definitely not the most delicious meat I've ever had, just pretty good, nice texture, decent but inadequate sauce. We decided to get a dessert despite it not being on the DAT menu, because I *thought* they looked good. One was a little odd - a coconut custard baked in a kabocha squash with browned coconut milk and ginger reduction - I thought it looked interesting but my bf was anti-squash, so we skipped that one. The other I thought would be good - melted belgian chocolate, brioche, nigori sake strawberry sauce and fresh strawberries. Of course, the words "belgian chocolate" make me irrational, but it sounded good. It ended up being very disappointing though. Tasted like bread (that would be the brioche) with slightly chocolate overtones, the strawberry sauce was decent but a bit too alcoholic and the "fresh strawberries" were like 3 thin slivers stuck into the whipped cream on top. Not what I was hoping for. Overall I'd rate the experience as, I dunno, 6.5 out of 10. It was pretty good but not spectacular, the service was good until they failed to give us our bill for a ridiculously long time (and took forever to get us our dessert even though there wasn't much kitchen activity left at that point), the ambiance was decent except that we were sitting right by the door which kept getting stuck open... they were playing Princess Mononoke (I think) on repeat over the bar, though without sound or subtitles, so I guess it was just for the ambiance as well. Overall I'd say the restaurant probably is pretty good, but it's not spectacular.
On a non-food note, on Sunday my bf and I decided to take a stroll around Golden Gate Park because it was a beautiful day and he'd been sick and cooped inside for a few days. We ended up walking all the way to Stow Lake and up the hill in the middle (which I've never done before). There's a nice view, obstructed somewhat by trees, from the top of the hill. On one side you can see the GG bridge and Richmond, and all the way to downtown on the east. On the other, you can look over all of Sunset to the ocean. That was pretty neat. I was amused because on the way down, we ran into two segway tours. I guess you can go on these tours, each person gets on a segway, and they follow a guide around. Those segways were doing pretty well on the unpaved dirt paths up the hill.
Last week, I tried making Chicken Stew with Coconut Milk (I need to get off this coconut kick). It turned out all right - kind of tasted like a standard chicken curry, actually, the type you get if you buy the Golden Curry mild flavor at an Asian grocery store. The curry sauce/stew itself was fairly easy to make - curry powder, cumin, chicken broth, and coconut milk being the primary components - so I don't really see a reason to get the prefabricated grease blocks of curry anymore. I made too much, though, since the only chicken breasts I had in the freezer came in packs of 3 (ie 1.75 lbs), so I had to up the amount of everything else I put in (plus I put in a bell pepper for the hell of it, and used frozen peas instead of lima beans), and we ended up eating it for like 4.5 days. Oh, and I *didn't* use the microwave like the recipe says. I did it stovetop - pre-cooked the chicken slightly (not sure if I needed to do this) by tossing it around the pot until the outsides were white, brought everything to a boil, and then simmered for an hour. That was all approximated from some beef stew recipes I saw that *didn't* require a slowcooker. Don't know if it was the best way to do it, but everything got cooked and it tasted reasonable.
I also tried making fried plantains to supplement the 1/2 portion we had left the last day, but that kind of failed. I got a green plantain without realizing that to make *sweet* fried plantain, you need an almost overripe (yellow with brown spots) plantain. Puerto Ricans (the recipes I was seeing on Allrecipes) seem to use the green plantain to make a savory starchy side dish, like potatoes or cassava root, rather than a sweet side dish. I tried to approximate sweet fried plantains by combining directions from Sauteed Sweet Plantains (specifically the butter + oil, though I used canola, and the brown sugar) with Puerto Rican Tostones (Fried Plantains) (minus the cold water step, or the salt). A couple recipes and comments had said with green plantains, you need to smush them halfway through and then refry, so I made sure to do that, but I tried using the brown sugar + butter to make them taste better. The experiment didn't work out right for a few reasons - aside from having the wrong plantains, I cut them in wedges instead of slices for some reason, so they weren't shaped right, and the final product ended up being starchy and bland on the inside with an overly sticky, crunchy sweet shell. I thought they were ok, my bf thought they were nasty. If I try that again, I guess I'll try ripening the plantain first!
