Day 3: Rafting and Hiking in Manuel Antonio

Today, we had the most amazing time on our rafting trip with Iguana Tours. This rafting trip started out like previous rafting trips, they come to your hotel early in the morning to pick you up, then drive you out into the middle of nowhere, throw some boats in the water and you´re on your way.

Except, today was more fun than previous rafting trips because it was in one word, exciting. Today´s rapids were a little larger and faster moving than normal due to all the rain in the area. As a result, two of our fellow rafters were thrown from the boat within the first two minutes.

Within the first ten minutes, another boat within our party, filled with a Dutch family capsized, throwing everyone including the guide overboard. Within seconds the guide had reoriented his boat and was back aboard. It was amazing to watch him pull each passenger back aboard.

Minutes later, another raft from our party managed to throw two more rafters overboard, we were fortunate enough to be near her and I was the hero who pulled one of the two girls out onto our boat.

Alin and I were having a blast with all this mayhem. Our guides spent a great deal of time in the beginning telling us what to do in various scenarios and tried to temper fears by explaining that going overboard was unlikely. Apparently the Gods didn't agree on this day.

By the end of our trip, another boat had been glued to a giant boulder from the heavy current with it's remaining passengers hanging on to dear life from the very same rock. There were likely countless others who went swimming with the fish further upstream that we weren't a party to.

Fortunately, Alin and I survived the rafting excursion with a head full of exciting memories and only some minor scrapes and bruises. It was a great trip.

After the trip, we had a second tour lined up which left shortly after. Unfortunately, it appeared that no one told our bus and our guides were halfway back to our hotel before we asked them how we'd get to our second tour.

Fortunately, our tour bus was near behind us and was able to pick us up from the side of the road without delay. This second tour, a hike through Manuel Antonio's national reserve was a touch less heart pounding but gifted us with some amazing photographs.

Our guide, Micheal, brought a small telescope for spying on birds, monkeys and other critters hiding in the trees above. This telescope, when coupled with our digital camera led to some of the best pictures Alin and I have ever been able to take. I'm talking National Geographic material here.

The hike took us through the mangrove forests and passed three gorgeous, pristine beaches. When we arrived at the last beach, our guide gave us all 10 minutes for ciesta. I decided to head near the shore and got pounded by a wave when I wasn't paying attention. The rest of my ciesta was spent washing the sand and beach water from my shorts so I didn't end up at home with chaffed legs.

In the reserve, we were able to catch photos and glimpses of lizards, howler and white-faced monkeys, birds, and cousins of the raccoon. The monkeys were of course the most interesting due to their intelligence and courage in interacting with the human visitors.

After our two hour tour of the reserve, we ended up back in Manuel Antonio for some quick refreshments. Shortly after, the tour dropped us off at home and Alin and I decided that it was time for dinner.

We changed into some more comfortable clothes and hopped in the car to head back to Manuel Antonio. On our way, we noticed that the restaurant we tried to visit the day before, Agua Azul, was now open. So naturally, we decided that this is the best place we could have our dinner.

Alin and I, both starving from our hike, decided that it'd be best if we both ordered what they called the "Big Ass Burger." When it finally arrived, we indeed were blessed with one such burger.

I barely finished it and poor Alin made it through about half of the thing. With food in our bellies and a tired body, we made our way home. That wraps up another night.

Ciao.

-s

Day 2: The day we did absolutely nothing.

Boy, was it a great day 2. Alin and I woke up at noon on day 2 in our soft and warm bed. We had mosquito netting over our bed which made it feel like the tents you made as a kid on your parents bed. 

We managed to crawl out of bed and started our day. First order of business was to check out this "private beach" that our hotel claimed they had. It was down the drive way and roughly 500 steps down the hill side to a small cove. The shoreline was rocky with patches of smooth sand. Locals appeared to be enjoying a dip in the ocean, their kids playing and splashing as we arrived.

Alin and I quickly secured our belongings to a nearby tree and hopped in for a dip. We swam around for probably 30 minutes, playing and taking pictures all the way. After the thunder and lightning started in the distance, we thought it best to return to higher ground.

About this time, we decided to head down to Quepos and take care of a few loose ends. We made our way to the local bank to exchange some money, then walked over to Iguana Tours to make a reservation for rafting and a hike on the next day. We met up with Jorge, my guide from a previous trip, unfortunately he didn't remember who I was :/ I guess I can't blame him, he sees thousands of faces a year in that business. Nevertheless, he was incredibly nice to both Alin and I and when he found out that we were newlyweds, he felt compelled to give us a gift. Alin is now the proud owner of a size M Iguana Tours "Specialist" employee T-shirt, awesome.

