Ever notice how some movie sequels attempt to be unnecessarily creative when a simple 2 or 3 suffix (as in Jaws 2 or Jaws 3) would do? I think Die Hard has to be one of the worst offenders, with Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and then Die Hard with a Vengeance. Then there's always the "Son of ___", "Bride of ___", and "___ Returns". Let me know if you remember a better silly sequel name. Enough of that though, to the main course. The resumption of our travels...
Saturday, September 10
Today we began a 2-day trip to go see the turtles in the Northeastern corner of Costa Rica - in a place called Tortuguero. Which literally means "turtle-catcher" after the natives who used to catch the turtles (I'm guessing here). This 2 day trip began with a 3 hour bus ride full of camera-toting tourists, many of them not of the 20 & 30 year old persuasion. Ooooh - the excitement of adventure was thick in the air. The northeastern area is a bit marshy and not so habitated, so the roads were not in spectacular condition. We did get to see a banana-packing plant along the way though. And about 30 kilometers of nothing but banana plantations. Fun. Our tour guide on this bus ride was the king of the entirely unnecessary dramatic pause. I've never seen (or heard) anyone, ANYONE, ever use as many dramatic pauses in normal speech where they are absolutely unnecessary. Neeraj and I had to duck down so that he didn't see us cracking up. He'd say things like, "And dinner tonight... ... ... ... is at 7pm... ... ... ... 7pm... ... ... ... 7pm." After a 2 hour boat ride from the end of the bus road, we finally arrived at our fancy hotel. They had a live band singing. Except that I thought it was more speaking in a tune rather than singing, since there was a clear lack of musical essence to the voices. And the song? Matilda. "Matilda. Matilda. Took the money and run Venezuela". In the early evening, we took a short trip from our hotel into the town of Tortuguero. During this short jaunt, we quickly got annoyed with one of the other tourists - someone I like to call "Cluelessita". I'm jumping ahead, but this quick bit will explain the name completely. On the ride back to San Jose, this girl said (and I quote, or pretty darn close) "Sometimes when someone is speaking Spanish, I can pick up a few of the words and I get really excited. Then I lose them because I got too excited." Anyway, after Cluelessita asked an inordinate number of questions related to the life cycles and mating habits of turtles and responding to each of the answers with a glossed-over brain-dead "Wowwwww", Neeraj and I went off in search of an internet terminal so that he could contact his wonderful loving girlfriend. This evening was actually pretty cool. At 8pm, we went to the beach with the park rangers to watch the turtles lay eggs. No flashlights, no cameras, and no light-colored clothing. The intent was to be as invisible to the turtles as possible. Quick aside - Neeraj had no idea what the hubbub (bub) was about with all of these turtles - he thought we came here on a 2 day trip to see the standard turtle (about 6 inches), not realizing that we would be in the midst of behemoth green sea turtles (4 feet long). So everyone who knows or sees Neeraj anytime soon, be sure to point at him and laugh uncontrollably. At him. Not with him... ... ... ... At him... ... ... 7pm. So we spotted a turtle that had just come up on the beach and was beginning to make it's way to the top of the beach to potentially lay some eggs. The group sat down and held still so as to not frighten the turtle away. Instead of coming straight up the beach, this turtle decided to come in at a slight angle and came within 3 or 4 feet from us. We were in spitting distance. Not that we would spit on a turtle. But it wouldn't notice anyway because it has a shell. We also got to watch several turtles leave the beach to go back into the ocean, and also saw a turtle laying eggs. Quite an eventful evening.
Sunday, September 11th
We woke up at 5am this morning to go on a boat ride through the canals to go check out some birds. Not "birds" in the British slang, but birds as the squawky lightweight creatures that we know them as. And we saw many birds, and I no longer remember which ones. I'm not much of a birder. We also saw some Caymans (mini-crocodiles) and a few small turtles. After a quick breakfast and shower, we took a quick 2 hour boat ride back to the bus ride, and then a 3-hour van-ride to San Jose. With Cluelessita. Neeraj and I had both come to the conclusion that we could ill afford to look at each other for the majority of the trip or else we'd burst out laughing at Cluelessita. And that would have been... ... ... rude.