On the restaurant front, we've tried a few places in the last couple days after our curry finally ran out. On Tuesday, we hit the 2223 Restaurant at 2223 Market St (between Noe and Sanchez) for their $12 Tuesdays. On Tuesdays they have a special menu with $6 appetizers and $12 entrees, and we'd been meaning to try it out. We both ended up getting both an appetizer and entree (b/c I'm a pig these days). My bf got the tomato soup, which was surprisingly spicy but good, while I got the smoked salmon flatbread, which was super yummy, but came in a larger portion than I'd been anticipating. It was smoked salmon on top of a delicious flatbread with I think sour cream and chives (or cream cheese and chives?) layered in between. Then for our entrees, I got the crimini mushroom risotto, while he got a Salvadorian style braised pork shoulder dish. I think my expectations of risotto don't fit what a lot of restaurants do - I expect something creamy, I often get what seems like soft rice in broth. The risotto was decent, though a bit overly salty and peppered, and there was some flavor in there I wasn't fond of (but keep in mind - I hate cilantro, basil, and a lot of strong tasting herbs). The risotto had chicken, mushrooms, a green leafy vegetable that might have been spinach, butternut squash chunks, and possibly some other stuff. My bf's pork was interesting but when I saw it on the menu, I didn't think he'd like it. Pork is more my style than his. The pork was tasty - actually quite strongly flavored - though not as spicy as billed, with a spicy slaw piled on top (which I didn't try), and sitting on a sort of corn mush cake thing, surrounded by black beans. My bf doesn't like black beans or corn mush, and often doesn't like Latin flavors, so I don't think he liked it as much as he'd hoped. The bite I tried seemed decent. My overall assessment of what I tried there was the food was interesting and decent, but a bit overflavored. The restaurant was cute, and the service was very good. The restaurant gets really good reviews, especially for brunch - would be interesting to try something off the main menu.
On Wednesday we did our first Dine About Town restaurant, deciding to hit Namu, an Asian (Japanese/Korean) fusion restaurant in Richmond, at 439 Balboa between 5th and 6th. They had a slightly odd DAT policy - if both people were ordering off the DAT menu, they had to get the same items. Something about their plating being unique and time-consuming, and having a small kitchen, and wanting to get the food out in a timely manner for everyone. This was odd, considering they usually suggest 2 people get 4-6 dishes total anyway (DAT = 6 dishes total), but whatever. Not really an issue because we wanted to order the same items for the most part anyway. We were allowed to have one person order DAT and one person order off the regular menu which, again, made little sense, but I digress. For our first course, we got the albacore tuna tataki, which was served 6 pieces on one long plate for the 2 of us to share. This was all right - I didn't find the fish particularly flavorful, despite my love of albacore, though the texture was good. This was followed by the vegetable tempura (the other choice was shiitake dumplings, and my bf hates mushrooms) - a nice heaping plate of lightly breaded and fried zucchini, kabocha squash, broccoli, onions (onion rings!), and..I think that's it? with a delicious dipping sauce. Good tempura. The last course took a little longer to come out but we both got a plate of kobe skirt steak - kobe-style skirt steak with a kalbi-style sauce, cooked medium rare. We've concluded that I probably shouldn't order medium rare b/c I have enough difficulty chewing meat. At any rate, this was decent - definitely not the most delicious meat I've ever had, just pretty good, nice texture, decent but inadequate sauce. We decided to get a dessert despite it not being on the DAT menu, because I *thought* they looked good. One was a little odd - a coconut custard baked in a kabocha squash with browned coconut milk and ginger reduction - I thought it looked interesting but my bf was anti-squash, so we skipped that one. The other I thought would be good - melted belgian chocolate, brioche, nigori sake strawberry sauce and fresh strawberries. Of course, the words "belgian chocolate" make me irrational, but it sounded good. It ended up being very disappointing though. Tasted like bread (that would be the brioche) with slightly chocolate overtones, the strawberry sauce was decent but a bit too alcoholic and the "fresh strawberries" were like 3 thin slivers stuck into the whipped cream on top. Not what I was hoping for. Overall I'd rate the experience as, I dunno, 6.5 out of 10. It was pretty good but not spectacular, the service was good until they failed to give us our bill for a ridiculously long time (and took forever to get us our dessert even though there wasn't much kitchen activity left at that point), the ambiance was decent except that we were sitting right by the door which kept getting stuck open... they were playing Princess Mononoke (I think) on repeat over the bar, though without sound or subtitles, so I guess it was just for the ambiance as well. Overall I'd say the restaurant probably is pretty good, but it's not spectacular.
On a non-food note, on Sunday my bf and I decided to take a stroll around Golden Gate Park because it was a beautiful day and he'd been sick and cooped inside for a few days. We ended up walking all the way to Stow Lake and up the hill in the middle (which I've never done before). There's a nice view, obstructed somewhat by trees, from the top of the hill. On one side you can see the GG bridge and Richmond, and all the way to downtown on the east. On the other, you can look over all of Sunset to the ocean. That was pretty neat. I was amused because on the way down, we ran into two segway tours. I guess you can go on these tours, each person gets on a segway, and they follow a guide around. Those segways were doing pretty well on the unpaved dirt paths up the hill.
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