Celebrating 20 Years

On the 22nd, Jeff and I hit a major milestone in our marriage: our 20th anniversary. This momentous occasion called for a grand celebration, so we took ourselves to an all-inclusive resort in Costa Rica for a week while my amazing mom stayed with the kids and got them to all their various activities. Costa Rica was a new country for us (country 43 to be exact), and we loved it! We spent most of our time relaxing at the resort and indulging in the wonderful food and beverages, walking on the beach, watching the local wildlife, participating in included activities, and visiting the spa. On our actual anniversary, we spent the day away from the resort, hiking in the rainforest at the Rincón de la Vieja National Park, which was amazing. I am including picture collages of the highlights of each day.

Jeff and I are proud of our marriage and the life we've built together. I'm so incredibly thankful that he chose me all those years ago and that we still have forever to look forward to! 

Day One:
A pic from the plane as we approached the coast;
A welcome drink;
All the desserts;
A walk on the beach;
The first of many iguana sightings;
Sunset on Playa Conchal

Day Two:
Iguana entertainment at breakfast;
A special towel animal;
An anniversary cake delivered to our room;
The most amazing sunset of the week;
Thatch-roofed restaurant;
Celebrating a few days early

Day Three:
A sunrise walk on the beach (after ordering off the After-Midnight room service menu at 4:30);
We found a little love on the rocky end of the beach;
Restaurant floral arrangement;
Two-toned squirrel busy in the tree outside our room;
Another awesome sunset;
Our first coati spotting

Day Four:
Our first time to see a calabash tree;
Pedicures at the spa (Jeff's first, and my first at a resort);
A howler monkey making his way across the resort grounds;
Spectacular views of the golf course;
Cocktail making class;
A poisonous yellow-bellied sea snake

Day Five:
One of the huge strangler fig trees in Rincón de la Vieja National Park;
20 years of adventure;
One of many Blue Morpho butterflies;
La Cangreja waterfall was our reward for hiking through the rainforest;
Turtle towel friend;
Sushi dinner at Bamboo

Day Six:
Sushi making class;
The chocolate bomb dessert at Catalinas;
Incredible night sky;
My happy place

Day Seven:
Our last walk on the beach;
A beautiful send-off;
The rainbow was an added bonus;
Wrapping up the trip with a spa package that included a massage, reflexology treatment, and manicure;
Palm tree in paradise;
The big daddy of all iguanas. Man, he was huge!);
Costa Rican coffee class;
Crème brûlée and a "French Kiss" last hoorah

The Outskirts of Cusco

The AirBnB where we stayed last night was listed as "entire place," but the hostesses were actually staying in a room in the house, which was a little awkward but not terrible as they were very nice young ladies who stayed out of our business. Also awkward was the fact that the water went out completely after only two of us had had cold showers. The water, though still cold, was back on this morning, but the awkwardness continued when the next guests showed up while we were still on the premises. They were eager to shower and move into the rooms and just lingered while they waited for us to vacate. This was a very new AirBnB listing, and we feel sure they are still just working out the kinks. We just considered it a quirky travel experience and basically got a good chuckle out of it.

After breakfast, a driver picked us up for some sightseeing on the outskirts of Cusco. First we stopped at a wonderful little textile market. There were llamas and alpacas to feed, and we got to see a demonstration of how wool becomes textiles. It was fascinating, and we really loved it! Ruth and Weston even found some items to purchase in the market stalls, and I can tell you they got some really good deals.

Textile Market

When we left the market, we headed to a salt farm in the mountains. They harvest the salt that is formed from the natural minerals found in the mountain waters, and it is quite an impressive facility. The water is diverted to hundreds of different pools and several kinds of salt are formed and collected at the site.