Monday, September 12th
Today was the first day we had on our own. The previous week and change had been prescribed by the package tour we had paid for. The rest of this week was up to us. So after some hemming, and a little bit of hawwing, we settled on renting a car. Not a normal car, mind you, but a 4 wheel drive manual. A Daihatsu. What the heck is a Daihatsu? I think maybe it's Kia's low-cost division. And that's pretty darn scary. Acting on some advice from other Tortuguero tourists, we settled on our destination of Dominical on Pacific coast - largely a sleepy surfer town with nice beaches. The route to Dominical went through the mountains - a stretch of road that the locals call "Devil's Pass" because it's very windy and high in the mountains. But that Devil was no match for my driving prowess, as I conquered it in no time. That is, only after I took the hint of other motorists and became comfortable with passing very large trucks going very slowly on a very windy road. At some point, you just say "the hell with it" and punch the gas. In the States, I wouldn't do this. But in Costa Rica, all of the drivers are very aware of their surroundings and understand what other drivers must do. So they are expecting this sort of driving, which is why it works. Similar to New York City driving, which wouldn't work in most other places in the country. We reached Dominical just after sundown and picked a place out of the guidebook called Tortilla Flats. This was our first sub-4 star hotel experience in Costa Rica. And even then at $35/double, it was more than most of the tourists here were paying. But you get what you pay for. Neither of us slept well, and I got freaked out by a co-habitant roach that I met during a late-night bathroom break. I hate cockroaches. Pure loathing. Even as I type this, I am shuddering.
Tuesday, September 13th
After some breakfast and dropping off a load of laundry, we drove a few kilometers up to a private rainforest reserve called Hacienda Baru for a tree-climbing and zip line adventure. On this trip, our guides pointed out a few birds, a two-toed sloth, and a three-toed sloth. The only reason we knew how many toes they had is that we waved and then counted quickly as each waved back. The tree climbing adventure was neat - they suspended several ropes from a really really tall tree. And we used ropes and winches to climb up. Winch #1 was attached to your body harness. Winch #2 was attached to your legs. So, the process is that you stand up, putting all the pressure on Winch #2, and raise Winch #1 as high as possible. Then you sit in your harness with all the pressure on the recently elevated Winch #1, and lift your legs up along with Winch #2. Lather, rinse, repeat. This was quite a work-out for both of us, since we were mostly using our arms and not our legs. I could even hear my old climbing-fanatic roomies yelling at me "Use your legs!!!". Acting on a tip from someone we met at the hotel's bar last night, we decided to head north to the Rafiki Safari Lodge (yes - Rafiki like Rafiki the medicine monkey from the Lion King). All of yesterday's driving was on paved road. Today was all unpaved. After 20 km on very pot-holey road, we turned onto a gravel road for 17km. Actually, calling it gravel is like calling Cluelessita a Rhodes Scholar. Many times along the way, we questioned whether or not we were on the right road, or even on a road at all. When we arrived, we didn't know what to think. Then the manager, Loki, came bounding down the steps to our Daihatsu in the empty parking lot to welcome us and lead us up to the bar to chat and have our free welcome drink. Apparently, we were the only guests, and the last guests were the ones who had recommended the place to us. Rafiki is a relatively new place, opening in 2000 to preserve rainforest, promote socially and environmentally responsible tourism, and raise money to soon begin a tapir reintroduction program. What's a tapir? It's this huge behemoth of an animal that occurs naturally in these parts and through Central America and parts of South America. Rafiki recycles everything they can, composts or burns everything else (they go through great pains to ensure that it's done in an environmentally friendly way). All of the power is hydro-electrically generated from a nearby stream. The lodging at Rafiki is nothing short of extraordinary. They took African safari tents, added a big front porch, and outfitted the back of the tent with a large bathroom rivalling that of 4 star hotels. Our jaws dropped when we saw it and we were speechless. Needless to say, staying at Rafiki is not cheap, but since it was low season, we worked out a deal with Loki that was mutually agreeable. And no, this did not include washing dishes or performing certain favors. But by far the coolest part of Rafiki is the pool, or more specifically, the huge concrete waterslide leading to the pool. The pool itself is quite small, but is filled by water from the mountain stream, and overflows into a lake a few 100 feet away - the constant water replenishment means that no chlorine is needed, which is again, environmentally friendly. But back to the water slide - Neeraj and I must have slid down it at least 6 times each. And you go so fast that you get scared each and every time you slide down it. Just phenomenal. This evening, two girls joined us and Loki as the inhabitants of Rafiki: Jill and Renee, who are originally from Cincinnati. Jill has been in Costa Rica for the past few months doing odd jobs, including serving as a raft guide at Rafiki for a week or two. Renee is her visiting older sister, who currently lives in Phoenix working in a landscape architecture firm.
