I made a check list of the things I wanted to do for a long, loooong time. Somewhere down the list was to zip through a line of cables (attached to trees) really fast. I checked that box on Day 3. What an experience!!! Seriously, I never thought I could do it! At the end of ziplining, we did the “tarzan swing”. Basically, it’s a giant rope swing (rope attached to a tree) over the edge of a canyon. IT WAS AWESOME!!! I lost my stomach for a bit, but, it was an amazing feeling at the end. Later in the evening we visited Tabacon hot springs (naturally heated by the volcano). A nice soak in warm water was quite relaxing.

Here’s a picture of me trying to pull myself after getting stuck in the middle of the cable while zip-lining. Picture taken by our fearless zip-line instructor.

We said good bye to Arenal and headed to Manuel Antonio (via San Ramon) next day. It started raining little after we left and continued to rain all the way. The visibility was very low by the time we got to Quepos. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful, scenic drive. We enjoyed breathtaking views of rolling hills, cloud forests and tropical of Costa Rica. Our hotel in Manuel Antonio is unlike any other. It is surrounded by jungle, it has the view of the Pacific, the service here is incredible, food in their restaurant is some of the best I had and the people here are down to earth. The place is called GAIA Hotel and Reserve (if you are in Manuel Antonio, be sure to check this place out).

We visited Parque National in Manuel Antonio on our day 5 (today). We figured that the rain wouldn’t stop and we would be stuck at the hotel. So we put on the raincoats and hats, filled in the bottle of water, packed our stuff and headed out to see some monkeys. We had an awesome guide who showed us the all the animals that we wouldn’t see otherwise. After hearing so much about Sloths in MA I wanted to see them hanging from the tree! And did I not see sloths today!!! They were all over, eating and moving around looking for some sun after a heavy rain fall. We finally tracked down a Howler monkey; they were hard to find. The Squirrel monkeys were the cutest. I had a pleasure of taking pictures with them as well After couple hours of animal watching we arrived Playa Manuel Antonio. We saw a few people surfing during the high tide. It was raining again, and it was beautiful.

I don’t know what we have in store for day 6. More good food, more of Manuel Antonio!

Here’s an image of lush, green roadside of rural Costa Rica.

PS. all the Costa Rican images on my blog are taken with iPhone (except for the zip-line phone). This is my attempt to document the trip with an iPhone.

We took an afternoon hiking trip to the Arenal volcano today. The park was completely empty. Our guide took us to a hike which I never thought I would experience. I was trying to stay calm, but pretty scared at the same time. We were literally at the foot of the volcano, right by the 1968 lava trail. It was raining a bit. We were off the walking trail, climbing the rocks, walking through the tall grass for the most part. Two things could happen during that time – the volcano could start erupting, the guide could leave us in the middle of no where to lose our way back to the car. Neither of them happened. We were back, safely.

After having “typical food” (that’s what the local calls their food) for lunch in La Fortuna, we headed back to our hotel. There was some sort of local fair going on in front of the Church in town. We got to experience Tico dance and music. Later in the evening we drove to “the new bridge” as an attempt to see the lava. There were quite a few tourists waiting for the same thing. After about 45 minutes of no action, we decided to call it a night. I’m sure the show started right after we left. I woke up around 3am to see a cloud of smoke surrounding the crater. There must have been an explosion on the other side of the volcano. Oh well, we have to give to another try tonight.

Arenal volcano.

These little greens grow over the lava rocks.

Pura Vida.

Rain in tropical garden.

On our second day at Cabo, we decided to rent a car and take a day trip to Todos Santos. It’s a small town about an hour north of Cabo San Lucas. I took random pictures from the car. My goal was to take pictures of anything that looks unusual and interesting.

There were Cactus every where. I thought it was beautiful!

I read on a magazine that “Art & Beer” is the place for beautiful art and good beer. We found it right by the highway.

And when you want to carry around your beer, use this…

Want boots? Got boots!

Right outside an art gallery we saw this and terminator came into my mind. This is an electric meter!

We also went for whale watching. We took a water taxi and went right into the pacific ocean.

And the whale was right there…not one, not two, but many…I caught the tail of one of them.

We visited the Medano beach. See the rows of fancy resorts in the background?

Of course, there was a cruise ship…

We stayed in between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose Del Cabo. It was a smaller resort, more like suites, but a beautiful place with private beach. LOVED it!

It was a pretty short trip, but quite relaxing. It started raining right before we left for the airport. I’m pretty sure we are going back there in the near future, may be sooner than we think…

The geyser was awesome! We waited twenty minutes for the water to blow off the ground.

Curtis and Audrey joined us for the weekend. Last year we were in San Diego for their wedding.

And there was Mr. Llama, he wasn’t very excited with the prospect of being photographed!

Here is a fainting goat, he just collapsed and after about 10 seconds he stood up.

The little guy needed some feeding after the harassment!

I have a busy weekend ahead. Summer concert in the Bay area, followed by a fabulous e-session in SF is on my plate. But I don’t want to leave you here with nothing! Enjoy a few highlights from my recent trip to up North.

Driving to Vancouver from Seattle. By the way, Seattle is one my favorite places. It’s in my list of places when I decide to move out of California.

Surrey is a small town in BC right off the US border.

It was our lucky day in Gas Town, Vancouver. They were having a Jazz festival.

Caught a sight of Mount Rainier from the aeroplane.

We ended up going to an orchard which was also a vineyard. The owner said “Grapes are free if you can find any.” So we walked through the grape vines in search for grapes; we ended up finding a lot!

My friend Sheila also joined us. She is expecting her baby in November. She is gorgeous and glowing at her seven-month pregnancy! I am very excited for her to start the new family soon with her new baby boy!

It was an extremely hot day! You’d think that the weather would be cool enough there since summer had officially ended a few days back. But it was upper 90′s at the Apple Hills. Despite the heat we had a lot of fun! It was a success this time; we managed to make it there during the apple season Not only we returned home with an apple pie, but also with freshly picked apples and grapes from Applehills.

Please note “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” )

Sedona, AZ 2006

This one gives me motion sickness
Maui, HI 2007

Highway 1, CA 2008

The first three were taken with Jason’s ancient 3mp camera that is no longer in operation. The last one is straight out of my Rebel XT(poor rebel worked really hard in the past few years …). I should also mention that I’m now a proud owner of a 5D. I tried it out last night, it is worth every penny! Can’t wait to use it this weekend!