Tres Cosas Jueves: Morelia Edition

1. Back In The Saddle: I am back. I made it back to Morelia unscathed. Morelia is an absolutely beautiful city. It's a very historic city, founded by the Spanish in the early 1500s, and is considered one of the birthplaces of the Mexican Revolution. In fact, one of the main figures of the revolution - Jose Maria Morelos - was born in Morelia and was honored by having the city renamed from Valladolid to Morelia in his honor. Anyway, I got back to LA in the wee hours of Wednesday morning and had to drive home for about an hour afterward. I got two hours of sleep, squeezed in a two-hour nap but was a zombie for most of Wednesday. I did not run in Morelia (no gym at the hotel, streets leading up to hotel were very narrow, no sidewalks and lots of traffic, so no ideal conditions) and didn't run Wednesday but I ran seven miles Thursday morning so I feel like a new and refreshed man.

2. What's Next? I'm still waiting word but there's a good chance I will get to go to Costa Rica next week. I'd leave Monday and return Thursday. Of course, I would not have time to experience the best of Costa Rica - the beaches and rain forests - but that's just a minor inconvenience. I'm not going to turn down a trip to Costa Rica and the chance to cover a soccer game there. No sir, no ma'am. I've been to Costa Rica before, for soccer, but worked a vacay into it as Mrs. LB flew down there the day of the US-Costa Rica match in June 2009 and we stayed for three days afterward. It was an awesome three days and the beaches really are stunning there. I would highly recommend Costa Rica to anyone who wants to experience nature at its finest.

3. Before We Move On Completely: I'm not quite ready to yet to put Morelia in the past. Some pictures from my time there:

Morelia from my hotel; kinda hard to see but if you click on the picture you should be able to see it a bit more closely.

In front of the Cathedral of Morelia, the city's prized building. I tried to upload a picture of the Cathedral from the outside but blogger was being dumb so this is the only picture I managed to get up. Grr..

This is another building that's important in Morelia's history. This used to be the entrance to town, hence the guard tower. If you came into Morelia, you had to pass through here. The church is ornate and has lots of gold inside, but because it didn't look like much it survived because looters never bothered to go inside.

Morelia is the capital of Michoacan, and the state has fame because of its carnitas. That's why a lot of restaurants you see will say something like "Carnitas Michoacan" or "Carnitas Sahuayo" (the name of a city nearby that is really famous for carnitas). Anyway, carnitas is a pork dish kinda like pulled pork sans the barbecue sauce, but much more tastier. You eat them with corn tortillas, salsa and pico.

Cheers! or should I say... Salud!


And now for some pictures about the reason for my visit...

This is the stadium, Estadio Morelos. The team's name is Monarcas (you couldn't tell, could you?). Morelia is famous too because nearby is a Monarch butterfly sanctuary. The Monarch butterflies migrate every year from Canada to the outskirts of Morelia and have done so for centuries. The club is named after them.

Standing on the side of the field as the Galaxy train (day before the match)

My pre-game meal: Carnitas Torta and a Coca-Cola. Don't usually have straight Coca-Cola but in Mexico it's something I had to have because it tastes different - better. So good.

Galaxy captain and US national team star Landon Donovan.

Well, that's that. Hope you enjoyed it.

Four Questions

I was recently tagged by Tales From The Back Of The Pack to answer four questions about myself. Pretty cool questions so I figured I'd take the time to answer them. I was also tagged by another cool blogger for another set of, well, questions I suppose, so keep an eye out for that. Was going to include them both in same post but will post separately.

Anyway...

1. What is your favorite holiday and why? Any special traditions?

My favorite holiday is definitely Christmas. It's not so much the presents and things like that but being a dad, I really do get into the Christmas spirit. All holidays have either taken on new meanings or been re-born now since the girls have been a part of my life. Christmas is awesome because of them. Of course, they love the presents they get but they also love decorating the Christmas tree, enjoy making sugar cookies, enjoy the lights on all the houses, enjoy the Christmas carols (in both English and Spanish) and all the awesome food as well. And because they enjoy it, I enjoy it.

