Istanbul, not Constantinople

After a week in Lebanon, we flew to Istanbul for a few days before continuing on to Israel. As you may or may not know, it's not possible to travel directly between Lebanon and Israel, by land, sea, or air. So, we decided to stop over in Istanbul, and it was a blast. An added bonus was that Annie's sister, Lauren, was able to fly over from London and join us for the weekend. It was great to see Lauren, and we totally scored because she found a great hotel with a triple room for all 3 of us to stay in, instead of the somewhat questionable hostel that Annie and I had been planning to stay in originally. Everybody wins.

First, the hotel. We stayed in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul, just a couple blocks away from the Blue Mosque, at the Stone Hotel. It was a very nice little place, with a great free breakfast and a very friendly staff. We arrived in the afternoon, and Lauren had arranged for a shuttle to pick us up from the airport, so we felt very important when we were met at the airport by a man holding a large sign with Annie's name on it.  After the shuttle dropped us off at the hotel, we met up with Lauren and went for a walk around Sultanahmet to orient ourselves and plan our next few days of sightseeing.  A few hours of walking up and down the hills of Istanbul and we were pretty hungry, so we went to dinner at a terrific Indian restaurant called Dubb. It was in our guide book, and it was delightful.

The next day, we woke up fairly early (the loud call to prayer from the mosque across the street served as a nice alarm clock), and our first stop was the Topkapi Palace.  The Topkapi Palace is enormous, it was the home of the ruling sultans of the Ottoman Empire from about 1450 to 1850. Due to various natural disasters, it had to be rebuilt/expanded from time to time, but the result is incredible. It's so big that you really can't see it all in one day, but we tried our best. One highlight was the treasury rooms, which contained some incredible jewelry, weapons, pottery, and other treasures that had either been created by the Ottomans or plundered as spoils of war. Another was the harem, which it turns out is not just where the concubines lived, but it was also the whole royal residence, everyone in the royal family lived there.  The harem was huge, beautifully decorated with great tile work and arched ceilings. My favorite rooms were the twin prince rooms, which is where crown princes lived before they were sent off to learn how to rule in the outer provinces.  The palace was also built right on the edge of the river, so there were amazing views across the water to the other parts of Istanbul. It actually reminded me quite a bit of the views of the north bay from san francisco, but maybe that was just because we've been traveling for too long and miss home.

Some of the tile-work inside the Palace

Does this not look like the Bay Bridge?

This is where the concubines lived.

After many hours in the morning exploring the palace and the grounds, we moved on to the Hagia Sophia, which is probably the most interesting church/mosque I have ever been inside of.  Brief history of the Hagia Sophia: For about 1000 years, starting around 350AD, it was a Byzantine Christian cathedral, built by Emperor Constantine. It was damaged and rebuilt a few times, and the current incarnation was completed around 535AD. When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, the cathedral was converted to a mosque.  All the mosaics were plastered over, symbols were taken down, minarets were added, etc, but basically it was still a church with a mosque makeover.  It remained a mosque until 1935, when it was secularized and turned into a museum. At that time, they started restoring the original mosaics and other artwork that had been tiled or plastered over. The result is incredible - it is now a huge half church-half mosque, with images of the Virgin Mary next to arabic humongous Arabic scripts.  The mosaics they have already uncovered are incredibly beautiful and surprisingly well preserved.

After being wowed by the Hagia Sophia, we walked across the square to the Blue Mosque.  It's pretty convenient that all these amazing places to explore in Istanbul were built right next to each other. The blue mosque was equally impressive, also massive, and still in use as a functioning mosque. We were there on a friday, which is the most important day of prayer, mandatory for men (though optional for women), and we had to wait outside for a few minutes with the tourist masses because the mosque is closed to visitors during the 5 times a day when Muslims are called to prayer. The name comes from the tile-work inside, which has a blue tint. It wasn't "as blue" as I expected, though of course it was incredibly beautiful. One fact about mosques that I didn't know before this trip is that there are no images of people or icons allowed to decorate the inside of a mosque, so all decoration inside mosques is made up of writing or geometric patterns. The result is a very different than the inside of a cathedral.

