Sloth spotting in Costa Rica

Some of you will remember my 2 month jaunt in Central America about 6 years ago. We camped on remote beaches in Belize, trekked to Tikal in Guatemala, dived in Honduras and learned to make tortillas in El Salvador. The trip ended in wonderful Nicaragua - Philippa and I had never been so chilled. Sadly we didn’t quite make it back to Costa Rica or Panama - so they remained on my wish list....

Moving to Miami gave me the perfect opportunity - so I booked a flight to Costa Rica and started planning what to do. February is apparently the month with perfect weather and after researching options I decided I wanted to focus on the cloud forests and national parks to the centre and west - the pacific side. 

I did a trip with a Jodie and Em to Africa with a company called G adventures which was fabulous, and checking their trips out booked on a new national geographic trip taking in the areas I wanted to see. Decision made.....

The 3 hour flight to San Jose gave me a bit of mental headspace to forget about work and get into traveller mode. I spent the afternoon wandering the streets of San Jose. Not the most captivating of cities - but I found some cool street art, and enjoyed the weird but interesting contemporary art museum.

That night I met my fellow travellers - a diverse group ( Canadians, Austrians, English, Australian, Scottish, American and Guatemalan) and our next morning we headed towards La Fortuna and the wonderful Volcano Arenal. The countryside on route was getting me excited - lush green trees, unusual mammals ( coatis were new to me....and very very cute) and birds swooping in and out of my sight. Our guide filled us in on the wildlife and the culture of the company. The only downside of the day was during a discussion on that weekends political elections being told that there had been a female president 4 years ago, she did a bad job so there won’t be a woman again for a long time........classic sexism right there - so men can do bad jobs but it’s just the individual, a woman does a bad job and ‘women’ all get the blame....

The afternoon was wonderful - a coffee tour at Mi Cafecito learning all about the many stages involved in getting to my beloved Flat White’s. In the evening we headed out to a nighttime trip to the natural springs in the area. Lots of comedy clambering up rocks in the darkness but credit to us all - we made it and soaked up the heated water in our own little hot pool.

The next day we went to the hanging bridges in Arenal - and I got my first real taste of just how special the nature was in CR. In the space of 2 hours we had seen howler monkeys, spider monkeys, a tarantula in its hole, lots of birds ( MotMot, hummingbirds, turkeys) and a curled up sloth who was pretty damn asleep. All from a series of wonderful paths and suspended bridges overlooking the canopy. Very, very special.

Wednesday had us getting a boat over Laguna Arenal - and picked up a bus to wind it’s way way up high to Monteverde - a cloudforest reserve which put Costa Rica on the nature lovers map after a feature in National Geographic in the 1980’s. Some of the group headed off for a few hours of adrenaline zip lining through the trees - I checked out the town and went on a nighttime nature walk. Lucky I did - I saw my first sloth actually moving around - happy days. 

We had hike in the stunning Santa Elena reserve the next morning where our guide Johnny showed us another tarantula, lots of gorgeous birds and more views of the canopy/ forest. After lunch we had a talk at the Monteverde Institute and did a bit for the environment helping to get them ready to plant trees ( offsetting our carbon footprint at the same time). Really Inspiring to see how the locals were taking such a serious approach to protecting their country. The USA could learn a lot from Costa Rica.

Our final stop was to head to Manuel Antonio national park on the Pacific coast. There our guide in the park fascinated us by spotted all these animals cleverly camouflaged to avoid detection - iguanas, spiders, an owl like bird hidden against a tree. When we saw a sloth, moving, facing us I wanted to give him a massive hug. 

Costa Rica has reminded me what an incredible world we have - we all need to do more to protect it - credit to the wonderful Tico’s who are leading the way with how we all need to act.

Pura Vida 😀

Recommendations:

Hire a guide - they spot things you really couldn’t....