2. What songs are on your go-to playlist? Describe how or why the music motivates you.

We go from warm and fuzzy to this. Well, I'm not much of a soft music guy, so this is anti-warm-and-fuzzy. My playlist consists of Metallica and others. I've actually changed up my musical selections. Before I would load the last half of playlists with Metallica, figured it would give me a huge boost when I needed it the most. Lately though I've been putting their stuff throughout. Part of me realized that I wasn't getting to some of the good songs on my playlist because it would be over by then. I had a few just-in-case songs near the end, figuring that if I needed them they'd be there just in case I wasn't done, but more often than not I was done.

My top three runnings songs, though, have not changed.

3. Highwayman, Johnny Cash
2. Damage Inc., Metallica
1. Orion, Metallica

Orion is an instrumental and lasts about 8:30, so I know that when it starts to when it finishes is roughly a mile, give or take. The beginning has a bit of an ominous feel to it, which is cool, and once it gets going, it just totally allows me to get into a groove.

Lately I've been running to a lot of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club as well, and I also listen to a lot of Flogging Molly, but I think I had eight Metallica and eight BRMC songs on my Long Beach Playlist.

Highwayman kind of goes against the grain but that's just an awesome song. I can lose myself in that song. It's too bad it's only about three minutes long.
3. What is your dream vacation? Money is not an issue.

Tough question. I've been to and had a great time in Costa Rica, Montreal, Trinidad & Tobago and would love to go back to one or all three. However, I'd also like to visit new frontiers.

I don't know though, I like the idea of going to some far-off remote location. I don't really have a bucket list of must-visit places but one place I'd like to go to is Perth, Australia, simply because to me it seems like the most remote location possible. Australia is remote and far off, and Perth is remote and far off within Australia. Maybe just for kicks, Perth with visits to Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef and Ayers Rock while I'm at it. What sucks is my brother visited the last three places, not Perth, but the others. I mean that's good for him... so I guess I'll have to live vicarously through him.

4. Looking back at 2010 so far...what are you most proud of?

Running two marathons. I'm proud of having run my first marathon, the Surf City Marathon in February. I did that with a group, my beloved Lopers. I trained with a group and about 10 of us ran it together... for the first 12-14 miles anyway. But I'm proud as well for having trained and ran another marathon all on my own, the San Francisco Marathon. I'm also proud that it was San Francisco, "the race even marathoners fear." And I set a PR there! I beat my Surf City time by about five minutes.

Well, that's what I've got time for. I think I'm supposed to tag other bloggers but I've never been any good at that. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the answers.

First Travel Marathon

As you know, I've signed up for the San Francisco Marathon. On July 25, I will taste 26.2 glory once more. I'm still excited by the decision I made to sign up for it and with all the training it will require. Fun stuff!

This marathon will be different than my first one, mostly for one reason - it ain't nearby.

Now, we got a hotel room in Huntington Beach for the Surf City Marathon, so we had to travel to it I suppose. But that travel time is about 45 minutes on the freeway, not exactly a far-flung locale.

San Francisco isn't local. Sure, it's in the same state but California's the third-largest state in the country. Getting to San Francisco will be a chore.

We're planning this as an kid-free trip. Not that we wouldn't have fun with the girls but we figured we'd go as a childless couple, even though we aren't, to try and enjoy this weekend a little bit more than just for the race. I know it's going to be tough to sightsee but we hope to see some parts of the city at some point. Well, I'm actually going to see a lot of the city on that Sunday morning, but I'd like for Mrs. LB to be able to see some of it too.

We just booked our hotel. We got a sorta decent sorta close. Some of the hotels I was looking at were more than 200 a night and we got ours for under 150, and I don't think we were going to get any cheaper than that for somewhere within walking distance of the start/finish.

I'm actually excited at the prospects of this. While the weekend will be expensive, it could become something of a tradition. Every year, maybe I'll treat myself to a marathon in some far-off place. Who knows? San Francisco might be the closest summer marathon I run.

