Journey to the Center of the Earth - Costa Rica

I had plenty of good intentions to blog regularly again, but somehow I let another couple of months slip by. Hopefully I’ll find time in the next couple of weeks to catch up. Anyways, this blog is about my Costa Rican vacation about 4 months ago now.

By the end of March, I was in desperate need of warmer weather after the last 7 months of the frigid Alaskan winter. Luckily, some coworkers and good friends were planning a trip to the equator for the very week that I would be transitioning from Alaska to New Jersey……how convenient!!! Six of us rented a beach house close to the surfer town of Jaco (pronounced Haco and with an accent mark over the a) and booked a couple of rental cars. We went to Costa Rica with no plans other than to spend time on the beach and figure it out as we go. I would have done it differently and traveled all over the country rather than stay mostly in one area, but the rest of the group was looking for a more relaxing visit to the beach.

Now for a little background on the country of Costa Rica….it is located in Central America not far from the equator so the temperatures stay fairly constant all year long and the sun and moon share equal time as the limelight. Costa Rica covers less than ½ a percent of the world’s land mass, but accounts for over 6% of the world’s biodiversity….translation…..Costa Rica is home to a ton of creepy crawlers, snakes, spiders, spider monkeys, big ass alligators, plants, trees, toucans like Mr. fruit loop himself, sloths, and other random creatures you’ve never heard of. It is actually quite an experience to walk through a rainforest and suddenly stumble upon the beach. The country also boasts the #6 Whitewater Rafting River in the world, the Paquare River, and some of the best surfing in the world….particularly Jaco. Tourism is a major part of the Costa Rican economy, and it will only get larger as many large investors from various countries are beginning to invest some serious cash into Costa Rica. Currently, the road system is awful, it literally took us 2 hours to go about 40 miles, and it is quite dangerous with winding roads through the mountains combined with crazy Costa Rican drivers flying around the bends. But, the roads are currently being upgraded, and once travel is easier, tourism should explode. Costa Rica is a very poor nation, but it is also one of the happiest….did you know that there is some study that rates the happiness index of countries??

Anyways, I suppose I can talk about the actual vacation now. Initially, we were worried that we would not make it out of Alaska because Mt Redoubt exploded about 50 billion times in the last couple of months and the ash from the eruption was causing problems with air travel. We arrived in the capital, San Jose, around noon, but we had to wait there for the last member of our group until about 8 that night. San Jose is actually quite a boring place for tourists.....so my buddy Ryan and I decided to test the Costa Rican blackjack tables to pass the time…..2 hours later, we had both lost 300 bucks (that’s 150,000 colones each), what a way to start a vacation!! Then we picked up our payload at the aeropuerte and headed back to the beach house on the dark, windy roads.

We spent most of the first day (Monday exploring the beach close to our house, planning a couple of excursions for the week, and then heading into Jaco for some dinner, drinks, and souvenir shopping. The second day we went canopy zip lining through the rainforest which was pretty exhilarating. One of the zip lines is half a mile long and allows you to get up to 60 miles per hour. And on the last zip line, we decided to hang upside down. After we finished the canopy tour, one of the guides told us of the time that he was bitten by the second most poisonous snake in the world while clearing some of the trails for the tour….he showed us the scar on his hand. He was lucky that the snake was fully grown instead of a bit younger and smaller…..otherwise he would have been paralyzed within 10 minutes of the bite and most likely died. After the canopy tour, we headed south about 2 hours to the Manuel Antonio National Parque. As we walked through the rainforest, we saw a couple of sloths in the trees, plenty of spider monkeys, a toucan, and a really cool bamboo tree. After about a half a mile in the rainforest, we arrived at the beach surrounded on 3 sides by rainforest. This area was highly populated with spider monkeys….I was tempted to throw fruit at a monkey to see if he would throw fruit…or something a bit more disgusting back….but the sign clearly stated not to feed the monkeys, and I didn’t want to end up in Costa Rican jail. We also saw a nice sized iguana at this beach. As the park closed, we headed back to the main beach and spent the last couple hours of sunlight playing in the big waves watching one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen as a couple of kids surfed nearby. We drove back to Jaco, showered, and then headed out to enjoy the Tuesday night scene at a local club.

