Headline - Frigate Liberty returns home!

The headlines in the major Argentine newspapers the last few days have been about the welcome home of the Argentine frigate, Liberty.  The ship was carrying recent naval graduates to ports around the Atlantic when it was seized in Ghana because "vulture funds" that consider Argentina to have defaulted on debts the funds now hold considered it an Argentine asset.  The ship was held for 2 months as the case went to international court and was finally released to return home on Dec. 19. It arrived in Mar del Plata (where most Argentines are now on summer vacation) yesterday. The President of Argentina is taking private planes when she flies to other countries because her official plane also could be subject to seizure by the vulture funds.

Urban Eco-Reserve

A road through Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve

View of Rio la Plata

Jake has been feeling under the weather the last couple days, so this morning I headed over to the Ecological Reserve Costanera Sur, within walking distance of our apartment.  This park lies on the eastern edge of the city along Rio de la Plata.  The area has an interesting history.  There had long been a grand avenue along the edge of the river where people would go to stroll and swim.  But as the waters became polluted fewer people visited and in 1978 a grand construction project began to fill in land along the river using construction debris.  It looks like a lot of raised roads were built, but that not all of the sections were filled in.  The project was abandoned by 1984 and marshes colonized the low areas and trees and shrubs colonized the edges of the roadways.  It was declared an ecological reserve in 1989 and is now thought to be a very important site for native flora and fauna.  You can walk through the marshes along the raised roads to the edge of the river.  On maps the marshes are labeled as open lagoons, but they have since filled in with vegetation and are drying out. The original riverfront avenue has been somewhat restored , but has a view of the marshes now.  It is a popular place to hang out in the evenings and on weekends and is lined with Choripan stands (like an American hot dog stand).  I got to mind a choripan stand this morning for a few minutes as the owner desperately needed to go to a restroom and flagged me down.  She gave me a bottle of water which was very much appreciated by the end of my walk!

There were plenty of both native and invasive plants along my walk this morning, see some photos below.  Invasive plants included Arundo donax, Morus alba, Fraxinus pensylvanica (yup!), Acacia melanoxylon and Ailanthus altissima.

Arundo donax - invasive

Bauhinia - native

Solanum shrub

Lantana camara  - native

A Gentle Recovery from Our Flight

Yes, we seem to have discovered the secret to recovering from those overnight flights to Europe or South America.  Relaxing by the pool with a nice lunch after a soothing message is a great way to wait for one's hotel (or in this case apartment) to be ready.  Very civilized, indeed.  And something to look forward to on the 10 hour flight to Buenos Aires.  Wonderful.

Provisioning

Yesterday we settled in by getting our first withdrawal of pesos and grocery shopping.  Argentina's official exchange rate is about 5.5 pesos to the dollar, but the unofficial rate is about 6.7 pesos to the dollar.  If you withdraw money from an ATM or pay with credit cards you get the official rate.  If you bring dollars with you can apparently exchange them on the "blue market", but that requires finding a place or person who will offer a good rate.  We opted for the middle road of sending ourselves a weekly allowance through a company called Xoom that does money transfers around the world.  They currently have an exchange rate of 6.4 pesos to dollars and you pick up your money at a respectable looking office in the city center.  We brought dollars to pay for our apartment and some internal travel as you get a better deal that way.  Apparently with so many Argentines going on vacation this time of year to the U.S., it is particularly hard for the average citizen to find dollars right now.

With our new influx of pesos we went grocery shopping in our neighborhood.  First stop was the San Telmo Market, a market that covers most of a city block and has lots of food stalls as well as antique stalls, clothing stalls, etc.  We picked up the vegetables makings for ratatouille and a dozen eggs.  The eggs are wrapped up carefully in newspaper for transport!   We dropped those bags back at home and then went to the local Carrefour grocery store for the basics.  Their fruit and vegetable selection is rather limited and we noticed that eggs in the grocery cost twice as much as they did from the poultry market stall.  Carrefour everything else we needed though, except for peanut butter.  That may require a specialty shop or a really big grocery store!

We had gone to a local coffee shop, La Poesia, around 5pm for a "snack" of a lomo sandwich.  Expecting a small sandwich we were surprised when the waitress brought out a large tenderloin steak draped across a piece of bread.  Delicious!  We held off on making ratatouille until 10 pm too, so we are really feeling like we have gotten on the Argentine eating schedule now!