After a long day of exploring, we went back to our hotel to relax and plan our evening. The guys who worked at our hotel were very friendly, and one of them, whose english was not perfect but he made up for it with enthusiasm and hand gestures, told us about a dance club (Babylon) in Beyoglu where his brother was the bouncer and said we should go there that evening. Beyoglu is the area of Istanbul where locals hang out, and the highlight is this long, pedestrianized street with tons of stores, restaurants, bars, and of course, night clubs. We made it to the area, but we couldn't find the club and ended up just having a nice dinner and walking around, because the people-watching there was first-rate. When we came back to our hotel around midnight, the guys at the desk were clearly disappointed in us for arriving back so soon. We (trying not to disappoint them by admitting that we just didn't feel like going) told them we weren't able to find the club, and one of them, our new friend Selim, aka Russell Crowe, told us he would take us out the following night to make sure we didn't get lost.

The next day, we took a walk away from Sultanahmet toward the river and went to the Grand Bazaar, which is like a farmer's market or a craft market on steroids. There are something like 7000 shops in the whole bazaar, selling absolutely everything you could want to buy. Somehow, the only thing we managed to come away with was a refrigerator magnet, but it wasn't for lack of trying by the shop owners. After the bazaar we found our way to the Spice Market, which was also quite a scene, but not nearly as crazy as the Grand Bazaar. The spice market is down close to the waterfront, so from there we decided to take a boat cruise tour down the length of the Bosphorous, which provided great views of the modern houses, old palaces, many mosques, and beautiful scenery on the very picturesque river. The only downside was, like ferries in the san francisco bay, it was cold.

After our boat tour we decided to explore the Beyoglu side of Istanbul on foot, after eating some delicious donut-like things from a street vendor. We made it back to the pedestrian street on top of the hill, and had some very interesting sandwiches for lunch (for those of you who are familiar with a chicken finger sub, they were like those, but WITH french fries INSIDE the sandwich - delicious). While we ate, we watched and listened to the protest that was taking place outside. We got a little lost trying to find our way back to our hotel, but we eventually made it, with much help from the locals. We rested a bit and got ready for our last night in Istanbul, and when we were down in the lobby getting ready to leave, we were very surprised to find that our friend Selim, the night manager, really did want to take us out and show us the real Istanbul nightlife. So we went with him to Barabar, a great bar/club with live music, and not just any music, but "real Turkish music". There were 2 bands that played, one was apparently more traditional turkish music, and the other one was what I would call turkish rock and roll. Even better than the music though, was the dancing. Both bands seemed to have their own sets of groupies, and even though there was not a lot of legroom in that club, people seemed to find plenty of room to dance. It was awesome. When the first band finished their set, Selim took us to this incredible little hamburger stand in Taksim square, and we had delicious shwarma chicken sandwiches. It might have been my favorite meal in turkey, it was so good.  We went back for the second band, which was very cool because one of the band members is apparently famous in the country for playing a Turkish instrument that was sort of a cross between a harp and a guitar. Selim informed us that it was his favorite instrument in all of Turkish music, and it did not disappoint. The guy who was playing said instrument (I can't remember what it's called unfortunately) belted out some seriously face-melting solos. It was a really fun night, and by the time we made it back to the hotel around 2am, the guys at the desk were much more impressed with our ability to have fun, as we were the last guests to return back to the hotel that night (yay!).

The next day, we unfortunately had to make our way to the airport, but we went for a walk in the morning along the river, and had our last Turkish food (and ice cream), before we had to depart. Israel for Annie and I, and London for Lauren.

A couple more photos:

And then there was Lebanon

I've been curious to visit Lebanon for a long time, and I am so incredibly happy that we were able to go as part of this trip. It helped me understand my where my family's love of food and our loud talking (not to mention my dad's maniacal driving) originated. It also debunked more than a few myths and allowed me to see how things are here, rather than how they are portrayed in the US. We stayed in the very posh Saifi Village, near Downtown and Gemayze and Minot Streets (home to great restaurants and bars), Martyr's Square and the waterfront - we were lucky to be in such a nice place, and are grateful to Kristin and her friend E.B. for having us (not to mention, we got to hang out with an adorable, if very naughty, Bermese Mountain puppy, Smuggler).

From the beginning:

I got really, really sick. Balen had it bad in Central America, and I picked up something awful in Paris and it persisted for about 3 days into Lebanon - shooting pains and cramping every 30 seconds, for days. It was horrible.

One positive outcome of getting sick was that it led to my first encounter with the legendary Lebanese hospitality. On our way to the pharmacy, I found myself hunched over, leaning on a side of the building, breathing slowly and waiting for the pain to subside. Balen and I were both used to this routine. I looked up as my arms were grasped by 2 men frantically speaking Arabic who seemed to come out of nowhere and sat me down on a stool they had brought out of their store around the corner. They thrust a big bottle of water into my hands and insisted I drink it, thinking I had heat exhaustion. Whatever the misunderstanding about the cause of my problems, they were so kind, and I thanked them profusely every time I ran into them for the rest of the week. I tried to give them their water bottle back and they refused it.