Monteverde - enjoy the food and views at Sabor Tico, enjoy the birds at Stella Bakery. Trek in Santa Elena reserve

La Fortuna - go to the hanging bridges in Arenal

Manuel Antonio - sunset at El Avion, stay as close to the park as you can - sunsets over the Pacific are stunning book a place with views

Christmas in Miami

After the excitement of the white Christmas I headed down to St Albans to see H and family, got way too merry at the work Christmas party and spent a blissful 3 days in London.

My London days were filled with an ottolenghi breakfast with Carly, the most fabulous afternoon tea at Claridge's with Nicky. Visits to Tate modern with Helen, brunch with the girls at foxlow. My nights filled with a city pub and leadenhall market with the boys, drinks in my hotel with anyone else I hadn’t managed to see. I flew back to Miami with lots of happy memories and a suitcase full of Christmas essentials.

To me this meant bread sauce. Parsnips, stuffing, marmalade, Christmas cake, shortbread - all things somewhat tricky to locate in Miami. My parents joined me a few days later and we settled into the lovely period of time that is holiday season. 

We went to a jazz concert in Palm Court, watched Miami heat beat the Dallas Mavericks at the basketball. On Christmas Eve we explored Miami Beach and in the evening drove up to the hard rock stadium for an amazing performance of a new cirque de soleil show.

Christmas Day came - with smoked salmon and champagne spotting manatees from my balcony, a tranquil swim on Miami Beach followed by a turkey Christmas dinner. Perfect. 

Boxing Day isn’t a big event here so we had a local one pottering around Brickell. One the 27th we headed up to Fort Lauderdale airport for 3 days in New York ( separate post).

On New Year’s Eve, delighted to be back in above freezing temperatures we headed off to the Biltmore Hotel for Brunch - we arrived with empty stomachs and our lovely waiter Juan explained to us that not only was champagne and mimosas bottomless - they also had Bloody Mary’s and various cocktails all unlimited throughout the day. Blimey! Dad seemed to embrace this the most and immediately came back to the table with  very decadent looking Bloody Mary ( is bacon in drinks a thing now?). Mum and I decided to explore the seafood selection. I was determined to get value for money out of this brunch malarkey which is how I justify coming back with 2 types of caviar, 2 oysters, some tuna, 4 stone crab claws, 2 piece of king crab and shit loads of prawns......the brunch was lovely - we slowly worked our way throigh seafood, roast lamb and a vast array of home made desserts. The Biltmore brunch was a massive success.

That evening we welcomed 2018 in watching the Miami Beach fireworks from the Apartment. 

New Year’s Day we saw yet more manatees...

I’ve got to say.....Miami sure is growing on me

 

Home for a White Christmas

I decided that the first year living in America I should try and spend a Christmas there - so booked return flights home the week before Christmas to experience some English style Christmas magic. I knew that in reality all this would really mean was a great opportunity to drink mulled wine and buy things like Bread sauce and stuffing to take back.

Things were busy in the run up but before I knew I was off on an overnight flight back home - only the second time I’d been back since moving over. My parents picked me up from the airport ( this is most unusual - the perks of emigrating 😀) and we had a love actually moment at Heathrow. Off we sped up to lovely Market Harborough for a few days of family time. My brother arrived just in time to order a take away curry ( priority number 1) - and we settled in with love actually, a curry and some baileys.

The next morning the most wonderful sight greeted me - actual snow and lots of it....like an excitable toddler I had to wake everyone up and pretty much force everyone out for a walk ‘ before cveryome else ruined the perfect drifts of snow’. So we layered up and headed into town. It was magical - snow on red postboxes, on top of the church roof - prettiness everywhere we looked.

We eventually trudged back home, and settled into a full Christmas dinner - a very memorable Christmas 🎅🏼🎄

Welcome to Hurricane Season

Welcome to Hurricane Season

It’s been a while - and I can’t really use the excuse that I haven’t had the time -  more that I haven’t been in the right frame of mind.

