pieces of a third trip to Costa Rica, part 1

11/22/2011
Tuesday morning, on the beach, partly cloudy skies.  This is the sunniest day we have had, so we went straight to the beach after breakfast.  We are the only 2 rooms in use as Casa Camarona, a terrific find in between Playa Cocles and Punta Uva.  It's a relaxing spot so we booked 2 nights minimum.  The last time I was in this area the water was glass but there must be a swell now - the waves are probably the biggest I've ever swam in.  It's really something diving into/under a wall of water equally as tall as you, especially when you are already standing in 2'-3' of water already.
Today we have even bigger waves than yesterday, and rented boogie boards for some body surfing.  I paddled out past the break and caught the first wave I tried.  It was bigger than I expected... these waves suck up tons of water as they approach.  You find yourself thigh-deep one second, then mid-calf the next, with a huge wall of water exploding over you.  During one lull I paddled back out and found a particular set on the horizon I thought would be great to catch, but as they approached even the first one scared me to ride.  I dove under it.  The second was even bigger, and I noticed my board leash had snapped.  When I came up between the second and third waves I swam to shore as much as possible before diving into the third and biggest wave.  I couldn't get below it, and it sucked me up into it.  That was a very unsafe situation.  Thankfully that was the last of the set because I was exhausted and had swallowed enough salt water for one day.  I swam in, found my board on the beach, and decided to wait for lower tide before another attempt.

Filling in details from the past couple days...
Sunday morning we went to Cahuita National Park and hiked about a mile out-n-back in search of wildlife.  We ended up hearing Howlers but seeing none.  The mosquitoes were bad inland.  It rained off and on, so after lunch we headed to Puerto Viejo and checked into a 5 person room at Agapi with hot water, A/C and TV.  It's a nice place but expensive.  They have a sloth family on the property, so we saw a few sloths there.  In the afternoon we walked to Playa Cocles.  The swimming was nice but I got stung by a jellyfish and my arm looked terrible afterwards, like road rash from cycling or something like that.  It was a strange sensation at first but felt like an electric shock, followed by numbness and pain in m elbow.  The water was pretty clear so I was surprised to not have seen what stung me until we spotted lots of tiny clear jellyfish washed ashore in the sand later.  After a nice dinner in downtown Puerto Viejo we bought a few beers at a super and headed home to watch Beckham's Galaxy win the MLS.  We discovered Toña, a Nicaraguan beer that I had never had before but now highly recommend.
Yesterday we ate breakfast and decided to head out from Agapi.  The goal was to head into Panama, Bocas del Toro, but with the rain it seemed smarter to travel little, find a hammock, and read away the rain.  Where we are now is a great alternative to Bocas (and the possibility of our abandoned rental car getting broken into or floating away in this flood).  We now have 2 rooms for way cheaper than Agapi, hammocks, lots of sun and big waves.  After checking in we got in the water... there are consistent 3'-6' waves here, with the occasional 8'+ wave.  We went for a jog for about 4km yesterday, almost all the way back to Agapi, which was very nice.  After happy hour at our cabinas we drove down to Maxi's in Manzanillo.  The food was good but probably 50% more expensive than when I was last there, with prices rivaling what you would pay in the States for Red Snapper or lobster.  That has been an unfortunate recurring theme over the last few days... I believe the window of opportunity for stretching dollars way beyond reasonable expectation has closed in Costa Rica - at least in the Caribbean coast.  Things seem to cost as much as they would in the States around here.

new quarter, new leaf

The 4th and final quarter of 2011 has begun.  It snowed on the Flatirons yesterday for the first time this season.  It's almost time to focus on winter things.  For many people, plants, and animals, winter is a time of dormancy, but I really hope that is not the case for me.  I feel like I've been stuck in dormancy since I rode the Copper Triangle 2 months ago and need to get out of this rut.  During a dinner with some friends last week I was asked if my current situation might be related to having finished my big goal of the year on the bike, and I think that's exactly what the problem was.  I need to remember this in the future... I forgot one of my cycling goals.  My original goal for riding was to keep my legs in shape for ski season... while I've certainly helped that cause with the early summer, taking essentially 2 months off has not helped my lungs or legs at all.  I am surprised at a lack of motivation because I think cycling is so much fun.  I guess I just needed a break, but I am hereby going to get back to running and riding - depending on which is easier with the weather.

So there you have it.  Columbus Day officially kicks off my leaf turning.  