Wednesday, September 14th
Our big adventure trip this morning was a combination horseback ride (something I had sworn to my privates that I would not do again) and rafting trip down the Savegre River. The coolest part of the horseback ride was that we saw a family of toucans. I tried to take a picture, but the darn things wouldn't stay still or in plain unencumbered view. Stupid toucans with their Stoopid Froot Loops. The rest of the horseback ride was largely forgettable as far as I was concerned. Anytime we tried to gallop, I had to re-swear that I'd never do this again. The pain. Oh... ... ... the pain. The Savegre River itself is mostly a Class 3 river - nothing all that spectacular for normal rafts. But we weren't going on normal rafts; the rafts we were using were called "Mini-Me's". It's basically a much smaller raft for two rafters and one guide in the back, which means that the raft is much more maneuverable and much lighter. This is basically a recipe for getting tossed. And I got tossed a lot, beginning with the second rapid. Loki was our raft guide, and we pretty much told him to maximize the fun at virtually any cost. Which is pretty much a raft guide's dream. Renee, on the other hand, was scared to go at all, so their boat took easy routes with minimum spillage potential. We got tossed and then went back for more. All in all, Neeraj got tossed 5 times and I got tossed 10 times. Several of my unbalancings we due to rapid swings and shifts of the raft, completely attributable to the skill of Loki. The last 5 came on the same rapid - a relatively small rapid that was good for surfing (the raft pretty much holds in spot provided that the balancing is right) with an eddy to the side that allowed you to re-enter the rapid if you lost it. So we redid this rapid about 8 times. This was the mini-highlight of the trip, by far. Well, besides the waterslide, which we slid down another 8 times or so when we got back. We decided to stay at Rafiki again tonight because we were having such a great time, and having good company makes all the difference in the world. For anyone who is counting, this would make the first time that we are staying in the same place for consecutive nights.
Thursday, September 15th
This morning, we went on a 2-hour hike with Rafael on a close-up look through the rainforest and learn more about the plantlife and birdlife of the area. I'm not naturally very excited about plantlife and birdlife, but I was very excited just to take a hike (pardon the euphemism) and have a look around and appreciate nature and its beauty. And it was visually stunning. Since Neeraj and I have had so little actual exercise, we were absolutely pooped with just hiking for 2 hours. Very very sad. But we had the perfect remedy for this when we returned. Waterslide. Say it with me: water... ... ... slide. After cleaning up, we drove up to Quepos and the Manuel Antonio National Park, which is quite possibly some of the most touristed area of the country. A few short years ago, this area was considered to be quiet and hidden. Now, it's full of large resorts overlooking the Pacific. I wasn't particularly looking forward to going here based on everything I had heard, but I didn't want to not go either since the surrounding landscape is supposed to be beautiful. After finding a place with an ocean view, we pretty much just planted down to rest. We were both exhausted. Our room had a TV too, so we watched some Telemundo. I love Telemundo. Sometimes I turn the volume down when I watch Telemundo - but that's a different story. I watched some of the Miss Italy pageant - the talent portion of their pageant is quite diverse and interesting. One girl did what looked to be a stripper routine on the host, and another did some face-painting. But the Telemundo highlight was watching that show "Small Wonder" - remember that sitcom from the 80's? It's the one of the family with a 10 year old robot daughter who talks in a monotone voice, but somehow their idiot community doesn't realize that she's a robot. It's way funnier in Spanish. And no, I was not drinking.