Now, in the summer months there aren't any marathons being held out here in SoCal. It's hot, so no chance of any races. I searched, and between the San Diego Marathon on June 6 and the Long Beach Marathon on Oct. 17, there was hardly any races at all, and I didn't find any marathons between that time. So if I want to run a summer marathon, it won't be local.

In contention with San Francisco this year was the Deseret News Marathon in Salt Lake City, which is held on July 24. I was intrigued with that one, and since Mrs. LB has lots of friends in Salt Lake City it would have been good to have taken the whole family and maybe spend some time in Salt Lake. I've only flown and driven through there, so I would have liked to have visited. But that will be the frontrunner for a summer marathon in 2011.

We'd also briefly talked about the Seattle Marathon on June 26 but there's a little soccer tournament going on from June 11-July 11, and I'm going to be occupied with that, so that never really had a chance. Would have been nice though.

So if San Francisco goes well, it might be good to start planning more marathons that require traveling. You get the best of both worlds that way.

Friday Leftovers

It's Friday, the end of the week and I've got another edition of the Friday Leftovers (thanks Polly for the name suggestion!).

Word Association
Disconnect :: Reconnect
Contribute :: Pay
Dismay :: Sorrow
Constant :: Craving
Nails :: Dutch
Vibrate :: BuzzTherapy :: Practice
Stupid :: Lame
Poo :: Cachoo
Commune :: Live

I'm not a KD Lang fan so don't know where the Constant answer came from.

CWY
We did record a Cooking With Yvie this week so Sunday we'll be back to our regular feature. Yvie was quite happy to have recorded the episode. We did have a slight problem though. I let her try and crack an egg and she did but most of the egg came out on the countertop. I had to clean up the mess. Needless to say, that won't make the show.

Non-Trip A Blessing?

Remember when I said I could have gone to Honduras but had to pass up the chance due to the Ragnar Relay? Well, it might have been a good thing. Honduras is undergoing some tough political times right now as there was a coup of some sort and he was exiled to Costa Rica (I wish someone would exile me to Costa Rica...). Anyway, he tried to return but his plane was turned away and not allowed to land but he was determined and eventually went back to the country and is entrenched in some foreign embassy.
Anyway, the airports have been shut down and travel in and out of Honduras is virtually impossible, so much so that the game I was going to go for might be played in another country altogether.

Sometimes traveling is great but other times, such as this, it's not so great. I guess I'll be lucky to be in the Nevada desert on Oct. 9 and not trying to figure out what country I'll be in.

Baby Blue Wildcat

Last year, when I wasn't Yvie's soccer coach, I took many, many pictures of Yvie in her soccer uniform. This year, I've taken exactly one such picture.

Anyway, this is after her second game of the year. It was played at 1 p.m. a week ago, when the temperature was a comfy 92 degrees at the start of the game.

Luckily, our game starts at 8 a.m. this weekend. We can't handle another 90-degree-plus outing.

Breathe Deeply

Although I’ve been to three foreign countries now in the last two months, I’m not exactly a world traveler. I’ve been to a grand total of seven countries now but before going to Costa Rica in June, the last international trip I’d taken was in 2006, and before that in 2004.

One thing that I’d not encountered in all my travels before this week was high altitude. I suppose the highest-altitude place I’d visited was Denver, which is about 5,400 feet. I may have driven through a mountain range or two as well.

But Mexico City was different. It sits at an altitude of 7,400 feet above sea level. That’s 2,000 feet higher than Denver. Still, I knew this going in. I was well aware of the altitude, but wasn’t exactly sure how I’d react. I knew that in terms of athletics, athletes unaccustomed to the altitude can encounter all sorts of issues, but I wasn’t going to run a race or bike 50 miles. I was going for a business trip with maybe a workout or two thrown in the mix.

What I learned, though, was not what I expected. No matter what you do – walk, run, sit, stand, lie down, sleep – the altitude is an ever-present factor. It does not care what you are doing; if you are not used to the altitude, it will wear you down.

It wore me down for the better part of the week. Pretty rough.

As I wrote prior, when I first got into town, the first thing I did was to go on a run. I’d say around 2.5 miles or so is what I did, but that’s just a rough estimate. I was fine during the run. I expected to be gasping for air at some point but I didn’t gasp or do anything out of the norm. I struggled a bit towards the end, but it was my fourth consecutive day of running, so that likely had something to do with it.

