San Francisco to Seattle: Feasting our way up the coast

A road trip told in 5 breakfasts

Day 1 - Wednesday at Angelina's in San Francisco

After waking up at 1832 clement (thanks Ian and Suz!), we started a fave run. The fave run heads due south from our old place to Golden Gate park. The run then winds west through the park until reaching the crashing foggy expanse of Ocean Beach. Once we reach the beach, we run north and climb the hill past SF institution -- Cliff House restaurant. We enter the Lands End Park and make our way East, running along the cliffs that tower over the Bay separating us from the Marin headlands. We watch the Golden Gate appear through the fog and catch glimpses of Baker Beach before we skirt South for a short stint along the edges of the Land's End golf course (poor man's Pebble). Then we are back in our beloved Richmond heading east towards home. Of course, in our sweaty state, we pull out the carefully stashed (and slightly wet) twenty at Angelina's cafe - the neighborhood catering, breakfast, coffee, Italian cafe. Wilson grabs some mac and cheese from the bounty of sides and mains available in the deli-style counter and I opt for the lemon blackberry scone to go with their coffee. A coffee that most would probably find unremarkable but to me tastes like home.

Day 2 - Cafe Brio in Arcata, CA

This Thursday began with the smell of Redwoods. In Humboldt State Redwoods Park, we camped in the Avenue of Giants. We were so excited to camp among these Giants that we made due with a loaf of bread as dinner the night before because no nearby stores, restaurants, cafes were open by the time that we pulled into the Park, a tardy 8:45 pm.

After inhaling the smell of 20 centuries from these old trees, we hit the road in search of food and we were not disappointed when we arrived at Cafe Brio in Arcata: potato rosemary tart with two poached eggs and blue bottle coffee for me; and an avocado, goat chese, caramelized onion focaccia sandwich with a berry croissant bread pudding for Wilson. Heaven!

Day 3 - Word of Mouth Bistro in Salem, OR

By Friday, we'd left the coastal (and slower) highway 101. We crossed the California border headed away from the beach and over the scenic Grants Pass to Interstate 5. We stayed in a roadside hotel in Oregon's capital - Salem. The hotel was marginal but the price was the best to be found in town. But the breakfast in Salem at Word of Mouth was phenomenal (both in calories and taste!)

Free taster before our breakfast arrived: Cinnamon roll pancake.

Hers: "Plate O' Love" poached eggs, veggie rich hash with tons of veg, including zucchini, broccoli, etc, and the kicker: creme brulee french toast - wow.

His: "The Flying Biscuit" home fries - a 7 inch tall biscuit sandwich with sausage gravy all over it. The biscuit sandwich had multiple layers of fried egg, cheese, bacon, and fried chicken. As our eight year old niece would say, "I love fried chicken."

Day 4 - Chez Clark/Ricci in Seattle

On Saturday morning, I woke after a bit of a tumultuous night. During the night, Wilson had to save me from ejecting myself off the bed as I screamed from a dream of a monster eating my hand. Something had been on my hand but it was not a monster. It was the dog of our generous and wonderful hosts, Cam Clark, Julie Riccio, and three month old adorable baby girl: Sophia Rose. Their dog, Ted, is a sweetheart with some boxer and pit in him. That night, Ted slept between me and Wilson and somehow I lodged my hand in Ted's mouth. Thus the monster dream...and almost falling off the bed.

Thankfully, no one else heard my screams and after a good night's sleep for everyone (even me), Wilson prepared a deluxe breakfast from the Clark's homegrown onions and tomatoes, fried eggs, avocado, and a Columbia loaf from Essential Bakery. Who knew that homegrown onions are so delicious?

Day 5 - Chez Barnes/Bedient in Seattle

Saturday night, Ted slept with us again but no screams that night. Wilson and I woke up and headed to Eltana for some wood fire cooked bagels and a spread. After deliberating over the long list of cool spreads such as white bean and feta, we decided on the red pepper walnut spread. But then I worried about a nut allergy. Wilson assured me that there was no allergy and the woman working the counter over me overheard us and gave us some samples of fava bean mint spread for FREE, just in case. Seattle-Ites are nice...