Friday, September 16th
Our main activity today was a kayaking trip through a nearby mangrove swamp called Isla Damas. It was just me and Neeraj on this trip with the guide (like that's never happened before), and we had actual kayaks this time (not the inflatable kind). But there was no danger whatsoever. Except the swarm of monkeys that we met. And any temple-going Indian knows, monkeys are evil. They steal your things and hide their poop in your clothing when you're unawares (no, this has never happened to me). We did manage to see more birds and more trees. After cleaning up at the hotel, we swung by the park entrance and picked up Jill and Renee to give them a lift back to San Jose. It was a 3-4 hour drive, and it was getting late. The treacherous part of the trip was up a mountain, without guardrails. And seemingly without any lines or reflectors whatsoever. This was the real adventure. There were a number of times where I had no idea where the pavement was, what direction it was going, and where the edge of the cliff was. With the headlights coming in my direction, I generally just aimed to stay to the right of them and cross my fingers that I was correct. On more than one occasion, the road signs were not reflective in nature, and we barely veered in time for our turns. The redeeming factor in this trip was the radio. For whatever reason, Costa Rica has a plethora of radio stations that play 80's music that is extremely singable. So, every 3 minutes, we were all hooting excitedly and singing along to songs we hadn't heard in forever. We even heard two separate Bangles songs ("Eternal Flame" and "Walking Down Your Street") on two different radio stations. I mean - when's the last time that's happened?
Saturday, September 17th
I returned the rental car and then got on my flight home. No drama. No interesting stories. Nada. Sorry to disappoint. I did finish another book today though - "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" by David Sedaris. I've read another book by Sedaris, and something tells me that all of his books are pretty similar. It's an interesting read. Nothing I'd say that you MUST go read now, but it's not a bad read in the least. That is, if you are like me and don't care much for the movie-worthy action adventures or murder mysteries or Harlequins.
Okie doke. That's it for now. I don't know where the next trip may be, but I figure that it will be something a bit more adventurous. Currently, I'm leaning towards a long hiking trip (7-10 day) in Patagonia. Any takers? Let me know if you are interested and we can work out a time frame that works for all those interested. As far as the extended guys weekend out, let me know if you are interested in that too. I'm thinking of a 3-day rafting trip down the Colorado River in April for starters.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
-Paraag
Tidbits:
1. One of the first things Neeraj and I looked up in our Spanish-English dictionary was "moo" when we passed a cow on the bed of a truck. Just so that you know, it's "mugido". No really... it is... No joke... mugido.
2. To give you an idea of the level of comedy between my brother and me these past 2 weeks, here's a few sample whittled-down conversations:
me (offering a bottle of sunscreen): "do you want to put more on?"
Neeraj: "did you just call me a moron?"
me: "you have the door key, right?"
Neeraj: "no, you're dorky"
Neeraj: "wakka wakka wakka"
me: "here comes Jaws" (from a Pac-Man sticker 25 yrs ago when we were utes)
Neeraj: "what the hell is that?"
me: "must be one of them Mexican staring frogs of southern Sri Lanka"
Okay, maybe you had to be there. I was going to try and have a count for you of the number of obscure movie/TV/advertisement references we made over the length of the trip, but I lost count on the second morning.
3. I'll try again. On Friday, we asked our kayak guide what river we were crossing. After he replied "Naranjo", my brother asked if this was like "naranja" which means orange. When the guide replied that it was not, my brother responded with how about "naranja con cojones?"