Argentine Arrival

We arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina at 7:30 am local time.  Jake had purchased Economy Plus seats on Delta, so instead of sardines we were sardines in an extra-long can for 10 hours.  We were in the middle row of 4 seats.  The other 2 seats were both occupied by people from Minnesota.  One is a corn and soybean farmer on vacation and the other was a young woman, recent grad school grad, who will start working for a seed company in March (one that the farmer buys from!).  First she is spending several weeks in Argentina and Mexico learning Spanish.

Arriving at B.A.'s international airport we stood in line for an hour to get to an immigration desk.  There we found out that we were supposed to purchase our visa first and that my visa for Chile does not have reciprocal status.  On to another line hidden behind the escalators that had just 4 self-service computers and printers where you go to a web site, fill in your personal info, pay $160 with a credit card, and print out your visa.  It took forever for people to figure out how to use the web site and how to type an @ symbol using an Argentine keyboard (its Alt 6,4 should you ever need to know!).  There was a whole lot of griping in that line! Next time we will know to get the visa online before leaving home! Skipped to the front of the immigration line this time, found our luggage which had been put in a pile since our flight had arrived so long ago, and waited in another line to go through customs.  Leaving the airport by 10 am.

Now things started looking up though!  We took a taxi to the Hotel Maison Vitraux, http://www.mansionvitraux.com/, in San Telmo where we got a tour of the spa facilities and had a one hour massage.  Soooo relaxing.....  Highly recommended post-10 hour flight.

Front of our apartment building in San Telmo

The dining room and doors to the balcony

View from the balcony on market day

Not quite stray dogs

Our landlady was waiting for us at the door to our apartment building, first photo, and it was just as it had been depicted - a lovely high-ceilinged, Paris-like apartment overlooking Avenida Defensa in San Telmo (photo 2 and 3).

Sunday is the big antiques and crafts market in San Telmo, so Av. Defensa is very busy on Sundays. We can watch the people go by from our little balcony.  We went out and had a cafe con crema and very good apple pastry at Cafe Poesia about a block away on Chile street then strolled around some (dog photo is from one of the larger streets, they seemed well cared for given the circumstances).  We will attempt to convert to the Argentine schedule of having a light dinner around 10 pm.  I know, you're thinking "good luck with that!".

Key West Touring

As the weather outside grows colder, and Jake's classes come to an end, we try to find a southern location for a week of soaking up warmth before the Christmas holidays.  This year we picked Key West since it was relatively easy to get to, had been recommended by friends, and neither of us had been there before.  Jake found an apartment in the middle of Duval Street in the middle of a building (as we had heard Duval St. could be rather rowdy) with a shared patio/jacuzzi area out back.  We flew into Miami and rented a car since we also thought it would be fun to drive the length of the Keys.  We arrived just in time for the Key West Christmas Parade featuring sunglass wearing Santas and lighted palm trees.  We decided that although we had fun in Key West (it is sort of a cross between New Orleans, Rehoboth Beach and Cape May), that we would probably look for someplace more peaceful next time. Below is a quick summary of some our favorite sights and restaurants from the week.  We spent an evening in Little Havana in Miami our last day.  That was different than we expected too, more spread out and not as concentrated a shopping area as I had expected.  We did go to see an old Catherine Denueve movie at the lovely Tower Theatre though and had dinner next door at Exquisito.

Sightseeing:
Ft. Zachary State Park - deeper water than most of the other beaches, and the beaches have lots of coral pieces (wear shoes).  Also an historic Civil War fort.  Most peaceful place in town to watch the sunset from!

Hemingway House - can't go to Key West and not visit the house and its 6-toed cat population!

Key West Botanical Garden - just on the other side of the bridge coming into Key West, this partly wild garden has a focus on native plants.

mangrove kayak tour - we went with Blue Planet kayak tours, the guide found great sea critters and Jake got squirted with purple ink from a huge sea slug!

Coast guard ship Ingham - privately owned Coast Guard ship that has an amazing history and they let you just walk all around spending as much time as you like in different parts of the ship.

Eco-Discovery Center - good overview of the Key's ecosystems.

Mallory Square - where huge crowds gather to watch the sun set.  Better for people-watching than for watching the sun set.

Bike rental - best way to see the island!

