Dublin

Hey! We’re in Ireland!

After a very late flight (thank you, melatonin, for putting me to sleep before take off), we landed in Dublin on Friday morning. After what seemed like forever for bags to come out (ahem - for our gate-checked bag to come out because we had our checked bag right away), we caught the bus into the city and were able to check into our hotel early. After dropping bags, we headed for the old city centre. We cut through St. Stephen’s Green and up Grafton Street before getting to Temple Bar, where we had our first Irish fish and chips. Verdict - fish was good, chips were a disappointment. But that’s fine. We have plenty of time! After lunch, it was time for some books.

We walked the short walk over to Dublin Castle, taking in the Upper Yard before heading into Dubhlinn Gardens to get to Chester Beatty Library. Chester Beatty was an absolute dream - we saw the earliest known writings of Christ, so many beautiful religious texts and the most incredible overview of book binding. Book lover’s heaven!!

After taking in all our fill, it was time for the booze portion of our books and booze day - Teeling Distillery! Once upon a time, there were 37 distilleries in Dublin. Then, between US prohibition and the fight for independence, which made export to the UK difficult, the distilleries were put out of business. But they’ve started to come back - and Teeling is leading the way. It was the first new distillery to open in Dublin in 125 years and the first to be operating again after nearly 40 years after the last distillery shut down in the 70s. We had a great tour of the distillery, meeting the three stills, (Natalie, Rebecca and Alison) before sampling 3 of Teeling’s whiskeys. Two of them were perfectly fine but forgettable, if we’re being honest - the single malt and the small batch. And look, when I say forgettable, I don’t mean bad in any way. They were good whiskeys. But they were pretty similar to a lot of whiskeys. But the third… It’s their single grain and made similar to a bourbon but uses casks from a Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon. And that was a memorable whiskey. I’m not sure I’ve had anything like it. It was quite good and we confirmed we can get it at the airport so that we don’t have to lug a bottle around for the next couple of days.

After three whiskeys, I was ready for some ice cream. Okay. I’m always ready for some ice cream. But we weren’t quite ready for dinner and I had two ice cream places on my list for Dublin so we headed towards Murphys ice cream, where I had a delicious Chocolate Whiskey ice cream and an amazing Dingle Sea Salt. YUM! But then, it was time to find some dinner and we landed at Bruxelles, where EDP had a really amazing looking burger and chips that made up for lunchtime while I had goat cheese croquettes. Yeah, I know we’re in Ireland but EDP has told me I can’t have fish and chips at every meal in case of lead poisoning and I LOVE A CROQUETTE. I also had a whiskey cocktail. It was a damn good meal. From there, it was back to the hotel to try to stay up past 8pm, which went fine after I had a 45 minute nap. Oops.

We woke up SO LATE yesterday that we missed our opportunity for breakfast since we had a food tour booked for 10. We met our guide, Lorna, from Fab Food Tours at Mansion House just on the other side of the green and she took our group of 13 on a delicious tour of Dublin. We started with coffee and cannoli at Dolce Sicily - where we learned a lot about Ireland’s food history and that coffee is only really starting to take hold here. Then, it was across the road for some yummy cheeses from Sheridans. After the lowdown on some shopping, we ducked into The Pepper Pot for smoked salmon on soda bread and scones with raspberry jam and Irish cream (the scone may have been my favourite…) We moved on to Blazing Salads for samosas and Fallon & Byrne for chicken liver pate on crackers, cheese, and olives and then to the other ice cream shop I wanted to try, Three Twenty, where we had an amazing salted caramel brownie ice cream that was SO DELICIOUS. Finally we ended with some whiskey at the Swan pub, which is where the rebels did much of their planning for the uprising against the UK and where we learned women couldn’t be seen with a drink in public for a long time! It was such a good food tour that left us happily satiated.

