Costa Rica: The Catamaran

We took part in quite a few excursions during our trip, using the concierge services at Escape Villas to book them all.  The prices were similar to what we would have paid on our own, and by using the concierge, we were able to make decisions based off of our group.  For example, we brought Gretchen to the catamaran tour with the knowledge that small children had taken the tour before.  Luckily we did, because she loved the boat!

We started the vacation off with the catamaran tour the day after we arrived.  This tour was booked for us through the Planet Dolphin company, and I would highly recommend using them in the future.  Nice staff, safe, clean boat and acceptable bathrooms.

 Gretchen's first boat ride was a blast, she loved it (even though mama wouldn't let her get into the ocean) and her lack of water time was fulfilled by a never ending supply of watermelon.  

We knew that we would be going snorkeling, which was fun, but the water is so salty that it is difficult to see through - and stings your eyes.  What we didn't realize, was that the tour included a full dinner and fruity drinks from the on-deck bar, this was great news for the group!  Gretchen enjoyed the watermelon, fruit skewers, and a delicious kabob, that turned out to be fish even though some were tricked into thinking it was chicken.

Gretchen is ready for the big blue sea - someday...

Our boat "The Tomcat" was also equipped with a super-steep slide, taking you from the 2nd story of the boat right into the ocean - a slide named the "Tsunami".  I did not take the Tsunami... but Jon did, as did most of our group.

Robbie opted for a different way into the water.  Jumping from the 2nd story:

The front of the boat was another highlight for Gretchen.  We saw dolphins, including watching a few of them swim with the boat for a solid 10 minutes, and there were nets to sit on and admire the water below.  She spend lots of time pointing out the agua to everyone.

It was a great way to start the vacation, and despite the fact that Christmas week is one of the most popular vacation weeks in Costa Rica, this catamaran was far from capacity.

We also got to see a beautiful sunset on board.  The sun went down really early, around 6:15pm, so it was just the beginning of the rest of the night.  The colors and the water were incredible, and set the scene for the rest of our vacation. Not too bad for a first boat ride for our little girl!

Costa Rica: Christmas in Paradise

The amazing view from our living room

At some point during the year, Jon and I proposed a group vacation to a central spot for Christmas - virtually everyone was on board - and a trip to Costa Rica was born!  We chose a house in Manuel Antonio, an area widely regarded as the most beautiful town to visit, and booked through a company called Escape Villas.  This company was great in responding to all of our pre-vacation questions and offered a concierge service that booked all of our excursions - something that would have been complicated to do from afar.

Manuel Antonio is most certainly beautiful, what we didn't totally realize is how incredibly FAR it is from just about everything.  Once we all arrived to the San Juan airport, due to construction, traffic and time of day, we still had a solid 4 hour drive to get to the house.  We probably could have flown into Quepos, a small city much closer to Manuel Antonio, but these flights are (no doubt) expensive and on really small airplanes - something that we didn't even want to attempt.  All in all, it wasn't a bad drive, it was just really, really long after a really, really long night of travel for everyone.

The house we booked had plenty of space, a great pool, enough bedrooms that no one was forced to share, and had an amazing view of the ocean.  We were in the jungle (if there are beachfront homes in Manuel Antonio I didn't see them) and had a front row view to the great wildlife that goes with it.

Like these little guys:

Who started out as a novelty act, we baited them with bananas and I laughed at Jon who didn't want us to encourage the animals.  Then the got closer and closer, and started entering the living room:

Going down...

And the food-giving shenanigans were over. These Capuchin (or White-Faced) monkeys are extremely common in Costa Rica, and are especially bold in the areas where dopey tourists leave out bananas, food and other items for them to claim.  We were also told of their tendencies to steal cell phones, sunglasses and sunscreen bottles, so we tried to keep everything locked up.  Apparently these monkeys can also eat the babies of other monkey species, so our thoughts of them came full circle throughout the week; excited to see them, baiting to get them closer, hiding things from their view, concern that they are too close, ending with mild fear that they would try to eat Gretchen.  Nothing happened, except some difficult clean-up spots when they left us presents on the floor, but it was an emotional roller-coaster week with these monos.  No one liked the monkeys more than Gretchen. At one point she spotted a monkey inside the house on the roof rafters, pointed and said "Mono!" while we all laughed and told her that yes, there are monos in the trees...little did we know that he was inside the house, and the only one who noticed was the littlest person there.

Then there is this little monkey:

Gretchen was showered with nothing but gifts and attention all week, and she was LOVING it!  She enjoyed breakfasts with Gran:

Lunches with Papa: aka Papa Mas, which he was coined by Gretchen during the trip.  We were trying to figure out how to differentiate between Poppa and Papa (Gretchen's two grandpas), when low and behold Papa Mas was born. Leave it to our clever girl, she straightened us all out.

