Jaco, pronounced "Haco" - like "taco." Now you're an expert!
As has become tradition for me, I always like to start the New Year off properly with an international trip. Since I normally don't have that many vacation days - contrary to what all my friends would believe - I try to find places that don't take long to get to. This has led to a strong amount of Central America travel, and perhaps the most popular destination outside of Mexico in Central America, is Costa Rica. We were there from Dec. 30 - Jan 5, staying in Jaco, a surf town on the Pacific side, then drive to Turrialba to go whitewater rafting on the Pacuare River, which National Geographic rated among the Top 5 places for whitewater rafting, then finish at the hot springs and volcano in La Fortuna. If this sounds like a lot of driving - you're right! And it turned out this Pythagorean Theorem map route wasn't the wisest.
First things first! My first ever First Class experience on a connection from Hartford to Miami. How many times can I type the word "first"? Sadly, I didn't even get a Bloody Mary and just slept the whole flight. #loser
It was early, y'all.
Our Airbnb in Jaco with our rental car, which is a hell of a machine! If you do an airbnb in Jaco, I strongly recommend going with a property that belongs to Kattia Jimenez. She owns several rental properties in the area is extremely helpful with any tips and suggestions for your trip.
Big fan of the graffiti art in Jaco. These surfer girl impressions were all over the place. Jaco is really about one thing. Not the skateboarding.
Sunset at Jaco.
Dinner at Wahoos. Not to be confused with Socal's fish taco joint. Although I think I ordered fish tacos. Solid bar/grill spot that also had karaoke. We did not bless the locals with any Backstreet Boys renditions. Needless to say, they were disappointed.
Grilled avocado with vinaigrette.
The local beer. Imperial Lights are far better than Imperials, which has the taste equivalency of getting punched in the stomach. However, you have to drink the local beer when traveling - otherwise you're just an ugly American!
Breakfast at Taco Bar, which is super cheap (like $3), but not that good. The banana-mango-pineapple smoothie on the other hand was massive and delicious. This place is ideal for a post-surf morning breakfast. I find I love eating rice and beans in Central American countries, such more flavor than Hormel's canned beans I normally shove down my throat.
You might think this is a cool statue, but this poor surfer woman was actually frozen alive like Han Solo in "Empire Strikes Back." #SpoilerAlert!
For an intermediate (read: crappy) longboarder who likes waves from 4-6 feet, Jaco was perfect. There were a lot of spots for beginners, but what sets Jaco apart from other surf destinations I've been to is the ease and frequency of waves. Unlike many places, you don't have to spend much effort paddling past the break to get to the waves. It's a very easy paddle out, then depending on the tide (high tide was sunrise and sunset our entire time there), there were plenty of long rolling waves to catch. Instead of exerting all your joules paddling, you can actually spend the whole time surfing.
Did I mention the water was warm, too? Cuz it actually got warm with the rash guard. Pristine.
Pete crushing waves like he does the ladies!
Giving my girlfriend a quick tutorial on how to surf. This is described in ye' olden days as "the blind leading the blind."
Like a gentleman, I'm helping her hold the 7'10 board.
Success! Who needs to stand?
I do! These waves weren't even during high or low tide. You have to be more patient, but a few sets would still consistently trickle in.
One of our sunset sessions were solid. Another, not as much. The waves tended to crash far quicker at sunset for whatever reason, and Pete (behind me) and I were victims more than a couple times.
Playa Herradura. 5 minutes north of Jaco. Not worth a visit. This makes it look better than it is.
Manuel Antonio Beach. It's considered a tourism destination near Jaco but I still think it's worth going. It's around an hour south of Jaco, you have to pay to get in - I forget what admission is but there's a lot of bartering for parking and skipping lines. Just go, you bum! What else are you going to do?
Outbreak Monkey says hello from Manuel Antonio National Park! You now have Motaba! I actually Googled "Outbreak movie disease" to keep that joke accurate. Who says journalism is dead?! This monkey kept trying to grab my GoPro which was attached to a monopod. Ahem - monopod, not a selfie stick. Totally different!
In a less aggressive state.
Sloth butt!
Smiles! Joy! G'times! #Weeee
Hey Zac Brown, toes in the sand!
Shrimp pasta at Lemon Zest, a very gringo restaurant option in Jaco, but good enough. Very hearty. Like every restaurant in Central America, the service runs on Island Time (even though CR is not an island), which means "I'll bring you your food whenever I'm done finishing the Tico Times crossword puzzle of the day." I also think our waiter was tweaking out on Four Loko and cocaine, but that's another story.
New Years Eve revelers at midnight in the streets of Jaco. A lot of residents from San Jose (the capital of CR) drive down to Jaco to celebrate the new year. It's just a 2-hour drive. Getting service on Jan 1 and 2 takes forever, which is really saying something in Costa Rica.
Forget about the epic Asian lantern festivals to celebrate the lunar new year, we've got a CR version! Several locals were lighting up lanterns and sending them off their way. Evidently there's an art to it because I saw a lot of struggling. The fireworks behind us were a free for all. I don't know if there were any official fireworks being set off, it just seemed like we were surrounded by explosions set off by every 5-year-old in a 100-foot radius. Many locals drove onto the sand and just set up shop with picnics, drinks, etc. The celebration epitomized Costa Rica's attitude of Pura Vida.