We arrived at Kate Bedient and Chris Barnes' very cool home and admired their great views and interior painting choices- three different colors in the living area. We caught up over bagels, spreads, delicious produce from the Barnes' farm share, and some home made lattes. And then the conversation turned to our backpacking trip in the Cascades starting a few hours after breakfast. Next thing we know, Chris has supplied a sassy Cascades guidebook and Kate has pulled out a tupperware full of maps and trail descriptions. After 20 minutes of discussing the pros and cons of dozens of different trails that Kate and Chris have hiked through the Cascades, they settled on the Pilot Ridge/White Pass 30 mile backpacking trip. The hike sounded excellent (and it was) we left armed with 4 maps, a trail description, and the guide.

Onward.

 

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Basking in Being Back in the Bay

The last week has been sublime, ranging throughout the wonderful Bay Area that we called home for 4 years. From Santa Cruz to the Marin headlands, from the berkley hills to the San Francisco beaches (ocean and baker). And much in between.

We arrived in the Bay about a week ago, a bit earlier for Mu as she came a few days before to spend time with our family. I drew the short straw on retrieving our Subi and driving up from Vegas. Not a bad short straw, as those things go, since the drive is pretty and i got to spend time in Santa Cruz with college buddies. We reconvened in the City and began the fun trifecta of visiting with loved ones, hitting our favorite trail runs and gorging on the delicious food on tap in the South Bay, East Bay and the City.

A little microcosm of this last week came when i looked down at my key ring a few days ago and realized that there were keys to 3 different houses. We have been couch surfing and hanging out, hence the various keys. Each were in various parts of the area, one was to our old apartment where Ian and Suz now live, another to Jan and Pete's marvel of a house in Dolores Heights and the last was to Deb and Adam's perfect house in North Berkeley. All different living spaces, all great people and all places we recalled fondly along our journey this last year.

It has been impressive the speed at which mu and i have felt totally at home here. We loved living here for those 4 years for a reason. While we were traveling, it has been so special when people meet us along the road. Loved ones met up with us in Madagascar, Kenya, Sardinia, Corsica, Santiago, Machu Picchu, Lima and London. That list alone would have been a good year of travel.

Several points in the last week, I have looked out across a restaurant, bar or hiking trail and seen a host of dear family and/or friends. In the last week, we have seen literally dozens of loved ones, a rush of catching up both on our adventures and all that people have been doing in the last year. Pretty cool to go from the coupled solitude mu and i have been living on the road to seeing everyone. Both are great, and i think a good life would have healthy doses of each. Thank you for making it so special to be back!

 

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Reflecting back on South America

As you read this, the korol's are back stateside, at least for the moment. I write this from my flight into vegas and Mu has been in the Bay Area with our family for a few days. Toilets that can handle TP, here we come.

As I am wont to do upon returning from travels, my mind has been churning these last two flights, reflecting, memorizing, and starting the process that thankfully always accompanies our adventures.

A few emerging threads;

- The Spanish differs greatly across the countries

It is tempting to think of the wide swath of spanish on this continent as a monolith, if you get your language skills in order then the world is your oyster. That is not the case, at least for these two gringos. It was frustrating to have competency increase weekly, exemplified by a cool conversation with restaurant owner in Quito about Ecuadorian cuisine, history and the spirituality of being located on/near the equator. Those are the kind of cross-cultural conversations that partially validate the self indulgent travels. However, just a couple of days later, it was like a new language in Colombia and I felt basically lost - blank looks when I talked and then confusion when they talked. What happened?!? I found it easiest to understand the spanish in Argentina, Peru and Ecuador, and hardest in Chile and Colombia. This is probably influenced by my Portuguese knowledge and others might have different hot and cold spots. As a non-native speaker, there will be hot and cold spots. But even some Chileans that we met in northern Colombia confessed to getting blank looks when they talked.