After taking a look back at some of my goals for this year, I have accomplished many of them but have plenty of room for improvement in others, so it's time to either revise the list or get cracking.  Here's to a strong finish to 2011.

another form of climbing

Once more into the mountains, dear lungs!

I suppose it's fitting that now that the first of the leaves are turning yellow and Fall is clearly underway, I should write about summer cycling.  I seem to be terrible about being timely on here.  Alas, here goes:

My road bike and I have become quite accustomed to each other by now.  I consider it a good friend :)  I've ridden over 1,000 miles on this, my first road bike, and don't anticipate slowing down any time soon.  My first ride of 2011 was actually in January, and I've ridden every month this year except May, which I attribute to planning for or being in Peru for half of.  Anyways, after my return from Peru, Trey suggested we ride the Copper Triangle after discussing the ride a bit with Darren.  I thought about it for a while and decided in late June to give it a shot with 6 weeks to prepare.  I knew I wouldn't be setting any speed records during the ride but wanted to prove to myself that I could finish an 80 mile right with 3 mountain passes and 6,000' of vertical climbing thrown in for good measure.  In 2010, the hardest ride I did was 60-ish miles and about 3000 vertical, so the Triangle would be pushing beyond that by a considerable margin.

I started training in earnest by linking some familiar rides to make a large one; from home over Old Stage then on to Ward, then up to Jamestown, and finally over the north side of Old Stage en route home.  Without realizing it at the time, that ride came to over 50 miles and 5,500' of climbing.  Since the 6000' of climbing was my primary concern in the Triangle, I felt like I would be able to finish that ride as long as the elevation didn't have too much of an effect on me.  With that in mind, I spent the next couple Saturdays on climbs steeper than what I would find on the Triangle; Flagstaff to the dirt.  Loyal readers, Flagstaff to the top is no joke.  That road pushed me to my limit the first time I did it, just like NCAR had the previous summer(, which feels like such a long time ago now...).  It felt so difficult the first time I did it that I had to return the next Saturday to redeem myself.  Noticing similar foot numbness/pain as the previous weekend, as well as a handful of other longer rides, I decided to switch to road pedals/shoes and get a bike fitting.  Eureka!  That was 2 hours extremely well spent, and would recommend a fitting to anybody.  With several micro-adjustments, new pedals, new shoes, and a new stem, I took my new setup to Cottonwood Pass to test out my lungs.  Cottonwood was about 90 minutes of climbing, and went approximately 1000' higher than the highest point on the Triangle.  After the previous few weekends of steep ascent, Cottonwood felt easy, with little to no altitude suffering.  I was honestly fairly shocked at the lack of altitude problem, but had a blast and was confident going into the Triangle.

And so, the following Saturday, I went for a little bike ride for the 5th weekend in a row.  This was my first ride of the Copper Triangle but hopefully will not be the last.  We passed through the starting banner at Copper at 6:40 to a slowly rising sun, and headed up Fremont Pass at a good pace.  It was chilly, so I wanted to get to a quick start and warm up without over-pacing myself.  Trey and I rode together and apparently made good time on the first climb, since we seemed to pass nearly everyone who started within 20 minutes of us.  We topped out the climb above 3,000' and decided to skip the first aid station after such a short time on the bike.  I think we both felt really good and wanted to push on with the sun now above the mountainous horizon.  30 seconds after starting our descent to Leadville, however, Trey got a flat tire.  Just as we both realized how much time the handheld pump was going to take a motorcycle stopped to help us, and we were back on the bikes.  I felt great on the little climb back into Leadville and was ready to take on Tennessee Pass before stopping.  As we turned from Leadville I knew that the next hour or two would be fairly easy going but Vail Pass still loomed in the distance.  I had not been eating or drinking very well on my previous longer rides, so I focused on fixing that during the Triangle.  I think that paid off, because as I left our first aid stop at Ski Cooper (not Copper...) I was not fatigued in any way with half the distance done... feeling as if we had just started.  The ride from Cooper to Minturn was extremely enjoyable with some very fast downhill and excellent scenery.  Battle Mountain gave me a bit of a challenge, and I became a bit concerned at the top about how Vail Pass would compare in the heat of the day as I waited for Trey.  When the two of us started again, I noticed it approached 90 degrees when entering Minturn.  After a short ride into West Vail from Minturn, we decided to skip the third aid station as well and push on to Vail Pass.  The ride through Vail made me remember why I loved that town so much despite it's cheesy touristy atmosphere in most parts.  [That whole Eagle river/county is such a beautiful area and really deserves more of my attention next summer.]  It also gives just enough of a climb that I realized I was working pretty hard in the heat of the day just to cross town.  I knew I had a monster of a climb waiting for me on the edge of town, but felt like I had more than enough left in my legs to make a good showing on the climb and point it back to Copper from the top.  If nothing else, the temperature would drop as I climbed.  Despite that, I had to stop for a restroom and hydration break at the 4th aid station (East Vail).  [Note to self; there are two difficult pushes on that climb, and one of them is right away at the East Vail aid station after you pass under I-70 to begin the climb from town.]  Having re-grouped with Trey, we both began our assault on the famous Vail Pass climb.  I remember passing lots of people and feeling really strong in the beginning of the climb.  I knew steeper sections were coming, but I felt good so I pushed at a pretty good pace knowing I only had about 7 miles of climbing left.  After about 3 miles, we took a sharp right turn under I-70, then a very sharp left to what most people would consider The Wall of the climb.  I had heard of this wall and knew if I could last another few miles I would be sitting pretty on the summit.  Honestly, the toughest part for me was managing the passing of other riders who had either decided to get off their bikes and walk or were going as slow as the walkers.  Without falling over or un-clipping, I made it through the traffic jam that The Wall created, and pushed on to the top.  With about 2 miles to go in the climb, I ran out of water and food at the same time.  I didn't realize I was eating and drinking fairly regularly throughout Vail Pass, and my body was very unhappy about running dry.  The last mile or two were grueling, and only then did I realize how tired I was.  I pulled over to the 5th and final aid station on the summit of Vail Pass and rested my legs while waiting for Trey.  I had a few minutes to rest before he arrived and we hit up the food/beverages.  Although we weren't technically done, I knew my legs had completed the task, and I was extremely proud of the accomplishment.  It felt like a notable achievement, one to remember years down the road, and I was really happy that I had made it through.  After a picture or two and a fun cruise back to Copper with gravity doing most of the work, we had a pasta meal and hit the road to Boulder.

Completing the Triangle feels like the next logical step in a series of physical accomplishments since moving here; my first 14er, my first 10k run, running above treeline on 14ers, hiking/skiing Silverton for two exhausting days, riding 60 miles, climbing 5000' on a bike... and now the Triangle.  I can only hope the list continues and I am fortunate enough to remain in good shape and to be able to continue to push myself beyond the beyond.  The long story short is that Boulder just might be one of the best towns on Earth to be a person who enjoys climbing, whether on belay or on two wheels.  Colorado is certainly one of the best states for both.

Pensamientos en Perú, día 10

5/29/2011

I'm writing this from memory 10 weeks later. I've been bad about updating this site lately.

Sunday. We woke up and had breakfast in the hotel. I don't think anybody was feeling quite 100% but we all were ready to start the day and see the last of the sights before heading to the airport after dinner. After breakfast we walked the hotel a bit and saw ornate and beautiful ballrooms that must have been incredible 50+ years ago. The furniture, chandeliers, carpets, etc. all reminded me of fragmented memories in my grandparents' homes from my childhood. There was a church service getting ready to start directly below our room, and we were told that we weren't allowed to walk around anymore by one of the bellmen despite there being no signs or warnings. We headed upstairs and packed for our last outing. I felt a bit stir crazy, so a dancing / photo session helped lift the mood before leaving the hotel.

We walked past a lot of the things Shelly and I saw yesterday, then continued on to new sites. In search of a market to spend the last of our soles, we wandered into a market that took us a bit by surprise, to say the least. It was more of an everyday shopping center, with anything from wedding dresses to beads and fabric to a butchery. The meat area smelled terrible and gave me serious pause for giving up animal products entirely for a while. Having no Inka fabrics or tourist items, we moved on. I'm not sure why that market was mentioned in Lonely Planet - perhaps for tourists needing to sew a button back on a shirt as cheaply as possible...? Anyways, we continued on to a few churches and centuries-old buildings in Lima. We walked through stark contrasts of socioeconomic statuses. It seemed to vary with each crosswalk, and ultimately became a bit too much to digest. It was a grey, humid, and generally uninviting day. It felt like everything was dirty. As with the rest of the trip, I struggled to make sense of what I was seeing and understand how it affected me.

Perhaps needing a sense of cleanliness and normalcy, we took a taxi back to Miraflores... it's hard to say whether that was part of it, but it did feel easier once we were there. We returned to the Inka market where we all bought a few things and watched a women's volleyball match, then ate lunch in what might be comparable to the cafeteria in a Super Target, and walked through a large amount of Miraflores. I couldn't figure out exactly what it was, but it seemed a lot nicer being in Miraflores. There is a lot more wealth in that part of town, but parts of it aren't that different than central Lima. The city parks were better maintained and overall it was a lot cleaner. Taxis and restaurant employees were hounding us for business, but people weren't begging and didn't look desperate. I think it was just a lot harder to look the real disparity right between the eyes in central Lima. I wondered if tourism wasn't partially why Miraflores is maintained nicer than central Lima and felt a bit guilty for being responsible for some amount of injustice. This trip confused me.

After lunch we headed to Huaca Pucllana to see some pre-Incan ruins. The site is right in the heart of a neighborhood and is surrounded by modern streets and buildings which are known to cover up more ruins. Despite that, there is no effort to remove said streets and buildings, which was incredible to me given that the ruins are as old as Constantine declaring Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. If this were Europe, the people would be demanding further excavation. The neighborhood residents seemed far more interested in the upscale gourmet restaurant that shares the same name as the site. More confusion. The tour was informative and relaxing, and included a spotting of the ugliest dogs of all time (as well as llamas, guinea pigs and a coca plant, all of which seemed out of place to me).

It truly amazed me that we saw almost no signs or indication of special significance to our stops outside of the books we were reading today. Once again, Perú confused me in that regard. I wondered again if Limeñans (and therefore Peruvians in general) have any concern for preservation of the past in Lima. I could understand wanting to forget the Spanish Inquisition and the elimination of ancient cultures now celebrated by Peruvians as their ancestors, but I couldn't understand the general lack of respect for Huaca Pucllana. Or Machu Picchu for that matter. One of the strongest impressions of Peruvian culture for me in this whole trip was that they don't care about preserving their history unless it makes money to preserve it (a la Huaca Pucllana and Machu Picchu). Maybe they actually don't care, or maybe they instead just don't know their history. Maybe the government doesn't want to spend the money. Maybe they don't have the resources to preserve more. I can't say for sure, but that's a huge distinction between somebody from the United States and Peru in my opinion. United States national parks or historical sites exist for the enjoyment and betterment of the citizens of the United States and not for financial gain. I for one am thankful that I can tour Gettysburg, Ellis Island, The Alamo, Little Bighorn or Canyon de Chelly in a preserved state, and cannot understand how the average Peruvian doesn't care about national treasures like Machu Picchu, Nazca or Huaca Pucllana. We saw a perfect microcosmic example of this leaving Huaca Pucllana. Two boys playing soccer with the site's fencing as their goal... a classic Sunday afternoon game. One of the boys kicked the ball over the fence and cared only about getting his ball back. I don't know that he damaged any of the pyramid by climbing over the fence and climbing it, but all I could do was look on in amazement and laugh. I'm sure that kid would have been in serious trouble at an Egyptian or Mayan pyramid. Many times this level of what I would consider disrespect frustrated me but didn't seem to bother locals. I wanted to impress upon them in some way that this was important. Perhaps I should have, or maybe I was just supposed to learn a bit more about being a traveler.

After Huaca Pucllana we walked back to Kennedy Park and people watched, rested, and ate dinner at a pizza place where all the employees were totally engrossed in a volleyball game with the Peruvian national women's team, and finally grabbed a taxi to make our way to the airport as the presidential debates began. The taxi ride was a positive memorable experience. The car itself was basically falling apart and looked unofficial, but the driver was very nice. We had discussed before getting in that we should consider the same taxi to get us back to the hotel as well as then to the airport as long as the driver was cordial. After receiving a reasonable rate and a few minutes of pleasant driving, I asked as well as I possibly could whether he would wait for us at the hotel while we grabbed our bags and then take us to the airport. He hesitated at first but agreed once I assured him our bags were ready and we wouldn't be long in the hotel, and offered another reasonable rate to get to the airport. On the way to the airport we stopped at a gas station and had to get out of the car due to fear of explosion. The engine had been converted to natural gas, which looked to be immensely cheaper than gasoline. After that stop, he switched back and forth on the radio between a Christian gospel CD and the presidential debates. I tried to follow along with the debate as much as possible, but the channel kept cutting out, so we listened to the CD more than the debate. The driver was simply nice, and it made all the difference. When we arrived at the airport he explained that he wasn't licensed to enter the airport, so we were dropped off outside the airport and walked in a side entrance that looked a bit suspicious. All the locals were doing it, so it didn't bother me. We all thanked the driver and made our way inside... simple kindness made all the difference and was such a stark contrast to yesterday's taxi event. I'm happy that was our last impression of Lima's people.

