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Posts Tagged ‘Beaches’

City of Sails

Posted in New Zealand, tagged Beaches, Friends, New Zealand, Wine on January 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Wow. South America was fantastic. Kim and I can’t wait to make it back there one day and see more. We were sad to leave and I will definitely miss speaking Spanish all the time, but both of us were very excited to move on to New Zealand! Familiar faces for Kim and new and amazing scenery and fun for me!

We knocked out our longest flight of the trip with ease and made it into Auckland bright and early. One of Kim’s old flatmates, Ben, was there to pick us up and take us to his and his wife‘s Jo’s place for the next couple of nights. It was so nice to be out of the hostels for a bit! A nice comfy bed, cleanliness, privacy…awesome.

We rested up for a couple of hours and then Ben took us for a drive around town. Our first stop was at the “biggest supermarket in the Southern Hemisphere”, Pak n’ Save, for Tim Tam’s, a local treat. Kim has not shut up about these cookies since she returned from here in 2002, and I totally understand why! They are phenomenal. T wo delicious cookies with cream in the middle then covered in chocolate. Milk chocolate, dark, white, whatever you prefer. Wonderful.

Then we went to a beautiful lookout point near his house called the Te Atatu Pennisula, drove over the Harbour Bridge, and then headed into downtown. We went to Doug Robinson MeyerPark, drove down Paratai Drive, home to the most expensive real estate in the city because of the ocean views, and went to Mount Eden, which had a great view of Auckland.

Kim and Ben with city view in the background

Auckland

We then went to meet Jo for a drink after she got off work at a great little bar called Sales Street Bar and then checked out the biggest Les Mills gym in New Zealand. For those of you that aren’t familiar with who/what that is, all of the programs Kim and I have been doing at Gold’s Gym in Austin for the past few years are choreographed and originated here. Afterwards, we took a drive down by the pier and then headed home for some Thai take away and TV.

Jo and me at the bar

Since Ben and Jo were both on holiday for Christmas, they took us around town again the next day. We went to Soljans Winery for a quick drink and then to Muriwai Beach to check out the gannet nests and black sand. After stopping for some ice cream, we headed over to Mission Beach for some beers and delicious green lipped mussels, one of the things New Zealand is known for. Then they took us to the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial for an amazing view of the entire city. Auckland is definitely one of the most beautiful big cities I have ever seen. It is known as the City of Sails because the it has the highest number of sailboats per capita than any other place in the world. The water is the most incredible shades of blue. It’s breathtaking.

The girls at the winery

Muriwai Beach

Gannets

Fooling around on the beach

Black Sand!

On the way to Mission Bay

After a nice day around town, we rested for a bit at the house and then went out for Indian food. Kim has bragged on the amount and quality of the Indian restaurants here due to the large number of immigrants in New Zealand. I was finally getting my chance to see what she was talking about. Ben and Jo took us to their favorite place in town, Chapati. It was unbelievable. The lamb korma literally melted in my mouth. We finished the night off with a few bottles of wine and headed to bed.

We had a scenic 10 hour train ride to Wellington the next morning. Ben and Jo gave us a proper farewell and saw us off at the train station. The were so nice and hospitable. Thanks so much guys! We’ll see you again for a drink our last night in New Zealand!

Jo and Ben, our fabulous Auckland hosts!

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Chillin In Chile

Posted in Chile, tagged Beaches, Chile, Food, Friends on December 26, 2009| 2 Comments »

Kelly and I only had a week in Chile, so unfortunately we didn’t have time to explore much of the country and stuck mainly to Santiago and Valparaiso. We’d definitely like to make it back someday to visit the Atacama desert and see the Lakes District and Pucon.

After waiting two hours in immigrations and customs and then getting screwed on the price of the cab, we arrived at our hostel in the Bellavista barrio of Santiago, which is known for it’s numerous bars, cafes, and clubs. Kelly and I had heard mixed reviews about Santiago, mostly that it was ‘just another city’ and that there wasn’t much going on. Aside from the thick layer of smog that hung over the place obscuring the Andes, we thought it was rather nice…clean, easy to get around, and plenty of parks and green space.

During our time in Santiago, we hung out in the park of Santa Lucia, climbing up to the top tower to take in the views of the city. After snapping some photos, we made our way to a nearby craft market and encountered an Asian lady selling egg rolls out of a cardboard box. Kelly and I stuffed our faces for less than $2 on some of the best egg rolls we ever had…cheap delicious street food cannot be beat.