After another day of agony (the medicine from the pharmacy didn't help), Balen and I made our longest trip so far in Lebanon - from the apartment to AUB Hospital, a wonderful place that ran very efficiently (the only hospital I'd visited outside the US had been in the Marshall Islands - an unbelievably frustrating experience every time) and where I finally got some medicine to make me feel better. It took 2 trips, blood tests, pee tests, and a parisite panel, but I am generally healthy (no bugs!) and they gave me medicine to make the cramping stop, which meant I was now able to walk around, and equally importantly... EAT!
Beirut is a city of contradictions - "the Paris of the Middle East" to some, a war-zone, a city full of mosques and churches where women walk around in designer dresses and stilettos. I loved seeing some of the many sides of Beirut and Lebanon, including:

Amazing food. We ate extremely well in Beirut, thanks to many great recommendations from Kristin, our wonderful host (my friend and past boss from the Marshall Islands, who is now teaching in Beirut). One of our favorite places was a great little place called Le Chef, a Beirut institution frequented by travelers and locals alike. It looks like a cafeteria, the patron/waiter yells at you "Welcome!" before you walk in, and keeps about 10 teenage boys running food around constantly, yelling your order into the kitchen as soon as you ask him for anything. The food comes out incredibly fast, and it's amazing. As you leave, and before you say thank you, he says, "Welcome, welcome," or, "WELCOME to Lebanon!"

The Corniche - similar to the Embarcadero in SF, though more fun, it's a place to walk along the water and be seen. We started at Las Raoushes (also known as Pigeon Rocks, strangely, as there are no pigeons) and made our way toward downtown as the sun set. There were families out smoking hookah, young men ogling women, peddlers selling bread in the shape of purses, a McDonalds, a ferris-wheel, and 4-star hotels.

Hariri Mosque (officially Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque) - right around the corner from where we stayed with Kristin, the Hariri Mosque has been likened to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul (which we were to see shortly!) because of its incredible vibrant color (Balen thought it looked more like the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas, and liked it immediately for that reason). It was built by the family of Rafic Hariri, Lebanon's past Prime Minister, who was assasinated in 2005. I'm not sure that I agree with the Blue Mosque comparison, but it's certainly an interesting place. We also visited the memorial next door, and I don't think I've ever seen so many flowers. When Balen and I visited, I was asked to cover completely (apparently my modest dress and hair covering was not enough) buttoning a thick black dress all the way from neck to floor, and covering my hair with their black scarf. Photos to follow. There is also a very old and beautiful Armenian Orthodox church right across the street from the Mosque - very typical of Beirut.

There are no addresses in Beirut, or if there are, people don't use them. Street names are also futile, as they have Arabic, French, and English names, and often more than one of each. Getting around, however, was surprisingly easy when we asked nicely and used landmarks. People were generally great English speakers, and if they weren't, they were always kind enough to pull someone on the street aside to translate. We learned the Arabic words for many foods, hello, yes, no, and most importantly, thank you (shukren!). We had more than a few funny looks when people would try to speak to us in Arabic and receive our blank stares. Especially so when they knew my last name (like, in the hospital).



It was eye-opening to encounter the many obvious marks and scars of war. Walking around the city, you run into many examples of this - military men on every corner, security guards everywhere, the remains of burned buildings and bullet holes. Much of the evidence is right in the middle of town, near the Green Line that divided the city during the civil war, among the fancy hotels and financial centers, where people drive sleek foreign cars and wear shiny shoes and suits. The Holiday Inn is a perfect example - it was just being finished when the 2006 war broke out, and became a sniper hang out. This is what remains. It is weird to see such recent evidence of conflict in juxtaposition with normal daily life in such a vibrant and diverse place - high heels and headscarves, fancy cars and decrepit buildings, French, Arabic, English, and more languages, mosques and churches on the same block... But despite the development (there is a ton of construction, cranes and scaffolding everywhere) and the feeling of security, the reminders are everywhere.

