Bug Tour

Tracy – The Bug Lady

Tracy is a bit of a local legend – at least to Drake Bay and the surrounding areas. About 20 years ago she settled in Costa Rica to explore her love of bugs. At some point she met John – a rival bug tour entrepreneur and yada yada yada, they would eventually marry. John and Tracy now do their bug tours together and the two of them are not only incredible at what they do but also still have a passion for it that evokes a bit of envy.

The way the bug tour works is fairly simple – you walk around a pretty natural area somewhere in Drake Bay – ours was fairly close to our hotel on a couple of paths, including the main path to the hotel!

They would each look for something and when a bug or animal was found we would look at it, and get some stories, while the other tour leader would go looking for something else. It was a very nice seamless system that resulted in less ‘looking for things’ time and more ‘looking at and talking about’ experience.

Below are a handful of pictures from our tour. The experience comes highly recommended if you are ever in the area.

Getting intimate with the giant Stick Bug:

Bush Cricket

Preying Mantis


First Destination Travel

We flew Newark (hour and a half from Philly, we left at 4am) to San Jose and then had a couple hour layover in the airport before catching our first local flight to Puerto Jimenez. The last Drake Bay flight left before we got through customs, so our plan was to fly to Puerto Jimenez, take an hour and a half car ride, a small boat ride, and then we’d be at our first stop. 
The gentlemen who picked us up also brought his 9 year old son who was quite well behaved. Our two hour drive was about as bumpy as they come – instilling the concept of the ‘Costa Rican massage’ roads.
Our Spanish was not great but we managed to chat briefly with our chauffeur.
We arrived to the local town just after dark. We were escorted down to the beach in the dark where we removed our shoes, trekked through a couple inches of water and hopped on the back of a small boat. Our bags were loaded and we were on our way. About 5 minutes later we were docked at the base of La Paloma Lodge where we would stay for the 6 nights. Despite traveling all day – our schedule was fairly busy for the upcoming days!
That night we were shown to our room – a very cute bungalow-esque room with a very pretty balcony.

We showered, and went to go have dinner in the main area. The food was simple, but delightful as we’d come to realize in all the meals we’d eat at La Paloma in the coming days. That night we would be busy as our bug tour would happen right after dinner, and we had to get up for diving the next morning at 6am!

Standard Packing Shot

Not a huge fan of taking more than one bag, but a backpack felt necessary for this trip and I couldn’t fit all my stuff in my duffel. The below is for ~ two weeks, December 6th through the 21st.

4 pairs mesh shorts
2 shorts
2 bathing suits
6 t-shirts
10 pairs of boxers
8 pairs of socks
4 muscle shirts
Snorkel and Mask
Mask Defogger
Dive Book
Sneakers
Boat Shoes
Sandals
1 Duffel Bag
1 Backpack
1 Hat
Sunglasses
Toiletries
1 rain Jacket (Costa Rica is mostly rainforest)

Chiang Mai – Day 3 – Patara Elephant Farm

Patara Elephant Farm

We can both comfortably file today under top life experiences. We were not sure what to expect as we boarded the van slightly behind schedule. We met a couple of girls who knew each other from Yale – Sara who witnessed the woman getting killed at the 2011 Harvard/Yale tailgate who now worked for Google, and her friend Camille who worked for a hotel chain in NYC. They forgot bug spray, we kindly obliged.

We arrived to the elephant farm after a 30-minute journey, given bananas as a morning snack just upon arrival when getting out of our transport. On the way out of the vehicle, told we could feed our peels to the elephant. Enter massive elephant beast stage right. I decided to feed him my peel after watching our driver do the same – the beast was intimidating at first, and his tongue disgustingly slimy. One man’s fruit trash, another beast’s breakfast treasure.

After a short orientation on elephants in Asia, our own elephant for the day was assigned. At the start, we would try to get on their good side by feeding them a basket of elephant treats, consisting mainly of banana bunches, pumpkins, and sugar cane. We would feed them some, rub their cheeks and say ‘Dee-Dee’ aka good boy/girl.

My elephant’s name was Ma-Mei, pronounce as a young British boy might say mommy. She was a bit old, seemed like the washed up grandma of the bunch. She was grumpy at first but would eventually warm up to me. Katherine got the stud – a 17-year-old male named Poon-Jen with big tusks – rambunctious, playful, and certainly a crowd pleaser. He was a recent father of one of the baby elephants, though his fatherly duties seem to have run their course. Fun fact: female elephants are pregnant for just under 2 years before giving birth.

After we fed our elephants some treats, we gave them a quick bath. Here is Katherine washing off Poon-Jen’s back, because a) who doesn’t like their back scrubbed? and b) who wants to ride on a dirty elephant’s back? During the day they sometimes throw dirt on their back to keep themselves cool, and some lucky tourist like us wash it off in the morning.

Here is couple of shots of Katherine bonding with Poon-Jen:

Taking care of an elephant all day is not all fun and games. Here is Katherine cleaning up some fresh poo:

After the ride down to the waterfall, Poon-Jen in his crowd-pleasing manner posed for a few photos. Katherine and he had become quite good friends:

There were baby elephants too! A little less predictable, a bit wild, but they stole all the girls’ hearts.  Us posing with a 1.5 year old, note the adult elephant trying a reach around to steal Katherine’s banana bunch:

Here is a close up of some elephant skin:

A candid of Katherine riding Poon-Jen:

Candid of Ma-Mei and I climbing some terrain that she had no problem with:

A perspective shot from atop my elephant:

Lunch at the elephant farm! 

