WanderingJustin.com » Costa Rica

La Mansion Inn a Great Place for Costa Rica Luxury

WanderingJustin — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 04:58:28 +0000

Monkeys hang out down the road from La Mansion Inn - the presidential suite was booked on the night they wanted.

Nothing livens up your breakfast like having a monkey come flying in through an open window and stealing a banana from a nearby table – all before shimmying up a telephone pole, crossing the wire and sharing the bounty with his troupe.

This isn’t the sort of thing that happens at luxury hotels. That’s one of the reason I prefer low budget.

But I saw a place in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica (where this monkey business took place), that made me open to the idea of some luxury accommodations now and then.

La Mansion Inn is surrounded by jungle and ocean. At night, it’s dark and peaceful. It has a bar called The Bat Cave for people who want a high-quality beer (not easy to find in Costa Rica) and a taste of La Mansion’s luxury.

How luxurious is it? Well, presidents have stayed there. It lives up to the name, with a flavor more like you’ve stumbled into someone’s private estate than into a hotel. But it was also friendly – none of that “are you here to steal the silverware?” vibe from the staff. That might come from what are some pretty reasonable prices: $125-$295 for a standard room, depending on the season. The presidential suites, though, run $650-$850.

The views from the pool and balconies are amazing. La Mansion is up on a cliff, so you’ll have lots of visibility. You can also get hooked up with a tour or a deep-sea fishing trip.

I’m certain I’ll get back to Costa Rica one of these days. After spending a day or two in San Jose to take in a Saprissa match and load up on pupusas, I will head right back to the airport and catch a flight to Quepos, followed by a brief taxi ride to Manuel Antonio.

Even though the odds are against your breakfast fruit getting pilfered by a primate, you can get your fill of monkey and iguana encounters just by taking a quick walk down to Manuel Antonio National Park. Check out the trails, lounge on the beach, grab a fresh coconut – and watch for the monkeys!

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Comments

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Local Encounters – Putting Personality into Travel

WanderingJustin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:57:43 +0000

If you're lucky, a crazy pack of locals will adopt you when you visit their hometown.

I travel to see new places. I bring tons of batteries and memory for the camera.

But often, it’s the people I meet who steal the show: the Icelanders, kiwis, Aussies, ticos, etc.

If you have some decent people skills, the locals are the ones who will really make your trip better. They’ll clue you in to cool places, give you an insider perspective to their home and maybe help you out when your plans go awry. And not because it’s their job – just because they’re being nice.

Sometimes, you never even catch their name. It might be just a quick conversation, but it sticks in your mind and is part of your vacation’s story. I’m not really talking about tourist industry folks who are paid to be nice, but people who you just run into randomly.

So in honor of the locals, let me share a few memories about some I’ve encountered:

Iceland – Stjarnan FC Soccer Fans

During our first night in Reykjavik, my wife and I wandered past a stadium. We quickly struck up a conversation with a bearded, staff-wielding character with blue and white face paint. He clued us into what was about to take place: an epic Icelandic Premier League clash between league leaders Fram and his team, Stjarnan FC (just about a month before it became famous for its goal celebrations). Moments later, we were seated near Ragnar and his crew as they beat drums, sang songs and clapped incessantly. This was a perfect example of what happens when you ask a local “hey, what’s going on here?”

Australia – Random Bloke in Darwin

Just after getting off the plane from Sydney to Darwin, my backpack took a flyer. A Swiss tourist mistook it for her own on the baggage carousel. Qantas promised to track her down (which they did). During the bus ride from the airport to the hotel, an Aussie made it his mission in life to cheer me up after my backpack ordeal. So began a steady stream of tall tales told in an accent so typically Australian that it made Paul Hogan sound like a Texan. And it worked – I was too busy laughing at his story about a giant snake menacing a local airport that I forgot about my missing bag and having to traipse all over Darwin to find it. Best line: “They put a hundred gallons of fuel in ‘im before they realized ‘e was a snake!”