As in Central America, we took buses to get around in Lebanon, and unsurprisingly, these were times of strife (in finding where to actually catch said buses) and of great cultural immersion. People drive like absolute maniacs in Beirut, including bus drivers. At one point, ours drove through a parking lot to get in front of the car in front of us. The other guy then pulled the same move in the next parking lot. I noticed that our bus driver was laughing through the experience. The bus also, frighteningly, picked people up and dropped them off on the side of the freeway. People seemed to think it was nothing out of the ordinary.

As nerds, Balen and I had a lot of fun exploring the ruins in Lebanon - in the National Museum in Beirut and in Byblos (Jbail in Arabic). The museum gave a great history of the country, from the Stone Age to the Phoenicians to the Romans. Byblos is a town with ruins where you can see remains from the Stone Age, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Crusades, and the Ottomans, all in one place. It has two claims to fame, first as the birthplace of the modern alphabet and second that it is the oldest continually-inhabited city in the world. The newer part of town also has a great souq, or market. There, we found a (weird, but cool) shop/museum displaying and selling fossils of marine life from a hundred million years ago that had been found in limestone cliffs 1000 meters above sea level, left over from when this part of the world was underwater, dug up at a local archeological site. Balen bought a little fish :) We also visited the famous (or infamous, depending) beach club scene - very fancy. It was a lot for one day!
We took a day-tour from Beirut to Baalbek, the Cedars, and the Qadisha Valley. It was a great trip and a good way to see a lot of the country in a relatively short time. As with other tours we've taken, we met some interesting characters - my favorite being a pushy photographer from New York who grilled Balen about how to get her photos to come up in google searches, then went on a diatribe about copyright issues in photography and the many people she's had to sue, only after telling us in a very humble voice, "My work is very well-known!"
Baalbek is a set of extremely well-preserved Roman ruins, set in Hezbollah territory (the Bekaa Valley) - lots of yellow and green flags flying alongside the Cedar national flag. We did not mention there (or anywhere in Lebanon) our future trip to Israel. On the way, we passed a Bedoin tent with a Mercedes parked out front.
We drove through the valley and up over some huge mountains to get to The Cedars, a sadly depleted ancient Cedar forest that the Phoenicians used to build their boats and empire (Cedars are a symbol of Lebanon). It's also a ski resort. I thought it was sad - it's literally a patch of less that 100 trees on an otherwise barren mountainside. On the other hand, the Lebanese take an incredible amount of pride in their cedars, and we were able to see the oldest one in the country. And the drive was incredible.
The Qadisha Valley one of the most beautiful and serene places I have ever seen. It's a steep valley with greenery everywhere, terraced in places for olive cultivation and other agriculture, with villages cut into the mountainsides. We visited a monastery containing the oldest printing press in the Middle East (from Germany). But mostly it was about the views.

We had a fantastic time visiting Lebanon. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to visit and to see for myself what it's like - one thing that I want to point out is how safe we felt. The Lebanese take great pride in hosting guests, and that goes for tourists, too. While we saw lots of guns, we also felt at ease walking the city. My one regret is not being able to locate my family on this trip. Supposedly, I have a great-uncle, somewhere. "Where is your family?" is the first question people asked when they learned my Lebanese heritage, and they couldn't believe it when I said that I don't know. Finding the Dahers and the Aloufs is now on my list for next time.

*Photos will follow - like an idiot I managed to delete them from my camera, though they are backed up, thank goodness! I have officially been demoted from photo-uploading responsibilities.

Yes We're Alive

We have not written in a while.


We're sorry.


There are lots of reasons - running around like crazy people trying to see a few too many sights, getting sick, deleting all the photos on my camera (they're backed up, thank goodness) and Balen's camera breaking, and general laze. However, we're back in business now and I'm going to do my best to catch up at least on some of the things we've done in the past couple weeks. 


Way back on May 9, we traveled from San Jose to Paris. We left at 4am and landed in Paris at 4pm the next day, about 30 hours in travel time. Along the way we managed to lose an ATM card (Balen's) and a jacket (mine, though recovered after 2+ hours searching in the Houston airport - a miracle!). Due to more volcano eruptions, our flight in Houston was delayed, which meant more time for basketball and golf watching in the airport, and cell phone time with family... all good stuff. 

