How to hike a volcano

First of all, you don't actually hike the Arenal volcano.



Because it's friggin' dangerous, man! It's an active volcano! Throughout the day, you can hear its stomach rumbling. You never know when it's going to spew! So "hiking the volcano" actually means hiking very close to the volcano, near its base.


So close that if the volcano exploded we would have three minutes to run away, so we might as well just sit and watch it because we'd never make it out alive. At least that is what our guide Daniel told us. He also showed us animals, plants and stuff we would have never noticed if we had hiked the volcano on our own.


Like crazy termites in the trees. Daniel just tapped a stick on the bark and all of a sudden, they all came out. Gross.


Daniel told us as a kid that he used to collect fossilized leaves, just like these.


On the trail, he pointed out many spiders, each one getting bigger the deeper we went into the woods. This was the biggest one of them all!


Although you can't tell from this picture, we're standing next to the tree from Avatar. Just kidding. But that's what it looked like in person.


After the woodsy part, we hiked up a bunch of volcanic rock left from some explosion in the 90s. It took the rocks five YEARS to cool down.


On the top of the rocks, we saw a beautiful view of Lake Arenal.


We took a requisite portrait in front of the volcano.


Then I attempted to take a more artistic shot of the volcano.



And another.



After the hike, we went back to the hotel to lounge by the pool and then on our way to dinner, we drove past these cows grazing in the pretty sunset. I had Dan stop the car so I could take a picture.


And then we ate a steak (sad but true). It was good.

So that, my friends, is the way to hike a volcano.

Horses, lava and soda

On Wednesday, we planned to go horseback riding. Luckily, the stable and surrounding area weren't affected by the storm, so a plaid-shirted man picked us up from the hotel in a 1980s Mitsubushi truck with a handbrake and drove us a half an hour to a rural town where we were joined by two older couples and a guide for the tour.

Dan rode a gray horse named Moscado. We never found out the name of my horse so Dan and I named her Brownie. I tried to talk to Brownie but she kind of ignored me and used every free moment we stopped to eat grass. We would alternate between walking and trotting and Brownie always wanted to go faster than all the other horses and liked run whenever we were going downhill or through streams, making a big splash. Sometimes I was scared I would lose my balance, but Brownie didn't let me down. The area we rode had the most beautiful, picture-perfect scenery: lush forests and rushing rivers and long water falls and pretty mountains. But I spent most of the time looking at the top of Brownie's head. We stopped to go swimming under a waterfall which was cool and refreshing.

It seems like no one here in Costa Rica really cares all that much about weather because even though the sky was getting darker and darker, our guide didn't hurry us or anything. So when it started raining buckets, we had no choice but to tread forward. From my experience, I can tell you that horseback riding in the rain is not as fun as horseback riding in the sun. By the time we were done, you could wring out water from our clothes. For the second day in a row, Dan and I got soaked.

The weather definitely limited us. We had imagined that most of our time in Manuel Antonio would be spent lounging on the beach, but in reality, we only had about a half an hour of beach time the entire trip. We weren't super eager to explore the area in the rain so that night instead of going out we ate dinner at our hotel restaurant, which was covered with a tarp and had its kitchen running with generators. It sounds like a bummer, but it really wasn't. Perhaps on some other trip, we would have minded, but we were so happy to be on our honeymoon and to relax and to enjoy each other that we didn't let it bother us.


First they matched Dan and Brownie together, but Brownie was too small for big Dan.


Dan rides Moscado. BTW: It is really hard to take pictures when you are on a horse!

Lovebirds by the waterfall.

The next day we got a rental SUV (with a stick shift, which made Dan very happy!) and drove from Manuel Antonio to Arenal. Driving in Costa Rica reminded me a lot of driving in Poland. There is no direct way to get anywhere, so most of the time you are on these two lane roads winding through mountains and seashores and small little towns. I had the idea in my head that the trip would take 3 hours, but it was more like 6. It didn't really matter. It was a nice ride. It's kind of a shame I didn't make Dan stop driving to take some pictures because I saw so many great things. Green grass and misty mountainsides. Black and white cows grazing atop on a green hill. Schoolchildren in uniform running down the street. A child wearing a homemade paper mask. Vendors in tiny fruit stands selling mangoes and plantains.

We stopped for lunch at a roadside “soda” where we had the standard fare in Costa Rica: a huge plate of rice and beans, chicken, plantains and veg for $4. The food in Costa Rica is kind of bland yet filling and tasty like a homemade meal. The atmosphere of these sodas were relaxed and open-air and the people working there were always so nice and friendly. I have to say that eating at these places beat any of the “fancy” expensive meals that we have had on our trip (which was basically not-so-amazing American and Mexican food).

We checked into our new hotel that had the perfect vantage point of the Arenal volcano. It's an active volcano which rumbles throughout the day and if you are lucky to be there on a clear night, you can see the lava spew from the top! The hotel said that they'd call us if there is no volcanic activity before 11pm and it acts up in the middle of the night, but when we settled down for bed, I could not shut my eyes. I kept staring, waiting for something to happen. Then I thought I saw the sky change color, almost like lightening, so I woke Dan up.