The locals can't get enough of Costa Rican Pete.
Hello 2016.
And scene.
Go Pro video.
Next: Exploring one of National Geographic's top 5 places to whitewater raft in the world.
October 2015
I went to Puerto Rico. Again. This time for five days. With four dudes. This is how it went down.
Luquillo Beach. We landed in the afternoon so we didn't have a tremendous amount of time. Decided to come out here to do some flyboarding, but because it's no longer tourist season, no one was around to take my money.
Still life.
The view.
Actually this little surf hut was around to take my money. Surfboard rentals were $10 for 2 hours. What a deal. Problem was the surf was around 10-feet. Way too high for me. As I paddled out, I just kept paddling over waves, way too frightened to challenge myself to take them (and wipe out). The white wash was just fine for this wuss.
This is the main reason we went to Luquillo. The food. There's a long row of food kiosks set up along the highway. Lot of diverse eats, but I remember falling in love with El Jefe Burger Shack on my previous trip and figured I'd introduce my boy, Pete, to one of the best burgers I've ever had. I got the half-pound ground chuck filled with braised short rib, and topped it with fried egg and avocado. It was amazing, but I'd recommend the burger filled with chorizo instead, because the rib and barbecue sauce overpower the meat's flavor. Drink with a few Medallas.
Self explanatory.
A friend of a friend hooked us up with a private tasting event, Rums of Puerto Rico, at Princesa Gastrobar in Old San Juan. All of PR's rums were out and about for the tasting, bigger names like Bacardi and Don Q, but my favorite was Caray Rum, who's owner we got to meet. He's a big fan of Astros star Carlos Correia. His kid went to the same baseball camp.
This was Anejo Gold Rum, which Caray hopes becomes a sipping rum much like with whiskey. I'm not a big sipper of alcohol, but this was quite smooth. The ambience may have been a factor.
This is one of the beaches at Rincon, a well-known surf town on the west coast of the island about 2+ hours away from San Juan. On the drive here, we ate breakfast at a Wendy's. Breakfast at Wendy's? Crazy! Crazy shitty that is. Now I know why Wendy's doesn't serve breakfast up here. Anyway, we rented boards from Mar Azul, a small surf shop about a 2-minute drive up the hill from the beach. Cheap rentals, as well.
This GoPro still is totally misleading. I didn't catch this wave but I wanted to look cool. Here's the deal, I rented a 7'6 board because it had a GoPro mount and I thought it would be sweet to get video. Low and behold, my skill set does not enable me to catch waves on a 7'6. Damn you, shorter longboard! #Fraud
Downtown Rincon. Not much to look at except this guy. Who judging from the design on this memorial, probably communicated with mermaids and other sea-based species. #NoDisrespect #IgnorantAmerican
Upon some new local friend's suggestions, we ate dinner at a Cuban restaurant called Asere, in a neighborhood where all the locals hang, La Placita. The food was incredible, and they also had solid mojitos to accompany. I'm not a huge rice and beans fan, but them beans were indeed a musical fruit! Not because they make you fart, but because they're so good you hear a symphony when you're eating them (actually, that might've been the music on at the restaurant).
This tuna tartare with plantain chips did not last long. We also got the ceviche but it was creamy, not as light as I prefer. Wouldn't recommend trying that bad boy.
I was impressed at how the bill was presented. In a Cuban cigar box. #ItsTheLittleThings La Placita is filled with different bars and clubs to hit. It's Santa Barbara's State Street, or like the West Hartford Center! #Sigh #ItsNothingLikeWestHartfordIfYouKnowWhatImSaying
The Friday night crowds at La Placita only got bigger as the night wore on. We didn't stay out too late as we had an early morning drive.
GoPro video:
Next: El Yunque National Forest, Old San Juan at night
I got a travel problem. A friend invited me to head out to the Dominican Republic for a relatively last minute trip. She would be attending a film festival, but had a free place to stay and knows I have an impulsive travel addiction. What I didn't have was any additional vacation days to use, so the trip would only be for a weekend. Would that be worth it? Probably not as I'd have to travel after work on Thursday, then leave Saturday night to be back at work Sunday. I'd never been to the DR, but if you factor in travel time, I'd be there for around 36 hours.
Lo and behold… I ended up working a 6-day week, earned a comp day, and could apply it to this trip. 60 hours is a different ballgame! I'm in. Fly out of New York late Wednesday, fly back Saturday afternoon. Done.
The hotel I stayed in Santo Domingo was the Occidental El Embajador, and had several scenes from "The Godfather Part II shot there (pretending to be Cuba). I didn't see Al Pacino there. But I did see prostitutes. And I'm not talking about Pacino's turn in the Adam Sandler movie "Jack and Jill."
What I didn't realize was that this film festival was in Santo Domingo, which is the country's capital and very metropolitan. I was told there's a significant amount of crime in the city and its one of the most dangerous cities to drive in. No disrespect to the city of Santo Domingo, but there's no way in hell I was about to fly out there for just a couple days to sit in a city (even though there are some places to check out like Christopher Columbus' burial site in the Colonial Zone). If I was going to the DR - I needed to see some beach.