- South America is HUGE

All told, we traveled 9800 kms overland, without a single flight over roughly two and a half months. flight. Plus the flights in Argentina and Chile down and back to Patagonia and the internal flights in Colombia. We covered some serious ground on this trip, and saw an astounding number of beautiful places and fun cities. And yet, there were many places that we had to push off for another time, one prime example being the white city of Arequipa in Peru. South America is huge, the roads are good but still mostly 2 lanes. It is doable to travel by land, it just takes time.

-Taking the temp on traveling in general

We have just crossed that one year barrier on travels, and it seems like a good time to do some reflecting about the endeavor. The first thought is that this year has been incredible, beyond expectations. And those were high expectations. No period of my life has been so dense in memories. Also, This adventure together has strengthened our marriage.

Have there been periods of fatigue? Absolutely, when the travel gets arduous, or I get sick of grunging it up in another jenky hostel. Sometimes I feel WAY too old to be wandering around a city with a big backpack, looking for a good deal. But, then the new day comes and we are often in someplace so cool and beautiful.

One clear highlight of our travels has been the livingthekoroldream blog. We knew that blogging would be a good way to connect with the many loved ones out there, trying to share what we were seeing and thinking. It has been that and so much more. This has alleviated a little the self indulgence that we battle from using our resources of time and money this way, as opposed to more public interest pursuits. Thanks so much for reading, and engaging with, us on this forum, it has sustained us. A few numbers, this is the 111 post since the first one on August 4th, 2012. As of ten minutes ago, there have been 11,384 views across the blog and posts, with the most popular being Mu's post about our time in Santiago, Chile. Thank you.

Where do we go from here? Starting right about now, we will be heading up the west coast over the next month+, mixing it up between outdoor stuff (backpacking and climbing) and visiting friends in the great cities along the way (SF, Portland, Seattle), before a wedding up in British Colombia.

Superlatives

Here are some quick hit 'best of' gems from the last three months.

- Most beautiful spot: this one is insanely hard to pick, i actually just looked through all my pics from the trip to try and spur a choice. My pick? Fitz Roy at Dawn in Argentinian Patagonia.

- Best multi-day trek: since hiking/trekking was the unifying thread of our trip, wanted to break these into separate categories. My pick? The 4 days we spent trekking the W route in Torres del Paine, Chile. The fact that we were truly solo, going seemingly entire days without seeing anyone, in a massive park was the deciding factor. That and the huge mountains, surreal lakes and massive glaciers.

- Best day hike: all told, we probably hiked/ran about 1000 kms this trip, across the 9 countries. My favorite day hike found us in Park Tayrona along the northern Colombia. It combined so many cool attributes - stunning beaches, dense jungle and ruins.

- Favorite city: this one is absurdly hard, probably the toughest of all the categories. The choice? Santiago, in a slight upset over the favorite of Buenos Aries. We spent the longest chunk of time in the city, we got to spend it with our dear friends Soso and Sergio, we were taken in so fully by Sergio's family and the city is modern and hip.

- Worst moment: Our self inflicted fiasco getting turned aside at the Bolivian border is a clear #1. Also should note that the Ecuador/Colombia border security concerns which had us sacred on the road are flaring again due to the latest solider/FARC conflict.

- Most consistent nuisance: the dogs above are resting comfortably, but 10 minutes before in this little village outside of salta, argentina i had a pack of dogs descend. This was all too common and the only nuisance that pervades throughout south america. These dogs are often rangy, aggressive and nasty. Ugh. Bring your trekking polls, they are great for warding them off.