4. Watching NFL games on HDTV is amazing. This has nothing to do with the trip, but I'm watching football right now as I write this, and it's important to note.
Saturday, September 10
Today we began a 2-day trip to go see the turtles in the Northeastern corner of Costa Rica - in a place called Tortuguero. Which literally means "turtle-catcher" after the natives who used to catch the turtles (I'm guessing here). This 2 day trip began with a 3 hour bus ride full of camera-toting tourists, many of them not of the 20 & 30 year old persuasion. Ooooh - the excitement of adventure was thick in the air. The northeastern area is a bit marshy and not so habitated, so the roads were not in spectacular condition. We did get to see a banana-packing plant along the way though. And about 30 kilometers of nothing but banana plantations. Fun. Our tour guide on this bus ride was the king of the entirely unnecessary dramatic pause. I've never seen (or heard) anyone, ANYONE, ever use as many dramatic pauses in normal speech where they are absolutely unnecessary. Neeraj and I had to duck down so that he didn't see us cracking up. He'd say things like, "And dinner tonight... ... ... ... is at 7pm... ... ... ... 7pm... ... ... ... 7pm." After a 2 hour boat ride from the end of the bus road, we finally arrived at our fancy hotel. They had a live band singing. Except that I thought it was more speaking in a tune rather than singing, since there was a clear lack of musical essence to the voices. And the song? Matilda. "Matilda. Matilda. Took the money and run Venezuela". In the early evening, we took a short trip from our hotel into the town of Tortuguero. During this short jaunt, we quickly got annoyed with one of the other tourists - someone I like to call "Cluelessita". I'm jumping ahead, but this quick bit will explain the name completely. On the ride back to San Jose, this girl said (and I quote, or pretty darn close) "Sometimes when someone is speaking Spanish, I can pick up a few of the words and I get really excited. Then I lose them because I got too excited." Anyway, after Cluelessita asked an inordinate number of questions related to the life cycles and mating habits of turtles and responding to each of the answers with a glossed-over brain-dead "Wowwwww", Neeraj and I went off in search of an internet terminal so that he could contact his wonderful loving girlfriend. This evening was actually pretty cool. At 8pm, we went to the beach with the park rangers to watch the turtles lay eggs. No flashlights, no cameras, and no light-colored clothing. The intent was to be as invisible to the turtles as possible. Quick aside - Neeraj had no idea what the hubbub (bub) was about with all of these turtles - he thought we came here on a 2 day trip to see the standard turtle (about 6 inches), not realizing that we would be in the midst of behemoth green sea turtles (4 feet long). So everyone who knows or sees Neeraj anytime soon, be sure to point at him and laugh uncontrollably. At him. Not with him... ... ... ... At him... ... ... 7pm. So we spotted a turtle that had just come up on the beach and was beginning to make it's way to the top of the beach to potentially lay some eggs. The group sat down and held still so as to not frighten the turtle away. Instead of coming straight up the beach, this turtle decided to come in at a slight angle and came within 3 or 4 feet from us. We were in spitting distance. Not that we would spit on a turtle. But it wouldn't notice anyway because it has a shell. We also got to watch several turtles leave the beach to go back into the ocean, and also saw a turtle laying eggs. Quite an eventful evening.
Sunday, September 11th
We woke up at 5am this morning to go on a boat ride through the canals to go check out some birds. Not "birds" in the British slang, but birds as the squawky lightweight creatures that we know them as. And we saw many birds, and I no longer remember which ones. I'm not much of a birder. We also saw some Caymans (mini-crocodiles) and a few small turtles. After a quick breakfast and shower, we took a quick 2 hour boat ride back to the bus ride, and then a 3-hour van-ride to San Jose. With Cluelessita. Neeraj and I had both come to the conclusion that we could ill afford to look at each other for the majority of the trip or else we'd burst out laughing at Cluelessita. And that would have been... ... ... rude.