Afterward, though, I felt strange. I lied down and realized I had a headache. It wasn’t a pounding headache but it was definitely present. Another thing too was I felt quite lightheaded. I don’t know if this is common – it happens to me every now and then – but when I was laying down I saw spots. They were like little spots that appeared and vanished quickly. They just sort of came up on me all of the sudden, tiny spots likely brought on by the altitude.

But the worst thing about the altitude for me was my ever-present state of feeling short of breath. I did not take a deep and effective breath for the entire week I was there. I always felt short of breath.

The only way I can describe it is with helium. Have you ever sucked on a helium balloon? I’m sure at some point of our lives we all have, or at least have been around someone who has. When you suck on that helium (and I’ve done it only to make my voice sound funny, not make me feel funny) you are in essence taking a breath, but it’s not oxygen you are breathing. So while you are breathing something in, it’s not exactly a refreshing breath. It just feels like some gas that isn’t quite serving its purpose.

Since the air is thinner at a higher altitude, it’s not exactly the same type of oxygen my lungs are normally used to. So while I was breathing the air, it was thin and didn’t really fill my lungs properly. So while normally I’d take a breath and fill my lungs with, what, 80-100 percent of capacity, it felt like I was sucking air in and only taking in 50-70 percent at best. It was almost as if I was purposely taking in short breaths. So often, I’d exhale deeply thinking I’d been cheating myself of a full breath of air when instead that did nothing.

My headache eventually went away, but others in our group experienced it too so I wasn’t the only one to have to deal with it. The first full day I was there, I slept a lot too. I think that’s another effect of high altitude: sleepiness.

Anyway, while it wasn’t necessarily a miserable time for me down in Mexico City (except for most of Tuesday when I had an upset stomach and was completely drained because of it), the altitude did have an effect on me. There was really no way around it, though. Some studies have shown that it can take up to 10 days to acclimate to the high altitude.

I didn’t want to stick around another five days to see if I could have taken a normal and deep breath of air.

Of course, the second I got off the plane in San Francisco and walked around that bustling airport in search of my connecting flight, I took my first real breath of fresh air since stepping onto the play in Los Angeles on Monday.

And I've been taking deep, random breaths here at home ever since.

Trip Wrapping Up

My trip to Mexico is all but coming to an end. I'll be flying out in the wee hours on Friday morning. I spent the first few days around the game, doing my freelance work. Thursday was my only real day to see the sights and since one person from our group was sick, we had to stay nearby.

We visited the National Museum of Anthropology and that was fantastic. If you're not familiar with it, this has all the artifacts from the rich-in-history civilizations of pre-Columbian Mexico.

They have many, many awesome displays, and we actually only traversed less than half of the museum (you could go two or three times and not see everything) but we saw lots of the Aztec and Mayan cultures.

And I had my picture taken with this. I think this might be one of my favorite pictures ever.


That's the Aztec Calendar, which I actually learned that the name is sort of incorrect as it was referred to as the Sun Stone. Regardless, I had my picture taken next to it. Just to think of all the history behind that, how famous that is and how inspiring it is and has been to millions of people throughout history... just a bit overwhelming.

Anyway, I'll post more when I get back to the States. It was good to have stayed an extra day but it's also nice to know that I'll be with my family at this time Friday.

In One Piece

I'm checking in from my hotel room here in the sprawling metropolis that is Mexico City. My flight went rather smoothly, customs was a breeze, weather is beautiful, cab ride was flawless.

The best part about my trip, though, was when I got to my hotel. Three colleagues were here already and I went to say hi to them (I'd only actually met one in person). They had workout clothes on so I asked if they were planning on going for a run. One of them said to me, "You're a runner, right?"

"Damn straight."

So they waited for me while I went and put my running gear on. I'm so glad I brought my gear! So, I wasn't even on the ground for an hour and already I was running! I didn't bring my watch or anything so I'm estimating but I think we ran for 20-30 minutes, a good, fast pace. I wasn't actually planning on running today as I ran six miles on Saturday and five on Sunday, but I could not pass up the opportunity. Oh yeah, I also ran three miles on Friday. Forgot about that!