Arriving in Paris, I was especially grateful for finding my jacket because it was cold and rainy. We spent our time there wearing every layer of clothing in our bags, but despite the rainy weather, we had a lot of fun, and saw many of the sights, including:

Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Pont NeufSacré Coeur and Montmartre
Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore
Eiffel Tower - we went at night, and it was surprisingly clear
Pantheon and La Sorbonne
The Louvre
Musee d'Orsay
Tuileries
Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe
Markets - Mouffetard being my favorite (wonderful croissant goodness), followed by Place Monge

We stayed in the Latin Quarter and ate most of our meals on the Rue du Mouffetard - a wonderful place with lots of yummy food. We also indulged in more than a few crepes :) We also did lots of walking, which I have to say was a feat - we didn't have a lot of warm clothes and it was COLD.


We particularly enjoyed the Louvre, especially the sections of artifacts from Antiquity. I loved learning more about the ancient civilizations - their history, architecture, clothing, utensils, and the way they influenced each other. These collections at the Louvre are really impressive (and vast, like everything else) and I'd recommend them. It was also fun to see the artifacts from Lebanon (the Phoenicians!) knowing that we'd be there soon.


The other highlights were the cathedrals - Notre Dame and especially Sainte Chapelle. Balen and I have both recently read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, a historical fiction novel about the Middle Ages and cathedral building, so seeing some of the most famous examples was timely. The windows in Sainte Chapelle were incredible, even without a lot of sunlight.


I wish I could include photos, but alas, due to various camera difficulties, they'll have to come later. More to follow on Lebanon, Turkey, and Israel. Stay tuned... 

Goodbye Central America - San Jose and Rafting

We said goodbye to Central America from San Jose, which was easily our favorite capital city so far on the trip - felt safe, relatively clean, etc. We decided to spend our last day in Costa Rica rafting on the nearby Rio Pacuare, and it was wonderful! Abel, our guide, was great, translating directions into Spanish and English (our boat consisted of 2 Ticos, or Costa Ricans, one Swiss guy, a Salvadorian, and Balen and me... we were multicultural. We saw beautiful waterfalls and birds, indigenous people living beside the river - not to mention the rapids which provided plenty of entertainment! Class IIIs and IVs, we had a great time. I wish I had photos, but we weren't able to take the camera on board due to water. I would certainly recommend the Pacuare to anyone going to Costa Rica. It was beautiful, and thrilling!

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Central America shortly thereafter. Below is a photo of Balen and our last licuados - fresh fruit smoothies - of Central America.

Very very sad.

Manuel Antonio, best beach ever

Sorry sorry sorry this post is so late - combination bad internet/sick/busy. We were in Manuel Antonio during the first week of May :)

Balen had told me that Manuel Antonio was amazing, but I didn't totally understand until I got there. We arrived in Quepos after 2 long bus rides and, after a fair amount of searching, found ourselves in a cabin on the beach, just before the sunset. We passed howler and capuchin monkeys on our way out to the water, and went for a long walk. I was amazed at the combination of the beauty of the beach (a round cove surrounded by cliffs with little islands sprinkled around in the water) and how few people there were. Perhaps Manuel Antonio is blessed by not being a great surfing destination? It was decidedly sleepy the whole time we were there.

Our cabin turned out to be more buggy than it originally seemed, so after one night we moved down the road to Hotel Coco Beach, which is actually the same place Balen stayed on his first trip to M.A. This place had a lot going for it - air conditioning and a TV among many other assets. We watched an embarrassing amount of MTV and Cinemax movies (and Ally McBeal! woo), but mostly after the sun went down :) We felt bad about leaving the first place, especially because, the owner, Viviana, was so incredibly warm and friendly...so much so that when we saw her in town she invited us to come back over to her place just so she could help us plan activities.

I'm going to let the photos do most of the talking, but to outline the highlights, there was boogie boarding, coconut drinking, hanging out under an umbrella with book, walking on beach, and hanging out with monkeys. We also spent an evening watching a baseball game over a couple of beers, after which we found that the bar had a CASINO. Not only did they have a casino, but they had Blackjack and Caribbean Stud (Balen was in Heaven). We had some good luck, then some bad luck, and ended on a couple great hands to end the night only $6 down - so we were happy :) We also ate ice cream bars almost every day. I was as excited about this as Balen was about the Caribbean Stud.

Visiting Manuel Antonio National Park was a definite highlight of our whole trip - it was gorgeous, there were animals to look at all over the place - monkeys, sloths (so incredibly COOL and slow and weird), iguanas, quys, bright pink crabs, birds, lizards, and more. The beaches in the park were amazing, the best part being the monkey watching. We got to see about 15 Capuchin monkeys pestering people who had brought food - chips seemed to be a favorite. The best treat was seeing a female with a baby on her back. So much better than at the zoo!

