On Wednesday we hiked to La Fortuna Waterfall. It was very pretty and we had fun climbing around on the rocks and trying not to die (or get soaked). Here’s some photos (we’re in some of these, click on them to see the bigger size).
We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the other side of the volcano – driving around on random dirt roads, etc. We found a hotel that has excellent views of the Arenal Volcano and Lake Arenal, so we got a drink and hung out on their balcony for a while. It’s fun to have a car and just explore a place like Costa Rica. We were never sure where we were going or what we’d find, and sometimes that’s when you find the most interesting things!
On Thursday we rented mountain bikes and biked on dirt roads amidst local houses and farms. We were given a map (if you can call it that), with a line on it that was supposed to lead us to a river. We took lots of turns and never did find the river. But it was still pretty and interesting to see how the locals live. We didn’t many pictures, but here’s a good one of Ben.
Later we went to Arenal Volcano National Park, and did a hike near the volcano. The path led us to a large lava rock field from an eruption in 1992. During the hike, we could hear the volcano rumbling and large boulders tumbling down the mountain. Don’t worry, this is always happening. Still, it was a little creepy, and you can’t help but wonder what would happen if there was a large eruption. The signs saying “Enter at your own risk” don’t help either. Here’s some pictures from the hike.
This is what the forests look like here – very green and lush. And here’s Ben swingng on one of the hanging vines.
We saw Tucans!
We’re in San Jose now, and our flight leaves tomorrow. It’s been a really fun trip and we love Costa Rica – I think we’ll have to come back some day.
Thanks for reading!
Alonna
Yesterday (Monday) we made our way over more rough roads and through more beautiful scenery, to the town of La Fortuna. This area is famous for the Arenal Volcano, which is an active volcano. So far it’s been mostly cloudy around the peak, so we haven’t seen much. But hopefully one night we’re here it will be clear and we can see it spewing red lava.
Here’s some photos from the drive here. The country side was really pretty. We also drove around Lake Arenal, which is popular for wind surfing. Now we know why – it was VERY windy all around the lake.
While driving, we found a bunch of cars stopped to look at these small racoon-like animals. We’re not sure what they’re called, but they were pretty cute and let us get up close to take photos.
Here’s some photos of the volcano and our awesome hotel. The hotel has beautiful landscaping, lots of humming birds, and an amazing view of the volcano from our cabin porch. Also, the maid created an elephant out of our towels today!
Have you ever tried to take a picture of a humming bird? It’s really difficult! The first picture I managed to catch one sitting still, the send is the result of lots of out-of-focus shots.
Today we took a really fun “Canyoning” tour. We hiked and repelled through a small canyon in the jungle. The repells were over waterfalls, two of them were pretty big. We had a blast, and even managed to keep our camera dry.
As you can see, we’re having a great time here. The weather and scenery have been beautiful. The next two days we’re hoping to get in some mountain biking, a hot springs visit, hiking and sightseeing, and hopefully we’ll get to see the lava at night.
Salud! (Cheers)
Alonna
We made it! We flew into Costa Rica via Los Angeles, getting here at 6:20 AM on Saturday. Here’s a picture I snapped while pulling into the gate in San Jose, CR.
For some reason I thought we’d get here rested and ready to start the adventure. But the 5 1/2 hour overnight flight didn’t quite do it – we were tired. Still, we had a rental car waiting, and a 4-hour drive to our first destination: Santa Elena, home to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. This is a small town in the mountains where moisture from the pacific rises and forms constant clouds over the forests. This moisture creates a unique forest with thousands of plants and animals that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. So, we headed out in our small SUV (Daihatsu Terios) Manual 4×4. About half way, we had to turn off of the highway, and start up towards the mountains. The roads turned to very rough dirt/gravel for about 25 miles. The views were great, but it was a bumpy ride. Here’s some photos from the trip:
The rest of Saturday we pretty much chilled out, slept, went out to eat, and did a little shopping.
Sunday we went on a Sky Trek zipline adventure, which was a blast! It consisted of being harnessed and hooked onto cables, then zipping across the jungle. There were 11 cables total and it took about 2 hours. Here’s some photos.