Entrance to Santa Lucia

View from Santa Lucia

One morning I climbed to the top of Cerro San Cristobal to see the statue of the Virgin Mary, which also has a church and an outdoor theater amongst some nice gardens (you can take a cable car to the top, but I needed the exercise). The views of the city were outstanding, but again, the mountains were hidden by the smog. Another day, Kelly and I wondered around the center of town and the Plaza de Armas before having a typical Chilean lunch of roasted chicken and french fries, topped with a fried egg and grilled onions. So simple, yet so yummy.

View from Cerro San Cristobal. Can you see the smog?

Virgin Mary statue

Cool statue in the Plaza de Armas

This brings me to the subject of Chilean food. There is definitely more variety than in Argentina (a lot more seafood) and we found that Chileans use a bit more spice in their dishes. They also put mashed avocado on everything, including on one of my favorite foods here — the Chilean hotdog (which are sold EVERYWHERE). For less than $4, you can get a ‘completo’ or an ‘italiano’, which is a hotdog smothered with avocado, tomatoes and mayo on a crusty roll with fries and a drink. Nice.

Italiano

Fried eggs make everything better

Our evenings we spent at the hostel drinking with new friends and hitting the neighborhood bars (well, Kelly did anyway).

Interesting story behind this one

Since the coastal city of Valparaiso and the resort town of Vina del Mar were only a couple ours west of Santiago, we decided to hop a bus over for a few days with a few Aussie friends. National elections were taking place over the weekend, so most all businesses were closed and we figured lying on the beach would be a great way to pass the time.

The city of Valparaiso is situated on the coast amongst dozens of ‘cerros’ (hills). There are elevator lifts located all over town to help people up amongst the winding streets and a lot of the buildings are covered in graffiti, which is actually quite beautiful. We wandered down to the port, visited some craft markets, ate at Cinzano (a restaurant specializing in Chilean seafood) and spent a couple of days lazing on the beach in Vina del Mar.

Dinner at Cinzano

Renaca Beach

Valparaiso

Since most of the bars were closed during our time here, we hung out at our weird hostel and watched movies with the Aussie boys and some Brits. We spent a couple of more hot days in Santiago before catching a 14 hour flight to New Zealand for the holidays.

Random thoughts on Chile:

-Chile is much more expensive than Argentina.

-The wine is delicious and you can get a good bottle for around $5 – $6. We were going to try and hit up a couple of wineries while we were here, but it just didn’t happen. We drove by a few vineyards though on our way to Valparaiso and they looked lovely.

-Every family member makes it a point to see their loved ones off at the airport, which is nice for them, but makes the place crowded and annoying for me.

-George Castanza’s and Mandy Patinkin’s twin brothers ran for office here. Not really, but…maybe?

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Punta Del Diablo (and Montevideo)

Posted in Uruguay, tagged Animals, Beaches, Locals, Uruguay, Wine on December 16, 2009| 2 Comments »

After our short stint in Colonia, we hopped on a bus and headed over to the small beach town of Punta del Diablo. We originally were going to make a stop in Punta del Este; however, we heard it was a lot more touristy and a bit of a party spot. Our friend Marianne that we met in Mendoza had gone to Punta del Diablo a month or so before and suggested that the slow-paced and less visited beach would be more our style. And boy was she right…

Punta Del Diablo

We took her recommendation on the hostel as well, El Diablo Tranquilo. The hostel itself was decent, but quite crowded. It was also run by all Americans from Chicago, who were all very nice, but obviously lacking in culture. The hostel also ran a bar on the beach that had mediocre food but a great drink selection. And the bar did draw a nice local crowd as well.

During the low season, the town only has about 300 inhabitants. But they do get up to 20,000 visitors at a time from all over Uruguay and other countries. We spent our days lounging around on the beautiful, almost deserted beach (save for a handful of surfers), strolling down the unpaved, sandy roads, consuming our fair share of alcohol, and hanging with our new friends at the hostel. There are a ton of little cabanas lining the beach and had we had known, we would have rented one of them for the week and definitely suggest that option to anyone who travels here. You can get a pretty decent price if you have 3 people or more.

The main road

We also went horseback riding with a local named Fabian and two girls from Sweden. It was such a great day! Kim and I hadn’t been on a horse in over 17 years so we were a little nervous. Especially because my few experiences riding ended in me either falling off or my horse laying down in the mud with me still on it. Yeah. And of course, Fabian gave me the slightly unruly horse, Imilio, but was great once you show him you’re in control. Kim’s horse Borracha (“drunk girl” in Spanish), was awesome. They named her that because she weaves back and forth down the road and always stops to munch a bit on the way. It was hilarious. Fabian led us through the local national park and we stopped for some cookies and wine before doing some galloping down the beach. It really was a nice combo:)

Cowgirls!