The last time I blogged all was well and I’d had an amazing few weeks exploring west coast USA. How bizarre then that a mere 2 days later chaos started to unfold. I got back to work to the usual post holiday crisis solving - but in between that my team asked me ‘ what my hurricane plan was’. Assuming there was some sarcasm involved - I didn’t answer especially seriously. Cut to next day - when I find myself trying to book a flight anywhere in the USA because the most severe hurricane in 20 years was scheduled to hit on the weekend. The travel agent at my work company didn’t seem to grasp the concept - his repeated ‘ this is strange all the flights from Miami keep selling out’ started to grate after failing to find anything to 3 cities ( New York, Chicago, Washington). Eventually I get a flight, which was a good decision as the following day my area in Miami is declared a mandatory evacuation zone. The following few days became a bit of a blur -I became an expert in Miami’s disaster planning approach. Not the ideal time to realise in the hurry to move that you don’t have contents insurance.

So after lots of removing pictures off walls, putting towels below windows and doors - and trying to hurricane proof my apartment as much as possible - off to the airport I go. Alas even that wasn’t uneventful - I couldn’t get a direct flight to Washington so I have a route via Atlanta. Our flight is delayed , I have to sprint to the gate - fortunately luck was on my side. I get to Washington , drink lots of gin and I can breathe a sigh of relief. The next few days are pretty intense - I’m gripped to the weather channel, checking on the team at work ( not everyone is evacuated, they prioritise the areas closest to water), and updating the U.K. team on everyone’s safety. I try to sightsee to take my mind off things but can’t concentrate. On the Saturday I see the impact of Irma - where I live is under metres of water - Brickell Avenue looks like a river. 

The team though are all safe - damaged trees and gardens but no structural housing damage. 

I then have to fly to New York for some work meetings - and get back to Miami on the Weds. Fortunately the apartment is fine - nothing damaged.

Over the following months life gets back to normal, the debris gets cleared from   the city. Another hurricane comes devastating Puerto Rico - I was due to be there the weekend the hurricane hits.

Puerto Rico will hopefully rebuild itself.....this is quite the adventure I’m having......

Florida keys road trip

Not sure if I've mentioned it but Miami is goddam hot during the summer. Hot like nothing I've ever experienced - those that have travelled with me will know that I can be pretty good at arriving at a beach early and staying until the sunsets. In Miami I'm lucky to be able to last more than an hour at the beach before I jump back into Air Con.

As a result of ' the heat' I've been avoiding exploring Miami and hadnt even managed a trip to the Florida keys yet. Fortunately I had the perfect reason to change that - some lovely friends were getting married in Key West.

A road trip plan was hatched, and one sunny Saturday morning - country music blasting - Anna, Audrey, Megan and I were on our way.

Our first stop was the Caribbean looking Morada bay cafe on Islamorada where my first Pina Colada of the year was happily drunk admiring the gorgeous view. Things were off to a good start. We arrived at the end of the keys - Key West about 7 hours after leaving Miami - ouch. This also meant we had a bit of a scramble into wedding outfits and arrived a bit dishevelled just in time for the lovely wedding of Chris and Jess at Ernest Hemingway's house on the island.

We spent the rest of the evening hopping on a trolley and all heading down to the lively Mallory square to take in the sunset, and then partied back at the couple's house on the island. Fun night!

The next morning I spent some time discovering the island, I went to the most southernmost point buoy in the USA - only 90 miles from there to Cuba! I enjoyed seeing Truman's little White House, loved discovering all the huge fish you could see from the Marina. Food wise - Emily told me to chocolate dipped slice of key lime pie from Kermitt's - sickly but tasty!

I am loving discovering USA.....

Sea plane adventures in Vancouver

I was really getting into this Pacific Northwest region - so after our time in Seattle and the San Juan islands was excited to see it from the Canadian side. The excellent Bolt Bus got us into Vancouver in four hours and apart from a pretty grim conversation with your classic miserable immigration official it was a great afternoon.

An hour later after a trip on a train and seabus we were in our hotel in Lonsdale Quay on the north of the city. We could already see how beautiful this place was - lovely natural harbour, snow capped mountains behind. It reminded me of Sydney but with added attraction of mountains - perhaps even prettier.

On our first night we took things easy - it was national burger day - and the perfect place to celebrate this was at Tap & Barrell - a pub with a gorgeous patio overlooking the city. There was also an outdoor spin class taking place across from the pub - so we had the added bonus of watching how the Vancouver locals get their adrenaline rush in the summer.