Salt Farm

Later, we went over to a site called Moray, which is an agricultural area built in concentric circles at different elevations. Our driver suggested that we visit the restaurant at the top of the hill as he imagined it would be cheaper for us to purchase something there for lunch and then view the area from their perch on the hill than to purchase tickets to the actual site. He was very wrong about that as the set lunch menu, served in eight courses, was around $125 per person. The idea was that it was supposed to be an experience, but it was not worth the price tag to us, so we just ordered drinks, which was still about the same as buying tickets to the site, and moved on. It was a bizarre place but somewhat interesting, and there was a nice view of Moray.

Clockwise from top left: The restaurant, The coffee experience,
Hot chocolate, The chocolate experience, The distillery,
Distilled spirits containing local flora, Mata Cuy from distilled
sugar cane, Herbs hung up to dry

Moray

From there, we headed back to Cusco to catch a flight to Lima and then a connecting flight to Santiago, thus ending our time in Peru.

Santiago airport in the middle of the night

The Amazon

We arrived late last night in Iquitos and spent the day today exploring. Our day started with a delicious breakfast at our hotel. Then we had our first rides in motortaxis, which whisked us away to the Belena Market, the largest in the city. It was certainly a spectacle! We enjoyed (and didn't enjoy!) a vareity of experiences for all our senses. We got to try concha, an egg-based drink with boiled yuca, sweetened with sugar and vanilla. We all thought it was delicious! The bravest amongst us (Ruth and Weston) also tried a type of grilled worm. It was one of the more unique items for sale, but we saw plenty of other interesting things.

Hotel breakfast

Motortaxis

Balena Market

From bait to brunch

When we finished up in the market, we climbed aboard a couple of very small homemade boats in order to explore the floating village. For six months out of the year, the river overtakes the streets of the village and the area is only navigable by boat. I have never seen anything like it, and I truly cannot imagine living that way. However, the people seemed quite content, and we were told by our guide that they are a very happy people.

The floating village

Later, we boarded a larger boat for a tour of the Amazon and one of its tributaries. The tributary was especially beautiful and serene. We saw all kinds of birds and two varieties of river dolphins. The boys also got to fish for piranhas, but to their disappointment, they weren't successful. We had lunch aboard the boat, which included fresh fruits, cheese sandwiches, and juane, a local dish consisting of chicken, eggs, and olives wrapped up in a ball of rice and baked in some sort of leaf. It is a traditional dish of that region of the Amazon and it was very good.

An Amazon tributary

Fishing for piranhas

Juane

Pink dolphins playing in
the mighty Amazon

At the end of our tour, we visited a smaller market, where we tasted some roasted seeds from a plant related to cacao and some freshly shelled and peeled Brazil nuts. We enjoyed both.

The smaller market

Back at our hotel, we rested for a while before going out for dinner at a place recommended by the person working at the front desk, who, along with the rest of the staff, were very eager to please us. We suspect we may have been their first American visitors. Anyway, the dinner place turned out to be a sort of fast food place, which we think was recommended to keep us from having to wait long. Mother's Day is a huge deal here, and the restaurants were indeed packed. We got a good chuckle out of celebrating Mother's Day with fast food, which is typically forbidden by me when we're in the States. The food was good, though, and we had a great time.

A very happy Mother's Day indeed!

Exploring Paracas

This morning, after a nutritious breakfast of cake and cookies, we went over to Paracas Bay, where we boarded a tour boat that took us out to the Ballestas Islands. These rocky islands are full of cool rock formations and arches and are home to tons of wildlife, including dolphins, boobie birds, cormorants, penguins, and sea lions. We also got to see another awesome line drawing on the side of a hill.

Boat tour to Ballestas Islands

After the boat tour, we got to drive through the Paracas National Reserve, which is an amazing national park where the desert meets the ocean. The landscape was almost eerie, though quite fascinating, in it's desolation.

Paracas National Reserve

Following a tasty and big-portioned lunch, which included tacu tacu, a traditional Peruvian rice and bean dish, we made the four-hour drive back to the airport in Lima to catch a plane to Iquitos. The flight had rigorous weight restrictions for carry-on bags and fees for checked bags, so before checking in for the flight, we removed just the things we needed for the next several days and repacked into our daypacks. Then we left the rest of our stuff in the airport's luggage storage area. I feel sure I left something important behind that I will soon discover isn't as important as I thought!