- Favorite food: for foodies, this continent is ripe for gorging. It is a wonder we did not each pack on 10-15 pounds. The meat of the pampas in Arg and Uruguay are world renowned, and deservedly so. Peruvian fare is some of the both timeless and most modern on the planet. Colombian fare is widely underrated. Perhaps more than any single cuisine, the high quality avaibale throughout our travels has been the best food trend. Especially when compared to my past trips to the continent. The pick? Peru and its seafood wins out, as mu's pescatarian diet was a bit of tough sledding further south. Loved the ceviche along the coast and lomo saldado (meat cooked in vinegar to sweeten it up with onions and tomatoes) is a favorite. The meal we had in aguas caliente after exploring Macchu Picchu for the day, with the woman that was closing up shop in the market for the night but offering to cook us dinner, starting from scratch, was amazing and costs $2 bucks (max).

- Favorite Museum: this is another tough category, as we went to a number of cool exhibits and museums. From the little village sculpture contest and wine tasting in Cafayate, to the Memoria museums in Santiago and Cordoba, to the mesmerizing Salar video at the Modern art museum in Lima, to stumbling across Picasso in rural Argentina. In a bit of an upset, my choice is the Museo del Barro in Asuncion. It combined the two areas most interesting for me, contemporary art and the pre-colombian antiquities. It did in an interesting space, was free and not too crowded. Bonus points for being in a city that i would never have associated with an excellent museum.

Anyone who has read this far and wants to hear any more superlatives, just post in comments here on on facebook and I promise to award any and all categories.

 

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A day in the life: wrapping up in Bogota

Today was my last full day in South America on this trip, and i thought it would be nice to share how i spent the day.

Before i get into the chronology, it has to be noted that today was also my first day apart from my lovely bride in over 3 months. That was not sweet at all. Mu flew back to the States on a redeye last night, so that she could do some outdoor stuff and visit with our family in the Bay Area. Many months ago, i agreed to do the heavy lifting on retrieving our car in Vegas and doing the drive up to San Francisco, and thought it would be fun to stay a few extra days in Bogota. This was one of those classic ideas that sounded a little better in the idea phase than in execution.

That being said, i am very happy to report that our time in bogota has been wonderful. We stayed in the Candelaria neighborhood, which is where the city was founded 475 years ago. The barrio is all little streets and colorful single story buildings, a huge contrast to the glamour and wealth on display several kilometers north, in the new centro of the city.

We also had the pleasure of meeting some friends of friends who live in bogtoa, which made the time here so much better. They took us out to some amazing restaurants and got us to places that we would not otherwise have seen. A big thanks to Carolina, Jaun Carlos and Dan.

What did i get up to with this extra day in the big city?

- Woke up, did some yoga and and then ran on Cerro de Monserrate: bogota is bounded to the east by some seriously steep mountains. The city is actually already at a high elevation, about 8,700 feet, and the top of this peak is over 10,000 feet. The views along this trail, which was quite busy today due to a public holiday, are impressive. The city sprawls in every direction, and the neighboring mountains reinforce how rugged the terrain is within the range.

- Then, it was time to do some internet 'chores', in preparation for returning to the States. I am embarrassed to admit how nice it is to pop on a podcast and crunch away on the net. Time can really melt away, but it is (mostly) productive.

- Next, i picked out some museums nearby that warranted a visit, the Bolero museum complex and the Museo del Oro. The former houses the gift to the government from Colombia's most famous artist, Fernando Botero, including his works and that of many modern masters. These were fine, but the true gem was an engrossing exhibit of the artist Vik Muniz. Then, the gold museum shows the importance of metallurgy and the craftsmanship creating venerated objects in pre-colombian cultures throughout Colombia. The sheer volume of the gold is amazing, and the museo was bustling with the holiday.

- Ciclovia: after the museums, i walked around something called Ciclovia. This pubic space takes existing streets in the city, shuts them on sundays/holidays and turns them into miles long concrete parks. There are thousands of people out, eating ice cream, shopping, watching the street performers, drinking fresh fruit juice and generally reveling in the created community. Not that many people are actually riding bikes, which is nice for the walkers like me.

