Friday, June 29, 2007
11:24 PM
Yesterday was rather boring, so I won't waste any time writing too much about it. We did go to a sloth "rescue" center, which was little more that a lady who likes sloths and takes them in to care for them. The people are in no way veterinarians, but feel that they are making a difference in the sloths life. I believe the story actually is that there is an overpopulation of sloths and these people just happen to like them, so the ones that mother nature tried to get rid of through death, they take in and treat as pets. After seeing the entire setup, you would think the sloth, or "slowth" as they call it, is endangered. I'm pretty sure that it isn't. It is probably about as endangered as the North American squirrel.
Don't get me wrong, they had a very nice setup with very nice facilities and a nice canoe trip through the rain forest. It was all entertaining, but very much overpriced to go see someone's pet sloths. Having said they, the sloths were awesome. I think about $5US awesome, not $15US worth of awesome, though. Oh, and then I bought the most expensive can of diet coke I have every purchased at $2US (oh, and it was canned just up the street here in Costa Rica, not imported).
We did end up having a nice bonfire last night on the beach where we messed around taking cool pictures with a flashlight. Tyson and Myra definitely take the cake when it came to being creative with the light.
Enough about the sloths…On to the good stuff
The Pacuare river emerges from a spring deep in the mountains of Costa Rica. As it makes it's way to the sea, it passes through two deep, fast, and beautiful canyons. The entire way is lined by dense green, primary rain forest. It has been named in the top five rivers for rafting in the world by the main rafting association (whatever that is), and National Geographic named it as one of the 10 most beautiful rivers in the world. It was easy to see why the river owns both those titles.
Most of our group went on the tour, so we got our own private raft with our own guide. The river was full of class 3 and 4 rapids, and with all the rain they have been getting down here the last couple weeks, they were really strong class 3 and 4. We went the entire time without any real accidents, though on the ride up they scare you about all the things that could go wrong and how to get rescued in emergency situations (they tell you this right before you sign your life away on the little waiver they give you). At one point we were going over a huge wave in a class 4 rapid and one of my fellow rafters jacked my chin which put a lot of pressure on my TMJ (temperomandibular joint--sorry, I now know the name and feel I should show that bit of information off) and now I can't bit down all the way because it hurts. I don't think I caused any real damage other that some mild inflammation of the joint--which does hurt quite a bit, but the way.
I was really proud of haley on the river. She paddled hard the whole time and when we were done four hours later, she wanted to keep going for another couple hours (everyone else including me was quite tired at this point). She even fell out of the raft at one point, but then we were all standing up with our hands interlocked in a circle as we went down a class 2 rapid. It just so happened that the way our boat turned that we all kind of pushed her and Chris (from switzerland) into the water. Don't worry, though, I rescued her quite swiftly. I also "rescued" a couple other girls in our group and when you pull them in you are put into a rather compromising position with the said person laying on top of you. It could potentially be awkward. Oh, and just to have a little extra fun, we went down one of the class 3's backwards (on purpose--some other groups repeatedly did it on accident) and then we also did another class 3 while closing our eyes. Our river guide, Diego, was really good and recently went to the rafting world cup in Ecuador (I don't know if he placed in any category, but impressive nonetheless). It was all a blast.
Oh, and it did have a light rain the entire time which both kept us really cool and enriched the already saturated green lining the canyon walls. There were so many vistas of canyon wall with clouds rising from the rain forests floor. Then there were over a dozen waterfalls along the river, some falling from over a hundred feet up. We joked that if we were to die on the river that we not realize it because we were already in heaven (unless some of us end up in hell, then we might notice a change in scenery). The only part that bugged me about the trip was that I was unable to carry my camera with me on the journey because of all the water.
One a side note, Haley and I have been listening to these books by Vince Flynn about terrorism and the CIA. They are really intense and hearing all the different stories kind of put me in commando mode where I am constantly on the look out for people that could give us problems (especially after the recent muggings in the area here).
I feel this entry was just a jumbled mess, but I wanted to get some of my impressions down really quick before I forget some of it. If you ever find yourself in Costa Rica, I highly recommend the Pacuare river, you won't be disappointed. It might end up being the highlight of the trip, depending on how Bocas Del Toro goes (I remember it being incredible as well).