Lunch at El Piloto

Celebrating 40

I turned 40 on Friday, and I did it right! My sweet hubby surprised me with a trip to the new Palafitos (overwater bungalows) in the Mexican Riviera. (He also surprised himself by accidentally revealing the gift to me months before he intended to!) We arrived at the resort on Wednesday around noon and instantly began to be treated like royalty. We had some lunch in the overwater restaurant and then took a walk around the resort, before settling into our amazing palafito. We spent the next few days lounging on our patio, alternating between the large lounge chair and the private pool, and eating large quantities of delicious food. On my birthday, the staff went all out to make sure my day was special. They put a sign on the door, decorated the bed when they did the turn-down service, delivered a beautiful dessert to the room, and even filled up our jacuzzi. It was such a special trip and a wonderful way to enter a new decade!

El Dorado Maroma Resort

Our beautiful palafito

Everything we ate was beautiful as well as delicious!

I certainly did feel special on my birthday!

*I am celebrating turning 40 all year long with a Year of Firsts. I am keeping a separate blog for documenting that journey, if you want to check it out.*

Grand Teton

This is the last of my catch-up posts. If you missed the others, just scroll through the last few posts to see what we've been up to the last few days.

Yesterday afternoon, we left Yellowstone and made the short drive down to our campground on the north side of Grand Teton National Park. After a short rest, we headed out on a hike on the Flagg Canyon Trail, along the Snake River. As Clay said, "It was a good hike, except for one thing: the bugs!" The mosquitoes were really bad. Consequently, what should have been a two hour hike was accomplished in an hour and a half.

Little waterfall in Flagg Canyon

Snake River

This morning, we got up early and drove through the rest of the beautiful Grand Teton park. Our goal was to get to Jackson Hole, WY by 9:00, take the aerial tram up to the top of Rendezvous Peak, and have waffles at Corbet's Cabin, and that's just what we did. Jackson Hole is a lovely ski resort town, and we wished we could have stayed longer. But, we still had several driving hours ahead of us to get to Park City, UT, so we left after breakfast and vowed to try to come back someday. We stopped for a mid-afternoon meal in Park City and then headed to our campground, where a playground and rec room were our reward for a long day in the car.

The Tetons at Jackson Lake

Buffalo herd in front of the Tetons

A curious onlooker

Jackson Hole

Corbet's Cabin

View of the valley from Rendezvous Peak

View of the Grand Tetons

Here comes our ride

Welcome to Utah

99 bottles of beer on the wall and a nod
 to Texas at Davanza's Pizza in Park City

Hiking in Yellowstone

We enjoyed our hike on Friday so much, we decided to fill up Saturday with several shorter hikes. We started with a lovely 2.4 mile hike to Natural Bridge. Then we did the very easy one mile hike at Pelican Creek. After that, we decided to take a break at Yellowstone Lake Lodge, where we had a delicious lunch, watched a sweet mama mule deer and her fawn, and played a board game. In the afternoon, we explored the 2.3 mile Storm Point Loop, where we enjoyed watching the cute little marmots, skipping rocks on a beach of Yellowstone Lake, and climbing out on Storm Point, overlooking the lake. We also loved how the trail took us through open meadows, thick forests, and along the cliffs above the lake. We have discovered that hiking is an activity that all our people enjoy and that is something we can all easily do together. Family bonding plus exercise plus fresh air for the win!

Natural Bridge

Hiking buddies

Mule deer mama and fawn

Lobster sliders and fancy fries

A view of Yellowstone Lake from the Pelican Creek Trail

Marmot 

Reward for the first half of the Storm Point Trail

The rare beach rhino, which we haven't
seen since we were in Scotland

Boys and rocks go well together

Storm Point

A gigantic wish