- Upon returning to my hostel (and after an Irish coffee to wake-up), i regrouped and then headed out to the ritzier northern barrios. Had not explored these parts of the city, and read good things. So glad i did. I took the 'metro' uptown, which are long buses running on dedicated bus lanes in the middle of major boulevards. This system has been a boon to Latin American cities, as it leverages existing infrastructure. Once i got off the bus, i just wandered the streets, getting a tea at one point and eventually stumbling upon a massive food festival. So i had to stop and chow. My last dinner in Colombia ended up being an arepa, which is a thick corn tortilla cut in half and stuffed with delicious fillings. There were thousands of people at the festival and food from just about every corner of the globe.

- Then, i came back to the historical barrio where i am staying and sat in the Plazoleta del Chorro de Quevedo and listened to a stand-up comedian. Tough to follow. I think the two toughest test of language proficiency are comedy and talking on the phone. Not perfect on either by any measure, but worlds better today than i was 90 days ago when we touched down in Buenos Aries. For instance, i talked with my cabbie back home tonight for 20 or minutes about all sorts of stuff with no real problem communicating.

- Heading to bed kind of early, as i have a redeye tomorrow night and won't get much sleep. Also, there is a kind of lingering security concern in Bogota that makes heading out alone suboptimal. The people that run the hostel, our friends and almost all of the taxi drivers (taxi drivers!) have made it abundantly clear that you need to be on your toes and even then there is no certainty on staying safe. So i stay in and wrote a blog post, listened to music and recharged.

See you in the good ol' US of A.

 

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Fitness from the Road: Cartagena Running

Cartagena, Colombia is a vibrant place -- from the food to the brightly painted buildings. Founded 480 years ago, this coastal city includes both a colonial historic center surrounded by walls that took two hundred years to build and long stretches of beach with Miami-style skyscrapers. The city also produces some delicious fare! In two days, we consumed various tropical fruit juices, whole red snappers, coconut rice, intricate soups, and the grilled or fried "arepas" (corn flour biscuits with cheese or egg or meat or everything inside) found throughout Colombia. And the people enjoy socializing on the streets -- a few locals even shared shots of their Medellin rum with us.

I ran two days in Cartagena. One day, I ran along the walled city and throughout the action of the city. And the other day, I ran along the beach. The day that I ran in the city of Cartagena felt emblematic of running in South America -- stopping frequently for people, cars, and vendor carts, avoiding sleeping or barking stray dogs, and ignoring people gawking. In the midst of the chaos, I ran pretty slow as I took in the scenery of the vibrant city.

The next day, running along the beach, I also ran slow in the mid-afternoon heat. Running on the beach was pretty ideal running conditions - uninterrupted and hard-packed flat sand. The beach run was an hour long but was a slow plodding run. This slow pace is most likely a natural result of the troubles that I have had running in South America. Often, the annoyances of the city coupled with thoughts and effects of air pollution have stymied my motivation. The beach didn't have these problems as I breathed in the fresh sea air but the bottom line is, even after starting my points plan, my running does not seem to improved.

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about a series of fitness tests: core, upperbody strength, and running. I never took the running fitness test. I will take the test for the first time when I re-take the other two tests next week. So running data will have to wait for another cycle of the plan. But overall, I am not running too fast these days. I mostly blame my running travails on a cold turned bronchitis that I caught almost a month ago and still provides some phlegm. (This has been my least successful bout with fighting infiltrators in our traveling year). Also, the variable running conditions in South America, like the variable running conditions during the Cartagena city run day, haven't motivated too many high tempo runs.

Cartagena running was illustrative of both why running improvement is hard while traveling, as well as, how I am running these days. I am looking forward to stateside running of clean air, running buddies, designated running paths, and predictability about running conditions so that I can get in those runs that will improve my running as well as change my genes in beneficial ways.

 

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A glimpse at the other side of the drug war

The last several days have been wonderful, exploring national parks and picturesque colonial towns that were founded in the early 1500s. It really has been sublime, with the bonus of hot, tropical weather and powerful sun to get our tans in order.