Monday, September 12th
Today was the first day we had on our own. The previous week and change had been prescribed by the package tour we had paid for. The rest of this week was up to us. So after some hemming, and a little bit of hawwing, we settled on renting a car. Not a normal car, mind you, but a 4 wheel drive manual. A Daihatsu. What the heck is a Daihatsu? I think maybe it's Kia's low-cost division. And that's pretty darn scary. Acting on some advice from other Tortuguero tourists, we settled on our destination of Dominical on Pacific coast - largely a sleepy surfer town with nice beaches. The route to Dominical went through the mountains - a stretch of road that the locals call "Devil's Pass" because it's very windy and high in the mountains. But that Devil was no match for my driving prowess, as I conquered it in no time. That is, only after I took the hint of other motorists and became comfortable with passing very large trucks going very slowly on a very windy road. At some point, you just say "the hell with it" and punch the gas. In the States, I wouldn't do this. But in Costa Rica, all of the drivers are very aware of their surroundings and understand what other drivers must do. So they are expecting this sort of driving, which is why it works. Similar to New York City driving, which wouldn't work in most other places in the country. We reached Dominical just after sundown and picked a place out of the guidebook called Tortilla Flats. This was our first sub-4 star hotel experience in Costa Rica. And even then at $35/double, it was more than most of the tourists here were paying. But you get what you pay for. Neither of us slept well, and I got freaked out by a co-habitant roach that I met during a late-night bathroom break. I hate cockroaches. Pure loathing. Even as I type this, I am shuddering.
Tuesday, September 13th
After some breakfast and dropping off a load of laundry, we drove a few kilometers up to a private rainforest reserve called Hacienda Baru for a tree-climbing and zip line adventure. On this trip, our guides pointed out a few birds, a two-toed sloth, and a three-toed sloth. The only reason we knew how many toes they had is that we waved and then counted quickly as each waved back. The tree climbing adventure was neat - they suspended several ropes from a really really tall tree. And we used ropes and winches to climb up. Winch #1 was attached to your body harness. Winch #2 was attached to your legs. So, the process is that you stand up, putting all the pressure on Winch #2, and raise Winch #1 as high as possible. Then you sit in your harness with all the pressure on the recently elevated Winch #1, and lift your legs up along with Winch #2. Lather, rinse, repeat. This was quite a work-out for both of us, since we were mostly using our arms and not our legs. I could even hear my old climbing-fanatic roomies yelling at me "Use your legs!!!". Acting on a tip from someone we met at the hotel's bar last night, we decided to head north to the Rafiki Safari Lodge (yes - Rafiki like Rafiki the medicine monkey from the Lion King). All of yesterday's driving was on paved road. Today was all unpaved. After 20 km on very pot-holey road, we turned onto a gravel road for 17km. Actually, calling it gravel is like calling Cluelessita a Rhodes Scholar. Many times along the way, we questioned whether or not we were on the right road, or even on a road at all. When we arrived, we didn't know what to think. Then the manager, Loki, came bounding down the steps to our Daihatsu in the empty parking lot to welcome us and lead us up to the bar to chat and have our free welcome drink. Apparently, we were the only guests, and the last guests were the ones who had recommended the place to us. Rafiki is a relatively new place, opening in 2000 to preserve rainforest, promote socially and environmentally responsible tourism, and raise money to soon begin a tapir reintroduction program. What's a tapir? It's this huge behemoth of an animal that occurs naturally in these parts and through Central America and parts of South America. Rafiki recycles everything they can, composts or burns everything else (they go through great pains to ensure that it's done in an environmentally friendly way). All of the power is hydro-electrically generated from a nearby stream. The lodging at Rafiki is nothing short of extraordinary. They took African safari tents, added a big front porch, and outfitted the back of the tent with a large bathroom rivalling that of 4 star hotels. Our jaws dropped when we saw it and we were speechless. Needless to say, staying at Rafiki is not cheap, but since it was low season, we worked out a deal with Loki that was mutually agreeable. And no, this did not include washing dishes or performing certain favors. But by far the coolest part of Rafiki is the pool, or more specifically, the huge concrete waterslide leading to the pool. The pool itself is quite small, but is filled by water from the mountain stream, and overflows into a lake a few 100 feet away - the constant water replenishment means that no chlorine is needed, which is again, environmentally friendly. But back to the water slide - Neeraj and I must have slid down it at least 6 times each. And you go so fast that you get scared each and every time you slide down it. Just phenomenal. This evening, two girls joined us and Loki as the inhabitants of Rafiki: Jill and Renee, who are originally from Cincinnati. Jill has been in Costa Rica for the past few months doing odd jobs, including serving as a raft guide at Rafiki for a week or two. Renee is her visiting older sister, who currently lives in Phoenix working in a landscape architecture firm.
