We just got back from our vacation to Mexico City and Huatulco.
We landed in Mexico City and spent the first few days seeing the sights. We took a day trip to see the pyramids in Teotihuacan. These are the Sun and Moon pyramids and we got to climb to the top of both of them.
The ride back from the pyramids is about an hour and a half and we pass thru the mountain ranges and see the the most colorful houses.
On Day 3, we went to a small town on the Pacific side of Mexico about a 1 hour flight from the city. We rented a nice beach house right on the sand on Playa Bocana just outside of Huatulco.
We had the most amazing sunrise every morning.
Here is a picture from the pool deck.
About a 10 minute walk up the beach, there was a reservoir with pink flamingos!
All day long, we would see the pelicans fishing in the ocean.
On one of the last days in Huatulco, we went for a river rafting excursion.
It looks pretty scary but wasn’t too bad.
Check out this amazing photo of an eagle we saw on the river.
We are now back from vacation and getting ready for school after a long summer!
After Bordeaux, we drove a few more hours thru the South of France to a town called Toulouse. My room mate from Harvey Mudd College lives there now with his wife and three kids.
The kids made some new friends and we had a great time.
Here are me and Laurent – visiting for the first time in 15 years!
Laurent has been busy for the last few years, building his own house from the ground up.
Here is a picture of the outside. It is completely off the grid.. all solar powered and assembled from 40 foot shipping containers that he welded together. Pretty amazing!
We just got back from two weeks in Spain and France. Our adventure started in Barcelona amongst all the fantastic architecture and museums. From there, we went to Bilboa in the northern part of Spain. We visited the Guggenheim museum in Bilboa. Next stop was Bordeaux. Only two days there but had a chance opportunity for private tasting and tour of Le Chatelet winery. Next stop was Toulouse where my roommate from Harvey Mudd College lives with his family. Then back to Barcelona and the long journey home. A total of about 1200 miles of driving and a lot of Tolls!
Here are some pictures from Barcelona. I’ll post the other sights separately.
This is the family on the tour bus the first day in Barcelona. This is a great way to see the all the major sights in the city.
Barcelona Tour Bus
Barcelona has the most amazing blend of both new and old architecture throughout the city.
Here is a picture of the “bullet” building or the Torre Agbar designed by french architect Jean Nouvel. The outside lights up in different colors at night.
One of the most impressive is the Sagrada Familia church designed by Antoni Gaudi with construction going on since 1882.
The interior is much more impressive than the exterior.
Gaudi has influenced much of Barcelona architecture. Here is a local park called Parc Guell. The views are amazing.
The crowds were even more so!
Of course, no trip to Barcelona is complete without the Tapas. We found our favorite vegetarian friendly Tapas Restaurant called La Ciutat Comtal near Plaza Catalunya. This was a very short walk from our apartment in the Gracia district. We tried several different ones but kept going back to La Ciutat.
Try the bravas, cabreados, padron peppers and their sangrias (both the white and red)!
We just got back from our summer vacation in Santa Teresa Beach on the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica. Once again we rented a beautiful beach house. The trip to the house was a little more involved. Two flights from Los Angeles to San Jose. A two hour car ride to the Ferry terminal. A two hour ferry ride and then a 2 hour car drive!
Here’s the gang on the ferry ride to Santa Teresa.
The first of many beautiful sunsets.
Here’s a picture of the iguana in our back yard, affectionately know as Mr. Fluffy Pants. (don’t ask me why!)
Here is a picture of a parrot in our back yard.
On our second day, we all took surfing lessons. Getting up on the board was not too difficult for the kids.
For me though… not so easy. Its harder than it looks!
After a hard day of surfing or swimming in 80 degree water.. we would usually go out to eat at one of the many wonderful restaurants in Santa Teresa.
On one of the days, we took a short hike to one of the many waterfalls in the Mal Pais area.
This one took about an hour of pretty strenuous climbing and navigating rocks but was definitely worth the hike.
This is a picture of the swing at our house. Many an hour was passed staring at the ocean!
Here is Annika enjoying the water and the sunset behind our house.
On one of the days, we went for a hike into the local rainforest.
We saw many capuchin monkeys, parrots, woodpeckers and many other creatures.
The beach on our last day in Santa Teresa.
A very relaxing vacation. We are already planning our next trip to (stay tuned).
On one of the days, we went to a zip line “park” run by Canopy Safari. It was about an hour’s drive into the jungle from Manuel Antonio. It started out with about a 20 minute walk up the hill. From there, it was about 20 zip lines down and a couple of rappel lines. Here are some pictures.
After each zip line, they hurried us through to the next one. It was loads of fun as you can see from the expressions….. but I must say, it was all a bit too “sanitized” for my liking. Guess you have to do it once but, I would go back for another river ride instead!
On one of the days in Costa Rica, we went white water river rafting on the Savegre River. Our tour was conducted by the Amigos Del Rio group. We chose the full day adventure down the Class 3 rapids of the Savegre River. The adventure started with a bus ride to a way point about an hour outside of Manuael Antonio. From there, we climbed into a 4 wheel drive hum-vee type vehicle for another hour drive deep into the rainforest.
Here are some pictures from the adventure.
We started off slowly and then hit some major rapids. It definitely looks scarier than it felt at the time.
They referred to this section of the river as La Boca del Diablo or the Devil’s Mouth.
There was also another section of the river we got to “surf a hole” – a technique where you are paddling upstream against the flow of the river and keeping up – too cool to describe.
We were fortunate to have a great tour operator and boatman (Ramirez) leading our raft. Only a few of us fell out of the boat and were quickly rescued! This was an amazing and thoroughly enjoyable day on the river.
We just got back from a week of vacation in Costa Rica. This time we rented a beach house in Manuel Antonio Beach. Manuel Antonio is a small beach town about a 3+ hour drive from the capital city of San Jose in Costa Rica. We rented a car at the local Budget and drove the 130km to our slice of paradise.
Here are some pictures of the kids on the beach behind the house.
Each day we built a (bigger and bigger) sand castle in the hopes of battling the high tides. Each morning we would come out to see the waves had wiped clean our hard-work!
One of the features of the beach house was the daily monkey crossing. We got to see a troop of monkeys crossing thru the back yard. The monkeys would stop by pretty much every afternoon for plantains and flowers.
In between the beach and the monkey sightings, we enjoyed the wonderful backyard and pool.
During the week, we also did a day of white water rafting and one day of a canopy tour. I’ll post those pics separately.
This week, I took the boys with their Boy Scout troop up to Yosemite for 5 days. On one of the days, we hiked up to Half Dome. This was a difficult 18 mile round trip from our campsite at Upper Pines. It took us about twelve and a half hours to complete the hike.
We started promptly at 5:30 in the morning while it was still dark.
About an hour into the hike, the kids had a dry cereal breakfast.
Here they are on another break.
At about the 6 hour mark, we near the staircase and cables part of Half Dome.
Here is a picture up the staircase. It is some basic rock scrambling. At the top of this 1/2 mile section is the cable portion. Only four of the boys remained for this last section.
Here we are right before the cables. You can see the cable ascent to the top of Half Dome in the picture below. The cable portion is 400 feet and is rated as a Class 3 climb.
I did not get a picture of it, but to keep the kids safe, we had them all wear a harness and clip themselves to the cables. In case they slipped, the harness would keep them safe.
There were some people that should not have been up there. We saw people in flip flops, people with one or two bottles of water and other accidents just waiting to happen. One of the boys said, “if you don’t know what you are doing, you will die”. We saw so many people that fit this category! In fact, the Park Service reports that there were three fatal falls last year alone.
Finally, we made it to the top! The peak is at 8842 feet of elevation and rises about 4700 feet off the valley floor.
The descent down the cables was a bit easier but still quite challenging.
After the cables, we started back down the mountain. Even though it was all down hill, it was still strenuous with difficult terrain to navigate.
One last shot of the numerous waterfalls on the way back.
Vikram said he “found his guts” on this trip. I would also add that it totally impressed me that these 11-14 year olds were able to accomplish such a feat at such a young age. I am proud of them all.
On the second day of our Zion trip, Doug, Denis and I took a hike along the lower Subway route. This is about a 10 mile hike that took us a little over 7 hours round trip with a lot of climbing in and out of the canyon.
Here we are at the start of the hike. You have to read to the end to see why it is called the Subway!
The entire hike is along an ancient riverbed with steep canyons along each side. We saw some dinosaur tracks part way thru the hike.
Here are Doug and I getting our feet wet.
Here is a picture of one of the sandstone overhangs.
Finally, here is the Subway. This water carved formation extends for about a 1/4 mile and dead ends in a deep pool of water that requires rapelling gear to continue.
This is the end of the trail for us!
Here is Doug climbing through the canyon.
And one last look at the awesome Subway!
After that, it is another 5 mile hike back to the top of the canyon.
On our last two days in Ecuador, we headed south of Quito on the Pan American highway to the village of Banos. It is known for its Tungurahua volcano which is an active 5000m high volcano site. It last erupted in Nov. 2006 and was said to have released steam on the days that we were there.
Fortunately, all we saw was a peaceful mountain and amazing views.
Here is a picture of the “spa” we stayed at in Banos at the base of the mountain. It is in a picturesque location underneath a waterfall.
The spa itself is a cheesy motel about the quality of a Motel 6 or worse but is was the best in town.
As you can see, the kids can have fun anywhere.
In the morning, we took a ride on the “terabithia” which is essentially a tram that goes across a gorge and ends in a waterfall. Banos is known for these “cascadas” that sit at the edge of the rainforest.
The one that we rode was 500m long and 100m above the ground. Check out the video of the ride. They stopped the tram about 2/3 of the ride and just before the waterfall.
After the ride, we headed back to Quito. On the way, we stopped off for some ice cream in the town of Salcedo which is known for its ice-cream. There must have been 100 ice cream vendors in the town.
After about a 4 hour ride back to Quito, we had a quick dinner at our favorite restaurant called the Magic Bean and were entertained by our little angel!
It was an amazing experience overall and one we will remember forever. Special thanks to Anjali for researching and arranging the whole trip!
Each day, we went on a canoe ride and did some hiking. Here is a video of one of the canoe rides. Listen to the sounds of the jungle and see the amazing variety of plant and animal life.
On one of the days, we climbed up to the top of a 135 foot (40 meter) kapok tree and viewing platform. It sits just above the rainforest canopy and provides the opportunity to view the birds and monkeys from a different vantage point.
Here are the boys looking thru the telescope at the birds.
Here is a picture Nikhil took of a toucan thru the telescope.
The next day, we went to the top of a 90 foot (30 meter) suspension bridge. Here is a video of the walk across the bridge.
At the top, we saw more toucans just sitting on the bridge. Six in all.
Here is a picture from back down at the bottom, looking up at the suspension bridge. It looks scarier than it is.
Ont the way back to the lodge, we saw a fungus called a champagne cup.
Here is a school of squirrel monkeys. They traveled in packs. If you look closely, you can see 3 of them. We saw several of them up close and personal.
And here is me and my better half taking a break.
On the ride back to the lodge, we were surprised by a fast approaching thunder and lightning storm.
We made it safely back to the lodge and enjoyed another wonderful meal.
The Amazon is a truly awesome experience and Sacha Lodge was a great place to see all that it has to offer.
I still have a couple more posts of the equator trip and a trip we took to a volcano in Banos. Stay tuned!
All of our hikes and tours were led by 2 guides. One was a native Indian guide (on the left below – named Segundo) and the other was a high school professor by training that acted as translator and story teller (named Oscar).
The kids really took a liking to Segundo. Even though he spoke no English, he showed them special jungle trees, birds and bugs and cleared the path for them on all our hikes with his super machette.
Here is Vikram with a millipede on his hand.
Here is Nikhil with some of the butterflies that seemed to be attracted to him.
And here is Annika by the nut trees.
Here is Annika in front of one of the millions of odd looking trees. It is said that 10 acres of Amazon jungle have more species of wildlife than the entire United States. This picture is in the middle of the day, but because the jungle is so dense it seems almost dark and requires the use of a flash.
One of the kids’ favorite trees was Sangre de Drago or dragon’s blood tree. When pierced by a knife, the tree oozes a red sap that is medicinal in it properties and is said to treat everything from cuts and bites to cancer. It is one of the magical herbs in the jungle. Our guide also showed us the trees used to make everything from pitocin (from the cecropia tree), jungle viagra, the rubber plant (used to make chewing gum), jungle peanuts, and all kinds of magic mushrooms.
Here is Vikram looking inside a bat hole.
The bats are hiding inside the tree trunk (this picture again uses a flash). One of the evenings, we did a night-time canoe ride and saw (and felt) whole flocks of bats flying around.
One of the hundreds of unique spiders.
Here is a picture of a termite nest. There were thousands of these huge nests along the trails.
Here is a picture of a couple of vultures hanging out at the top of a tree.
We saw so many birds that the guides pointed out including euphonias, macaws, toucans, herons, crested owls, tanagers, woodpeckers, hawks and hummingbirds.
We also saw many different types of monkeys including the tiny pygmy marmoset, night monkey, squirrel monkeys, capuchins and howler monkeys. The monkeys were particularly fun to watch as they traveled in packs and were extremely loud and disruptive.
One of the afternoons, the boys went fishing in the lake for live piranha. They were extremely aggressive and devoured the bait as soon as it went in the water. Our Indian guide with lots of skill caught one and showed off the piranha’s razor sharp teeth. There were dozens of these red bellied and white bellied piranhas swimming in the lake.
The boys then went swimming in the same lake! It is said that although the piranha are vicious, they only attack if there are open wounds and they can smell blood. In the same lake at night, we saw a caiman. Again, the guide said they only come out at night. In fact, the last evening we were there, there was a group of kids still swimming at the dock and the guide ushered them to come out of the water.
I will add one more post with some additional videos and pictures from the suspension bridge and the tree house in the kapok tree. These were some of the best features of the lodge.
The middle part of our trip was spent in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador.
We started off with an early morning plane ride from Quito airport to a small town called Coca about a 1/2 hour east of Quito.
From there it is a short “chiva” bus ride to our safe house where the staff pack our bags into sealed waterproof containers for the boat ride thru the jungle.
At the safe house we have a quick lunch and then board a small power boat for the 70km ride down the Napo River.
Here are Nikhil and Vikram fast asleep during the two and a half hour ride.
Along the way, we see the pristine old growth rain forests being carved up by big bad American oil concerns like Chevron and Texaco.
The river is dotted by the tell tale signs of tanker boats, oil rigs and the flames of burning oil.
The only way to get the oil out is by river boat. There are no roads in and out of the jungle. It is tragic to see the rain forest disappearing for the sake of big oil profits.
Once we get to the dropoff point on the Napo River, it is a 1/2 hour hike on a boardwalk and mud trail followed by a 20 minute canoe ride.
And finally, we arrive at Sacha Lodge to begin our adventure. The lodge has running water, 24 hour electricity and even made special accomodations for vegetarian meals.
The huts are comfortable and spacious and as posh as one can imagine in a jungle this remote.
After a short night hike and a briefing dinner, we got into the daily routine of a 5:30AM wakeup call, a 3-4 hour morning hike, an afternoon swim in the lake and a night time canoe ride or another hike. On my next post, I’ll highlight some of the rare birds, butterflies, monkeys, trees, bugs and other wildlife we were able to see.
We are back from our Ecuador trip over Spring Break. It was awesome.
I’ll start posting pictures but we did soooo much in the 10 days so it may take several posts.
We arrived at our hotel room on Thursday night. I had packed some bananas that we purchased from Trader Joe’s (in California) that were originally shipped from Ecuador. When we got to our hotel at night, the restaurant was closed, so we all ate our Ecuadorian bananas! The Chiquita bananas were happy to be back home in Ecuador (if only for a brief moment).
The next day, we took a tram ride called the Teleferico that starts at 2950m (9700ft) and elevates to 4100m (13,500). There are a couple of hundred more feet of climbing at the top! Quito, the capital of Ecuador is the second highest capital city in the world (the highest being La Paz). It takes a few days to get used to the altitude which causes shortness of breath, a headache and a bit of nausea. At the top, there was a medical clinic as it was common for people to get altitude sickness. We were all spared, aside from the headaches and overall sluggishness.
Here is a view as we climb the mountain in our tram – a ride that takes just 8 minutes.
The view from the top is incredible. The city is quite large with a population of about 2 million and is in a valley surrounded by volcano formed mountains all around it.
Anjali’s friend Vaishali, from college came from the east coast to visit California. They started in San Diego and as they were passing thru to LA and eventually San Francisco, they stopped by to visit.
Vaishali, Shahid and their baby daughter Aleena and a couple of their friends stayed for one night.
The baby on the left is Aleena and the one on the right is Jayla (a friend of Vaishali’s).
We spent the week before Paris in Geneva. I had to work during the week (Monday thru Thursday) so Anjali explored (probably more so than in my numerous trips in the past).
Anyway, here are a few of the local sights.
The United Nations is on the outskirts of town. There were many dignitaries and events related to the UN.
Here is Lake Geneva with the the local Starbucks (the one with the green awning on the far right). It looks just like any other, except that a latte there will cost you over $6! Our Hotel Angleterre is right on the lake and close to all the restaurants and shopping.
Here is Anjali at the “longest bench in the world” in the Old Town at the top of Geneva. The bench at the Promenade de la Treille measures 126 meters long!
Well that is it! This was the last episode of our mini-vacation. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Many thanks to Mom and Dad for watching the kids while we were gone. It sounds like they had their own adventures.
I’ve been meaning to post a few more pictures from our last day in Paris.
We took it pretty easy and just visited the Louvre and walked around the Eiffel Tower.
Here are a few picture from the Louvre.
We did see the Mona Lisa but boy was it unimpressive! They make you stand 20 feet away from the painting. It is covered in 2 layers of plexiglass and is at most 2 ft by 2 ft. Not sure what the big deal is.
Anyway – see for yourself!
After a nice lunch at the Dome Cafe near the Eiffel Tower, we headed back to Geneva which was a 4 1/2 hour drive. I must also mention that without our TomTom GPS system we would have been hopelessly lost in Paris. Maybe not such a bad thing.
We hope to get back again in a few years, though there are too many other sights to see on our list of 50!
As I was searching the internet for articles on our upcoming trip(s) (more to come on that), I came across this fun article originally published by the BBC. It lists their top 50 places to visit before you die. Interestingly enough, not a single item is in the UK!
I am up to 13 with just 37 to go. How many do you have?
We went for a long hike and saw the redwoods. The tallest trees in the park are 260 feet with a 14 foot diameter and are over 1000 years old. The park has the tallest species of Coast Redwoods in the world.
On the way home we stopped off at the Oak residence in Orinda (from Redwoods to Oaks!). Here are the 3 boys climbing in their backyard.
Khare Family Adventures 