Every once in awhile we get a reminder of the immense pain and fear that was all too common in Colombia in the not too distant past. The horrific violence triangle composed of the nacro-trafficers, the military and the paramilitary groups meant that no one was safe. These reminders come in the form of comments from people we meet and talk to, usually an allusion to safety. Despite those little tells, tourism has been going gang busters in the country - The number of foreign visitors to Colombia has increased from 600,000 in 2000 to nearly 1.5 million in 2010, with an average annual growth of 10.6%, nearly four times the world average and one of the highest rates in the region.

It is admittedly a little hard to be in Colombia and not have your mind return to drugs and the drug war, since that is the primary entry of the country into US media, with an arrest/seizure or a bombing that makes it way into the mainstream american news. Obviously, we have found that perceived reality to be far from the actual experience here on the ground (thankfully), but it still sits in my mind.

For example, on our second night in Colombia, we sat up in this big park in Cali, overlooking the skyline and the colonial neighborhood of Santo Antonio. There were hundreds and hundreds of people enjoying the pleasant climate, much street food on offer and latas (cans) of beers flowing. It was everything you want as both a resident and traveler, communal space being put to great and happy use. We loved it. But, I had a few thoughts on the few cars in the park and how this is also a perfect target for terrorism and violence. Thought of the Tom Clancy book/movie 'Clear and Present Danger' about the drug war and how one scene had a US bomb dropped on a car to make it look like one of the ubiquitous car bombing attacks facing Colombia back in the 90's. Was that going to happen here? Of course not, but Cali was one of the epicenters of the drug cartels and that kind of attacks had happend here not too many years ago.

I am not going to delve into failed drug war here, that is a topic for a much larger post. But, I did want to share another little window we had into the other side of the drug war, from the narco's side. You see, we stayed a few nights ago at this lovely hostel in the picturesque town of Santa Marta, called Drop Bear. The hostel uses the house of a former nacro trafficker, and has been going for about a year, run by an Aussie.

The building is a fortress, with 20 foot walls enclosing the open back area, which has a pretty pimp pool. This enclave was designed to be self sufficient as necessary, for example it had 6000 gallons of water on its roof in cisterns. The family that built and owned the property made its money via the marijauna trade, not cocaine. Incidentally, we learned that the weed trade begat the coke trade, getting the supply routes established before the coke boom and true stupid money that came later.

The family sure lived well, there was the pool, advanced sattelite communications, a full bar, multiple kitchens and just a ton of square footage. At one time, there might have been 4 or 5 families living in the house, with no drug production taking place onsite. They kept their family and business distinctly separate.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the house are all the secret passages, rooms and safes, called caletas. The rooms are built into the floor plan and would have been set up like panic rooms, with the ability to live in them for weeks and months at a time. They were fortified and armed. Another escape plan had a reinforced tunnel going from the master bedroom down the block, where it exited into another house owned by the narco. Next to that passageway, there was a one of several hidden 'safes' where the narcos kept literally millions of dollars and weapons. The one in the master bedroom would have kept about $2,000,000 dollars (in 70's nominal dollars mind you). The narcos always kept their money is USD, it was a better storer of value and more transferable than Colombian pesos.

It was fascinating to get this insider view of the life of these narcos. While it was certainly cushy and extravagant, it is impossible to disaggregate the violence and risk that they lived with as well. Hundreds of people in the trafficking business had been killed within a mile or two of this house, sometimes dumped in mass graves on empty plots of land. There is a reason the security conners were so paramount for the original owners of the house. Supposedly, their next door neighbor was also a nacro boss and came to a very violent end in his house.

It is interesting to consider the relative merits of the lifestyle, being powerful and rich but also vulnerable and a target. I imagine that everyone would have different opinions about whether the tradeoffs make the benefits worthwhile, depending on your personal risk tolerance. It doesn't seem worth it to me, but I wasn't living in poverty in rural, violent colombia in the 60's and 70's with no real prospects for legitimate economic ascension.