She was in video-watching heaven with... well, with everyone:

Playing Minnie with Poppa

Watching Sapo Pepe with Aunt Kyra

And she enjoyed lots of pool time with the entire family:

View of the pool from the family room

Gretchen wasn't the only one who was spoiled during the week.  We hired a chef for the week that prepared one meal each day, and we were lucky enough to be given Glenda, the nicest and most talented chef I have ever met in person.  She brought her daughters Kristal and Tiffani throughout the week to help her, and the entire family was a joy to be around.  She did amazing things with food, unripened bananas, plantains, chicken, shrimp, beans, pork, you name it - she can make it.  We all owe a big chunk of our happiness during the week to this fantastic lady and her magic food hands.

I will write more about the tours, excursions and other fun, adventurous things that we did over the trip, but the underlying factor to the entire vacation is that Jon and I are so lucky to have such adaptable families that are willing and able to spend holidays together, which means that we get to spend it with them both.  A treat that not many people get to enjoy, and we are so grateful to them.

El Burladero

Two of our favorite restaurants, Fervor and Sottovoce, are owned by the same company.  One of Jon's coworkers told him about a new concept to the same company, El Burladero, and we went to try it out 2 days later.

El Burladero (Uriburu 1488, between Peña & French, 4806-9247) is the newest theme for this restaurant group, and though it just opened in August of this year, it has received overwhelmingly great reviews in every outlet I have found.

We just barely got a reservation for the night we wanted to come in, the only time slot they had available was 10:30pm, and it was completely packed when we arrived AND when we left.

The restaurant is simply decorated, lots of framed pictures and Spanish artifacts lining the walls.  There are large chalkboards advertising signature dishes and a few seats at the bar for folks - like us - who need to wait until their table is ready.  As as perk of waiting, they offer you the choice between a glass of champagne or a small draft beer - the beer is nothing special but it is rare to find anything on draft in the city.

Once we were at a table, we were offered the same great selection of bread they have at Sottovoce and Fervor, and they have an appetizer list filled with tapas and seafood.

Each main course dish is large enough to share, though we decided to go against the waiter's suggestion and order three dishes for our group of 4 people.  As a result, we had enough food for 8 people, and the waiter gave us an "I told you so" look that was virtually caught on film.  This was him dishing out our paella, the smaller portion which was more than sufficient for 4 people.  There are a few different types of paella to choose from, we chose the seafood option, though there are at least 3 other varieties.

Many of the dishes can be ordered a la carte, you can choose the protein (fish, chicken, beef, seafood...) the side and the way you want it to be prepared.  We chose the fish of the day, served with grilled vegetables "Spanish style"and a chicken dish served with rice and a saffron sauce.

 All of the entrees were tasty, fresh and quite different from anywhere else we've eaten in the city.  The chicken dish was a little low on meat, but considering the amount of extra food we had, I'm not complaining.  This is a great addition to our eating out repertoire, we are happy campers!

Cordoba, Dove Capital of the World

It has been recommended to us to visit Cordoba, a city in the middle of northern Argentina, because it's a beautiful place that has mountains, a bit of city life and is a nice reprieve from Buenos Aires.  We have considered going for some time, but only made the plunge when our travel buddies expressed an interest to go dove hunting.  We figured, the guys can go hunting for birds, the girls can hang out at the pool and enjoy some fresh air, what more is there to want in a weekend?  

So, we visited Sierra Brava this past weekend for a guys weekend of hunting, and a girls weekend of hanging out.  Sierra Brava is approximately 1 hour 15 minutes north of the airport in Cordoba, so if you are looking for a place to stay while visiting Cordoba, this is probably not the right place for you.  If you are interested in hunting birds, enjoying great food and relaxing for a weekend, Sierra Brava is just the spot.  

The website is deceiving, the lodge appears to be where a bunch of middle aged men go to hang out away from their families.  Perhaps this is some of their cliental, but we felt quite at home at the lodge with our almost 2-year old girls, and two wives who have no interest in hunting.  When we arrived to the lodge and they immediately offered us the two empty rooms for the girls to sleep in, we knew we were in for a nice weekend.  Literally, NO other location we've visited has offered to let us put our cribs in an unrented room they have - this was a sheer bonus - they sleep so much better in a room of their own!  

We were greeted at the entrance of the lodge with a line up of staff that made us feel like we were 20th century English royalty, and the service was impeccable from that moment on.  They noticed we were going to the pool - there were towels, robes, slippers and a cooler of drinks set out for us within minutes, the guys went out hunting in the heat - they had cold cloths to wash up with and the opportunity to schedule a post-hunt massage, the girls were bored with the pool - there were 1 month old kittens, cows, dogs and geese to keep them busy.  It was a wonderland of nature and the staff made sure that no one was uncared for.