Once our tour wrapped, it was time to head up to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, which was… Well, not quite a disappointment but it was crowded and hard to read the exhibition info. The book was beautiful but I don’t think the page we saw really exhibited the beauty it is known for. The pages are turned about every 8 weeks so we’ll have to go again if we ever make it back to Dublin. Now, the Long Room was a delight. We got to see it at a very unique time - some of the shelves are still full of books but the room is not ideal for book storage. So they are decanting all the books - each one gets cleaned and then sent to climate-controlled storage. They are about 2/3 of the way through. I don’t know if the intention is to leave empty shelves when they are done but it was quite something to see some shelves still packed with books while others sat with nothing.

Then, it was time for a drink at a cozy little cocktail bar where my cocktail came with toasted marshmallows. It was lovely to sit with a drink and my book and while away an hour. Now while we absolutely could have sat with another round or two of cocktails, we figured we should head to Merrion Square Park while the sun was out since there was rain in the forecast for today. We found the Oscar Wilde statue before wandering down one side and up the middle of the park. Then, it was towards the hotel, traipsing through St. Stephen’s Green again, this time along another set of paths, which led us past James Joyce’s bust. We ended our day with fish and chips from a spot recommended by Lorna and not too far from our hotel. It was excellent. The fish was so flakey. The chips were good & fat. I wasn’t a huge fan of their special tartar sauce but damn, it hit the fish and chips spot! Sadly our quest for hot chocolate after dinner ended in disappointment (every coffee shop closes at 5…) so we settled in for the night instead.

We were expecting rain for our last day in Dublin today - we’re actually expecting rain pretty much every day we’re here - so it was the perfect day for the museums. Sundays are also a tough day for restaurant selection so we had limited breakfast options but landed at a place that was recommended by a couple of locals that were on our food tour. When I saw porridge with peanut butter and chocolate on the menu, I didn’t need to read any further. It was a combo I’d have never thought of but was really just a scoop of peanut butter with some chocolate melts. Surprisingly tasty and something I’m definitely trying next time I make oatmeal. Then, since I messed up the opening time for the National Gallery, we grabbed a tea/hot chocolate until the Gallery opened. The rain mostly held off while we were making our way around outdoors but I suspect it may have been raining while we were in the Gallery.

The Gallery was lovely and much larger than I expected. We saw a lot of beautiful Irish art and I learned about Yeats’ painter brother. The portrait gallery was another highlight with both photographs and paintings of a lot of key Irish figures. We wandered throughout the rooms for a couple of hours, enjoying the extensive collection. Then, it was over to the Archeology building my of the National Museum, where we saw an incredible amount of archeological history of the country going back to the Palaeolithic era. The amount of gold that has been found around Ireland is quite something. The museum certainly packed a lot into its relatively small space.

Then, it was out into the day that while chilly, was much sunnier than expected. Instead of lunch, we stopped for hot chocolate with some chocolates as a snack before winding our way back through St. Stephen’s Green one last time. We’re heading for dinner shortly and then packing up for an early start tomorrow to pick up a car and start our drive around the northern and western coasts. There’s still a lot of rain in the forecast but we’ve got our waterproof jackets and the hiking boots so I’m sure we’ll be fine! And if we end up cold and wet… Well, that’s why there’s whiskey.

Ireland

We’ve really fallen into the habit of planning trips with relatively little time to spare. This time? Well, we knew we were travelling around this time but it took a bit to settle on where. After a bit of searching, we landed on Ireland. A few days with the guidebook got us an itinerary and with about a week to spare, we got hotels booked and started packing. We’re leaving on Thursday and are looking forward to a couple of days in Dublin before renting a car to travel along the north and west coasts for some hiking:

• In Dublin, we’ll head out on a food tour (our favourite way to see a city), check out lots of books, see some art and obviously, drink some whiskey.

• Then, we pick up a car and stop at Brú na Bóinne on our way up to Belfast, where we’ll check out the Titanic museum and the West Belfast murals. Then it’s on to the Giant’s Causeway, and an afternoon in Derry.

• We’ll then head up to Banba’s Crown (Ireland’s most northern point), visit Glenveagh Castle & its grounds, hike through the Poisoned Glen, visit a beach with caves, hike in Connemara National Park, hike around the Cliffs of Moher, and take a ferry out to Inishmore

Then, we’ll head back to Dublin for our flight home. Hopefully, with photos of puffins. I really want to see a puffin.