Costa Rica – Roy

If you had a bunch of people lined up and had to guess which was Costa Rican, Roy would probably be your last choice. Blond-headed, blue eyed … and named, well, Roy! He’s one of the many ticos of European descent. He generously bailed us out after we missed the last bus from the waterfall garden to San Jose. My wife and I took a seat in his pickup truck, and during the 90-minute drive he told us all about living in Costa Rica – from the long lines to register a car to trying to get mail. We enjoyed the talk all the way back to his neighborhood in Heredia, and he refused our offer for gas money.

From Ragnar to Random Bloke to Roy, I’ve had the fortune to run into some great people. I could probably carry on about this at length. The bottom line – travel with an open mind. Welcome the random encounter – it just might become the best part of your trip!

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Comments

October 25, 2010, HeadingThere.co.uk writes: [...] Local Encounters – Putting Personality into Travel from Wandering Justin [...]

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Going to Costa Rica? 9 Tips to Help

WanderingJustin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:13:00 +0000

Costa Rica is not showing any signs of slowing as a popular destination for Americans. And for good reason. The place is flat-out fun, with beautiful rainforests, rampant wildlife and

Sarah on the Original Canopy Tour

genuinely wonderful people (even those who don’t work in the tourism industry). It’s been a few years since my visit, but I still have some tips that’ll help.

1. Don’t drive. If you’re from the United States, the driving situation is a lot like the opening 10 minutes of Revenge of the Sith (but with better acting and dialogue). Oddly enough, while their driving would spark road rage incidents in America, Costa Rican drivers honk and wave at the people who cut them off or pass them on the right at high speed with three inches of clearance.

2. Plan ahead for shuttle or bus service. It’s pretty inexpensive – and you can enjoy the countryside instead of fearing for your life.

3. Go to La Fortuna. This great little town north of San Jose is right near Volcan Arenal. Take a guided hike into the rain forest with any of the many services. The guides know their flora and fauna, and their knowledge will add to the hike. Many of the hikes also include a visit to Tabacon Grand Spa Thermal Resort. If you go for a late afternoon hike, you can unwind in the naturally heated thermal pools and watch Arenal belch glowing cinders.

4. Don’t miss Monteverde. It’s a very relaxing place tucked into the mountains west of La Fortuna. You’ll have to take car, a boat and then a van to get there. Let me warn you about the last leg of that trip: The road is brutal. You’ll get bounced and jostled, possibly to the point of nausea. But you can walk that off in Monteverde. You can see wild coatis, enormous hummingbirds and huge spiders. There are tons of hiking trails, including the Cloud Forest. A few steps away from La Colina, a great bed and breakfast, we found an open-air restaurant serving the best-ever veggie burger. Still unequaled to this day! Bring rain gear – it often alternates between drizzle and downpour at night. During the day, you can often feel the light rain known as pelo de gato. Oh, and let’s not forget the Original Canopy Tour. TOO MUCH FUN!

5. Fly where you can. NatureAir is reasonably priced (and claims to be the world’s first carbon-neutral airline), and can get you to a lot of destinations in 30 minutes instead of four hours. Distance doesn’t mean much in Costa Rica – traffic moves a lot slower there overall because of the road conditions.

A Costa Rican cowboy drives his heard along the road to Monteverde.

6. San Jose is really pretty cool. A lot of travelers badmouth it for some reason. Yeah, I’ll admit there’s a layer of crime and diesel exhaust. But there is also a vibrant, lively, friendly feel to it. Maybe we caught it at its best during the holiday season. We arrived at 7 p.m., and had ample time to grab a taxi to our hotel before wandering into a nighttime open-air market and a stack of fresh, tasty pupusas. Bring a GPS receiver to help you navigate.

7. Some travelers like to say Costa Rica is “Americanized.” This is the traveling equivalent of music fans who wrinkle their nose and insist they only like “the old stuff” of any given band. Yes, you’ll find ATMs and McDonald’s (which are a great source of clean, free bathrooms in the cities). But America still isn’t this friendly. It has no monkeys, tropical mountains, coffee plantations, friendly stray dogs and aura of barely controlled mayhem. And the last time I checked, I never went to a shopping mall guarded by guys with shotguns. If you find Costa Rica “Americanized,” you either didn’t go to the right places or you’re simply trying to be hipper-than-thou. Word. This reminds me of the time this couple patronizingly mentioned they don’t go anyplace where English is the official language. Their case in point? Thailand. “Oh, did you learn some Thai?” No! So what, exactly, is the point of going to a non English-speaking country if you’re not going to meet them partway?

8. I think the Caribbean side would be nice to see. But I have nothing to say about it since we didn’t make it out there. Try it and report back to me, eh?

9. Costa Rica has a lot of fresh food. The dairy, in particular, is awesome quality. And don’t be afraid of loading up on gallo pinto, the national beans and rice staple. It won’t make you as flatulent as you think. I’d attribute that to being freshly made beans rather than canned. Otherwise, I’d eat anything, anywhere in Costa Rica except Chinese food, no matter how fancy the location. I think they load it full of MSG. The fruit you’ll find everywhere is amazing. By the way, if you want to eat on the cheap, hit the sodas. This is what the call their local, semi fast-food places.

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Comments

January 24, 2010, David Carnegie writes: Wandering Justin: I am a Local Tour Operator who was born here in Puerto Limon in 1962 and who still lives here and fights hard to support my wife,family,Community and Country. We have our own Transport and Tours and can give Airport or Private Transfers from San Jose to the Caribbean for Groups of 8 or more PAX, so they can enjoy the REAL Costa Rica and her wonderful people, including we folks on the Costa Rica Caribbean Side. We would love the opportunity of serving the Desert Southwest of Arizona,Nevada,New Mexico and Southern California. Please briefly visit our Webpage and call me when you have time at 219.561.7713 or on Skype at caribbeanwaycr Thanks and God Bless You and Your Family, DAVID CARNEGIE Puerto Limon, Costa Rica Thanks and hope to see you, Justin here in Costa Rica again real soon.
January 24, 2010, Bruce writes: I went to a mall once for lunch in Bangkok Thailand. It was huge. And they did have guards with shotguns. You had to pay to use the bathroom at the mall, but the cost was extremely low (less than 10 cents). There was a guard at the entrance to the bathrooms to make sure you entered the right one.

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Mixing Coffee and Travel

WanderingJustin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:36:24 +0000

I think it’s really fun to find quality microbrews while traveling. I get a chance to try something tasty, and I often get a chance to mingle with locals (in the case of my recent visit to the Lost Abbey/Port Brewing tasting room, I even met a friendly black cat). It’s also not super-hard to find good microbrewers and brew pubs.

For me, it’s way harder to find good coffee shops unless I’m someplace like Portland or Seattle. I was 0 for 2 on cappuccino during my recent visit to San Diego. I won’t name the establishments here … mostly because the second barista really tried hard to produce a good drink. She took her time, and the micro-foam was spot-on. Unfortunately, the coffee itself was way too hot and had a much more bitter edge than I prefer. For the solid effort, I can’t leave her and her establishment hanging out to dry.

If you travel to Arizona, of course, Arizona-coffee.com will not steer you wrong. But I need to start doing better research when I travel. Does anyone out there have any resources for finding great barista people all across the nation?

In Australia, New Zealand and Costa Rica, I’m pretty golden. It’s easy to find great coffee there. From what I understand, AUS and NZ have mandatory barista training that’s pretty extensive. Australia is pretty awesome because it also grows its own beans in Queensland. In New Zealand, it’s impossible to roll into even the smallest town and not find a pretty classy cafe. Costa Rica? Easy. Just get brewed coffee and toss in a touch of sugar. Cream’s not needed.

I just have a lot of trouble in the U.S.

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Comments

December 29, 2009, Chris writes: Thanks for the vote for Arizona Coffee! I've found a good method is to leave a comment on the web site, or on the Arizona Coffee forum. There are a lot of people who can recommend coffee shops all over the world... it's rather helpful.
December 29, 2009, admin writes: Arizona Coffee always has my vote! I'll keep that in mind for the next trip, too. Oh, and that's a bummer about Parlor. Yet another tiny lot. I just don't see the sense in it all. I guess that's the benefit of going out on weekdays, eh?

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Creature Feature – Coatis in Costa Rica

WanderingJustin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:31:03 +0000

A coati up close.

If you like things furry and four-legged, there’s a good chance you’ll run into a coati during your visit to Costa Rica. I didn’t know this until I arrived in Monteverde, a laid-back town in the mountains north of San Jose.

We showed up in Monteverde after the bruising ride from La Fortuna – the boat portion of the trip across Lake Arenal was fun, but after that? Forget about it. An exercise in brutality, it was – but that’s for another post.

After stashing our bags at La Colina, I was eager to walk around and get my equilibrium back. I filled up some water bottles and we began meandering about. Off in the distance near a trailhead, I saw a bunch of small creatures with their tails proudly thrust into the air. We were far away, and I assumed this was just some massive collection of house cats.

Being the cat-friendly guy that I am, I wanted to pet them. So I made the universal “kittykittykitty” noise. And the group turned to face me as one.

Coatis surround my wife, hoping for a tasty morsel.

These were no cats! They had longer snouts and huge claws. But they trotted gamely up to us – clearly, visitors had not been heeding the signs that we began reading: DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS. They quickly surrounded us, hoping for food. When they realized we were going to obey the signs, they wandered off.

Interestingly enough, coatis live far north, all the way into Arizona. They’ve been known to hang out east of Phoenix. I hope I get to see one here sometime.

In the meantime, enjoy Monteverde – it’s worth the beast of a ride. The coatis are cute, it’s really tranquil, the coffee is awesome.

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Monkeys on the Prowl in Costa Rica

WanderingJustin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:43:24 +0000

Cute little scamp, isn't he?

So picture sitting down to breakfast. You’re having a nice plate of eggs and some fresh fruit when a monkey comes bursting in through a window.

The sharp-eyed little guy, who might weigh about 10 pounds, surveys the situation. His finely tuned senses spot a bunch of bananas hanging from some sort of rack. Before you can even think to reach for your digital camera -and before anyone else can- he seizes a banana and slips back out the window.

Meanwhile, everyone else in the room, all 20 of you, abandons breakfast to see more of this brash little primate. He shimmies up a telephone pole, banana in hand, and crosses over the street via a telephone wire. There, he shares his banana bounty with the rest of his troupe while everyone snaps photos.

That’s Manuel San Antonio, Costa Rica, in a nutshell. Monkeys add even more flavor to a vacation than a bottle of Salsa Lizano.

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Comments

June 4, 2009, Jenavi Kasper writes: Oh man, I would be really upset if a little monkey stole my banana from me on my vacation! But if he is as cute as Aladdin's monkey friend I guess it would be okay.
June 4, 2009, admin writes: Banana ... less than $2 a pound. A monkey stealing your banana? Priceless! Now, if he's steal some of the "banana hammocks" the German tourists were wearing, we'd all be laughing if not scarred for life!
June 5, 2009, Vaishnavi Rajendran writes: Lol you wanna see monkeys you should visit my college! Monkeys regularly barge (read : barge) into classrooms and right royally take food, pencils, the odd mobile phone, four years of under graduate study with those guys in the background all the time, it wasn't even remotely cute :-/ Besides, they could get reeeaallly violent if you attempted to shoo them away from mobile phones.
June 5, 2009, admin writes: I guess one country's monkey is another's overgrown rat!

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Something Tasty I Found in Central America

WanderingJustin — Sat, 30 May 2009 16:15:15 +0000

Here in the states, I’ve become hooked on a mighty sauce. It’s available just about everywhere despite its Asian heritage. That would be Sriracha, AKA Rooster Sauce. It goes on everything short of ice cream and oatmeal, and I’ve even seen a yogurt shop offer it as a topping. Crazy, right?

If your kitchen doesn't have a bottle of this, woe unto you!

But there’s one sauce I’ve encountered in my travels that needs to catch Americans’ tastebuds.

And that would Salsa Lizano, a Costa Rican staple. It’s an essential in gallo pinto, the national dish, and a splash or two improves just about everything else it touches.

This isn’t a spicy sauce, nor is it what Americans typically define as salsa (tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, etc.). This is more like a tangy Central American version of A-1 steak sauce, but way, way better.

Here in Arizona, I’ve only found one store that has it. That’s absolutely criminal. We must do better!

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Comments

May 31, 2009, Vaishnavi Rajendran writes: This post made me hungry. I am now sitting with a pack of oreos. That sauce sounds yummy. I haven't tried it but I will be on the look out for it, see if I am able to get it here in India. Do you have experience with Indian cuisine? You would absolutely love our traditional sauces and pickles :)
May 31, 2009, Deft Digits writes: Sounds interesting. Latin people pretty much have their food down to an artform, so I'm sure this stuff is good. It would probably be a good idea for me to change things up once in awhile. I'm addicted to El Yucateco red habanero salsa, but having a counterpart that won't burn away my tastebuds can't be a bad thing. And to the guy above me ^^, I agree with Indian food being great. In fact, this whole thing has given me an idea for a post. About how utterly garbage most American food is.
May 31, 2009, admin writes: Yes! I love Indian food in all its varieties. In fact, my wife and I had our first date at an Indian restaurant. Next was Italian, and the Ethiopian. Now that's the way to get things started ...
May 31, 2009, admin writes: Can't wait to check out your post. American food is pretty dull stuff. I have a hard time eating when I visit the Midwest! In places like Seattle, though, I can't even make up my mind.
July 1, 2009, Leslie writes: Happened upon your blog through Marina's. We were in Costa Rica last week and brought back several bottles of the Lizano sauce. Next time we'll be bringing more back. It was a hit with everyone. LOL Hey, what made me come to your blog was your comment on Marina's about your wife thinking tour guides had hid taxidermied (sp?) animals on tours. I thought this on one of our tours in Costa Rica. For a few reasons - the snake didn't move even though our guide got VERY close (pit viper!) and took a photo, the dirt by the snake had been obviously disturbed a lot as it was sloping downhill and we noticed that others had been in that area before our guide was. Make sense? Anyways! My husband and I had joked about it and then when I saw your comment, I started searching your blog to see why you said that. LOL Your travels sound fabulous! www.lesliefarmer.blogspot.com
July 1, 2009, admin writes: Leslie, for us it was a sloth. We were driving somewhere. I'm pretty sure it was out to hike near Arenal. The driver says "look!" We're all looking. He keeps saying there's a sloth. Well, a few hundred yards away, there's a dark shape in the trees. It could have been anything! And the skeptic in me has a hard time believing that he saw that dark shape in the trees and immediately thought "sloth". While driving, to boot! Glad to know I'm not the only one with such crazy thoughts. And thanks for dropping by!

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7 Recycled Airplanes that Still Thrill

WanderingJustin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:47:06 +0000

These days, recycling is cool. And so are airplanes – even the Honda Civic of the skies that is the 737.

That makes recycling airplanes an off-the-charts, Ricardo Montalban-level of cool. I’m not talking about turning Cessnas into aluminum cans. I’m talking about turning Boeing jumbo jets into backpacker hostels, or shady old military cargo planes into jungle restaurants.

Here are a few really cool places where you can eat, sleep and/or drink in a recycled airplane. The small but vibrant Costa Rican town of Manuel San Antonio seems to have the largest number, per capita, of such projects. (NOTE: If you know of any others, e-mail me and I’ll include them in a future post).

Not So High-Flying in Costa Rica

El Avion (Manuel San Antonio)

This Fairchild C-123 is linked to the Iran-Contra Affair – but these days, it’s as benign as a glassful of house-made sangria. You’ll find ticos and touristas side-by-side chomping bar food and downing cans of Imperial. And enjoying an unmatched ambience – perched on a cliff, with the occassional monkey cruising by (especially if there’s an unattended trash can nearby). El Avion has history, scenery and a low price. Some of these aircraft carry a hefty price to enter, but at El Avion, a few colones for a pint is all you need. Last Visited – 2003

Hotel Costa Verde (Manuel San Antonio)
Most of the Hotel Costa Verde is pretty typical upscale jungle fare. Unless you book passage in the 727 suite. This room is not only cool for being inside a Boeing’s fuselage, but also more opulent than even U2′s 727! Costa Rica is pretty progressive about protecting its timber resources, and this suite is absolutely jammed with teak: Hotel Costa Verde might pick up some eco-points if it had a good source of sustainable wood for the project. Your seat on this flight comes at a premium: $300 per night in the off-season.

Grounded in the Wop-Wops
Woodlyn Park (Waitomo Caves, NZ)

A perfect respite after a day of hiking, driving or caving – all in the nose of a plane!

Kiwi bloke Billy Black doesn’t do typical hotels – some masonry, a blocky design, the same ol’, same ol’. No – he scrounged an old Bristol freighter and turned it into a two-suite mini hotel. The cockpit room is where it’s at: Families can stow the kiddies in the 747-like cockpit hump for the night, and take the downstairs bunk for themselves. The room also includes a perfect shower and a kitchenette. The price was also very reasonable at $160 NZ per night – that was about $82 US! Be sure to check out the train room, boat hotel and hobbit rooms, too. Last visited – 2009

Outside the Woodlyn Park Bristol freighter

Sweden Goes Jumbo

Jumbo Hostel (Stockholm, Sweden)
When it comes to recycling an airplane, it doesn’t come on a much bigger scale than a 747-200. I first heard about this from my friends at SpotCoolStuff.com. Jumbo Hostel is parked at Arlanda International Airport – convenient! You can get anything from bunk bed-style rooms to a private room in the cockpit. The only other re-used 747 was turned into a restaurant in Korea. Since it went belly up, it doesn’t get a space on the list – Jumbo Hostel retains the biggest designation!

Still a Mile High in Colorado

The Airplane Restaurant (Colorado Springs, Colo. USA)
It’s pretty fitting that you’ll find a place like this in Colorado Springs, home of the U.S. Air Force Academy. The restaurant is alternately called Solo’s, or just The Airplane Restaurant. The centerpiece of the dually monikered eatery is a KC-97 tanker, but the rest is regular ol’ dining room. The food doesn’t appear to be anything really unusual, but I’ll give any place props for having a buffalo burger.

Southwest in the South

Parachute Inn (Walnut Ridge, Ark. USA)
This is the least exciting entry. It’s a 737 still in its drab rusty orange and faded yellow livery. It’s tacked into an existing restaurant. Its specialty seems to be southern cooking and seafood. It doesn’t have a Web site.

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Comments

May 2, 2009, Tanmoy writes: Now, this ones are interesting and innovative. However are these places additionally expensive than normal hotel rooms.
May 7, 2009, marina k. villatoro writes: I love that plane restaurant in Manuel Antonio, it's such a great idea! I looooooooooove your header photo:) Where did you take it?
May 7, 2009, admin writes: Hi there, Marina. I actually have four rotating header photos: Two are from New Zealand (Franz Josef Glacier, Tongariro National Park). Another is from Coroboree Billabong, NT, Australia. The last is a caterpillar from your very own butterfly gardens in Costa Rica! I got your other message, too. Yes, I meant the Caribbean side. I can't wait to see your posts!
May 8, 2009, marina k. villatoro writes: Cool! I'm scheduling everything now, but I don't know if you remember the joys of internet service in Costa Rica, I'm without if for now, and sneaking into internet cafes:) ciao for now,

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My Top 5 Flights – Plus, a Site for Flight Geeks

WanderingJustin — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:03:04 +0000

The rise of Facebook as a great time-waster is pretty well-documented, and now aviation geeks have their own way to flush hours down the lavatory: Let me introduce FlightMemory.com, a Web site that lets you input all your commercial flights. It then tracks your time and mileage and plots it on a map. You can even order a poster based on your flight paths. (Thanks to Things in the Sky for the discovery.)

What’s kind of useful is that you can choose to enter the bare-minimum of details, or delve into

Creaky old airplane got you down? Have your say on FlightMemory.com!

excruciating detail about every single thing the airline, TSA and airport employees did wrong – or you can praise them for those times when “customer service” isn’t a punchline.

I’m still working on getting my flights in, but I’ve made some headway. It’s quite a lot of fun, especially since it appears to be of German origin and translated by members of The Scorpions while they were on tour with Van Halen circa 1985 (“We can now offer you some new thingies for your pleasure – introducing the FlightMemory shop!” … tell me you couldn’t hear Klaus Meine saying that!).

Obviously, this took me down memory lane – in the spirit of Flightmemory, here is a list of my Top 5 best-ever commercial flights – I don’t really need to do my 5 Worst … that’s pretty much any time American Airlines was involved!

1. Los Angeles to Auckland, NZ. Qantas. 12.25 hours. Aside from the usual Qantas comfort -boarding and finding the welcome kit on your seat, the cool flight attendants, the on-demand

Air New Zealand - Impossible not to like.

entertainment- this was a rarity for transcontinental flight: No jet lag! The flight left at 9 p.m. local time … I ate, slept, caught some movies, ate, slept more, woke up and I was in Auckland at 6 a.m. local time. I was pretty fresh, having felt like I just had a long night. BONUS – Some serious turbulence shook us from Hawaii to Auckland, bouncing the 747-400 around. Some wouldn’t like that, but I call it fun.

2. Los Angeles to Honolulu. American. About 5 hours. American Airlines sneaks into my best-of! But hey, when you land in Honolulu, everything is better. I loved the airport’s open-air walkways and the immediately balmy feel of the air. You can’t be in Honolulu and not feel a huge weight come off your shoulders. Plus, I loved the landing – a hard turn for the final approach. Always fun in a DC-10!

3. Quepos to San Jose, Costa Rica. Nature Air. 39 minutes. From start to finish, this was an absolute blast of a flight. A taxi dropped us off in the middle of the jungle at a paved airstrip. There was no control tower, just a thatched-roof hut … that happened to sell tasty homemade desserts! There was no

The view over Quepos.

security gate, and an 11-year-old tico grabbed our bags and loaded them in the cart. A few minutes later, a DeHaviland Twin Otter landed. People got off, the 11-year-old put our bags on, and we were wheels-up moments later. The view is absolutely splendid and shocking green, with low-lying clouds wreathing the mountaintops. At that point, it was the smallest plane Sarah had ever been on. She started off squishing her armrests with a death grip, but she soon relaxed, captivated by the view out the window.

4. Belize City to San Padro/Caye Ambergris. Maya Island Airways. 35 minutes. Make no mistake about it: Belize City’s Phillip SW Goldson Airport is by far the most spastic, chaotic, overheated and incomprehensible airport I’ve ever seen despite its Lilliputian proportions. You can only imagine my pleasure when our connecting flight was a three-passenger Cessna 182! This quickly became the record for Sarah’s smallest plane ever, and she was again a bit leery at first.

Sarah eyeballs her ride.

But the pilot had smoove skills, and the view was simply awesome – islands, clear water, clouds, a setting sun. It was just turning to dusk when we landed at an unpaved strip in San Pedro amid a lively island town that caters to divers. We grabbed our backpacks and walked to our hotel without a fuss. So much fun!

5. Wellington to Nelson, New Zealand. Air New Zealand. 39 minutes. Wellington is my favorite airport ever. No security checkpoints, no fuss, easy-to-understand procedures and friendly people. You read that right: We did not have to pass a security checkpoint to board our DeHaviland Dash-8. For some reason, I love boarding up the stairs instead of using a jetway. Call me old school! We couldn’t enjoy the view since the sky was socked in with clouds. We got bounced all over the
place which I, again, consider fun. Though the flight was incredibly short, the lone flight attendant was very gracious … same for the Air New Zealand crew on the two-hour haul from Queenstown to Auckland.

HONORABLE MENTION: Sydney to Darwin, NT, Australia. 4 hours. Qantas 767-300.

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Coffee Culture Showdown – Comparing Caffeine

WanderingJustin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:18:23 +0000

Coffee is a shape-shifting drink. No matter what country you’re in, that country has added something distinct to the coffee bean and the way people drink it. Each time I travel out of North America, I find a little learning curve waiting for me.

Imagine an Australian visiting a cafe in California and asking for a flat white. You can count on that traveler getting a blank stare from the barista. Same for an American visiting a non-Starbucks coffeehouse in Costa Rica asking for a Frappuccino, and so on.

My first experience abroad as a coffee drinker was in Costa Rica. I was expected some awesome coffee since Costa Rica is famous for exporting quality beans. I couldn’t wait to drink some coffee – even after checking into our hotel at about 9 p.m., I found a pot brewing in the lobby. I scoured the area looking for cream, only to find out Costa Ricans don’t take cream in their coffee. Better yet, I learned it doesn’t really need it. I also found that just about any place that serves coffee serves it well, from a roadside soda to a full-service coffee pillar like Cafe Milagro. Most of it is brewed rather than served espresso style.

Belize, on the other hand, couldn’t compete. It might not be far away on the map, but it doesn’t produce its own beans. There are locally made coffee liqueurs that taste great, but there wasn’t much of a coffee house culture at all. Let’s put it this way – I didn’t go to bed eager for the next morning’s cup of coffee.

Australia and New Zealand show a lot of similarities in menus, concepts and execution. Most of the better cafes stick to espresso drinks – and many have fairly extensive menus. Some of the better meals I had came from places that are coffee houses first, restaurants second. The coffee nomenclature is a bit different: You won’t see flat whites (which some incorrectly believe is a latte) or long blacks at a cafe in the United States. I never realized this before visiting, but Queensland produces some great beans. I brought a batch of Highland Pearls home, and was loathe to finish them off. There are two things I really appreciate about Australasian coffee culture: It doesn’t produce sickly sweet coffee drinks, and it doesn’t regard coffee as a performance-enhancing drug that’s worthless unless it leaves the drinker with a case of the shakes. I think my favorite coffee drink ever might be a flat white at Barista Empire in Auckland. Here’s a nice bit of info about Ben Boyle, the superbarista in charge.

As for the United States – it’s a country with a wide array of coffee culture. It’s a huge country with a lot of people scattered throughout, so it might be too much to develop a truly cohesive coffee culture. Starbucks truly established coffee in this country – love them or hate them, just about every coffee house owes Starbucks for cluing people into the fact that there’s more to coffee than Folger’s. Since then, we’ve had cafes of all sorts pop up around the country. The quality is inconsistent – if you’re a traveling coffee fiend, do your homework before arriving: Unless you’re going to Seattle, the odds of wandering into a top-flight coffeehouse are slim – our cities tend to be sprawling, which doesn’t help. If you’re in Phoenix, I suggest Conspire in the downtown area. The coffee is awesome, and barista John Sagasta and his crew of regulars make sure the place is funny and laid-back rather than serious-snobby as some coffeehouses can be.

So there it is … one bean, many flavors.

If any of you who prefer travelling in Europe, Africa or the Middle East have anything interesting to say about coffee culture in those regions, feel free to pitch in!

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