Restaurants:
Eaton Fish Market - for fresh fish and shellfish and they'll make a fish sandwich for you from any fish in the case.
Croissant de France - right next to our apartment, this place had excellent croissants and other pastries and good coffee.
Santiago's Bodega - Spanish tapas in a cozy bar/restaurant atmosphere
El Siboney - Cuban restaurant, less upscale than the other places but good, large plates of food.
Pepe's Cafe - in the historic waterfront area, good sandwiches and lots of historic photos and memorabilia.
Blue Heaven - truly a beautiful patio with huge trees.  Excellent food with a Caribbean flair.  Provencal scallops were amazing.
Seven Fish - seafood oriented, fish with Thai yellow curry for example, informal atmosphere but open and light feeling restaurant.
Better than Sex - a Dessert Restaurant - fun place if just for the names and descriptions of the desserts and the bordello-like atmosphere.  We shared a dessert that was really just a dressed-up chocolate pudding cake like the recipe I use from the Betty Crocker cookbook, but it was still delicious.  And who knew that a glass of cabernet could taste so good when drunk out of a wine glass coated with dark chocolate sauce!

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica 2011

We started planning this trip after Jake saw the beautiful photos of Casa Alta on VRBO. Manuel Antonio is located on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica about 2 ½ hours from San Jose, the capital

city. I had traveled here more than 25 years ago with my grandmother for a few days and fondly remembered a beautiful beach with roaming iguanas and monkeys. Bob had been here with my brother Joe about 10 years ago for a few days as well. It’s a lot more developed now and Christmas week is the high season, but it is still gorgeous and there has been no shortage of monkey and iguana sightings.

We arrived the week before Christmas meeting Jake’s brother Roy, nephew Evan (14) and niece Casey (10) at the San Jose airport. We had arranged for a private van to take us out to Manuel Antonio and the driver was there waiting for us with a big Barnes sign after customs. He offered to stop for snacks, lunch or whatever we liked, but I think we mostly just wanted to get to the house! We did though stop to see the crocodiles. Along the main road is a river full of them. The van lets you off on one side and picks you up on the other side. Looking down from the bridge you can see a half dozen large (up to 15’) crocs. There were also 2 pairs of scarlet macaws that flew overhead while we were there. When Sarah and Bob stopped there was a boat with a guide and a couple tourists who were actually at the edge of the river feeding the crocs! Did not seem like such a good idea …

We got to the house just before dark and one of the owners met us to explain the key ring with 5 keys and a remote alarm. Although every house is essentially barricaded by walls, iron gates and fences, it has felt very safe walking around. We do get the impression though that petty crime is a problem. Our house has a large stone-paved patio. Half of it is covered and has a big table and comfortable chairs for dining. The other half has lounge chairs by a small pool. Palms and colorful tropical plants surround the patio and attract birds like the kiskadee, a yellow bellied flycatcher, orange orioles, and black and red birds. The patio is also occasionally staffed by two visiting cats. Casey promptly made friends with them and named the scarred older black cat Shadow, and the young pretty grey striped cat Smoothie. There is also a local dog pack that seems friendly.

Inside there is a long kitchen with a gas stove, no hot water, dishwasher, and a good sized refrigerator. There are four bedrooms, three of which have their own bathrooms all nicely done in stone or tile. Jake and I got the nicest room which comes with a large balcony with a hammock and some chairs. We do invite others up for the sunset views! You can see the ocean on both sides of the house as Manuel Antonio sits on a small peninsula. Back to the indoors, there is also a small, comfortable living room with tv and stereo on the main floor and a decent selection of DVDs. Flor arrives every day except Sunday to sweep and deliver fresh towels. Talk about luxury! There's also a guy who looks after the pool.

The first week we arranged a tour of the national park with Jade tours. Our guide was Mario, or “Super Mario” as he introduced himself. He was extremely knowledgeable about the park and its animals and knew at least the more charismatic plants. He had a great spotting scope and would set it up so we could see small critters like colorful grasshoppers, lizards and frogs. We saw all 3 monkey types our first day in the park, howler, spider and capuchin monkeys. Also both 2 and 3-toed sloths. There are several beaches in the park, but one has rip tides and poisonous trees whose sap can blind you for several days, so people seem to avoid that one. Another beach is only accessible when it is not high tide, but it was pleasantly empty relatively speaking. The main beach isn’t all that large, but it never felt especially crowded. You do have to watch over your things as the capuchin monkeys and raccoons search out every opportunity for a free lunch. The waves are small and the water blue and a wonderful temperature. There is plenty of shade at the edge of the beach. Black sharp lava rocks form the edges of the curved beach and hold some little tide pools with an abundance of tiny shrimp, fish, crabs and a few sea slugs.

We visited the public beach several times as well. One day the waves were pretty rough – good for boogie boarding and surfing. Another day the lifeguards wouldn’t let people in over waist deep because of rip tides at low tide. But other days the waves were smaller and no evidence of dangerous currents.

