On Sunday we packed up and left the beach on the west cost of Costa Rica. The first half of our time in country was spent at the beach, the second half was spent in the Arenal volcano and lake area more towards the center of the country. The west coast was dry compared to the more tropical and lush area around Arenal.
The drive was a little long, probably around 4 hours since we had to drive all the way around the lake on slow and winding roads. If I had a motorcycle, this would be the place to ride for hours on end. The first row of pictures were taken from an overlook of the lake where we stopped and had a picnic lunch overlooking Lake Arenal. Arenal is the largest lake in Costa Rica and a very pretty area.
After lunch we drove for a little bit until we reached the far end of the lake. You can see Arenal volcano in the distance, which was our ultimate destination. Along the way we saw some wildlife including a pack of Coatis, or as Jonathan called them, Costa Rican raccoons.
Here are some pictures of the property we stayed at in Arenal. There were all sorts of things growing like banana trees, porcupine palm trees, and pineapple plants growing outside our front door. The place we stayed was managed by a local couple Thomas and Hannah, who were originally from the Czech Republic and Washington state. However, I think they managed this place for the owner when he wasn't using it.
The house sat up on a hill in a small town called El Castillo, and had a perfect view of the lake and the Arenal volcano. We sat on the deck or inside the house and watched the sunrise and the volcano smoke consistently coming out of the main top crater. Once we moved in and cleared out all the bugs, it was actually a really nice place to stay. The only downside was that it didn't have air conditioning so it was a little warm at night.
...a few pictures of the main level of the house.
I've decided that I really like the mixture of this vacation so far. It's a good mix of local culture (we are in another country), but with many modern conveniences like safe drinking water and cable internet, while at the same time not crawling with tourists. I don't think I'll need a vacation after this vacation, if you know what I mean. There are good places to eat, but it's not crowded with overly round tourists and their overly-tired kids.
I know I mentioned this before, but the people here are generally very warm. Seems like everyone smiles at the kids (they are cute though) and/or wants to engage with them. Based on my reading, that's probably because this is their version of the "sticks". Over 25% of the population lives in the capital. Out here there isn't much else other than what was built for the tourism industry, and even that isn't on a big scale yet.
So here are some pictures of where we're staying. It's a great setup - basically an apartment with everything you'd need from an in unit laundry and full kitchen, to air conditioning and cable television and internet. I'm watching NCAA basketball as I type this blog. They have a decent pool that has an awesome view. The place also has a resident iguana and we've seen several lizards (look like newts) and we've seen a monkey already (didn't get a picture though). Also, here is our piece, er, rental car. It works great for what we need, but it sure has seen its fair share of dirt roads. The main roads are all paved, but a lot of the roads by the beach and even up the steep hills to our rental are pot-holed dirt roads.
This year we decided to take the kids on their first international trip over Spring Break. They are now old enough to make traveling easier and to appreciate the trip a little more than when they were younger. I had heard lots of great things about Costa Rica, and since it's only about a 2:45 flight from Miami, it seemed like a good place to start based on my research.
Our flights were changed, so we had to spend Monday night in Dallas. I took the kids out of school a couple days early so we could have as much time as possible. The flights the next day to Miami and Liberia (the airport on the west side of the country) were straightforward and simple. As soon as we landed I noticed a couple of things. 1) As expected, it was hot. The high temperature right now during the dry season is hovering somewhere around 95 degrees. 2) similar to our airport, the Liberia airport was small. It wasn't chaotic and confusing...pretty low key and everyone associated with the airlines spoke some form of English. 3) all the locals, even those hoping to make a buck by carrying your luggage were pretty friendly. There isn't a lot of economic development or population on this side of the country, and it isn't overly touristy, so both the locals and visitors need each other.