"Dan, something's happening!" I said. He sat up, put on his glasses and there was nothing there but black sky. False alarm. We went back to sleep. Well Dan went back to sleep. A few minutes later, I saw red. "Dan!" Dan!" We both got up in time to see the volcano spit some red volcanic rock into the sky which trickled down the side. We had planned to take pictures and video and all that, but it was over and done with in a minute. I fell asleep after that moment, happy to have seen the lava. Good thing I was so alert. It was the only clear, lava filled night of our trip.

The volcano!

Monkey Heaven

After a weekend of non-stop fun and activity, the first day of our honeymoon was...tired. After getting only one hour of sleep the night before, we zonked out during our plane rides to San Jose, Costa Rica and could barely keep alert during the three hour ride from San Jose to Manuel Antonio (luckily, we hired a friendly Costa Rican man to drive us). When we reached our lovely hotel room at the Makanda by the Sea, we went straight to bed, lulled to sleep by a lullaby of ocean waves and cicadas. It sounded like one of those fake nature soundtracks--but it was for real, baby!

For dinner, we ate at a outdoor covered cafe called El Avion. It's called that because there's an actual plane in the restaurant(!) According to our guidebook, the plane was shot down by the Sandinista army, leading to the scandal that uncovered illegal CIA supply missions to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. A lizard walked on the dinner table. When we drove back to the hotel, our cab driver informed us that we'd just experienced an earthquake (but we didn't feel a thing in the moving vehicle).

Feeling replenished and rested, the next day we went to the National Park which is known for its hiking trails, beautiful beaches and white-faced monkeys. We spent the morning hiking the trails. We saw tons of lizards, mouthless crabs with bright orange legs, two huge iguanas, and sloths moving in slow-mo, high in the trees. We stopped to relax on the beach. The sand was white, surrounded by vegetation and the water was warm and calm. Swimming in the ocean, surrounded by such beautiful nature, I felt relaxed and content.


My husband.


Hiking the trails.


Creepy crab.


Iguana on the beach!


Dan, excited to be on his honeymoon.


I'm in love with the whitest man on the beach.


My new bikini. (And perhaps the whitest woman on the beach?)

We could see dark clouds approaching, but we weren't ready to leave the park just yet. We hadn't seen a single monkey yet. A tourist advised us to hike the waterfall trail. You had to cross a small stream, she said, but when we got to the other side, we'd find monkey heaven. Fat raindrops started to fall from the sky, but we weren't deterred. We would go to monkey heaven.

Hiking in the pouring rain was definitely a pretty intense experience. It felt like we were navigating the jungle, running away from the Viet Cong. The further in we got, the wetter we got, the darker our surroundings. Then we reached the "small stream." It was a pretty wide stretch of water -- nothing you could hop over. It was rushing fast and furious with no indication of how deep it was. We could have turned back, but visions of monkey heaven kept us going. Dan went first, backpack over head to protect camera. He carefully took one step, water going ankle deep, and then another. Suddenly he dropped to knee deep, then ankle deep, ankle deep. He made it to the other side! I took a deep breath. I was wet already so here goes nothing! I went in the water, shoes and all. It felt as you would expect it would. Kind of scary, uncertain and gross.

There was another stream, same situation. Again, we were so close to befriending monkeys so ahead we went. A few more steps, we made it to the waterfall. Torrential rain made a picture impossible to take, and we were pretty uncomfortable just standing there. There was not one monkey in sight. So we just turned around and headed back.

We had enough adventure for the day so we left the park to sit at a beach cafe, in our soaked clothes, and enjoyed some nachos and umbrella decorated drinks as the rain tapered off. Dan insisted we walk the uphill mile back to the hotel (there were cabs everywhere) because he wanted to take a picture of the plane from last night. I whined about it most of the way until we went by the pizza place and discovered a little monkey heaven of our own. We stopped and admired tons of monkeys climbing trees and walking up and down the power lines. We saw some of these guys and him too.

By the time we got to the hotel, it started raining really hard. We knew that we would get some rain on this trip--we were traveling during Costa Rica's rainy season. However, all the guidebooks acted like it was no big deal, like it would sprinkle for an hour or something. I wasn't expecting rain this hard and all day. We didn't feel like getting wet again so we just stayed in for the night. There was lightning and high winds and the power went out a few times. We didn't think anything of it until the next morning, we discovered that we had survived a tropical depression. No one knew it was coming. They told us it was the worst storm they've had in 15 years. Trees were down all over the area, and because of many knocked down power lines, our hotel would have no power (except for a few hours on the generator) for the rest of our stay.


The plane! The plane!


A glimpse of monkey heaven!


Quiet before the storm.

Sun-Day Fun-Day

I love beignets at Cafe du Monde, but maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world to host a get-together at the famed spot on a Sunday morning. When we arrived, the line was already down the block. Luckily, Gerda, Morten and Katrine had come early enough to grab a prime spot in line, and we were sitting in no time. Best of all, nearly all of our guests had no qualms about skipping the line and sneaking in so we had quite a flow of people that kept refilling our table throughout the morning. So given the situation, it went as well as it could have. (My apologies to the good Samaritans who showed up and wouldn't cut the line or couldn't find a seat.) I hope that you had a chance to taste some deliciously fried powered goodness sometime over the weekend and if you didn't--just another reason to go back to NOLA.


Holy moley line!


Hogging tables, sneaking in, cutting lines with no remorse. Anything for a beignet!


Morten gets his beignet fix before his flight to Brussels.


We WANT beignets! We WANT beignets!


After about four beignets, I watched Dan eat several spoonfuls of plain confectionery sugar. At one point, he turned to me and said "My teeth hurt."

What do you do after eating beignets for two hours straight: GO TO LUNCH! Dan and I ducked the rain and joined the LA crew for some shrimp po'boys and muffalettas at Cafe Maspero. Apice said, "You planned a pretty nice wedding, but this is the best part of the weekend." I think Apice just likes a good sandwich.


Taking a big bite.

After lunch, we and about 25 guests took a bus to the bayou for a swamp tour. Captain Jack steered our boat, and we watched him feed marshmallows and hot dogs to alligators and check out boat houses draped with Confederate flags. Ah, the good ol' Southlands!


I am so glad we invited Courtney. She's too cute.


Here's our boat!


Smiles for alligators!


The money shot.


If you are a longtime reader of the Ham, you should know by now what a 'stock is...but if you don't check out: Courtstock, Jackstock, Backstock and Reidstock. Our wedding weekend was the fifth installment of our epic weekend extravaganzas. Brett designed our awesome yellow tees based on our invitation.

We joined the 'Stockers and my siblings for our last New Orleans dinner (which was lackluster in flavor but wonderful in company!) I think everyone was feeling a wee bit sleepy, so we headed to our hotel room for what we thought would be a quiet evening of conversation and wedding cake. That is until the LA crew joined us.

If you have not heard of the phenomenon Bros Icing Bros, then now's the time to get on-board. Basically the deal is that if you a bro who is presented with a bottle of Smirnoff Ice, then you must get down on one knee and chug the bottle down right then and there, no excuses. Apparently, Nate had been waiting all weekend for just the right moment to "ice" Dan and when it happened, suddenly our hotel room turned into a frat house rager. Then some of the poker people came. We eventually had to kick everyone out for ONE hour of sleep and then we hightailed it to the airport for our honeymoon in Costa Rica.


Dan gets iced. Nate rejoices!

And THAT my friends, sums up our wedding weekend. I think I just wrote a novel about it. Thanks for reading (or just looking at the pictures!) I wanted to get everything down before I forgot.

(Pictures by Ara, Pete, Apice, Gerda & Morten, Susan and me)

The After Party

After the reception, we joined some of our guests at the famed New Orleans drinking institution Pat O'Brien's to continue the celebration. I drank one of the bar's famous Hurricanes but after that did not need any more drinks: I was on such a natural high and I wanted to remember every moment. There are not too many pictures from the party--everyone was having too much fun, I guess!


Hanging out with Emily and Sandy.


More hurricane frenzy.


Chris and George drink up.


Brian cracked me up all night.

I left my wedding thinking that Drake was the most popular wedding guest by a landslide. (I think Annie was planning to pocket him into her carry-on luggage). But that evening in Pat O'Brien's, it became apparent that my brother Peter made quite an impression on everyone as well. Multiple people that night from different social circles came up to me to tell me: "Where's Pete?" "I love Pete!" "Pete's the best." It wasn't a huge surprise because he's the most popular guy in our family, but it was hilarious that my brother somehow managed to friend everyone at my wedding AND videotape/photograph the entire event all at the same time. I love my brother.


Pete had a good time with the boys!

Dan and I left the party before we got too tired to spend a little alone together. I am so glad that we did. We were starving, and we had some leftover food from our reception so we heated up everything in the microwave and had a little feast in our hotel room. We had plenty of leftover wedding cake but no knives to cut slices, so we just took a fork and ate it. We exchanged gifts and it was a really a perfect and romantic end to such a wonderful day.

"This is probably one of the best days of my life," I said to Dan.

"It's the best day," Dan said. "I used to think people were cheesy for saying that, but I didn't know better."

Pictures by Chris, Ara, and Meagan.

Fun with Lemons

Lemons were one of the main decor themes of our wedding. (There was nothing New Orleans about it--I just like the color yellow and thought it looked really cute!)


The welcome table was decorated with a lemon-filled vase of flowers, and we had a basket of lemons with name tags that informed our guests about their seating assignments.


Half of our centerpieces were yellow and white flowers and the other half were vases filled with lemons.

Judging from the pictures, the lemons seemed to be a hit.

.
People took pictures of their lemons.


People posed with their lemons.


People snuggled with their lemons.


Andy actually thanked me for his lemon.


And then there were the people who put their lemon in their mouth.


Kim had a harder time.


But Matt was a pro.

Pictures by Heather, Nell, Pete, Ara, Kunkas, Annie, Nien.