Mexico City, of course, is at a rather high altitude, more than 7,000 feet above sea level. I was tired at the end of the run but I don't know if it was because of the altitude or because I had ran the last three days.

Anyway, what do you think of the view from my hotel room?


That is one ginormous flag. The building down below is an opera house as we're staying in the nice part of town.

Anyway, just wanted to check in from my hotel room. Now to shower and rest up and continue adjusting to the altitude.

Basilique Notre-Dame

We weren't intending on checking out any churches during out trip to Montreal, but when I read more about the things that were "must-sees" in Old Montreal, the Basilique Notre-Dame kept coming up. So it wasn't a tough choice then to include that into our things that we had to check out.

In fact, I ran by the Basilique on my first morning in Montreal. I hadn't intended to run past it but I did, and it was an awesome sight. The Basilique towered over the street and plaza in front of it and I couldn't wait to go back with my camera, which we did on Friday.

This is about the view I had as I ran past, since I was on the opposite side of a one-way street, this street actually.


I also took a picture of a large sign in front of the Basilique. I would have taken a shot of the English-language sign, but there is no such thing so I can only kind of make out a few things.

Ville-Marie, incidentally, was the original name of Montreal. Construction did begin on the Basilique in 1823 and the James O'Donnell reference is for the architect of the building. Of course, it was originally a church or cathedral and didn't achieve the status of basilica until 1982.

When we walked out to explore Old Montreal, we walked to the Basilique first. I actually craned my neck quite high to get a glimpse of the building once we were up close. Had to.

Not sure if you can see three prominent statues on the front of this building. They're difficult to see in this picture and you can kind of make them out from the first shot, but I got some up-close shots of them and put them together a bit.

If you think the outside is beautiful, the inside is a masterpiece. I couldn't get a real good wide shot of the inside unfortunately but here's a picture I found online that's pretty much what the inside is like.

Not the best shot but it fit. I pretty much stink at taking indoor shots, but I did get a couple on my own.



For all of its history, the efforts made into building it, the tourists it draws each year and the countless thousands who still worship there, the Basilique is quite famous and might be one of Montreal's most important buildings. They still hold services there every day, and those of course don't cost anything. We saw a show inside that told the history of the church and Montreal and that was only 10 bucks. It cost five to go inside and do a walkthrough and take pictures and all that.

Definitely a fantastic building and one that I feel lucky to have been able to not only see but to step foot in.

Montreal's Old Port

Part of Montreal's charm was the old buildings. Born and bred in Southern California, I haven't exactly been around places that were established in the 1800s or 1700s. We do have some missions out here that have some history but that's about the extent of it. So being in a building or walking past a building that was built more than 200 years ago was intriguing and a bit humbling. Made me feel kind of inconsequential at times, as if so many people throughout history had passed through the very spot I was standing/walking that my presence there was nothing.

One of the buildings that most intrigued me was this one.

This is the chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours (or the Our Lady of Good Help). It sits right on the Old Port. There is a street in front of it, the Rue De la Commune, and then couple dozen meters before you hit the water. The church was originally built in 1655, but it was mostly destroyed in a fire.

It's also dubbed the Sailors' Church because back in the day as ships pulled into the harbor, one of the first things the sailors saw was this church, and the Virgin helped usher in the sailors to port. Gracious sailors supposedly left her offerings and prayed upon arriving for having helped them arrive in port safely.

Here's a link to the museum web site. We actually didn't go inside the museum to visit it but only because we were busy visiting other museums and just walking around.

We did go inside the Marche Bonsecours, or the Bonsecours Market.

This place was built in the mid-1800s and has been a government building, a farmers market and a general marketplace, which is what it is today. The inside is kind of drab looking but there are a lot of awesome stores in there that sell some really cool stuff. A lot of art pieces that were way outside of our budget. I had a really good cup of espresso in there though.

Also, there was this building that was intriguing, the old Customs House.