Hi. I'm in Canada.

And now we’re home again.

Our last day in Costa Rica was mostly a travel day. Our early start got delayed because one of the roads was closed because of a mudslide so we had a lazy morning before getting in the car for what should have been about a 3 hour drive. It was much, much longer. But, along the way, we stopped and got to see a crocodile (mostly just his butt) so that was pretty cool.

Our last little adventure in Costa Rica was a coffee plantation tour. After some lunch, we had a bit of time before the tour so we popped into their butterfly garden where there were SO MANY butterflies. It was fun to be right in the middle of them but, man, is it hard to photograph flying creatures. Our tour around the plantation was very interesting. They had a display set up with coffee plants in different stages of growth and then we got to go right into the facility where they separate the beans and do the roasting, etc.

Then, we finished off the last leg back to the hotel. It ended up being quite late by the time we arrived and directions had become difficult for Oscar to follow - so at one point, we ended up on something that was definitely NOT a road. But we made it back to where we started our adventures for our last night before our early flight out. We were in the same room, which was fun but, unfortunately, with how long the drive took, our quiet afternoon disappeared.

And now, we’re home again. With an insane amount of damp laundry (because NOTHING dried while we were away) and a lot of chocolate and an itch to go back and see the rest of the country.

Hi. I'm in Manuel Antonio.

Well, that was a drive and a half. As previously mentioned, despite Costa Rica being a small country, it is not quick to travel across. You’re travelling on narrow roads that aren’t in great shape in a lot of places and are going up and down through the mountains and it’s just a lot. Especially in rainy season. Which is the season we are currently in. So the drive down to Manuel Antonio took FOREVER. Oscar, our driver, wasn’t sure if the roads were even going to be open in some places. Happily, the roads were open so we didn’t have to backtrack. Unhappily, there were a few times I thought we wouldn’t be able to get through because it was so tough going. We hit some rain, of course, including pretty much torrential downpours as we finally arrived at our hotel.

Luckily, we had a stop for a chocolate tour part way through. And it wasn’t pouring rain for that! We had learned much of what we heard already at our farm tour but we got to see lots of tiny frogs, participate in making some chocolate and sampling it in several different stages, including a delicious beverage stage. Of course, I loaded up on the chocolate, though where we went, they don’t manufacture their own bars, they are more of an education centre and work with families in the area with their cacao growing. But it was very interesting seeing all the tiny flowers on the cacao plant that will turn into flowers and seeing the cacao beans in their varying stages.

Once we finally made it to our hotel (in the pouring rain, which did not bode well for the major hike planned the next day. It also pretty much forced us into the hotel restaurant for dinner, which turned out to bode VERY WELL because I had a palm fruit pasta that was sort of like an Alfredo but somehow even more delicious. We’re fairly far from Manuel Antonio so it’s a good thing the restaurant is good so that we don’t have to travel far for dinner. Breakfast was also quite delicious and happily, the rain had stopped and we were able to enjoy an incredible view from the restaurant, including watching 2 scarlet macaws sweep by in front of us. The hotel also hosts a macaw sanctuary so while I didn’t have my camera at the ready, there’s a good chance of seeing them again while we’re here.

We weren’t entirely sure if our big hike was going to end up cancelled or not - with the heavy rain, things have been washed out and are so wet. But, it went forward! And wow, it was a really big challenge, particularly for someone with short little legs, like me. Our Coastal Challenge started in Quepos, the town not far from Manuel Antonio, at the market where we picked out a delicious mango for a mid-hike snack. Then, we started out from town, along the coast, seeing a bit of town and then starting to head upwards into the hills. And I got to see my THIRD type of monkey, the spider monkey. They were running and playing in the trees and were so adorable. I did ask very politely but none of them wanted to relocate to Canada to be my pet. They do move pretty quickly so I now have a lot of photos of spider monkey butts. Soon after the spider monkeys, we headed into the real challenge-y part of the hike. We were into the forest with steep climbs and drops and paths that had washed out from the rain. At one point, our guide had to pull a massive knife out of his pack and essentially chop down a tree so we could keep going. At another point, he pulled out a rope so that I could have something to hold on to as I tried to get down one of the drops. There were a lot of points where ropes had been fastened into the trail, so needing some help wasn’t unexpected but there were no built in ropes at this point. We got to see a number of little beaches as we hiked along the coast and FINALLY saw a sloth when we were stopped for a water break. Poor sloth was a little waterlogged. Later, we realised it was a momma sloth and a baby sloth! That was an exciting discovery. The challenge was absolutely a challenge - and much harder than I expected it to be and I was pretty muddy by the end. But we did it and then I had DELICIOUS mahi mahi for dinner so totally worth it.