Wednesday, September 14th
Our big adventure trip this morning was a combination horseback ride (something I had sworn to my privates that I would not do again) and rafting trip down the Savegre River. The coolest part of the horseback ride was that we saw a family of toucans. I tried to take a picture, but the darn things wouldn't stay still or in plain unencumbered view. Stupid toucans with their Stoopid Froot Loops. The rest of the horseback ride was largely forgettable as far as I was concerned. Anytime we tried to gallop, I had to re-swear that I'd never do this again. The pain. Oh... ... ... the pain. The Savegre River itself is mostly a Class 3 river - nothing all that spectacular for normal rafts. But we weren't going on normal rafts; the rafts we were using were called "Mini-Me's". It's basically a much smaller raft for two rafters and one guide in the back, which means that the raft is much more maneuverable and much lighter. This is basically a recipe for getting tossed. And I got tossed a lot, beginning with the second rapid. Loki was our raft guide, and we pretty much told him to maximize the fun at virtually any cost. Which is pretty much a raft guide's dream. Renee, on the other hand, was scared to go at all, so their boat took easy routes with minimum spillage potential. We got tossed and then went back for more. All in all, Neeraj got tossed 5 times and I got tossed 10 times. Several of my unbalancings we due to rapid swings and shifts of the raft, completely attributable to the skill of Loki. The last 5 came on the same rapid - a relatively small rapid that was good for surfing (the raft pretty much holds in spot provided that the balancing is right) with an eddy to the side that allowed you to re-enter the rapid if you lost it. So we redid this rapid about 8 times. This was the mini-highlight of the trip, by far. Well, besides the waterslide, which we slid down another 8 times or so when we got back. We decided to stay at Rafiki again tonight because we were having such a great time, and having good company makes all the difference in the world. For anyone who is counting, this would make the first time that we are staying in the same place for consecutive nights.
Thursday, September 15th
This morning, we went on a 2-hour hike with Rafael on a close-up look through the rainforest and learn more about the plantlife and birdlife of the area. I'm not naturally very excited about plantlife and birdlife, but I was very excited just to take a hike (pardon the euphemism) and have a look around and appreciate nature and its beauty. And it was visually stunning. Since Neeraj and I have had so little actual exercise, we were absolutely pooped with just hiking for 2 hours. Very very sad. But we had the perfect remedy for this when we returned. Waterslide. Say it with me: water... ... ... slide. After cleaning up, we drove up to Quepos and the Manuel Antonio National Park, which is quite possibly some of the most touristed area of the country. A few short years ago, this area was considered to be quiet and hidden. Now, it's full of large resorts overlooking the Pacific. I wasn't particularly looking forward to going here based on everything I had heard, but I didn't want to not go either since the surrounding landscape is supposed to be beautiful. After finding a place with an ocean view, we pretty much just planted down to rest. We were both exhausted. Our room had a TV too, so we watched some Telemundo. I love Telemundo. Sometimes I turn the volume down when I watch Telemundo - but that's a different story. I watched some of the Miss Italy pageant - the talent portion of their pageant is quite diverse and interesting. One girl did what looked to be a stripper routine on the host, and another did some face-painting. But the Telemundo highlight was watching that show "Small Wonder" - remember that sitcom from the 80's? It's the one of the family with a 10 year old robot daughter who talks in a monotone voice, but somehow their idiot community doesn't realize that she's a robot. It's way funnier in Spanish. And no, I was not drinking.