The nearest larger town is Quepos. It doesn’t look like much, but it has a small central market with a good fish stand and inexpensive fruits and vegetables. There is a big sea wall along the beach that prevents the town from being flooded too often as it is below sea level. We haven’t needed to go into town much as there is a pretty good super market 2 blocks from the house and plenty of good restaurants. You can also walk to the only ATM machine not in Quepos from the house. At the end of our street there is the local community center and soccer field and bus stops.

The week the kids were here we arranged a Canopy Safari tour. The van picked us up at our house at 1pm and we drove out past Quepos turning off suddenly onto a dirt road that led through the oil palm plantations back into the hills. Most of the roads off the main roads are dirt and rough going. The bridges are often made of wood with no railings. One bridge had been washed out in a flood and the van drove through the shallow river. Canopy Safari has a small open lunch spot and an enclosed butterfly garden and serpentarium. We toured these while they got the gear together. The course consists of 8 zip lines strung through the canopy, a tarzan swing from one tree platform to another and 2 repels to get to lower platforms. The guides (another “Super Mario” was our main guide) seemed well-trained and a photographer accompanied us to get our smiles caught on film (you could then buy a DVD of photos). It was great fun and there’s at least a little time to admire that canopy itself before you’re off zipping or plummeting though it. In this case it was just our group and the friend of one of the guides who was on vacation from studying to be a special ed teacher in San Jose. Jake’s favorite part of this trip was the “henna” extracted from the leaves of a teak tree. Tear off a bit of leaf and rub it into a ball and a brilliant red sap comes out. It can be used like henna although it appeared to wash off more quickly. The guide painted a big red arrow on Casey’s arm so she wouldn’t forget which way was down! The Costa Rican woman painted stripes on her face that fit her fun attitude towards zip lining!

The basic dish here is black beans, rice, and chicken, fish or meat (or eggs if it is breakfast time). Often plantains come with the Plato Casado too (married man’s plate). The most common fresh fish are red snapper, sea bass, mahi-mahi and tuna. The nicer restaurants get pretty creative with chipotle sauced tuna or tamarind flavored snapper. There are plenty of cattle in CR, so the meat has been good too. Mangos, pineapples and avocados seem to be in season. We’ve made lots of guacamole and pureed fruit drinks!

We’ve probably eaten most at Café Milagro, which has one branch in Quepos and one in Manuel Antonio. They started out as a coffee café and roast their own coffee. A couple days ago I discovered the Mono Loco, a cold drink they make with expresso, banana and chocolate. Sarah had a great coconut crusted shrimp roll up for lunch another day. For dinner one night we got arepas with pulled pork, ceviche, and several other excellent dishes. For Sarah’s birthday we ate at the elegant Kapi Kapi. I had the pepper-crusted tuna over green papaya salad which was excellent. They brought out a specially decorated dessert plate that said Happy Birthday Sara in blackberry-flavored syrup around a delicious lemon and fruit tart. With Roy and kids we got pizza at Victoria’s one night. A good guitarist was playing in the background to go with our pesto, chicken and pepperoni pizza. In Quepos we lunched at El Gran Escape which had a good sandwich selection. Evan got the towering super large burger while I enjoyed a more modest fish sandwich. We’ve had lunch near the Manuel Antonio beach a few times too, but I wouldn’t say any have been exceptional. A hotel restaurant near the park entrance had good fruit juices and reasonably priced plates of the day.

We take the bus usually to get around or sometimes a taxi. The bus only costs 50 cents but it has been crowded this Christmas week. The park limits visitors to 600/day and to get a ticket you have to get in line at 5:30 am for when the ticket booths open at 7 am according to our guide. Or wait until people start coming out of the park. We were lucky enough to piggy back on to Sarah and Bob’s arranged tour just to get tickets to get in one day this week. I wanted to explore the 2 trails that aren’t as frequented to the Mirador and Playa Escondido. They are nice trails although all the woods is second growth. The beach sands were alive with hermit crabs wearing all manner of shells. It’s hard to find unoccupied shells. We also watched the odd behavior of sand crabs balling up little bits of sand. Not sure what that action is all about.

The week leading up to Christmas the main activity seems to be the random lighting of fire crackers. On Christmas eve, there were frequent bursts until about 2am! That was the night Sarah and Bob got here. Apparently Costa Ricans generally celebrate Christmas with family on Christmas eve with a big family meal and opening presents at midnight. There is relatively little decorating of houses although most restaurants and hotels have some decoration. The stores all stayed open to our surprise.

We head back to the US on Sunday. I’ll miss the breezes and tropical bird soundtrack!