The next morning, Wednesday, we slept in and then headed out for another lazy day at the beach. We might have shot-gunned a beer or two, and then decided it was a good idea to go body surfing. I had a couple of successful runs, especially one in particular where I was able to ride a wave for about 100 yards. But then we learned that these waves were a bit too big to body surf. As my friend Ryan and I tried to catch a huge wave, we were swept under by the wave, and as the wave crashed by us, another large wave came directly behind us and pushed us under again before we resurfaced, we even crashed into each other at some point. We both swallowed a decent amount of salt water, and that was the last of the body surfing for the day. We considered getting surfing lessons, but decided to push it off until the next day. I did however rent a surf board for an hour. The first 30 minutes was quite a struggle as I tried to figure out the physics behind this sport, but during the last 30 minutes, I had a couple of successful runs that made me wish I had invested more time in surfing while I was in the surf capital of Costa Rica. Jaco is one of the best places to learn to surf since it provides a consistent dose of large, yet slow breaking waves.

The next morning, Thursday, a couple of my friends had to leave early because of a family issue. We were only 3 now. We decided to do a little ATV off-roading in the mountains before we had to leave. On top of one of the mountains, we stopped at a small outdoor diner made completely of wood and had a coca-cola in the classic bottle. Then we headed back down the mountain and back to San Juan to head back to the States after a great 5 days in the sunny, slow-paced, surfer town of Jaco.

Catching up on Alaska

Greetings from New York City, I have moved from the least densely populated state, Alaska, to the most densely populated state, New Jersey. And I’m back to the blogging world as well. From what I hear, the summer has been amazing so far in Alaska. I’m jealous, and I miss all of my friends. But life goes on, and I am already making some really great friends here in NY/NJ. I am living in Hoboken, New Jersey just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. I’ll have more on this in future blogs.

Since my last blog, I have hosted my family in Alaska, escaped the Alaskan winter for a week to visit the quaint surfer town of Jaco, Costa Rica, road tripped with an old friend from the dirty south to the dirty jerz, hopped and skipped to tampa, fl for my grandmother’s 80th birthday surprise party, and begun my new life in the land of the economic crisis - Wall Street, the Bronx Bombers, and Eli Manning (what a bunch of losers). This posting will focus on the last couple months of my Alaskan Adventure, and more specifically the refreshing visit from the fam…..refreshing even though I did have to share my one bedroom apartment with 3 other people….energizing even though my brother left me with an awfully nasty sniffle.

Shortly after my last post on January 9, the weather flip-flopped like a politician from -15 degrees to 45 in a matter of days. The city melted and I found myself longing for frigid temperatures again so that I could get out and enjoy boarding and cross country skiing to keep myself occupied….if only for the 6-8 hours of daylight. January and February were long, cold, dark months…..these are the months that make Alaskans wonder why they waste their lives on this ice block….especially considering the nation’s longest serving Republican Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, had recently lost his senate seat by a narrow defeat because of his conviction on 7 criminal charges…..the charges were subsequently dropped.

But the month of March finally arrived and offered a glimpse of the magnificent Alaskan summer. Temperatures climbed to the thirties, cold enough to keep the city in a deep freeze, but warm enough to entice me outside. Daylight was rapidly returning, the Iditarod was gearing up, and summer was right around the corner. My mom, brother and sister-in-law visited Alaska in mid-march. I hadn’t seen them since Christmas.

The morning after they arrived, we walked downtown to see the beginning of the last great race, the Iditarod. For those that don’t know, the Iditarod is a dog-sledding race from Willow to Nome, Alaska covering almost 1200 miles. Each team is allowed to have 16 dogs, the fastest time ever recorded is a little under 9 days. It was an interesting start to the week, since later in the week we actually visited a commercial dog-sledding family. A man and wife live in a small cabin in the sparsely populated town of Talkeetna. Their property includes a 2 mile trail groomed for sledding and a fenced in area to house their over 50 sled-dogs. The man, formerly a doctor, began training dogs about 5 years ago, and has since participated in several races including the Iditarod. One thing we all noticed during the start of the Iditarod was how eager the dogs were to start the race…..they were panting and whining and when the musher finally allowed them to go, some dogs literally jump started. Our personal sled-dogs were even more eager to begin mushing. Some animal rights activist’s have pushed to stop the Iditarod citing animal cruelty…..though the man we met told us stories of dogs injured during the Iditarod that whined because they could no longer continue with the team. The doctor told us about the unique bond between the dogs and himself......and he also told us about the strategies of the race….eating, sleeping, choosing a leader, pace, booties to keep the footsies of the dogs warm and padded, personalities of the dogs, races leading up to the Iditarod….conversation with this man and his wife alone was worth the $25, but we also got to ride the dog sled around his property for 20-30 minutes as well.