Jorge also recommended a nearby eatery called Agua Azul for lunch, on our drive back to our hotel we stopped in but it was closed so instead, Alin and I whipped our Lonely Planet and found another place called "El Mono Loco" in Manuel Antonio a few miles down the road.

The food at El Mono Loco was delicious and the wait staff very friendly. After we squared away the bill, they even offered a parking spot for today and tomorrow free of charge, which we really appreciated. 

After lunch, Alin and I toured the local vendors and then made our way out onto the beach. The beaches in Manuel Antonio are quite beautiful. The sand is soft and smooth, the shoreline long, and the waves large and playful. It was low tide at the time and Alin and I just lazily walked along the shore, dipping our feet in the water as we passed the time. Very relaxing.

After our little excursion, we decided to head back to the hotel to catch some pictures of the sunset. We went to a viewpoint that we stumbled across and took a dozen photos, with nothing looking very striking. Sweating from the heat, we decided to make our way out to the pool. We were extremely lucky to see the last moments of an even more amazing sunset. We decided to jump in the infinity pool and take some silhouette shots of us against the sun. The photos came out amazing.

After some play time in the pool, we hopped out and grabbed a small bite to eat at the poolside restaurant. Within an hour we had finished our appetizer dinner and decided to retire for the night. It was a wonderful day of just lounging around. I wish I could do this every day.

-s

Alive and Well in Costa Rica

That's right. We made it. We got hitched on Friday in the Fresno heat. We were grateful to be in such wonderful company. To see our friends & family surround us, and share one of our most important moments with us.  It was very heartwarming.

In hindsight, both Alin and I wish it had all lasted longer. It all seemed to happen so fast. We both remember the ceremony, with every detail committed to memory. However, once the ceremony was over, it seemed that the reception zoomed by with us hardly having time to relish in it. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful night and we were both happy with the results.

On Monday night, Alin and I made our way to the airport after a calm day of preparing for our trip, running last minute errands, and the like. Our flight left from San Francisco at 10:40PM to fly all the way to Charlotte, North Carolina. From there, we had a connecting flight to San José, Costa Rica with a four hour layover. It seemed that the hours moved at a snails pace. Alin and I had a chance to eat a small breakfast and even nap before the flight.

Our flight was long and not as comfortable as we would have both liked. We decided to use miles to fly on "first class" which ended up being more like business class on US Airways. Alin tries to console me on the fact that the plane was of a smaller type and so the accommodations aren't as great. I'm still annoyed that the seats didn't recline while providing foot rests. I'll get over it, some day. :)

When we landed in Costa Rica, the weather that we'd been reading so much about lived up to expectations. By this, I don't mean beautiful sunny weather, I mean lightning that blinds and thunder that reverberates through your body. We were both kind of caught off guard by the first strike. Clueless on how to get to our rental car, we waited outside the airport for a shuttle, waiting nearly 30 minutes and fumbling through a little Spanish to figure out what to do next.

Once our shuttle showed up, this couple, seemingly a son and her mom, showed up late to the shuttle, after it was filled with other eager passengers. The mother made a huge fit and kept our shuttle waiting while the poor staff tried to figure out how to please her. She held up the shuttle until a SECOND shuttle could arrive from the rental place to take her. Of course, it pulled in front of us and she was able to zoom to the rental place well before we all got there. It was frustrating to have to stand behind her in line after all that. I really wanted to give her a piece of something, mind, foot in her ass, anything.

Alin and I decided that, given the time of day, by this time about 4:30, it would be safest to get a GPS with our rental. What a life saver. With it there to guide us, we were able to get to our first destination, Manuel Antonio within 4 hours. It was nightfall by the time we arrived at the hotel and while I vaguely remembered Quepos, we would have certainly been lost without it.

Our hotel, called Makanda by the Sea, was a small private resort consisting of 10 or so cabinas, featuring their own kitchens, bathroom and walk in shower. Ours had an amazing view of the ocean from our huge folding glass French doors. It lacked privacy but made up for it in seclusion.

Poor Alin was caught a little off guard by the whole bug situation in Costa Rica. If you haven't been, you'll learn that much of Costa Rica is jungle, and with jungles come BIG bugs. Even the ants are like 3x the size of regular ants. She's been a great sport so far and making the best of things. 

With that, that's the end of day 1.

The new Apple.com

One of the coolest things to come out of Apple today was something that barely got any coverage at all, which is the new redesign of the site. 

It's actually amazing that they were able to get the entire site updated and looking great. It feels a lot simpler, modern, and focused.

It's been long in the making but they finally did it.

I personally love the fact that I can now search for music right from Apple.com search. Awesome.

-s

T-minus 2 months and counting.

Alin and I are getting married in 2 whole months. Where has the time gone?