I think this was built sometime in the early 1800s as well, though I'm not certain. This used to be the place where visitors would have to pass through customs upon arriving in Montreal. Not sure what it is today except for a cool background for a picture.

Anyway, you could spend a lot of time in Old Montreal and the Old Port. The only thing we really did outside these two areas was our trip to Parc du Mont-Royal because there was plenty to see in the Old Port...

... or the Vieux-Port, I guess.

Pura Vida in photos

As this posts to my blog, I'm getting ready to take off. I'm headed to Montreal for a vacation. Unlike my Costa Rica trip, which was planned around my work and really just came to fruition relatively late, this Montreal trip has been planned for a while longer. It's celebration for Mrs. LB and me, for our 10-year anniversary.

Anyway, I figure now would be a good time to get the last of my Costa Rica pictures out there. No stories attached to these shots, really. Just pictures with a few words of description, random pics that didn't really fit anywhere.

Overall, I loved Costa Rica, everything about it. Their famed saying down there is Pura Vida, pure life. I can't wait until I get the chance to go back.

On the long road outside the capital.

Statues for sale on the side of the road.

A Costa Rican convenience store.

Their version of a school (I think).

A typical Costa Rican dish, loaded with black beans and white rice. Very yummy.

A sign from inside the Manuel Antonio National Park.

In an unfocused picture, I circled our friend the Eyelash Viper. See how close we were to death?

One of the absolute best things about Costa Rica were the clean bathrooms everywhere I went, including at Manuel Antonio National Park (where even the porta-potties were clean!).

Yours truly.

Til next time, Ticos.

One week ago

I wrote this blog post on Friday night. Right now, as it posts to the blog, I'm probably knee deep in mud or trudging uphill somewhere on Camp Pendleton.

It's a far cry from where I was at this exact moment one week ago. I remember looking at my watch on our last morning in Costa Rica and thinking that I'd be competing in the Mud Run at this very moment.


Funny how things work out.


So anti-today.

Monkeys and Sloths and Crabs - Oh My!

I blogged about the lovely iguanas Costa Rica had to offer, but there was more than just large, scaly lizards to grab our attention.

Yours truly in front of a sign near the park entrance. That translates to Manuel Antonio National Park, but you probably figured that out. Incidentally, the shirt was a gift from my brother, who went to New Zealand and Australia on his honeymoon. It's a t-shirt with the outline of New Zealand on it. That's the closest he'll ever get to Costa Rica... but that's also the closest I'll get to New Zealand.

Anyway, the national park is part of several national parks in Costa Rica. The Ticos have set aside about a quarter of their land as wildlife preserve. One thing about the Ticos, they have quite a bit of pride in their country. You hardly saw any trash anywhere. They were very green down there with lots of recycle trash cans in several places we went. I guess when you have an awesome country filled with rainforests, you take a little more pride in them.

In this particular national team, there were several companies that offered tours. The tours weren't necessary - you can traverse the park yourself. But you won't see most of the animals we saw.

Such as this deadly snake:

It's an Eyelash Viper, and it was sitting on a large leaf about three feet off a path our group took. This picture was taken from our tour guide's telescope (they all carry telescopes so you can see stuff up close). One bite from this guy and you'd be dead in a matter of hours. That was a fun fact.

One of my favorites was the following groups of animals:

The above is a White-Face Monkey (who unfortunately didn't have his/her face turned towards us) and the one below is a Howler Monkey.

Monkeys down there all travel in groups, so when you see one you see lots. To see them, our guide said, all you do is keep an eye on the tops of the trees. If you see some shaking and movement, it's probably a monkey. It was crazy to see them hopping from tree to tree. Some of them had babies on their backs. They really didn't pay us any attention.

One thing we were warned about was this:

No Alimentar A Los Monos, Ni A LB.

Apparently monkeys and bananas aren't the greatest combination. Monkeys and people food don't mix either. Tourists are severely discouraged from feeding the animals, and we complied. We did, however, feed LB.

Another tree-dweller we saw was this:

A three-toed sloth! How cool is that?!? They move really, really slow. While monkeys zip from branch to branch and tree to tree, the sloth climbs up slowly and moves at a gentle pace. But they are also quite comfortable meandering through trees.