After the zipline, we went to the Monteverde Cloud Forest and spent about 2 hours hiking around. Luckily, we happened upon a small tour group, just as the guide had found a beautiful blue/green bird with a red chest. He let us take a look through his scope. It turns out this was a Quetzal, which is a rare bird that people come to see in Monteverde. On the hike we also saw a monkey up in the trees. Other than that it was uneventful – although the forest itself is pretty. Here’s a couple photos of the cloud forest:
Later, we took a night tour of a different cloud forest reserve (called the Children’s Eternal Rain Forest). We were in a group of 8 plus a guide, given flashlights, and basically hiked around in the dark searching for nocturnal animals. We spent most of the time looking for sloths up in the trees, but what we saw were 3 tarantulas, a couple tiny frogs, tons and tons of sleeping birds (who tuck their head under their wings, and puff up their bodies), a long line of army ants (whom Ben tried to confuse by blocking their path), and some large rodents that I can’t remember the name of. The whole thing was pretty fun, the forest is very noisy at night with beetles, frogs, and other insects. Here’s two contrasting photos – one is the sunset we saw before the tour, the other is of one of the orange-kneed tarantulas (yes, I was scared).
Today we’re heading to La Fortuna, home of the active volcano Arenal. We’ll be spending 4 nights here, and plan to do some fun things like biking, repelling down waterfalls, visiting hot springs, etc. We have wi-fi there so stay tuned for more photos!
~Alonna
Christmas Letter
I decided that this year, instead of doing a Christmas letter, I’ll do a Christmas
blog. Then nobody is obligated to read it and I’ll save on postage. Everybody
wins. So, what should I tell you about this past year? If you want to know
about any of me and Ben’s vacations this year, well, you can already find all
of that on the rest of this website. So maybe I’ll tell you some other things
we’ve been doing.
Keeping Busy Outside of Work
Although I do my fair share of lounging, TV watching (Chuck is my new
favorite show this season), and gaming (Guitar Hero anyone?), I also like to
keep busy with other activities. I’ve been playing soccer and volleyball
almost continuously since coming to Boise. My soccer team is a lot of fun;
the best thing about our team is that everyone tries really hard. You wouldn’t
believe how much difference that makes in a game – we’ve beatan plenty of teams
who may outskill us, but we outplay them. Volleyball is fun because a bunch of
my friends at work also play. In the summer we play in the sand at HP on an
organized league, which is nice for getting out of the office for a couple
hours during the day.
Besides sports, I’ve also taken the role of President this year for our
local Society of Women Engineers section (Southwest Idaho SWE).
I’ve been involved with SWE since college because I enjoy networking with
other women engineers and encouraging young girls to consider engineering
for their career. Unfortunately, I think there is a social pressure for
young girls to shy away from math and science. Until that changes, I think
it is important to provide positive role models for girls, tell them what
engineering is and encourage them to try it. I’m not in SWE because I think
women are better or worse engineers then men. I just think that women bring
a diversity of ideas and skills to the workplace and they should not be
discouraged from entering a profession dominated by men. So, this year I’m
the section president and although it’s keeping me busy, I am really
enjoying it.
Ben has also been busy with side projects outside of work, which you would
know if you saw our living and dining room – currently full of wires, resistors,
and other miscellaneous electronics. And, although mountain biking season is
over, we’re excited for the upcoming snowboarding season – let it snow, let it
snow, let it snow!
Ben’s New Job
This fall Ben took a new job with HP. That’s right, now we both work at the
same company. We work in different areas though – I do hardware design for
LaserJet printers, and he’s doing software design for a color and imaging
group. Confused? What I do is make the little black chip that goes inside
your printer. Ben basically writes programs that run on that chip. See,
totally different 🙂 Anyway, so far we’re both really happy with the move.
I like having a carpool companion, and he likes the challenges of his new job.
Happy Holidays
From traveling to my dream location of Machu Picchu, to spending holidays and
vacations with family and friends – Ben and I have had another amazing year. I
hope that all of you are happy and in good health. Have a Merry Christmas and
a very happy New Year!