Friday, September 16th
Our main activity today was a kayaking trip through a nearby mangrove swamp called Isla Damas. It was just me and Neeraj on this trip with the guide (like that's never happened before), and we had actual kayaks this time (not the inflatable kind). But there was no danger whatsoever. Except the swarm of monkeys that we met. And any temple-going Indian knows, monkeys are evil. They steal your things and hide their poop in your clothing when you're unawares (no, this has never happened to me). We did manage to see more birds and more trees. After cleaning up at the hotel, we swung by the park entrance and picked up Jill and Renee to give them a lift back to San Jose. It was a 3-4 hour drive, and it was getting late. The treacherous part of the trip was up a mountain, without guardrails. And seemingly without any lines or reflectors whatsoever. This was the real adventure. There were a number of times where I had no idea where the pavement was, what direction it was going, and where the edge of the cliff was. With the headlights coming in my direction, I generally just aimed to stay to the right of them and cross my fingers that I was correct. On more than one occasion, the road signs were not reflective in nature, and we barely veered in time for our turns. The redeeming factor in this trip was the radio. For whatever reason, Costa Rica has a plethora of radio stations that play 80's music that is extremely singable. So, every 3 minutes, we were all hooting excitedly and singing along to songs we hadn't heard in forever. We even heard two separate Bangles songs ("Eternal Flame" and "Walking Down Your Street") on two different radio stations. I mean - when's the last time that's happened?
Saturday, September 17th
I returned the rental car and then got on my flight home. No drama. No interesting stories. Nada. Sorry to disappoint. I did finish another book today though - "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" by David Sedaris. I've read another book by Sedaris, and something tells me that all of his books are pretty similar. It's an interesting read. Nothing I'd say that you MUST go read now, but it's not a bad read in the least. That is, if you are like me and don't care much for the movie-worthy action adventures or murder mysteries or Harlequins.
Okie doke. That's it for now. I don't know where the next trip may be, but I figure that it will be something a bit more adventurous. Currently, I'm leaning towards a long hiking trip (7-10 day) in Patagonia. Any takers? Let me know if you are interested and we can work out a time frame that works for all those interested. As far as the extended guys weekend out, let me know if you are interested in that too. I'm thinking of a 3-day rafting trip down the Colorado River in April for starters.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
-Paraag
Tidbits:
1. One of the first things Neeraj and I looked up in our Spanish-English dictionary was "moo" when we passed a cow on the bed of a truck. Just so that you know, it's "mugido". No really... it is... No joke... mugido.
2. To give you an idea of the level of comedy between my brother and me these past 2 weeks, here's a few sample whittled-down conversations:
me (offering a bottle of sunscreen): "do you want to put more on?"
Neeraj: "did you just call me a moron?"
me: "you have the door key, right?"
Neeraj: "no, you're dorky"
Neeraj: "wakka wakka wakka"
me: "here comes Jaws" (from a Pac-Man sticker 25 yrs ago when we were utes)
Neeraj: "what the hell is that?"
me: "must be one of them Mexican staring frogs of southern Sri Lanka"
Okay, maybe you had to be there. I was going to try and have a count for you of the number of obscure movie/TV/advertisement references we made over the length of the trip, but I lost count on the second morning.
3. I'll try again. On Friday, we asked our kayak guide what river we were crossing. After he replied "Naranjo", my brother asked if this was like "naranja" which means orange. When the guide replied that it was not, my brother responded with how about "naranja con cojones?"
4. Watching NFL games on HDTV is amazing. This has nothing to do with the trip, but I'm watching football right now as I write this, and it's important to note.
No comments:
Post a Comment