Wine break

I also made friends with one of the only Uruguayan guys that worked at the hostel, Matias. He offered to make us an authentic Uruguayan meal at his place our last night in town. It reminded us a lot of our mother’s stew she used to make us. It consisted of steak, chorizo (a type of sausage), bacon, pasta, potatoes, carrots, yams, and onion in tomato sauce. It was so delicious and really nice to have some good comfort food for a change.

There wasn’t much to do in Punta del Diablo, but that was exactly what we were looking for. We could have actually stayed here another week or so. Kim and I really enjoyed it here. However, it was time to head back toward Buenos Aires so we could get over to Chile. We stayed one night in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo and had lunch at an old port that is now filled with restaurants and small shops, and then went to a local market to have a look. It was crazy big and sold everything from produce to live chickens, ducks, and turkeys. One night was definitely sufficient for Montevideo. The next day we hopped our ferry and cruised back in to Argentina.

We didn’t have much time in Uruguay, but were definitely glad we included it in the trip. Here are some random thoughts and/or highlights about Uruguay.

-It’s much more expensive than Argentina. Boo.

-Chivito’s are awesome. It’s a type of sandwich that is served everywhere consisting of really thin steak, a fried egg, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Lots of mayo. MMMM.

-The stray dogs are so cute. The same ones hang around the people they like and escort you all over town. A walk to the store, a stroll on the beach, heading home from the bar? “Heck yeah I’ll come!”

-The men are very attractive in this country. Yep.

-The people are extremely laid back and friendly.

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Dominical Days

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Beaches, Costa Rica, Friends on October 12, 2009| 1 Comment »

Please note that Kelly is the author of this post, even though it is posted under Kim’s name. Internet access DRAMA!

Oh Dominical. What a great little beach town! We said goodbye to our friends at Vista Serena to head south to Dominical. After a pretty painless hour and a half bus ride, we reached the Antorchas hostel, our home for the next 5 days where we waited for Yesenia and Andres. She is friends with the owners and helped us get a hell of a deal…our room was $8/pp/night with a private bath. Other than the thick stench of mold in the room, it was a pretty good set up since we only showered and slept in there so the smell wasn’t too big of a deal. Plus, the beach was literally 75 yards from our door. Awesome.

Outside of Antorchas

Playa Dominical is 25 km of open, amazing beach that is ideal for experienced surfers. The water is crystal blue and the waves are huge! It’s absolutely beautiful. I’d also like to mention that we are so happy to be traveling in the low season. There are so few people around, it’s really nice. The town itself is two streets; one lining the beach with a few sodas, bars and restaurants and supermarkets on the other. There are no more than 200 or so people living here. Yeah…

The streets of Dominical...sorry, this one got cut off.

Dominical beach around sunset

Kim on the beach

We ended up running into a couple from Spain (Viva Espana!), Alan and Silvia, that we had met in Monteverde. They stayed at Antorches too and we all spent the evening hanging out at the hostel in the great little seating area equipped with hammocks, TV, tables and chairs. Christian, the crazy DJ/artist from Ibiza joined us as well.

The next morning, Kim and I went for a long walk on the beach. The beach is so incredible in the morning. Wow. We then spent the day with Yesenia and Andres in Uvita, another beach town, even tinier than Dominical and about 15 minutes south. We went to the marine park, Marina Ballenas, and enjoyed the empty beach. Literally, other than one other family, we were the only ones on there.

On the beach in Marina Ballenas

Kelly and Yesenia

I watched our things while Yesenia took Kim down a spot where two beaches collide and the waves break up against each other. From a plane view, it looks just like a whale’s tail. When the tide is low, you can walk down the length of the tail. So cool! We then went back to the hostel that night for some dinner and wine.

The next day, we all went back to the marine park for a whale watching tour for around $20, which included an hour or so of snorkeling, and another 2 hours of riding around and looking at whales, huge sea turtles and all the deserted beaches with rocks and caves. They also gave us yummy pineapple, watermelon, and fresh coconut! It was a fantastic day.

Us and Andres enjoying our fresh coconut on the boat

Sea Turtles!!

The following day, it poured rain and we just hung around at the hostel. I spent some time with my new friend, Roberto, a local Tico that works as a tour guide in Corcovado National Park on the southern coast. He knew so much about wildlife, surfing and everything Costa Rican. Good times.

Roberto!

The day after was perfect for heading out to see a waterfall that everyone kept telling us about. What an adventure…heh. Again, the directions to anywhere in Costa Rica are crazy. So after passing the waterfall by about 2 miles on a tiny gravel road uphill, Alan and Silvia got their rental car stuck in a small ditch! Luckily we were near a house where a guy from New York was staying with his nice big Four Runner. He had got stuck the day before and was more than happy to help us out.