How fun and scary to be taking not a step, but a giant leap into adulthood. Pretty amazing if you ask me, especially since I struggle so hard to stay a kid :)

It's a pretty amazing experience. The wedding is proving to be a right of passage. Not the actual event per se, but the path to getting there. I've been fortunate enough that Alin's put most of the planning onto her shoulders, only bringing me in for my opinion and specific tasks. She's wonderful and I need to do more to show her how much I appreciate her.

In any case, even with my reduced role, it's still proven to be quite the project. It's a mix between coordination, budgeting, politics and God knows what else. I appreciate how much she's gone through these past few months and love her more for the patience she's shown. I'm coming to the realization that this day is more of a test than anything else. By the time our special day arrives, we're probably both going to be so happy that it's over :)

Fortunately, we've got a wonderful honeymoon planned to help us forget the heartaches.

I know, that time heals all. Only the good will remain come to mind when thinking of that day.... The bad will fade into silly stories we'll reminisce about with first our parents, then our friends, and some day our children.

Here's to growing up.

What am I doing up at this hour.

This whole Facebook thing is pretty cool. I find that I am spending more time checking out what's going on on Facebook than MySpace. MySpace is just this huge mess. It reminds me of what AOL used to be like in the early days, completely out of control.

Give people an inch and they turn their profile into a giant fucking neon sign of crap and loud annoying music.

I've also been using iLike pretty much non-stop for a few months now. Probably the most compelling capability of it is keeping tabs on what my friends are listening. I've found a few times where some of my friends are listening to stuff that I've never heard of and generally like. It's a pretty neat experience to have that kind of visibility into your friend's tastes in music.

Alin and I are making our way down to LA the week after next. We're going to visit for mother's day, which should, in theory, be nice. We'll see if that's how it pans out. :P

I don't know what else to blab about. I should probably just go to bed.

-s

Honeymoon in Costa Rica and Belize

Part of the fun of getting married is going on your honeymoon. Alin and I decided that we're going to make our way to Costa Rica and Belize for our little getaway and I am SOOO looking forward to it.

We've both been planning our trip for about a month now and are making a lot of progress. We have most of the places in Costa Rica figured out with only the rent-a-car and a single city remaining to be planned.

As for Belize, Alin has put together an itinerary that will be absolutely awesome. She's so wonderful that way. We're trying hard to balance our love for activity with our need to relax, I'm really looking forward to this trip and I just hope, that by the end of it, I'm not so thoroughly relaxed that I don't want to come back.

We'll see, I'm sure.

As for our plans, we're going to do the things that all the tourists do in those countries, you know, hang out at the beach, go zip lining, jump off waterfalls, hike, sleep, eat, go scuba diving, island hop, and the like.

If you've got any great suggestions, please don't hesitate to share. We're always looking for great ideas.

Good night, and farewell.

-s

Not Enough Ways to Play My New Music

OK, so the world is quickly coming to embrace the genius that is iPod. However, has your music collection reached the point where it's growing faster than your ability to consume it?

Last month, I tallied up all of the receipts that I received from the iTunes Store and it totaled a whopping $180.00. Yes, that's a fuck load of music. I have yet to listen to most of those songs even once, but I'm working on it.

Part of the problem is that the iPod doesn't really offer a great way to find those songs that you've recently added. Sure you can create a new Smart Playlist, perhaps one called "Fresh Tracks" or something the like, but unfortunately, there's no way to easily find where one album begins and another ends.

That can be pretty frustrating if you're anything like me, a fan of the album, not the song. I really hope that this problem is solved, some day. The iPod is amazing, even life changing, but I just need it to do one or two more things before I'd call it perfect.

That's my 2¢ and I'm sticking to it.

Peace out.

Been a while

Okay, it's been a while. Where to begin. First, I got engaged in February. I'm really excited about it. The date is in July and we've picked neutral territory, otherwise known as Fresno. Yes. We know, it will be hot.

In other news, today is my birthday. Happy Birthday to me. The big Two Seven. Getting old know, I guess. One more year to live (and die) like a rock star.

Why is it everyone messes with you on your birthday? I got to work today, and although my cube was decked out with birthday-related paraphernalia, Camille decided that it'd be a good idea to cover my floor in little white cups all filled with water. I suppose, it's better to be messed with than forgotten.

I'll get you back Camille.

Tonight, Alin, myself, and most of the old Nullsoft crew decided to go catch Grindhouse. Wow, what a violent movie. :) Entertaining, but definitely not for all audiences.

Has anyone found a good Blogger dashboard widget? The old one from Blogger no longer works.

-s

Is American Idol Lost?

What is going on with American Idol this season? Why do so many of the male contestants look like Lost impersonators? Eerie.