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Bodyguard
Thursday, June 28, 2007
12:31 AM
Ah, Costa Rica. So we are getting back into the Central American spirit now. We had a 4 hour bus ride through the mountains and ended up in the little town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. We had previously heard about Puerto Viejo from our previous tour leader from last year. We had asked her if she had any advice on places to go and things to do and she said to avoid this place because it is getting dangerous. Then this morning right before we got on the bus to come here with our group our new leader, Myra, told us of her recent mugging. She was down here about a month ago and got robbed right outside our current hotel. Two teenagers came running up to her shooting off a handgun into the air and demanding all her money. She freely gave up all she had and went straight to the police who did nothing because the boys were minors. In the month since that time, there have been more muggings, including an entire group of travelers. While I don't think we will get mugged ourselves, I am sure to carry as little money as possible, enough to just get by.
Oh, and I'm also not worried because we have a bodyguard, Roberto. He seems nice enough and did come in handy when a local rastafarian kept on trying to sell us some "good weed." Of course I think it would be better if the gun holster he has on his belt were to actually have a gun in it. No, I'm not kidding, the man has a gun holster with no gun. He does have a cell phone however, and I don't doubt that he is prepared to use it.
After arriving into town, Haley and I walked around with Crystal, an aspiring schoolteacher from Canada and Tyson, a twenty-something professional traveler. Tyson has spent the past year and a half traveling to Switzerland, parts of Europe, spent the past snowboarding season in Canada, probably a couple more places I can't think of and is now doing the entire central America thing. He plans on traveling for the next three years as well. I guess he just got tired of work one day in Australia as an electrical engineer and decided to head out on the road for some travels. Us Americans don't really even think of traveling like that. In fact, we don't do much traveling at all. I'm proud of Haley and I for stepping out of the box and getting away this time. We have a good group and I think we will have a lot of fun in Panama. Tomorrow we are gonna go see a sloth rescue farm and have a bonfire on the beach. Then the next day we are gonna do a little whitewater rafting down the "best" whitewater river in central America. Should be fun as long as our bodyguard continues to watch and protect us. (there is both sarcasm and truth in that last sentence).
12:31 AM
Ah, Costa Rica. So we are getting back into the Central American spirit now. We had a 4 hour bus ride through the mountains and ended up in the little town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. We had previously heard about Puerto Viejo from our previous tour leader from last year. We had asked her if she had any advice on places to go and things to do and she said to avoid this place because it is getting dangerous. Then this morning right before we got on the bus to come here with our group our new leader, Myra, told us of her recent mugging. She was down here about a month ago and got robbed right outside our current hotel. Two teenagers came running up to her shooting off a handgun into the air and demanding all her money. She freely gave up all she had and went straight to the police who did nothing because the boys were minors. In the month since that time, there have been more muggings, including an entire group of travelers. While I don't think we will get mugged ourselves, I am sure to carry as little money as possible, enough to just get by.
Oh, and I'm also not worried because we have a bodyguard, Roberto. He seems nice enough and did come in handy when a local rastafarian kept on trying to sell us some "good weed." Of course I think it would be better if the gun holster he has on his belt were to actually have a gun in it. No, I'm not kidding, the man has a gun holster with no gun. He does have a cell phone however, and I don't doubt that he is prepared to use it.
After arriving into town, Haley and I walked around with Crystal, an aspiring schoolteacher from Canada and Tyson, a twenty-something professional traveler. Tyson has spent the past year and a half traveling to Switzerland, parts of Europe, spent the past snowboarding season in Canada, probably a couple more places I can't think of and is now doing the entire central America thing. He plans on traveling for the next three years as well. I guess he just got tired of work one day in Australia as an electrical engineer and decided to head out on the road for some travels. Us Americans don't really even think of traveling like that. In fact, we don't do much traveling at all. I'm proud of Haley and I for stepping out of the box and getting away this time. We have a good group and I think we will have a lot of fun in Panama. Tomorrow we are gonna go see a sloth rescue farm and have a bonfire on the beach. Then the next day we are gonna do a little whitewater rafting down the "best" whitewater river in central America. Should be fun as long as our bodyguard continues to watch and protect us. (there is both sarcasm and truth in that last sentence).