Who knows really what they would do faced with similar constraints?

 

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Summer is back with a vengeance: 'welcome to colombia'

About a week ago, we crossed the Equator on our journey from Ecuador up to Cali, Colombia. This was a big moment for us, as it meant we officially went from winter in the Southern Hemisphere to summer in the northern hemisphere. We were back into the season that most of our friends and family had been enjoying for months, which we had been hearing about online and feeling jealous.

Of course, it might have been a distinction without merit, since we had had a nice time on the Peruvian coast and in the jungles of Ecuador. The reality is that around the equator there should be no difference between weather, summer or winter. But, it was a moment that had meaning to us, and it turned out the Colombia has some HEAT.

After the lovely city of Cali, we flew to Santa Marta on the northeast coast, Colombia's oldest city. Founded roughly 480 years ago, the city is in quite an impressive setting. On one side is the expanse of the Caribbean Sea and on the other the Sierra Nevada mountains of South America rise to almost 6,000 meters.

We spent our first 3-4 days up on the coast staying at a surf camp about 40 kms from the city. At the camp, we slept a few feet from the crashing waves, and saw some of the most impressive sunrises and sunsets of the entire trip. Mu and I loved the idea that we had made our way from the most southern city in South America, Ushuaia, Argentina and Tierra del Feugo, to the northern tip of the massive continent, back on an important body of water and feeling proud of the ground covered and the beauty experienced.

One day we headed into Tayrona National Park, a gem of Colombia which encapsulates the topography of this blessed part of the world, beach and mountains in a glorious mashup. We headed out early, as i really wanted to get online for an important email. First, the satellite wifi was out at the camp, with no idea of when it might get turned back on. We took motos to the nearest town, where the Internet cafe did not electricity. 20 kms down the road, a the entrance to the park, there was one last chance for connectivity, but alas they too were not getting electricity at the moment. As the owner of the last casa de internet said - "welcome to Colombia!' (We have already heard this phrase multiple times in the 6 days that we have been in the country).

Mu and I entered the park, hiking along a road for 4 kms before we got to the first beach and a trail to a lookout. All along the road, I kept noticing massive colonies of ants, working more diligently than seems possible. They were literally wearing out paths in the forest, carrying pieces of flotsam and debris that were many times larger than any single ant. It was funny, arriving in a world renown park and being most impressed with the tiny and ubiquitous ant.

That was to change, as we began hiking along the coast from one beach to another. Each beach was more impressive than the last, with massive granite rocks coming right into the water and waves crashing. We eventually got to a bay called La Piscina, which was protected from the rough swells by an intermediate break line of rocks. The water was sublime and felt great after several hours of hiking. With the heat and sun, we sweated profusely and were certainly back in the heart of summer.

Next stop was a beach called Cabo, which was among the prettiest we have seen in this last year, and really any year. A point of rocky land jutted out between two white beaches, with palm trees everywhere and the rugged, green jungle mountains rising quickly off the coast. I could have stayed there for hours, but we had designs on one more stop in our hike.

The last destination was a ruin called Pueblito built by the indigenous tribes that pre-date Columbus, high up in the hills. The trail to the ruins alone was amazing, with massive 10 foot slabs of rock spanning deep gaps in the hills, and stonework that was over a thousand years old. After about a hour of hiking up the mountains, sometimes feeling like we were back hiking in a bikrham yoga studio with sweat dripping, we came upon the ruins. The tranquility of the place was dramatic, so still and private after the busyness of the beach below. You see, we had the place to ourselves, with terraces receding into the jungle and time for a well earned lunch.

We still had an hour and half hike back to the main road, but the day was already a huge success. It was back to the surf camp, a yummy dinner and a good sleep. While we may be hot and sweaty most of the time, it is wonderful to be back in Summer.

 

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