We spent lots of girl time at the pool, even if it was a little chilly for the mamas, Talia and Gretchen had no issue with the temperature.

Talia is fearless in the water.  This little one is not even 2 years old and she can jump on in, then swim to the stairs on her own.  She is a great match for Gretchen, who is a little more apprehensive - but loves to throw items in the pool for Talia to retrieve.

Little Fish!

Gretchen was much more interested in watering the plants.  Then watering the lawn chairs.  Then watering all of the shoes, feet, hands and legs of all of the adults.  She was having a blast with that little watering can!

There's something else I should put water on...

For these city-dwelling little girls, being up close and personal with nature is a novelty.  Gretchen loves "meow, meows" when they are in pictures or on Skype...she was a little more nervous about them in person.  Even if they were teeny tiny.

She did, however, include the Meow, Meows in her nightly "good night" ritual.  "Night, night Daddy, Night, night Mommy, Night, night Meow Meows..." They won a special place in her heart. 

It was a great place for these little ones to run around and play in the grass.  A bit different from last year's December trip when they wanted nothing to do with grass...

December 2012

December 2011

For those interested in Sierra Brava's original intent, the dove hunting is the best in the world.  The world record holder for doves hunted in a day (12,115) set this record while staying at this lodge.  This was Jon's first time hunting anything and he shot just short of 250 birds.  In comparison, Jeff said that his last time dove hunting he was out for multiple hours, took 4 shots and hit zero birds - this time Jeff hit over 600.  I'm not a huge hunting-activist or anything, but seeing how over populated the birds are in this region (not unlike the deer population in Virginia), I have no problem with the activity.

 The one full day that we were at Sierra Brava, Saturday, the guys hunted in the morning and then a bus brought us out to meet them for lunch in the field.  The chef, Nacho, can do some amazing things with a grill and the lunch was outstanding.

 Something tells me that this is not the kind of comfort that hunters always enjoy.  They even had a bathroom set up for us:

And I've never heard my family members mentioning their little ones watching Minnie videos on the iPad while eating lunch....

 It was a great weekend, with lots of time spent together and a little bit of something for everyone.  Thank you Sierra Brava!!

When it Rains, It Pours

A cute saying that explains that when bad things happen, they tend to happen all at once.  Alternatively, it means that when it rains outside, the sky opens up and an ungodly amount of water falls to the earth all at the same time.  We have experienced the latter more times that we can count during the 3 years that we've been in Argentina.

Some sort of mixture of the incredible storms that happen in South America, and the horribly poor drainage infrastructure that BsAs has as a city, creates these Noah's Ark-style floods more often than I'm comfortable with in the summer. You know it's bad when people describe the flooding as, "Remember that time the city flooded really bad.  No, not that one, this was sometime in November.  No, not that one, this was on a Tuesday.  Oh yeah!  That flood was really bad, but not the one I was thinking of....", so yeah, the city floods here kind of frequently.

Yesterday was no exception, it rained all.day.long.  We had plans to have friends over in the afternoon to help release some little-people energy, but the rain was to heavy to even walk out the door.

This was the street in front of our apartment around 4:00pm in the afternoon.  This is also one of the main roads in Buenos Aires, and you can barely tell, but in the far side of the street there is a 2-lane access road that was completely covered with water.

Ironically, if you have to be outside in this kind of rain, the best place to be is on a bus, they are taller, more stable, and can generally cut through the standing water.  The downside is that you have to wait for the bus like these poor saps:

And though it is a nice city, the streets are infamous for being filthy.  I know I don't want to be knee deep in that street-soup.

Is that umbrella really helping??

As for us, we staying indoors and enjoyed some of Gretchen's favorite activities, like reading this book called "Words".  She loves it.  She climbed into this chair to read it on her own, then looked at me and said "Mama, no mas!" - she was tired of me taking pictures of the flood.

 Combining two of her favorite things, socks and "putting things in things", we spent time filling her rain boots with pairs of socks.

We did not take the open top bus tour of the city.  Apparently, no one did:

However, we did fill this cabinet with books:

She was a very busy girl...

No book was spared...

I love the tip-toes in this one, she was attempting to get a whole set of books in a the same time.  Notice the completely empty book shelf next to her, she was a dedicated little worker.

Spending time inside with my girl is a highlight for me.  She's fun, she's playful, she has creative ideas on what to do - and the rain is a good reminder that you don't have to be busy all the time. Filling boots and cabinets with items is a great way to spend the afternoon!

It sure beats being this lady: