The adventure begins.....in LA!

A quick trip to the mall to return my unused wedding shoes for some practical travel sandals, and to our local IT man Gav to pick up my storage drive (technical difficulties..)  and we're at Auckland airport.  Had to say bye to Dad.  Sad after hanging out with him for a month! Lucky me I got used to having my Dad look after me again - and I liked it!

First stop LA, California - my first time in 'The States'.  We pick up our snazzy Avis car with GPS (fortunately Snowdon's pretty good with the driving on the RHS because I definitely wasn't keen!) and off to Denise (Snowdon's cousin) and Jeffs' very lovely house in Glendale.  

Day One:

It was freezing! We zoomed off to The Bodhi Tree bookshop (from Snowdon's list) before it closed (Melrose Ave, West Hollywood).  A very cool bookshop with free herbal tea, yum and millions of great things to parooz (sp.?)  We went to a big (little town) mall and wondered along listening to the lovely old 50's? music hand in hand - I've seen people doing that in the movies!  I didn't look like I was in the movies though -  I'd put on as many clothes as I could and was still shivering.

Dinner - typical American style restaurant - apparently quite famoso - Du Paris.  HUGE meals!

Day Two:
An early rise to attend the morning meditation (6.30am) and service (7am) at the Agape Spiritual Centre created by Rev. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith  (off Snowdon's list yay for his list!) and Snowdon's cousin Sheri joined us.  What an experience - a full on celebration of life, complete with gospel music.  'Agape' is Greek for unconditional love - and love was VERY present. 

Universal Studios rocked (we even got a whole year 2010 pass for the price of a day one - great getting things free even if we won't be there to use it - sorry folks need finger scan..).  
 - Terminator II 3D
 - Shrek 4D  
 - Studio Tour (with car stunts and Wysteria Lane just as is in Desperate Housewives!)
 - Waterworld Show

 - Photo with Bart and Lisa!


Then we were pooped (I've missed a few sleeps I needed to recover from jet lag!)


Avatar in 3D - incredible movie - man I don't know about this 3D stuff though, my eyes got real sore with those funny glasses on (jet lag?).  Then Denise/Jeff/Tim and Sheri took us to this cool really American style restaurant where you have a beeper to collect your meat (or Salmon for me yum..) and bun and then add your salads/sauces to your burger..

That night Snowdon and I went and checked out Santa Maria Beach, and guess what we found - Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant, classic!  The waiter even gave us a quiz on Forest Gump trivia, we did OK.. And yes the shrimp were delicious!  

Day Three:
Venice Beach - eeek, interesting but some sketchy types down there, man!?

We finally found 'Sports Chalet' and got some NOT Walking shoes BUT 'Hiking Shoes' - thus it took us till the last day to find them - but man check us out - we found them!! All pumped for Costa Rican jungle (at some stage anyway..) 

We even made a speedy purchase of our long planned and deliberated dream of getting a MAC BOOK PRO for our travels.  Thank you to all of the Siregar Family who contributed towards it as a wedding gift - we love it!  We used it to take this pic whilst waiting in the airport...in anticipation of the tropics!

We had a lovely thank you and good bye dinner with Denise and Jeff (our wonderful LA hosts - thank you hosts!) - we made sweat and sour tuna special - yum. 


And then we were off - TO COSTA RICA (via Panama)!!!

My new dream school

Hermosa Valley School - check out this photo (far right top row)!
These children have surf boards in their classroom!
http://hermosavalleycostarica.com/photos.php?fotos=School

I found another paradise!

Amber's Top 8 Paradises:

1.  Taylor Family Orchard, Opotiki, NZ
2.  Morice's Beach, Opotiki, NZ
3.  Taupo Bay, Northland, NZ
4.  Paradise Point, Omanu Beach, Mt Maunganui, NZ
5.  Kaikoura, NZ
6.  Gili Trabangan, Lombok, Indonesia
7.  Kabak Valley, Turkey
8.  Playa Carmen, Mal Pais, Costa Rica

Jif

We often have Jif, cucumber, tomato and tuna sandwiches for breakfast,  lunch or dinner.  Sometimes we have Jif and banana sandwiches.....


Sound good?

Playa Carmen - two day love affair!

We made good use of the first day.  I had a fantastic early morning surf.  I was a bit hesitant heading out early morning alone, but once I got out there and got a few waves I was right into it! What a place.  Sitting out in the surf, riding lovely peeling waves, warm as water, flocks of birds surfing the air currents just above the waves, looking back onto miles of white sand beaches and beautiful tall green trees, and knowing that the surf probably wasn’t going to disappear in a hurry.

Back to ‘Hotel Buenismo’, for our huge breakfast (included) complete with eggs, beans, fresh fruit, fresh fruit drink and coffee. 

Snowdon hired a long short board from Charlie the host, and we were off for a late morning surf.  He even let me give him a few tips – and (to my absolute delight he was loving it).  Then I went to get some more waves..

We finished the day with a late afternoon surf with the sun setting on the horizon – OH MY GOSH – I have found a new paradise!

Playa Carmen (and Playa Santa Teresa further North), is made up of, a long dirt road with people walking, driving or riding quads (many with boards) along it. It has restaurants and hostels jam packed on either side.  And then the beach runs the whole way along, 100m walk from the road.  When I walk onto the beach I have to squint because the sand is so white and the sun is so bright and the ocean so immense and the sun reflects from all directions!

The next morning we had to leave to get the car back to Jaco by 8am the next morning.  So we had a lovely breakfast, an even lovelier surf, and after a quick look at my dream school (see attached photo – they have surfboards in their classroom and waves like we we’re getting as a school backdrop) we we’re back on the pot hole filled road, the ferry, then on the new main paved road to Jaco.

What a hard place to leave, but we we’re comforted by the certainty that we would be back!

Nike and Venus de Milo

I love these two sculptures. I saw them in the Louvre when I visited Paris from London with my friend Kathleen.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace (aka Nike of Samothrace)

Action, Triumph, Beauty. The sculptor is unknown. She was created to honor the goddess Nike, and a sea battle. She represents the goddess as she descends from the skies to the triumphant fleet. To quote wikipedia: The work is notable for its convincing rendering of a pose where violent motion and sudden stillness meet, for its graceful balance and for the rendering of the figure's draped garments, depicted as if rippling in a strong sea breeze, which is considered especially compelling.




Venus de Milo (aka Aphrodite de Milo)

The greek goddess of love and beauty (Milo was an Island in Greece). She originally held an apple in her hand and was looking at it. Sculpted by Alexandros of Antioch. Wikipedia: It was duly praised by artists and critics as the epitome of graceful female beauty.

First night in Playa Carmen (The Nicoya Peninsula)

Our hire car got dropped to our Jaco hostel first thing in the morning.  It was very exciting slipping my little board in between the seats (and later using my brand new travel racks - thanks Fraser and Kate).  I’m finally going to christen the new fish!!!   

After:

•  several hours drive from San Jose (see photo of map on GPS)

• several hours excitedly waiting for the ferry in the blazing sun in Puntarenas (see photo of view from the ferry) 

• an hour long, very festive ferry ride 
• then several hours negotiating a very pot holey dirt road (ah so that’s why 4WD was obligatory)
• stopping for money in Cobano (that last shot is a photo Snowdon from the car when I was in the bank – this guy looking at staunch with the gun was actually very helpful)

and we were there!

We arrived hot, hungry, dusty and sweaty, but we had finally arrived at the beach town that we set out to find that morning.  I groveled/insisted that we were finally near a beach in Costa Rica (my dream for so many years) and that we had to at least see the beach and stop for a swim (even if we probably didn’t have the time for a surf before dark).  Snowdon was intent on finding some accommodation, but relented.

We drove down to the beach and were awestruck!  Beautiful blue peeling waves with white sand and lush tall green trees as far as the eye could see in either direction.  Well this is what I’d been dreaming about for years (16 years), ever since I spotted Costa Rica on Endless Summer.  We jumped in and ah-hah that water was sooo warm!  Snowdon brought the camera in with us and we got some great shots (even a few videos – hopefully I can work out how to put one on here).  Snowdon left his jandals there for one of the locals to pick up. Nice of him…

Snowdon said this was the new best beach he’d ever been at (better even than Taupo Bay) and straight after our swim, over dinner reflected that that swim was a premier moment (in his own words of course).  Dinner was absolutely delicious, and later would turn out to be a favourite of ours. I had Casado de pescado.  Casado is a local dish, with generous portions of rice, beans, veg, and then meat of your choice (I always get fish).  Man my dish at ‘Burger Rancho’ that night was tasty!  And oh it was so lovely and warm!

That experience of an incredible swim on a dream beach and a lovely meal didn’t outlast the several hours of driving up and down the Playa Carmen street to find affordable accommodation, for Snowdon.  For me it lasted many more hours – I’d found the place I’d been dreaming about!

The Plan

Welcome to my blog! 

My plan to begin my blog looks like.....

1.  Wedding update
2.  Taupo Bay 'Family and Friends' Honeymoon.
3.  New fish
4.  The adventure begins - The 'Duo style' Honeymoon.

Watch this space...
Hasta pronto!

PS: Thanks to Maurie for helping me set the blog up.