Category: South America

Tambor and Montezuma, Costa Rica

February 25 to March 6, 2017

The first 7 nights in Tambor was at a private home in a very quiet neighborhood. It was centrally located though and we saw so much and remained very active. From quiet walks on the beach to zipline – we did it all. The photos below show just some of the highlights. It has been hot… around 85 degrees with a nice breeze most of the time. The pool was very refreshing.

My son and his wife invited us to share this home with them for 7 nights. It was very relaxing and we also enjoyed the company of Annette’s daughter, Emily with her partner James. Three generations!

Written by Bob about our day to Tortuga Island: Monday (2.27) we took a panga skippered by Tavo and his wife Veronica to Tortuga Island. We spent an hour or so relaxing on the beach under coconut trees. Then Tavo took us to two different dive spots for snorkeling. The fish were plentiful and it was beautiful. Then back to the beach where Veronica prepared a wonderful meal of shrimp, chicken and papas fritas. After another couple of hours enjoying the ambience, Annette’s daughter Emily, and her guy James, took a guided walk up the hill above the beach. We motored back to Tambor and back to our vacation home. Tuesday Marla and I went to town for some provisions and gelato and then just spent an afternoon of nothingness while the rest of the gang motored to Montezuma which is the “hippy” center of the area and where we will spend Saturday and Sunday. We are having the best of times.

02-27-tavo-tortuga-island-14
Annette and Will on Tortuga Is.
02-27-tavo-tortuga-island-31
Miss Lauren, Tavo’s boat
02-27-tavo-tortuga-island-33
Fishing Village of Tambor

Zipline in Montezuma with Sun Trails 

This was my third time on a Zipline. First was in the Caribbean, second was in Whistler. The third time is the charm, so they say! It was awesome-best yet. 8 zips with a waterfall break half way through.

The swim break
Annette and Emily
The waterfall
View from the Zipline
Suspension Bridge
Happy Zippers

 

Costa Rica!

February 23-25, 2017

We are finally here! We have one full day in the area of Alajuela which is near the International Airport for Costa Rica. As soon as we checked into the hotel at 10pm, I asked about tours the next day to a volcano or a nature preserve to observe some wildlife. Kenneth, at the front desk, told us to just ask the next morning as there were many choices and the nearest volcano was just 30 minutes away. So we slept in and went to the desk about 11am. The desk clerk told us we were too late for any tours. BUT she could arrange a private tour in a taxi wherever we wanted to go.  We climbed into Leonardo’s taxi and off we went to Volcano Poas which was about a 1 hour drive. It was a wonderful day and Leonardo was a delight. He told us his entire life story along with some bits about Costa Rica. He was born in Costa Rica but lived in the Los Angeles area for 30 years. He came back here to retire 5 years ago and now drives a taxi until he can start drawing his social security from his United States income.

005-poas-volvano-1
Bob and Marla at the Volcano
006-volcano-2
The volcano below – last eruption was in 2011
007-volcano-clouds
The clouds arrived just as we were leaving

Next Leonardo drove us by his favorite cheese vendor on the side of the road where he bought some fresh tortillas and cheese for his wife. He then stopped at a local restaurant and filled a thermos with a hot beverage. It seemed a little strange that he would do his shopping while taking us on a tour. But this was all for us, we learned a bit later.

A little further down the road Leonardo drove into a beautiful park like area with ponds, benches and various activities. Some people were just admiring the flowers and others were on the Zipline. He said it is very crowded on the weekends but for us it was a special day because there were no crowds. So we sat on a bench and he brought out the picnic for us. Fresh cheese and warm tortillas. The special beverage was hot agua dulce. It is a favorite beverage in Costa Rica and I plan to find it again. Very good. Like a sweet warm tea.

Farmers Market and Alajuela Town Square

Our final stop was the town square with farmers market, central park and a large church which is so typical of villages. Leonardo knows everyone in town and this was the highlight of our day. He smiled and chatted with shop keepers, people on the street and waved from his car window as we drove through the crazy traffic. Such a lively fun area. The local people are happy and friendly back to us also.

009-farmers-market
Leonardo buying from friend
010-cathedral-1
Inside Catedral
011-cathedral
Catedral de Alajuela

So this is the end of our first full day in Costa Rica. Tomorrow we take a short flight over to the Nicoya Peninsula and the town of Tambor. Follow along!

Packed Yet? with Full Itinerary: Southern Hemisphere

Departure February 22, 2017

Very soon we will be packed and on the way.  We will be away for 64 days! No we are not packed yet. I get asked that question a lot just before a trip. I’ll probably start a couple days before departure. If I start too early I’ll take too much. Well, probably not too much because once that one suitcase is full  – IT IS FULL. My suitcase is a carry on size and goes in the overhead bin. A backpack on wheels goes under the seat in front of me.

It is not really fun to pack. I would much rather spend my time planning and researching all the fun sights to see and things to do in each of these fantastic locations.