Manchu-Wok at the MIA
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
11:52 PM
So, here we find ourselves once again in Central America. And here I find myself once again starting up "egberttravels.blogspot.com." Back on vacation. I'd like to say that this trip has gotten off to a good start, and to be honest it hasn't been THAT bad. However, our two hour layover in Miami quickly became a 5 hour layover and then turned into a 7.5 hour layover. We had planned on doing a little shopping in San Jose (Costa Rica--where we are right now), but seeing as we didn't get to the hotel until after 8:00pm local time, we just headed to the corner restaurant and ate a nice meal (arroz con pollo) for under $5US. The rest of our group was out to dinner and we have yet to meet them. We'll be up early tomorrow to get going to our next destination, so we'll miss out on San Jose all together.
About the title of this blog…In an effort to appease our growing anxiety about the layover, the nice people at American Airlines decided to give us each $10US to buy lunch. The dude at the counter told us to walk to this chinese place, which had the best food in the airport. We figured the plethora of time on our hands and an opportunity to eat some decent food would make the 15 minute hike worth it. Unfortunately, the food was everything but good. The sesame chicken was old and laced with catsup, the spring rolls were soggy in greese, the mushrooms in my mushroom chicken tasted like pool water and you get the picture. So, if you are ever stuck in the Miami International Airport, I would recommend that you go to a place other than the Manchu-Wok restaurant next to gate D35.
Just being down here in Costa Rica, I am remembering how much I love it down here. The weather is a very nice 65 degrees out (it's also midnight), and I don't think it gets much over 80 here in the city. I even love the smell of diesel fuel out on the crazy roads.
In other non-travel blog related news, we went wakeboarding yesterday for the first time. Poor Haley caught the front edge of her board her first time up and whacked that water with a brutal force. We were all surprised when she insisted to try it again. The next time she got right up and wakeboarded like a pro. Unfortunately, she is now experiencing what we imagine is whiplash from that first fall. Oh, and I got up too, but don't have any cool stories to share other than it was a blast.
11:52 PM
So, here we find ourselves once again in Central America. And here I find myself once again starting up "egberttravels.blogspot.com." Back on vacation. I'd like to say that this trip has gotten off to a good start, and to be honest it hasn't been THAT bad. However, our two hour layover in Miami quickly became a 5 hour layover and then turned into a 7.5 hour layover. We had planned on doing a little shopping in San Jose (Costa Rica--where we are right now), but seeing as we didn't get to the hotel until after 8:00pm local time, we just headed to the corner restaurant and ate a nice meal (arroz con pollo) for under $5US. The rest of our group was out to dinner and we have yet to meet them. We'll be up early tomorrow to get going to our next destination, so we'll miss out on San Jose all together.
About the title of this blog…In an effort to appease our growing anxiety about the layover, the nice people at American Airlines decided to give us each $10US to buy lunch. The dude at the counter told us to walk to this chinese place, which had the best food in the airport. We figured the plethora of time on our hands and an opportunity to eat some decent food would make the 15 minute hike worth it. Unfortunately, the food was everything but good. The sesame chicken was old and laced with catsup, the spring rolls were soggy in greese, the mushrooms in my mushroom chicken tasted like pool water and you get the picture. So, if you are ever stuck in the Miami International Airport, I would recommend that you go to a place other than the Manchu-Wok restaurant next to gate D35.
Just being down here in Costa Rica, I am remembering how much I love it down here. The weather is a very nice 65 degrees out (it's also midnight), and I don't think it gets much over 80 here in the city. I even love the smell of diesel fuel out on the crazy roads.
In other non-travel blog related news, we went wakeboarding yesterday for the first time. Poor Haley caught the front edge of her board her first time up and whacked that water with a brutal force. We were all surprised when she insisted to try it again. The next time she got right up and wakeboarded like a pro. Unfortunately, she is now experiencing what we imagine is whiplash from that first fall. Oh, and I got up too, but don't have any cool stories to share other than it was a blast.
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