Perhaps the most amazing adventure of the visit happened the same day as the dog sledding. We purchased a flight-seeing trip over Mt. Mckinley, the tallest mountain in North America. The plane was a single prop and just large enough to fit the pilot and my family of four. We flew through glacial gorges and valleys, towered over beautiful snow covered mountains, watched snow mobilers plow through fresh snow below, and wondered what all of this might look like in the summer with running rivers. I really can’t describe the beauty….it’s times like these that you sit back and realize that you are looking at the purest of God’s creations…….calculated chaos. One day I want to follow in my mom and dad’s footsteps and get a pilot’s license….and when I do I can think of nothing better than to come back to Alaska and explore the state in the way it was meant to be explored…..3 million lakes in which to land to access your own personal haven…or heaven. One of my good Alaskan friends is already on his way in this goal.

A few other highlights from the visit…..we spent a day skiing at Alyeska, and my sister-in-law thought she was suffering from altitude sickness…..Alyeska sits right on the Cook Inlet. I went Ice Skating with my brother, and we saw a kid being pulled by his leashed dog……the kid promptly fell down and the dog continued running pulling the boy on his butt behind him. We made snow angels in front of city hall, ate delicious pizza at Moose’s Tooth, enjoyed salmon, halibut and porkchops at Simon and Seaforts, and reminisced about the winters of our childhood in Buffalo. It was a once in a lifetime vacation with my family, learning about dog-sledding, flying over mountains and valleys, skiing, and watching sunsets over water and mountains. Someday we will return in the summer to make this a twice in a lifetime event.

After my family left, I only had 3 weeks left in this place I was starting to call home. My friends threw me a couple of amazing going away parties; Redoubt erupted and then erupted again and again and again; I visited the North Slope again to find -70 degree windchills; I went to Fairbanks to visit an old friend and had an amazing weekend seeing world-class ice sculptures (and ice slides), tubing down a mountain, searching for the northern lights, swimming in natural hot springs in 0 degree temps, and drinking appletinis in an ice hotel; and I prepared to leave behind the close friends that made 7 months on that iceblock totally worth it. And a sidenote, I made a 30 minute presentation on my work accomplishments and learnings and was invited to come back to work in Alaska assuming that they will start hiring again someday after this economic crisis is over.

So there you have it, a recap of my last 3 months in Alaska. Soon I will catch everyone up on my trip to Costa Rica, my roadtrip from Mississippi to New Jersey, and a wonderful Memorial Day camping/hiking trip to the Adirondack Mountains.

Snowboarding in Alaska

There is a ski resort about 45 miles south of anchorage called Alyeska in the town of Girdwood. This ski resort consists of one mountain with two faces and 4 different chair lifts. The mountain has several different trails including groomed, powder, and chutes. It is a fun mountain, but there isn't as much diversity as Colorado resorts. The view is gorgeous though because the mountain is right next to the Cook Inlet and the surrounding mountains are beautiful. I have been snowboarding here 3 times, and I have enjoyed each trip.

The last time I went to Alyeska, the wind chill was between -15 and -25. Surprisingly, I stayed pretty warm, except for my toes and my face. When I came back to the lodge for lunch, I could no longer feel my toes, and when they thawed out, they were stinging/burning. I'm glad I came in when I did.

We are in the middle of a record breaking cold spell in Anchorage. It has been well below zero for over two weeks now, but supposedly the cold spell is breaking very very soon. It has consistently been -15 degrees in Anchorage. At the risk of sounding like John Madden, just for perspective, there is a 40 degree difference between a balmy 60 degrees and a freezing 20 degrees.....and another 35-40 degree difference between that 20 degrees and the temperature in Anchorage. The cold takes your breath away when you step outside, and it is incredible how quickly things freeze in this temperature. After my 2 minute walk to work each day, my face is completely numb. The other night, it was so cold and clear that I mistook street lights for northern lights because the light from the street lamp streaked about 100 ft straight up into the air. And the snow looks almost like glitter because the air is so dry and cold that it is more crystal-like than flake-like. Hopefully it will get warm soon. I don't feel too bad though, because it is -50 degrees in Fairbanks.