The following is our schedule on the cruise:cruise-part-1cruise-part-2

 

The photo below is of the Crows Nest on the top deck of the ship. This is our favorite area to hang out especially in rough seas. You can really feel the ship riding the waves from up here. Photo courtesy of Holland America.

crows-nest
Crows Nest on top deck

This is a typical Outside Cabin. We save money by agreeing to a particular category when we reserve the cruise. It is possible to pick a particular cabin and get a preferred area, such as center-bottom deck, if you are prone to sea sickness. We don’t have that issue so have always been happy with the cabin as assigned. We were upgraded to a balcony cabin one time – keeping our fingers crossed it will happen again. The cabin is small but nicely arranged. Photo courtesy of Holland America.

oceanview-h
Typical Outside Cabin

Planning a Journey-Next up South America

I truly love planning trips. I’m a bit obsessed with it actually. Once the trip actually happens I think back to how much work (play) went into the planning and enjoy it all the more.

Picking the Location

We were invited to share a house with friends in Costa Rica. My goal is always to expand on whatever location and see more. So…. since we are so far south why not find a cruise that can bring us all the way home instead of flying? What started as a 10 day trip to Costa Rica is now 64 days exploring a bit of Peru and Argentina followed by a cruise for 36 days to get us back home. See cruise map below.

This is how I get so carried away, literally.

In 2003 we cruised from San Diego south to Valparaiso, Chile. Most of the passengers on that cruise stayed on the ship when we got off and sailed around the horn (tip of South America). We were so jealous of their wonderful adventure and have always wanted to go back. Also many passengers took that particular cruise to see Machu Picchu (from Lima) which is a rather expensive (about $3,500/pp) 3 day excursion if booked through the cruise line. Punta Arenas is the jumping off spot to Antarctica if you have that goal in mind. Antarctica it is a 6 hour flight, not really close at all.

cruise-route-south-america

Going South when the airline industry wants to go North

We have two weeks after Costa Rica before we get on the ship in Buenos Aires. Again, since we are so far south we should explore more of South America. As I looked for airfare south to Buenos Aires from Costa Rica I got frustrated because all the flights routed through Houston or Florida or other points north such as New Jersey. 26 hours later we would end up in Buenos Aires. I followed the advice of my favorite travel blog:   Nomadic Matt’s Travel Blog  Matt recommended looking at the final destination to see where flights might be coming from. Voila…. Lima was a better choice. We will fly from Costa Rica to Lima, Peru. Since we had to change planes anyway I decided we should stay in Lima for a few days. From Lima we will venture over to Machu Picchu. The challenges of planning that trip are in the post Machu Picchu Planning.

macchu-picchu

 

 

Machu Picchu Planning

central-south-america

In my last post I talked about the importance of planning well. I could call a travel agent but that just isn’t my style. I love to research, read other blogs, and spend lots of time looking at all the options. Trip Advisor has great forums where people exchange ideas and give suggestions based on their experiences.

Planning our side trip to Machu Picchu was far from easy. I loved every minute/hour/days of it. It is a very complex procedure to get there. Many websites are not current with the fact that one of the train lines no longer runs. Also, due to increased tourism they are beginning to limit the number of visitors per day. There are many tour operators who will put everything together for you from Lima flights, hotels, tours, meals and all else. I did a little on my own and used Incas Discovery to do the complicated parts. Their website is http://www.incasdiscovery.com and you will not find prices there. Which is a good thing. Most of the others put together packages and you pick the one you want. No flexibility.  Johanna at Incas Discovery worked with me to deliver what I needed. I did my own air from Lima and chose the hotels based on the train schedules and other set details. Instead of a packaged tour, she charged me for only what we needed. I compared prices of course because you can do the entire thing yourself as prices are available on line from the individual vendors.

Advance Planning does make it easier…If only I could slow down….

Our time in Lima, Peru was already set because I had purchased non refundable airfare. We are flying from Costa Rica and then to Buenos Aires after Lima. We had flexibility but I chose the dates that offered the best prices long before deciding we should go to Machu Picchu. Again, if I had taken more time to think about what we would do in Lima, we would have stayed longer. The packaged tour operators could not work with me because my flights were too tight.

As you can see from the map below part of the tour is by auto and part is by train. There are no other choices, except walking the whole way, which many people do, over many days.

machu-picchu-map-2014

Also, all the tour operators have you stay in Cuzco the first night to adjust to the altitude, which is 11,000 ft. Cuzco is where the airport is. The altitude at Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu, is about 9,000 ft. We are going directly to our Aguas Calientes hotel from the airport. One more day would have been perfect as you can see from the summary. The entire excursion is about $800 each. Most tour operator’s prices started at 3 times that amount.

  • Here is the summary:
  • Day 1 – 10 AM Fly Lima to Cuzco,  2 hour bus to Ollantaytambo, 2 hour train to Aguas Calientes, Hotel
  • Day 2 – Hike Machu Picchu 9 AM to 4 PM, train to Ollantaytambo, bus to Cuzco, Hotel
  • Day 3 – 5 AM fly Cuzco to Lima, 11 AM fly Lima to Buenos Aires