We rented a car to get around Costa Rica. There are no special requirements like an international driver's license and they drive on the same side of the road. Also, so far driving has been really easy since the traffic is light and people aren't crazy. Sure, they'll pass you in the oncoming lane if no one is coming, but even I do that back home in Colorado (as do many others). If you paid attention you can easily find the road signs. We had no problems getting to our Air BnB rental with signs and a map, even though many people get lost. The only issue we had was that we arrived at our lodging place instead of at the property management office a couple of miles down the road. The local groundskeeper helped us sort things out.
After getting settled we visited the recommended local grocery store so we'd have a few things for the next day. Although expensive and small, it thankfully had enough of the food Jonathan recognized to keep him satisfied during our time here. For the first half of our visit we're staying in Playa Flamingo, on the west coast of the country. There are several coves and beaches in the area, but we like our beach (Playa Flamingo) the best. It's less crowded and sheltered, perfect for playing on the beach.
I've entered the world of home brewing! I've been thinking about doing this for a while. It's fun, it's cheaper to do yourself then buying beer from the store, it tastes just as great, and it's all natural. Plus, it's a good inside activity to do during the winter months and it's actually quite easy.
I decided to do it after a friend at work (who recently started doing it himself) gave me one of his first beers to sample. All it really takes equipment-wise is a few pots, buckets, and vessels for fermentation. Northern Brewer out of the Twin Cities area is probably the best place to get started. I ordered the deluxe kit, which included two glass carboys for fermentation so I could watch the progress (versus giant paint buckets). The kit really was a brewery in a box - the only thing it didn't come with were glass bottles. I ordered those from Amazon and can reuse them several times. The kit came with a recipe for Caribou Slobber, a brown ale with hints of coffee and chocolate. This will be my first batch.
I started with steeping the specialty grains (the coffee, caramel, and chocolate flavors) for about 20 minutes while the water was heating up. Following the instructions, I added the wet and dry malt extracts and then added the different varieties of hops at the specified intervals over the 60 minutes it boiled. When done, I had made wort, the brewer's term for un-fermented beer. You can see my final wort in the picture below with the 6.5 gallon carboy and funnel after I had cooled it down with giant blocks of ice from distilled water jugs.
Then came the fun part of pitching the yeast, mixing it all up (aerating) by rocking the carboy back and forth, and then watching the yeast go crazy over the next two days (see middle picture at the bottom of the carboy on the counter top in the basement). During this
process they yeast are converting the sugars in the wort to ethanol and
producing carbon dioxide, which causes the airlock at the top to bubble
like crazy. To really appreciate how much the yeast worked, here is a video of the the active fermentation in my carboy. My First Fermentation.
The yeast activation is pretty fun to watch. There are some other pictures here that show some other things I did. I modified the fridge in the basement to be able to fit the 5 gallon secondary fermenter carboy in case I ever want to make a lager and need it to sit at near freezing temperatures for a long time. I also bought a hydrometer kit to measure and then calculate my batch specific ABV. You can see that water is exactly 1.000. I did take a recent sample and I'm probably somewhere in the 6.0% ABV category now. We will see where it finally ends right before I bottle.
What else...let's see. I've been doing a lot of reading and learning about the process and the different styles. I think I tend to like the styles either on the clean/clear/crisp side of the house (lagers like Stella Atrois) and ones that are on the maltier and darker side (like New Belgium 1555 and this Brown Ale). Through sampling some other types, I think I really dislike IPAs and any kids with a strong hops like Cascade or Chinook hops. To me, those are the ones that are bitter and make me feel bad. By doing this for a while I will definitely find which ones I like best, and then maybe start experimenting with my own recipes instead of doing recipe kits where everything is provided.
I've read a lot of stuff on home brewing. I'm practically already an expert and I haven't even finished my first batch. Ha. But I won't bore you about the details in my quest for the perfect batch. You can make a simple, good beer in 4-6 weeks this way with hardly any effort at all. That's probably all you need to know. For anyone that lives nearby and is reading this, please request your free bottle sampler. Each five gallon batch makes about 50 beers. I just ordered another kit to make an Amber Ale which doesn't take as long. At the end of March I'll have 100 bottles of beer ready to go. That would last me several months, so I'll be looking to give a lot of this away!