I was sad to leave, but already looking forward to going back. There is a ton of development happening right now (signs for new resorts yet to be built are everywhere) along the road between Quepos and Manuel Antonio, so it will be interesting to see if it's as lazy and relaxing (and gorgeous!) as it was this time around.

Hiking in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Today we went for a hike in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. It is one of Costa Rica`s many protected natural parks, and it is very large. It is so large that they only open 4% of it up to the public. The guided hikes and admission to that 4% is what funds the other 96% and allows them to keep it closed to the public so they can do research and other biological and naturey things. It is called a cloud forest because the wind pushes the humid air inland from the coast, and as it gets pushed up the mountains, the air cools/slows down and starts to condensate into clouds, and then it rains on the forest. The gives the impression that it is pretty much always raining in the forest, even though it isn't, technically.

We chose to get up early to catch the first bus to the cloud forest, because the weather in Monteverde is sunny and warm in the morning, and then in the afternoon it usually starts to rain. Unforunately, the first bus was at 615am. We were at the bus stop by 610am, but the bus was not there. At 620am, a bus pulled up and we were hopeful, but it turned out that it was a bus to San Jose, not the bus to the cloud forest. We went back to our hostel to ask them if we had the time right, and the guy at the desk informed us that yes, the first bus was at 615am, and in fact sometimes it leaves early. THAT would have been great information to know, yesterday. Anyway, it worked out ok, because another group had also missed the bus, and so we just got a taxi to take all of us to the park, and it only ended up costing about 50 cents more than the bus.

We got there in plenty of time for the first guided tours, which started at 730am, so the missed bus turned out not to matter after all. We were debating whether or not to actually spend the money for the guide or just hike around by ourselves, but in the end we decided to get the guide, and it was absolutely worth it. Our guide, Federico, was a long haired, costa rica native who loved nature, especially millipedes for some reason. He was great, and brought with him a big telescope on a tripod so that we could see all the animals no matter how far away they were. He could also make the sounds to call all the animals, and it was amazing to watch him walk down the trail, call a quetzal, and then listen for the return call, whip out his binoculars, and then find the bird and set up the telescope in about 10 seconds. We were watching a true master at work. And it worked to our benefit, because we got to see quetzals (very rare, I didnt see any when I visited costa rica 5 years ago, but we saw a bunch today), toucans, howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, lots of birds I can't remember the names of, many huge insects we had never seen before, and tons of fluorescent jungle crabs.

After the guided tour, we went for a hike up to the continental divide, which, as you all know from science class, marks the dividing line where water on one side flows to the Pacific Ocean and water on the other side flows to the Caribbean. There is also a lookout at the peak where on a clear day you can see both the Pacific and the Caribbean from each side of the lookout station. Unfortunately, we were not there on a clear day, and the "cloud forest" phenomenon described above was in full effect. We were a little bummed after hiking all that way...but, after 10 minutes or so, the winds changed or the sun burned through the clouds or...something, and it cleared up enough for us to see the Pacific! The Caribbean was still hidden behind the clouds - but it was fine, we were so happy to be able to see anything that it didn't matter that we couldn't see "everything".

Unfortunately this computer is on a really slow connection so I can't upload all the photos, but eventually you will all be able to see the Pacific Ocean too, you just have to wait, like us.

Canopy Tour in Monteverde Cloud Forest

We have spent the past few days in Santa Elena, a little town in the central highlands of Costa Rica, known for its 2 large natural park/nature reserves and the Monteverde Cloud Forest. It´s a very pretty place, but it rains a lot. I was here five years ago, and the main changes I have noticed are that now, the main road in town is paved, and the food is a little more expensive. But it´s basically the same small, sleepy town that people come to as a jumping off point for exploring the cloud forest and nature preserves, and of course, ziplining.
 
Yesterday, we got up at 7am to do a canopy tour. A canopy tour, for those of you who have never done one, is similar to a guided hike in the forest, except there are ziplines every few hundred meters, and they are awesome. They ranged in length from about 50 meters to the ultimate, 1km of cable. There were 14 cables in all, plus a tarzan swing and a little rappelling station where the guides make you think you are falling but catch you before the end. On the longest cable, the 1km, we had the option of going “superman“, which is where, instead of the normal sitting down position, they reverse your harness and you get to go face first, superman style. If you ever find yourself in Santa Elena and you want to go ziplining, I highly recommend Monteverde Extremo, and don´t forget to Superman that yo. I will let the pictures speak for themselves: