Benji and Marina's Excellent Adventure at Rincon de la Vieja

As a highlight of their 6th grade year, Benji and Marina went to Outdoor Adventure camp this week with their Country Day School class.  The destination was Rincon de la Vieja National Park.

They hiked to a giant waterfall, played in mud baths, did a zip line/canopy tour, bathed in thermal pools and returned home sleep deprived, bug bitten, and thoroughly exhausted.  According to Benji, "It was one of the best experiences of my life."

La Cangreja waterfall

Hiking

Fumeroles

We hiked for 5-10 boiling hot hours playing games and chatting

The send-off

The "Long Hike"

Breakfast of Champions

Hot Spring

After  along hike the cold water felt good

 

We got to see a very hot lake

Costa Rica: Land of Rainbows, Unicorns and Fireworks

Okay, the title is misleading and perhaps even mendacious.  There are no unicorns here.  The rest, however, is entirely true.

Our high rise looks out over the expansive valley of San Jose.  Several nights a week, we hear the boom! bam! of fireworks exploding on the horizon; over the soccer field, over the party venue near our home, and frequently, over the Walmart. 

                                                                           The fireworks displays are so common, that when I run on the balcony and yell "Hey kids!  Fireworks!"

I usually hear, "Yeah, Mom, I can hear them.  I'm working on my homework."

Also, due to the misty rain and ever-present backdrop of clouds illuminated by sunshine, we are graced with frequent, glorious rainbows, multiple times a week, often right before sunset.  In the same spot on the horizon, we see a vertical prism; a swath painted on the sky.   It's like having some kind of Disney backdrop behind our living room couch.

When you've got fireworks and rainbows, who needs unicorns?

San Ramon, Costa Rica

Ripe coffee beans.
We ate them off the bush  for the honeyed taste.

The day was cool and foggy when we rolled into rural San Ramon.  Friends we met through my uncle, Sora and her daughter Nikol had prepared a warm lunch and afterward, we went on a leisurely hike of  her family's farm.

Papaya Smoothie Recipe

One of the perks of living in Central America is our easy access to fresh, tropical fruits.  Most evenings, I blend up a creamy papaya smoothie.

RIPE PAPAYA SHAKE

1 cup of ripe, orange, papaya flesh
1 banana
1/3 cup crushed ice
1 squeezed lime
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/3 cup strawberry yogurt liquid

Blend 'till thick and smooth.  You can use a blender, but I love to use my single-serving, easy-to-clean Magic Bullet.  Hey, I sound like a commercial!

Bottoms up!

Steve's version
Use frozen papaya, less yogurt, and no ice.  The shake tastes like sorbet ice cream!

Blatts in Peru: Majestic Machu Picchu

While Machu Picchu is a spectacular example of Inca Ruins, it´s really the setting that blows your mind.  Clouds swirl around jutting peaks as llamas dine on the green grass.  Our morning was overcast, but mystical, with the fog shrouding portions of the view, drifting and changing, like the dance of the seven veils.  By afternoon, the mist cleared and Machu Picchu announced its presence in vivid glory.

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Our guide led us for 2 hours, giving us the basic overview.  The rest of the day, we took a mesmerizing amount of pictures from every unbelievably panoramic angle.  We hiked to the Sun Gate and explored every aspect until the park closed at five.

 
Take the train from Ollyantaytambo, rather than the harrowing bus ride to Hidroelectrica.

Blatts in Peru: Our Harrowing Journey to Machu Picchu, Peru

I didn't see him fall into the gorge, but I saw the immediate horror on the faces of those who did . . .  

The story of our harrowing journey really begins as I set off to buy train tickets to Machu Picchu in Cusco.  On my way I saw some really good deals on package tours.  "Why be cheap and do it ourselves?"  I checked prices with one snake-oil salesman after another and quickly discovered what we wanted was a custom package that included a full day at MP, a second night at Aguas Calientes, and a train ride out.  One saleswoman worked with us to spell out all the things we would receive and gave us a decent price. What was appealing was that the tour would take care of all our arrangements: transfers, meals, accommodations bus tickets, entrance tickets, and train tickets.  Oh, we were so naive.  We plunked down 600 dollars in cash and smiled about how pampered we would be.  That's right, we deserve it.

After 2 exceptional days in Ollantaytambo, hiking and exploring the temples and fortresses on the hills, we stored our suitcases and waited at our appointed meeting spot to be picked up and our Machu Picchu adventure to begin.  This is when it all started to go South.

They didn't show.  So, after an interminable wait I called our tour agency. No answer.  I tried another number and was told we weren't at the meeting point.  I was. Finally, after about an hour, a van full of testosterone charged Argentinian body builders arrived. The music blared, the rain poured, and we rocket up a mountain pass reaching 14,000 feet.

After 5 hours of nauseating twisting and winding, the road narrowed to a one lane muddy track cut into the edge of the mountain with a 2000 foot gorge inches away.  I couldn't look.  Oncoming cars forced our tires to slosh through the mud on the edge of eternity.Then we stopped.  A mudslide had taken out the road ahead. Giant boulders and a raging river made the road impassable.  Vans and tourists on both stretches of road stepped out to survey the damage.  The mountainside overhanging the road was shifting before our eyes.  It was only a matter of time until another slide occurred.

We were promised that a tractor was on its way, but a group of tourists decided to cross the mudslide/river without waiting. I saw the crowd cheering, then gasping. Then people started running in every direction.   A large boulder, tumbling from above, struck the 4th person crossing in the head and his body went tumbling 240 feet down the gully.  We could only assume that he was killed in the fall.

Local men slid into the gully and managed to get him onto a stretcher. Minutes later an ambulance appeared out of nowhere, a tractor cleared a small path through the boulders and mud. He was alive and headed to Urubamba to the hospital.

Our journey continued, only now we were about 3 hours behind schedule.  The last phase was a 6 mle hike in to Aguas Calientes from Hidroelectrica. We wouldn't have gotten lost if the sun hadn't set, but in the dark the landmarks were not visible.  Benji, Marina and I, accompanied by a few other tourists, trudged and slogged our way down the railroad tracks and through perilous railroad tunnels, in the dark for almost 4 hours. With the help of a kind Peruvian, we were reunited with a worried Ilana in the town plaza.

But, after such a long day, we completely lost all trust in the tour company.  Nothing that was promised was provided.  They couldn't even find us a room until 10 p.m. that night.  Bus tickets, train tickets, double rooms, hot water-- forget about it.

In hindsight, we should have taken the train from Ollyantaytambo.

The only silver lining was that the next was absolutely spectacular and made our harrowing journey completely worthwhile.

Blatts in Peru: The Faces of Ollyantaytambo

 The new mayor of this tiny town was being sworn in in a grand festival as we  entered the town square on New Year's Day.  The indigenous Peruvians, the Quechua people came down from the hills to celebrate, drink fermented juices, and play a traditional bowling game in the plaza.   Hundreds of Quechua dressed in embroidered ponchos, flowered hats, and hand-beaded headbands filled the square.   The party lasted from noon until way past midnight, the sounds of the rock and traditional music, punctuated with fireworks, keeping us awake in our hostal on the town square.

Mind you, this was January 1.  The night before, we were in Cusco, where we watched the nights sky explode over the Plaza de Las Armas, with more fireworks than I've ever seen in my lifetime.  So many fireworks, in fact, that the sky became almost too milky to see them!

The next morning, we visited Ollaytatambo, the resting place of the Inca warriors.  This place was held successfully against Pizarro's cousin, one in a long line of Spaniards to plunder the Inca territory.  It is incredible to think about how the Incas managed to move these gigantic stones to the top of a mountain, and then carve them so perfectly that they fit together like a seamless jigsaw puzzle.

Me?

We hiked up the fine ruins to the Temple of the sun, where six enormous stones formed the temple wall.   Miraculously, at the moment we were there, we saw this arco iris, a rainbow ring around the sun.  

Quite spectacular!  After hours of exploring the vaulting battlements of this fortress carved into the side of a mountain, we paused for another four dollar feast in a windowless eatery across from the market.  We dined on soup and plates of rice, potatoes, and chicken. Then it was time to attack the ruins on the other side of the valley. Steve and Marina threw caution to the wind and climbed to dizzying heights like a pair of mountain goats on crack.

All me.

Not me!