On the beach, there were dozens upon dozens of hermit crabs.


There were tiny ones to large ones, well, not that large. This was about as large as they got. But it was strange because you'd walk along certain parts of the beach and stop and you'd see the ground moving. There were so many crabs. Another thing the park discourages is for people to take seashells from the beach. Seashells could actuallly be crab shells, and hermit crabs go from shell to shell so if people take shells with them, the hermit crabs won't have anywhere to go.

There were several other animals we saw that I didn't get good pictures of: Blue-Morpho Butterflies, hummingbirds, grasshoppers, a Jesus Christ Lizard (named so because it walks on water), a large rodent... thing, and various forms of vegetation. I took pictures of them, they just didn't come out. See, in the rainforest, you can't use flash because it might spook the animals.

And you don't want to spook an Eyelash Viper, do you?

How sweet it is

When speaking in absolutes (ie, never, always), I tend to not throw those terms around loosely. If I "never" do something, or "always" do something else, I better damn sure mean it. Otherwise, when I really do mean something is an absolute, it will have lost its meaning.

Having said that, I can safely say the following statement and know it's true: I have never tasted pineapples as sweet as the ones I tasted in Costa Rica. Never.

Costa Rica is home to plenty of exotic wildlife and spectacular beaches but nature's beauty does not end there. Fruit is bountiful in Costa Rica, and one of their specialties is the pineapple.

Hawaii is, of course, famous for the pineapple. But the pineapple originated in the Americas. Pineapples have grown in Costa Rica for centuries, and the pineapple was introduced to Hawaii by explorers some 400 years ago.

Now, I've never been to Hawaii and thus never tasted pineapples in Hawaii but they'd have to be pretty sweet to top the ones I had in Costa Rica. We stopped by a fruit stand on the drive from San Jose out to the coast and we didn't even intend to buy pineapples (as evidenced by my lack of pictures of the fruit).

In that picture, there are lots of fruits for the taking: mango, papaya, watermelon, pineapples and something called mamones or something. The guy in this next picture ran the fruit stand we stopped at and sliced open a mango for us to try.


Below the mango are the mamones. Now, the guy called them lychees (a lot of Costa Ricans we ran into spoke English, limited or full-on English) but I'm not sure if those are lychees or not. They are interesting. You had to slice them open and squeeze them to get the fruit out, but it came right off its skin.

Then you suck on them until you are left with the pit and little else. I chowed down several handfuls of those. They were interesting. Not my favorite fruit but definitely worthwhile.

But those pineapples. They were an afterthought, to be honest. We bought a bunch of those mamones and some mangoes (which were fantastic; firm and very sweet) and as we were leaving I noticed the pineapples and said 'Why not?' so I asked the fruit stand owner if he could cut us up a pineapple and he did. Once I bit into it, I was in heaven. Pineapple heaven. I ate almost half a pineapple by myself over the next 30 minutes.

I don't know if I can purchase a pineapple here now without comparing it to that sweet slice of heaven I had in Costa Rica.

Check this out. This was breakfast one morning.


Pineapple (awesome), watermelon (very good), bananas (very good) and papaya (actually, not a fan) with some yogurt, honey and granola. I couldn't have asked for a tastier breakfast.

Watch out for the crocs

Near the edge of the public beach in Manuel Antonio is the exit to the national park. If you leave the park, you can get a stamp to let you back in (funny how the stamp was placed on my forearm and the humidity quickly made it a black inkblot-looking stamp instead).

During the early afternoon hours, when the high tide is in, there are boats that take people from the exit to the public beach. There is really no way around the rising swell of water unless you wait in the park (high tide is highest from 11 am to 2 pm) or swim.

Swimming is not recommended. Why? There are two crocodiles there. We didn't see one but we didn't doubt the people who told us about the crocs (one of which was our tour guide).

I took this picture before I knew of the crocs, when I wasn't even sure were used when I took it. It was about 4 pm local time and the tide was way down. The boats seemed more decoration than anything.

Made for a nice picture.