The next day we explored Lynn Canyon Park - a lovely park with a suspension bridge and walking trails. Definitely one to get the heart racing - but an enjoyable way to spend the morning. The afternoon we headed back on the seabus this time to explore Gastown and Chinatown. Gastown is filled with lovely boutiques, pavement cafe's and ice cream shops. On our way to Chinatown we somehow walked into Crack alley - an uncomfortable number of locals all off their heads - it didn't feel like a great place to be so Chinatown will have to wait until another time!

Next we were back on the buses to get to Kitsalano Beach - where our Air BnB was for the next 3 nights - we lucked out - although a bit far from the city - really cool little area.

Our first full day in Vancouver was epic - we headed into Stanley park to walk the city walls - what a park it is - bigger than NYC's central park - it takes up a full tip of central Vancouver - it has an outdoor swimming pool, a lake , you can walk / cycle the city walls for a glorious 8.8km - heaven. We recovered with wine and a salmon burger at a lovely spot just outside the park Cardero's Marine Pub and admired the yacht action. From there the excitement really kicked in - we kept seeing seaplane's taking off in the city. I presumed it would be ridiculously expensive so other than saying ' I'd really like to do that one day' thought nothing more of it. I think though the beauty of the park made us look into it - a phone call later and we were booked onto the 2pm 30 minute Classic Panorama trip with Harour Air. My god what a great decision. After ' checking in' and getting our boarding pass we were last to board our little seaplane - but ended up with window seats, a lovely captain and some blue skies to get into.

The next 30 minutes I did not stop grinning, the sensation of taking off and landing into water is something everyone should experience. Vancouver is also an incredible place to do this trip - after the joy of going over the harbour - we flew over some of the surrounding mountains - green lakes surrounded by snowcapped mountains all in a 5 minute flight of the city. What a place!

Sad for the journey to end we celebrated with a gelato from Vancouver's finest - Bella Gelateria - and took in the Olympic cauldron. The day was topped off with a picnic down at Jericho beach watching the sun go down.

On Sunday we headed to Granville Island - home to a food market and lots of little craft stores. a really nice place to spend a morning - lots going on. After purchasing our picnic we got one of the tiny little False Creek Ferries to the park next to the maritime museum. Amusingly there was a pink salmon celebration going on in the park - is this city for real? Picnic eaten with the added bonus on seals swimming in the harbour nearby it was time to walk onto Kitsalano beach and time for a swim. The pool at Kits beach is very special - saltwater, heated and 137 metres long.  My swim there was glorious - admittedly you need to learn the lane etiquette pretty quickly but once I had - goggles on and in the zone I loved getting my lengths in.

Before our time was up - we had an evening at Fable in Kitsalano - and a friend of mine I'd met travelling in Africa came to join us. The perfect way to end what had been an incredible time in Vancouver.

It goes without saying that I will be returning.

Goonies film location spotting in Oregon

As a kid I remember going to a friends birthday party at a cinema and watching the Goonies - so imagine my delight when I discovered lots of the locations are in Oregon - and I could see them as part of this trip.

After a few days in the city , we planned on going to Cannon Beach - a spot featured in the film. We got the bus there and the route took us through the lovely looking Tillamook State Forest - the countryside in Oregon all seems stunning. Definitely a place to return to. After an easy 90 minute journey we are dropped off in the one street Cannon Beach - like going back in time - this was going to be an easy place to spend some time.

We dropped our bags off and headed down to the beach. And what a beach.....9 miles long and with the huge Haystack rock in the middle. Regularly voted one of the world's best beaches - it is utterly lovely. Haystack itself is full of wildlife - with nesting sites for Puffins and various seabirds, and rock pools filled with Sea anemones. While we were there clouds dropped up and down over the rocks - added a moody feel to the place.

We didn't do much other than walk the beaches, grab fish and chips and wander the main street.

I then spent a few hours looking into buying a house there - always a sign of a special place....