Our final adventure in Costa Rica was another guided nature walk in Manual Antonio National Park. We had an early start with our guide, and were expecting rain again for the day, which absolutely happened. At the start, things were in good shape. We saw lots of lovely animals, including a ground wood nib hummingbird, tree crabs, glass frogs, green anole lizard, a red skimmer dragonfly, a common tent bat and two basilisks - a helmet headed basilisk. There was also another snake in there but I can’t remember what it’s called other than it kills about 5 people a year. And another sloth! Also a little damp from the rain so couldn’t see too much at all but hey, still saw her. This was a three-toed sloth and after reviewing the photos from the coastal challenge sloth, the guide declared her a four-toed sloth so I got to see both kinds! We’re also starting to get pretty good at taking photos through a telescope so we’ve got some good ones of the small animals we saw from far off today, which makes me very happy. The original plan had been to stay in the park and have some beach time but that was not in the cards since the rain had started again. Instead, we headed back to the hotel and waited for the rain to clear up a bit before taking the shuttle back down to Manuel Antonio for some lunch at a little food truck that’s run out of an old school bus - fish tacos for the win! And then we went for drinks where I found my FINAL MONKEY! The capuchins. And they are little assholes. They didn’t hesitate at all to come right up into the restaurant, where staff had to shoo them away. So they just went onto the next one. I think they would have eaten one woman’s lunch if she hadn’t picked it up and moved. They are super fast so it was hard to get a good picture but at last, my monkey quartet is complete.

Hi. I'm in La Fortuna.

Where did we leave off? Oh right, with the most insane dinner (Glass pod in the sky? 7 courses including 2 desserts? Wine pairings that included 2 ounces of rum? That’s insane.) So, it was our last night in the area and in the morning, after breakfast, Oscar picked us up for the incredibly long 100km to the hanging bridges of Mistico Park.

So the thing about Costa Rica is that even though something seems close (or, at least, close by Canadian standards) it will still take forever to get to because the roads are narrow and windy and up & down mountains. So our 100km drive took us about somewhere near 3 hours? In Costa Rica’s defence, we did stop at a lookout at one end of the Arenal Lake to take in the stunning views of the lake, all the way down to the volcano. And we also stopped to see some howler monkeys at the side of the road.

Anyway. This volcano and its lake. There was a massive eruption back in the 60s, which ended up burying a couple of small towns and activity in the volcano continued on well into the early 2000s. Somewhere in there, the lake was expanded with the creation of a massive dam and is now the largest water reservoir for hydroelectric power in the country. The expansion of the lake led to 2 towns now being in the lake, so those were obviously abandoned and relocated. There’s a church steeple of one of the towns that still pokes up out of the water when the levels are low. So it’s a big lake and very beautiful. And there’s LOTs of wild life around. As we were nearing the Mistico Hanging Bridges, our main activity for the day, we stopped along the side of the road to see the first monkeys we’ve seen so far - howler monkeys. I’m on a quest to see all four kinds so this was very exciting. And noisy. But mostly exciting. Soon after, we arrived at the park and met our guide for our guided nature walk through the nature reserve with it’s 6 hanging bridges.

A guided nature walk sounds very fancy but honestly, if you don’t go with a guide on these walks, you will miss so much. We weren’t even on the trail yet when our guide spotted a viper. A VIPER! Much smaller than I expected, actually. But the point is, we saw so many interesting birds and bugs and whatnot and we never would have seen them otherwise. Like the broadbilled motmot! He’s so pretty. AND MORE MONKEYS! This time, its was the spider monkey. And I think we were pretty lucky to see them - they were just young little fellas having a play in the trees on our way out.

Once our guided walk was done, it was into La Fortuna for lunch, which was delicious, like everything else we’ve had so far, and then to our hotel for the next couple of nights, which has it’s own hot springs (also something that sounds fancy but it’s not - there’s a volcano heating everything up and EVERY hotel has its own hot springs) and has views of the volcano! We’re told not to expect to be able to see it much as the clouds generally cover it so we took in our fill of it while we had the chance. Once we were settled into our room, we definitely went down the hot springs, which were gorgeous and had a bar! So we enjoyed a lovely cold beverage in the warm waters, trying a couple of different spots as it was essentially like a long river that has been divided up into areas. Dinner was a bit of a bust - the hotel really caters to tourists, including the dining options. Certainly not our best meal.

The next morning, we were off to our Rio Celeste Full Day Adventure! That sounds really exciting, doesn’t it? Well, it started with a really long drive - nearly an hour and a half. But once we arrived at The Tenorio National Park, our guide took us unto the park where the river is this incredible bright turquoise colour, which is caused by two rivers coming together with very different makeups but when they combine, you get this stunning turquoise, which is just amazing. Unfortunately, there were some closed paths so we couldn’t do the full hike and see where the two rivers combine but we were able to see where another river joins the already turquoise river so that was pretty neat. But extra unfortunately for us, this wasn’t a private tour and we had someone who had vastly overestimated her abilities and someone else who wanted to stop and look at every single tree in the forest. Which was frustrating for us as we wanted to be moving! But lunch after was delicious and made up for it.

Once back at the hotel, we took another trip down to the hot springs, knowing a bit better about where we thought the best spots were and then headed into La Fortuna for dinner. And this is how we really knew we were at a hotel meant for tourists who don’t tour the way we tour - the front desk wouldn’t call us a proper cab. We used their “shuttle” service which cost us an arm and a leg but we did have a really good dinner plus ice cream after (and even got some chocolates and hot chocolate for back in the hotel room.) We also wandered around town a little to make the trip into town worth!

For our last day in the area, we had some good stuff planned - ziplining and a farm tour. The farm tour came HIGHLY recommended by our friends who were here a few months ago and yep, they were right. We took a cam out to Finca Educative Don Juan where we were the only people on our tour so yay! Private tour! We were taking around the farm, shown all sorts of awesome things like cinnamon bark and stevia plants and most excitingly, cacao! We got to try a cacao pod and then saw the process used to make chocolate. We also got to use our muscles and juice some sugar cane! Oh, and got to try what is basically moonshine, which was a bit of a shock to the system. Then it was onto a yummy lunch that is made with what is grown on the farm. So good!!

We finished up with the best zip lining we’ve done so far on our travels! We were a bit worried because it was getting rainy and foggy and who knew how it was going to go but it turned out pretty well! We started with a short ride up a to the top of the lines, seeing the forest below. Once up at the top, we saw a lovely toucan, which was unexpected. Then, it was time to get back down to the starting point through the series of 6 lines (and a practice line) - one of which is almost an entire km long. It was much different than zip lining we’ve done before where you didn’t have to keep a hand on the line, which was good cause I HATE that part of zip lining. But it also meant that I was really bad at stopping myself and plowed into the end barriers with pretty much every line since you have to watch for the guides’ signals and I never saw them. It’s fine. The barriers were padded. But because of the clouds & mist, the early lines were a bit of a mystery, you just got sent off and had no idea where the end was or how long til you got there. The later lines cleared up a bit for us, including for the longest line, so that worked out pretty well. We were able to get some glimpses of the volcano from another perspective, too - I think we’ve seen it from all angles now :)

Now, it’s off to Manuel Antonio for our last leg of the trip. We have a long drive to get from where we are to where we need to be but we’re heading to the spot where I have my best shot at seeing sloths and where all the capuchin monkeys are!