Stuck Car

After a few tries of some necessary pulling and pushing on our part, the car was out with no damage. He then took us back to the house for some water, a great view of the ocean and then proceeded to take us down to the where the waterfall was. All in all, it was worth the trouble. The waterfall was beautiful. After some climbing and swimming and my failed attempt at the rope swing, we headed back home for lunch and a relaxing evening.

Our reward after the car fiasco

At the waterfall

Kim busted it on the rocks a couple of times, but finally got there...

Kim and I both really loved Dominical. The morning walks, the numerous trips to the beach to watch the surfers, the sunset and the waves…it was perfect. After some yoga on the beach for me and a quick dip for Kim, we decided to go ahead and make our way back to San Jose. We could have spent a few more days there, but our Spanish friends had to leave. They offered us a ride in their car (Woohoo! No bus ride!) back up to Manuel Antonio to crash at Vista Serena for a couple more days before we headed back to Yesenia’s. We got to see a few of our friends from the previous week and also met an Australian couple who were 6 months into their around the world trip. We’ll be hanging with them in our upgraded private room. So nice! Alex was going to have to split us up to make room for others, but instead he set us up for the same price in a two room “suite” with living room, TV, kitchen and private balcony with the Aussies. Can we say good karma?

Sunset in Dominical

We fly out of San Jose on Thursday, the 15th to our next stop, Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA! Stay tuned for a Costa Rica wrap up! PURA VIDA!

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While you were at ACL…

Posted in Costa Rica, tagged Beaches, Costa Rica, Food, Friends, Locals, Sunsets on October 5, 2009| 12 Comments »

Kelly and I made some good friends in Monteverde, but were really looking forward to some quality beach time. After a couple of relatively tame bus rides, we reached Manuel Antonio, a small beach town on the Pacific Coast and home to Manuel Antonio National Park, the most visited park in Costa Rica.

: All of our new friends in Monteverde

By the way, if you ever come to Costa Rica, don’t even think about staying more than 2 hours in Puntarenas. It’s a dump.

We checked into our hostel, Vista Serena, which is run by two American guys, Alex and Conrad. It’s set at the top of a ridge and has a huge deck with hammocks with a fantastic view of the ocean. We spent all of our evenings sitting on the deck drinking Imperial and watching the sun sink into the horizon. There is nothing to describe the sunsets here…all of them are extremely different and absolutely beautiful.

: View from the deck at Vista Serena Hostel

We planned to hit the beach on our first day, but we woke up to thunderstorms and pouring rain. Kelly and I knew we were coming during the ‘wet’ season, but had only seen rain our first day in San Jose…we were wondering when the crappy weather was going to hit. It ended up clearing up by the afternoon, so we walked down to the beach, checked out all of the shops and had a beer before heading back to Vista Serena to watch the sunset.

For dinner, we’ve been eating at a kick-ass restaraunt called Angel’s right down the street from the hostel. We had an incredible dinner of fresh mahi-mahi, rice, au-grautin potatoes and salad for about $7 per person. A plate of food like this in the U.S. would cost at least $20.

: Mahi-Mahi dinner. It rocked our world.

On our second day, Kelly and I checked out Manual Antonio National Park, which was really beautiful. It has several walking trails, a handful of picturesque beaches, and a ton of wildlife. We layed on the beach for a couple of hours and saw a sloth, a family of white-faced monkeys, birds, and had a couple of iguanas hang out with us on the beach. We grabbed a quick snack and a beer before heading home and made it back just in time before the rain started. Alex whipped up a fantastic dinner for everyone at the hostel (fresh fish, grilled veggies, and plantains). Kelly and I nursed our sunburns and called it an early night.

: One of the beaches in the National Park

: This is where we spent our Saturday. It’s a rough life.

: Happy Sisters!

: An Iguana that hung out with us for a bit

: A sloth! These things are so cool. They move like they are in slow motion.

: A monkey! We want one.

Today is our last full day in Manuel Antonio and the weather is perfect. We plan to take it easy, lounge on the beach for a couple of hours, do some laundry, and get ready to head further south to Dominical in the morning. We really enjoyed our time here and recommend Vista Serena to any of you that ever plan to head this way. Just be ready to drink and smoke every night, because that’s pretty much the way of life here.

We hope all of our friends had a great time in the rain at Austin City Limits festival. Kelly and I were bummed to have missed it this year, but while you were rockin’ out to King’s of Leon and Pearl Jam, this is what we spent our evenings enjoying: (Mary, these are for you)