With Love,
Alonna and Ben
Thanksgiving in White River, South Dakota
November 21-25, 2007
Trip Dates: August 17-20, 2007
Every year in the tiny town of White River, South Dakota they have a weekend called Frontier Days. My mom grew up in White River, and my Aunt and Uncle and Grandparents still live there. Growing up we often travelled the 7+ hours by car to White River for Frontier Days weekend. This year, everyone in the family went – including me and Ben, Mom and Dad, Clay, Cody, Heather and the kids. We all went to the parade and rodeos, Kenn took Ben and I prarie dog hunting, and we even stopped by the Native American Pow Wow on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun!
Trip Dates: August 2-5, 2007
Coming from Idaho (Ben and Alonna), Minnesota (Alonna’s Mom Candy), and Virginia (Ben’s Mom Robin and two sisters Beth and Kim), six of us met in California to take a weekend trip to Yosemite National Park. None of us had been there before, and we had a great time sightseeing in Yosemite Valley and hiking around the giant sequoia trees. I think we all look forward to going back some day.
Wow, what an amazing trip! Peru is a beautiful country and Ben and I had a great time. Check out some of the photos that I posted from our trip. Some of them deserve a little explanation, so I will post a few stories here. I have also posted a trip report on tripadvisor.com, although it’s geared towards people who are planning a trip there, feel free to check it out if you’d like. You can get there from this link: Tripadvisor Trip Report.
Cusco
Our first stop in Peru was in the city of Cusco. This city used to be the Inca capital until the 1500’s when the Spanish came and conquered. Cusco is at 11,000 feet and although we didn’t get altitude sickness, we were definitely huffing and puffing going up stairs or inclines. In Cusco we had a great time shopping and walking around the city.
Probably the coolest site in Cusco was the nearby ruins called Saqsaywaman, where the Inca brought giant stones over 7 miles to make this fort. When you see these stones in person, it’s hard to imagine the Incas moving them there. They also didn’t use any mortar; instead they carved and polished the rocks so that they would fit together perfectly. It’s amazing.
At lunch one day in Cusco a girl named Melanie, who’s mother worked at the restaurant, joined us for lunch. She was totally adorable as you can see. Since Melanie was young and spoke using simpler sentences in Spanish, we had a fun time trying to communicate with her. I gave her a little hair binder that I brought along, and she was pretty excited. It was a cool experience.
Wilhoc
Wilhoc is an isolated village in the mountains of the Sacred Valley (the large valley between Cusco and Machu Picchu). We had a guide one day that took us to this village to see the people living in the traditional ways. When we arrived, all of the women started to come towards us and setup their weavings on display for us to see (and buy). We were shown how they make a poncho, which takes almost a month just to make one. Everyone in the town was wearing their everyday traditional clothing (they didn’t know we were coming, they always dress this way), in beautiful bright reds and oranges. We then went to the town school, and our guide took us into a first grade classroom. He asked each student to say their name and age. We passed out pens and bread to each student (I wish we had more school supplies with us to give out), and then they sang a couple songs to us – actually it was more like shouting than singing. The kids were very cute and it was really fun to meet them. After leaving the classroom, Ben and the guide attempted to hand out the remaining bread to the other students. You’d think they were handing out iPods the way those kids swarmed around them 😉 Visiting this village was a really cool experience and one of the highlights of our trip.
Moray
The ruins at Moray are circular stone terraces that were built into existing natural craters in the earth. They were originally built in pre-Inca times, maybe as long ago as 1000 AD. The natural earth formations have a huge variety of temperatures, depending on the depth and where the sun and shadows fall. One scientist recorded a full 15C (27F) degrees temperature difference between the top and bottom terraces, which is only 30 feet! For this reason, historians believe quite certainly that these terraces were used for agriculture experimentation, sort of like a natural greenhouse. They believe that pre-Incans used this site to develop different strains of Maize (corn), allowing them transform maize into a high-altitude crop, thereby allowing the ancient civilizations to thrive in the Andes mountains. I found this site really amazing.
That’s all for now. I have a lot more stories, but I guess you’ll just have to ask me or Ben to hear the rest 🙂
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