As I researched where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do, everything pointed to the northern part of the island. There's a nice surfing area called Playa Encuentro near Puerto Plata, but even more thrilling - a place to jump off 27 f'n waterfalls called Damajagua! I had to do that. Problem is the only way I can get there without renting a car (which turned out to be way too gnarly) is taking a 4.5-hour public bus ride. That would mean spending around 9 hours - on an already short trip - sitting on a bus. Nobody wants to sit on a bus that long except Otto from the Simpsons, but 2 days of chilling with Columbus' remains didn't sound that enticing. Hello bus.
After landing in DR and getting to the hotel around 12:30a, we woke up around 5:45 and walked a couple blocks to the Metro bus station to hop on a 7a bus to Sosua (which left around 7:30a because you're dealing with Island Time). The buses are like tour buses and totally safe and nice. Best of all, it only cost around $9 US to travel to the entire other side of the country! In Sosua, we hopped in a cab to Playa Encuentro, which I pictured to be a small surf beach with a boardwalk and maybe a couple surf shops and restaurants. Nah bruh. It was just this. Empty beach with a couple huts that act as surf shops.
More dogs than people at this beach.
Fortunately there was one place that cooked food in this Corona commercial gone haywire, Club Mendi. They also had wifi, which was great because we just booked a last minute AirBnb spot and didn't know how we were going to get picked up or what the place's address was (sometimes this is how I travel). I would definitely not call Mendi a club, nor a restaurant. It was more of a grill. But holy shit could they grill! They didn't speak much English, so I ordered some fish that was allegedly indigenous to the area. I thought I asked if it had bones (which would deter me), but who the hell knows what I said, because the fish came out whole with a shit ton of bones. It was completely fried and completely delicious. Normally I'd be so frustrated with the bones that I wouldn't enjoy it, but it was perfectly spiced and salted that I tore through it like the sound of velcro. Naturally, I topped it with a Presidente, the island's beer of choice.
There's no swimming allowed because it's all reef in the area and you'd get cut up. There's also no life guards, unless those sleeping dogs miraculously wake up and save your drowning ass.
Rented a longboard for $20 US/day
Conditions weren't great. Wind-blown and choppy, so it didn't make for many rides. Also, the paddle out was draining enough that I ended up just riding whitewash. You definitely have to be careful getting off the board as it's all reef next to the shore. I haven't really surfed in quite awhile - and I'm not very good to begin with, so that's a pretty solid combo.
I couldn't stop playing fetch with this guy. He loves the water so much. One of the dudes at the grill told me I'd make a friend for life if I threw a stick into the water. He was correct. Then I attached a GoPro to the branch, and started throwing that, hoping to get a cool perspective of fetch. It was just okay.
See you later, Encuentro. #AndByThatIMeanIHighlyDoubtIWillEverBeThereAgain
So after a few hours chilling in Encuentro, we went to Sosua to dive/snorkel. My friend, Angela, is a hard core diver, but I'm just a snorkeler. We went through an outfitter called Aqua Adventures (http://www.scubadivesosua.com). It was around $50 for the dive and $25 to snorkel. I contemplated diving again, but on the drive over I had another President and the dude's wouldn't let me dive. It was for the best I think. So here's a snorkel trick in the DR (don't know if it applies everywhere), but if you bring pieces of banana and crush it up in your hands, the fish flock to it! That's what in the water bottle.
This is a ray. Angela took it with her GoPro. That's all I got.
Apparently this dude has never heard of Steve Irwin.
Photobomb time...
The area we were in is called 3 Rocks. As snorkeling goes, it's only mediocre. There isn't a tremendous amount of visibility, even though it was a relatively clear day. Perhaps because it was around 5p. I did see an octopus - you'll see a crappy shot of it in the video below. Angela saw a lobster, sting ray, eel, much more cool stuff than I.
Sosua Beach.
G'bye Sosua.
We booked a 2-bedroom villa with kitchen, living room in Cabarete… for just $50! AirBnb is the best!
Dinner at Papi's, a seafood place on the sand where we got ceviche, a lobster skillet with spaghetti, crab cakes, and mama juanas - a local liquor. Tipping at restaurants isn't necessary as tips are included.
Lobster skillet. Not too shabby.
This is the main street in Cabarete; the city centre as it's called. Looks quiet. And on the street it is.
But on the other side, there's a strip of clubs, bars, restaurants, people even playing volleyball. It's a very deceptive scene from the street.
We got a carafe of mojito at the Lazy Dog Beach Bar, where we were accosted by a pushy henna tattoo "artist." By "henna," I mean "Sharpie." I tried to drink my mojito as quickly as possible to avoid consuming any melted ice and shady water. Eating ice left me with an unplanned cleanse after my last trip to Mexico. Apparently I have a sensitive tummy.
Another look at the Cabarete strip. It was quiet on Thursday night. Everything open, and also mostly empty. I imagine it's a Friday, Saturday type of town.
Video: Next: Waterfall and cliff jumping with Iguana Mama.