Surprisingly good – and this fried chicken was by far the most Americanized food we had eaten thus far. The meal itself was spectacular – the amount of mosquitoes less so. What was even better was that we could feed any leftovers to the elephants (except the chicken bones and plastic bottles but including the banana leaf tablecloth.)

Baby with Mother

Overall, an awesome day, and if in Chiang Mai we would recommend to anyone. We fed the elephants, washed them, gave them some water, rode them to the waterfall to give them the full spa treatment, had lunch, rode them to where a bunch of other elephants and babies were hanging out so they could wander the jungle the rest of the night and do something similar the next day. The only thing more amazing than the experience itself was the relationship between the elephants and their respective elephant guides. There were no gimmicky elephants painting pictures or doing tricks; we rode them bareback as opposed to with saddles, and you could tell they were happy and all treated well.

Chiang Mai Day 2 – Pantawan Cooking Class

Pantawan
We didn’t really have a chance to do a ton of research regarding cooking schools, so we may have got lucky trusting Trip Advisor. Pantawan is a family run cooking school. Pan, a former employee of The Four Seasons Chiang Mai, and her boyfriend Tawan opened up shop a short 6 months ago.
Part one of the trip consisted of picking up the other couple taking the class with us that day, Andrew and Joanna.  Andrew works as an importer from Thailand to America (mainly coconut chips) and his now girlfriend Joanna lives in Bangkok doing sell side for a big bank.  They were awesome, and a nice complement to our cooking expedition. We might even try to catch up with Joanna for a quick personal tour guide at the end of the trip during our last 24 hours in Bangkok.
After we picked them up, we headed to the local market to pick up some supplies for our class, and to taste a few local treats.

Katherine looking surprised.
Some Frogs
Assorted chicken parts, including grilled egg.
Chicken Tail – Actually quite delicious
The premises where the school is located are quite beautiful. They built a large annex on to their original house –  a fantastic structure, with all new appliances/cooking stations and very cool woodwork – full open-air design. We think the business model is great, and they likely have a bright future. Some more pics below from the class itself.

Katherine’s chef skills

Ingredients for Som Tam
A well plated Som Tam

The Whole Meal!
Full menu:
     Som Tam – Spicy Papaya Salad (right)
     Nam Toke Moo – Spicy Salad with Grilled Pork (top)
     Tom Saab See Krong – Spicy Clear Soup with Ribs (front)
     Kai Yang – E-Sarn Style Grilled Chicken (left)
Us, the ‘chef’, Tawan, and Pan – you can see the venue fairly well in the background here.

One more of Andrew, Joanna and us!

Day 1 continued – Chiang Mai – Ziplining

Aforementioned impromptu zip lining described mostly with photographs…

Geared up, still wearing some nice slacks from the temple but with borrowed sandals.
Head first on the way down is the fastest.
The ‘honey moon line’

Upside down flawless execution.

Not sure if they are trying to push me or save me.
Our zip lining Australian friends.

Day 1 – Chiang Mai

Overall busier than you would probably expect. We took a 7am flight from Bangkok and got in around 8:30am.

Highlight of the flight? The Auntie Anne’s pretzel sandwich, filled with pork bologna and crab stick! Throw in a single serving packaged cup of water – and we’re talking a breakfast for champions:

Our hotel – Chedi Chiang Mai – has quite a zen feel, here is a quick pic:

After settling in we took off to Doi Suthep – the temple atop the mountain in Chiang Mai. The temple was built back in 1383. Its real name is actually Wat Phra That Doi Suthep – but most just call it Doi Suthep – the name of the mountain/national park the temple is on.

Great views from up here:

309 steps up to the pogodas, with some sweet dragon railings:

Shoes off before going inside everyone!

We found one of the monks tending to his grass and sneakily snapped a shot. He had a pretty sweet Koi pond that you can see on the left here as well:

The sattelite tv isnt exactly zen, but I suppose we can understand where they’re coming from:

We also took a quick tour of a jade factory/store. Few pics of guys carving stuff, and some stones.

We went straight from here to zip lining about an hour north of Chiang Mai – no pictures handy now, so will have to follow up later.

Off to dinner! More soon!

Bangkok Teaser

Awesome couple of days in Bangkok. So much to share but not a lot of time. Will have to circle back to a bunch of stuff, but a few teaser shots, mainly Chatuchak weekend market…

Some coconut ice cream:

Variety of food vendor items:

Local treat with do it yourself packs in the background: 

Some delicious bugs:

First booboo of the trip

Less than 24 since initial take off and we have our first booboo of the trip :-/  “those of us prone to accidents” = Michael Menard. Good thing he packed some bandaids in anticipation! What was the weapon/cause of injury? Unprotected razor in his Baggie. Watch out for those guys.

Duty Free Gone Wrong

Watched this poor guy drop his duty free bag off the top of his roll away. Smells like Baileys Irish Cream everywhere. 

Think he managed to salvage the cigarettes, which btw have some hardcore warning labels.