Our plane needed a tire change so we were late departing. I wanted to write but instead took the time to nap and try to put my thoughts together about the trip. I know I was hard on Peru, and don't want to give the wrong impression. I had a good time. I learned a lot, saw a lot, ate great food, got a ton of exercise, saw the ocean, etc. But I also had a hard time understanding many things about Peru. None of the other countries I've visited have been this way. I would go back, but I think the next trip would be very different. I wonder if I'll feel the same way about other countries... time will tell.

Pensamientos en Perú, día 9

5/28/2011

Travel morning. After breakfast we loaded into a taxi and made our way to Lima. Once again we had a few encounters to make us feel more taken advantage of than welcome... the last 9 days have been very hard for me to understand in that regard, but more on that later. The cab ride to the airport was a prearranged price of S/.8, which was cheap, and nice to know in advance. Tony was obviously very sick and seemed to have a hard time the whole plane ride. We didn't have set plans for our afternoon in Lima, but that seemed fortunate at the time since it looked like any plans would be replaced by r&r. I wasn't as sick as Tony but my stomach turned, gurgled and rolled all day. Yesterday's milk adventure was clearly a bad idea.

After collecting our bags we talked to a couple of drivers but couldn't find a ride to Hotel Bolívar for less than S/. 45, which was way too much. I told the driver as much several times, but we had yet to learn where to find the better prices (exit airport building, follow the sidewalk left then right, actually out of the airport property to the main street). We paid less than S/. 45 to get to/from Miraflores, considerably further, last week... arrgh. Throughout the whole trip to the hotel our driver kept telling me that Hotel Bolívar was too expensive, in an unsafe are, and we should stay somewhere else. I told him we had already paid and got a good price. He also said he knew a better place he could take us to in Miraflores. I told him we had already stayed in Miraflores. He said it would be very loud and hard to leave the city (to get to the airport tomorrow night) because of the presidential debates. I don't know if he thought he was being nice or helpful, or thought I was a complete moron who would go along with anything he said, but it was horribly annoying. I didn't respond and stopped listening. The guy pissed me off to no end. When we got to the hotel unfortunately we didn't have the exact fare and he pretended to have no change for our S/.50. Our bags had already been taken inside by the hotel staff, so Shelly and I waited several awkward minutes while Tony retrieved extra money to get correct change. The driver asked if he could just keep the extra S/.5 as a tip, and we had to laugh in frustration about how ridiculous the situation was (it is neither normal nor customary to tip cab drivers in Lima, and the fare to central Lima shouldn't be more than S/.30).

Immediately after putting our bags down, Shelly and I left Tony and walked the pedestrian mall in search of a pharmacy. 5 minutes later we returned with several pills and a liter of electrolyte replenishment fluid. The pharmacist asked a few questions about symptoms, cause, allergies, etc., explained usage, and everything cost about $2. Something easy; phew! We then went back to the mall to get our bearings and make a first pass at seeing the sights. Using our books as a guide, we walked to several 400+ year old churches, the main plaza, a market, Victorian buildings, etc. When we reached the main plaza, where the Peruvian president lives, thousands of people were transfixed by jumbo-tron televisions. It took us a minute to figure out what the heck was going on... I assumed it was related to the presidential election, but it was the soccer championship between Manchester United and Barcelona. Nearly everyone was cheering for Barcelona. We watched for a minute and moved on in search of food. I ordered arroz con pollo, the cheapest chicken dish on the menu. I got to choose between thigh or breast, and was given literally the biggest pile or food I've ever ordered, for less than $6. I couldn't believe how much food I got, and sadly didn't come close to finishing it. Central Lima seemed refreshingly easy, cheap, and very clean.

We window shopped on our way back to the hotel to check on Tony. Prices for food, clothes, and just about everything were amazingly low. It seemed we finally had found the real cost of living in Peru. I was relieved to know it wasn't a myth. Tony was resting and on the road to recovery. After a few hours we ordered some room service for him for dinner and ate at the hotel restaurant... I was still full from lunch so just had dessert. There are mixed emotions about tomorrow being our last day.