Hi. I'm in Santa Elena.

Today, EDP made friends with a tarantula.

It was an early start today with breakfast at 6:15 and a taxi at 7 to take us up to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve for our guided walk through a cloud forest.

What’s a cloud forest? It’s a forest in the where the canopy is in the clouds. It’s an incredibly biodiverse forest because of the amount of moisture brought to it by the consistent cloud cover. In the case of the Santa Elena cloud forest, it’s on the continental divide so the winds sweep in from the Atlantic side and settle, forming clouds that sit in the forest, resulting in the equivalent moisture of TWELVE FEET OF RAIN a year. It’s pretty cool.

Anyway. Our taxi took us further up the mountains to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. There are 2 near where we are - Santa Elena and Monteverde. Santa Elena is less popular and a bit higher up in elevation. It’s also run in partnership with a local high school so students take part in caring for the reserve and part of the entrance fees support the school. Once it was time, our guide, Johnny, started us out in the parking lot where he was pointing out several lovely birds, including a bright red bird that he typically doesn’t see. Then, we tried to find a very rare frog that they thought was extinct until a few years ago. While Johnny spotted it, it snuck into the growth before the rest of us could. We also saw a very tiny frog that was almost purple in colour, sunning himself on a leaf.

Then, it was into the rainforest to see what we could spot. Johnny has been a guide for over 20 years and he was so good at spotting things. Over the course of our time with him, we saw lots of orchids, birds, a few frogs & other bugs, and perhaps the highlight for EDP - a tarantula. I ran for the hills when that fella came out of his little hidey hole. Once our tour with Johnny was done, we stayed in the forest for a bit to hike some of the other trails. Of course, without a guide, we didn’t see any wildlife but the surroundings were lovely.

Sadly, climate change is really affecting the cloud forest. Animals are having to go higher up than usual to find the climate they thrive in and that means some animals are being pushed out. But Costa Rica has been working to restore it’s natural environment - in the late 1980s, deforestation had taken coverage of the country down to 27% but now, with efforts to restore the natural environment, the country is nearly 60% forest again.

After leaving the cloud forest, we headed back down into Santa Elena for some lunch at an excellent taco place called Taco Taco. Obviously, I had fish tacos. And because it was a bit cool, spiced hot chocolate, which was delicious. Then, it was a bit of rest before our treetop dining experience.

Okay, so we expected this to really wow us because we saw photos. But wow, it really wowed us. Let me explain…

When we were talking to Julio and Sarah Joy, we said we often like to do a fancier meal at some point in the trip - something special & memorable. And they came back to us with the San Lucas Treetop Dining Experience, which was described as a 7-course tasting dinner in the treetops with only 8 tables, which looked to be fairly separate from each other. Happily, we found a little shortcut gate from our hotel onto the road that runs beside it, which saved us from having to walk all the way down to the bottom of the hill on the hotel’s drive just to turn around and walk right back up. We arrived a bit early but our server was already waiting for us at the entrance and led us down to the restaurant’s foyer. We got a little glimpse of the bar, reviewed dietary restrictions and added the wine pairing onto our dinner. Then, we posed the obligatory photo before being led down into our private glass pod in the sky.

PRIVATE GLASS POD IN THE SKY.

Each table is in its own glass pod, suspended over the forest with a view of town and beyond. And we happened to be the only table at our 5pm seating. While 5pm is early for dinner, it was recommended over the later seating so that you could watch the sunset. It was a bit of a cloudy night (but they all are when you are near the cloud forest) but we still had a lovely sunset to watch while we had a culinary tour through Costa Rica with a 9-course tasting dinner, each course representing a different province in the country. The food was incredible, showing off the best of each region. We had corn FIVE ways in one dish. We had coconut soup with lobster (or eggplant for those of us with shellfish allergies), we had puffed rice, we had TWO desserts! And a new wine with almost every course - with the last wine being TWO OUNCES OF RUM. We were stuffed (and a little tipsy) by the end but it was definitely memorable & special.