We finalized our route this afternoon.
Highlights will include:
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Here’s a quick summary of my road trip through Maritime Canada. More photographs from the trip can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattpettengill/sets/72157626929049671/
Day 1: Home to Fundy Bay National Park – It was nice in Maine, but was starting to shower when we crossed the boarder at St. Stephen, NB. Sadly, we had to set up our tent in wind and light showers. We almost got a hotel room, but toughed it out instead. It really wasn’t that bad.
Day 2: Exploring Fundy Bay NP – There was a nice little town (Alma) within walking distance from our camp site, so we strolled down there for some coffee after a campsite breakfast. Spent the rest of the day exploring some of the park highlights:
Haring Cove
Matthew’s Head
Wolfe Point
The fog was in and out all day but it made for some great scenery. We experienced showers, sun, and fog in a 30-minute period. We also got to witness the massive Fundy Bay tides.
When I was in NYC in February it unexpectedly snowed one night. It was a wet and heavy snow that stuck to everything. I did quite a few things down there, but them memory of walking around Harlem and Central Park after the storm is a memory that stands out. That and watching a taping of the Colbert Report.
Below are some pictures I took. Pictures of snow storms look great in black and white.
More Pictures from this trip can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattpettengill/sets/72157626402065492/
Most people who’ve experienced Acadia National Park have done so in the summer, during the peak of Maine’s tourist season. Nearly half of Acadia’s 2.5 million annual visitors arrive in the months of July and August. But there are still opportunities for recreation in the wintertime in the form of cross country skiing and snowshoeing. Acadia’s carriage roads are open for these activities, and many of them are groomed. The Park Loop Road is also available.
While typical winters in Maine’s include plenty of snow, the climate along the immediate coastline is slightly warmer. A storm that brings a foot of snow 20 miles inland from the coastline can often mean a mix of rain, snow, and sleet to the immediate coastline; not the best base fore skiing. This means that timing for a cross country ski trip in Acadia is very important. You will want to pay close attention to the weather forecast for the area and arrive within a few days of a snow storm. January and February are probably the best bets for snowy conditions, but December and March are not out of the question either (again, it’s about Mother Nature’s timing).
Beth and I happened to catch a great weekend in January. A decent storm had dropped almost a foot of fresh snow and it was cold enough along the coast that it didn’t mix with rain or sleet. This on top of the crusty base that was already present made for ideal cross country ski conditions.
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This summer I participated in a backpacking trip in the Nez Perce National Forest along the Selway River. Beth’s Grandmother and her siblings had grown up in the wilderness at Selway Lodge, and her Mother (Elna) had spent several summers working in the Nez Perce wilderness. Her uncle had also spend the better part of 40 years as a hunting guide there as well. Needless to say, there is a history for the family in the area. I was very happy to be invited on this trip, which included Beth, her mother and father (Otto), and myself.
Monday morning we woke at sunrise, around 4:30. After a quick, light breakfast we piled into Beth’s Grandmother’s car and took the 45 minute drive to the trail-head. When we arrived around 6:00, it was still very cool and damp out. It was an excellent time to be hiking so we wasted no time getting started. By 9:00 we had gone about 5 miles and had discarded our warm layers and pants legs; it was warming quickly. Before we even stopped for lunch, we had already reached the spot where we originally intented to camp. It was good that we were making quick time on the first day, because the next two days were forcasted to have temperatures reaching into the 90′s.
The trail was relatively flat, with very few difficult areas. The river was high and we saw a small group of rafters floating down the river, loaded with what appeared to be scientific equipment. It was amazing how clear the water was. In calm spots you could easily see to the bottom, even in deep and narrow areas. The sky was perfectly clear, and the day was warm. We stopped often for water, and made a stop for lunch around 1:00. By that time we had traveled over 12 miles. Again, we were making very good time for the first day. We chose our camping spot for the evening (another 5 miles down the trail) and after our break continued on.
1-29-10: Today we traveled back to San Jose in preparation for our departure home. We woke up early (5:30) to catch the Direct Bus back to San Jose. This was much less expensive than the van service we took on the way in. The bus ride from Montezuma to San Jose only cost about $12.
The first bus picked us up around 6:30 at the bus stop in the village, then took us to the ferry terminal near Paquera. This trip took well over an hour because the bus made several stops along the way to pick up additional passengers. The roads, as mentioned before, were also not very good. At the ferry terminal, the bus dropped us off and we all walked on the ferry to Puntarenas. This ferry was smaller than the one we had taken in, but the ride took about the same amount of time (one hour). After departing the ferry on the Puntarenas side, we boarded a larger, nicer bus. It had air conditioning, but no bathroom (I did not drink any water during the bus trip). The final leg of the bus ride back to San Jose took about 2 and a half hours, and we arrived at the Coca Cola bus station in down-town San Jose around 1:30.
The Coca Cola bus station is a very busy place, and in a bad part of town. However, if you’re aware of what’s going on around you and keep an eye on your things, you shouldn’t have any problems. We walked about 8 blocks back to the Best Western (a cab would have been too complicated with 7 people). The rest of the afternoon we relaxed at the hotel drinking water and beer, and eating food (we didn’t eat anything but a few snacks the entire day.) Everyone went to bed pretty early because we all had early flight in the morning, and needed extra time to get through security.
1-30-10: This was officially the last day in Costa Rica. It was a very early day; we got up at 4:30 to get the 5:00 shuttle to the airport. After arriving at the airport we paid or $26 exit fee and made our way through security; this took about an hour and a half. Then we boarded the plan, and made our way to Miami. We had a 4 hour layover in Miami, but about half of that time was spent getting in through customs, then back in through security. We met a really nice and interesting guy at the Sam Adams pub near our departing terminal; he bough us a beer and told us some interesting stories about his travels around the world doing development work.
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Today was our day for Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve, Costa Rica’s first nature reserve. Beth and I got up around 7:00, quickly had some coffee, and went down to town to catch the bus to the Reserve. After a 15 minute bus ride, we got off the bus in the village of Cabuya (the town right next to the Reserve) to get some breakfast, then purchased some snacks for lunch. We walked down the main road through town to the Reserve gatehouse.
It was $10 to get into the park, paid at the gatehouse. The walk into the beach took about an hour and half, along a forest trail. It was a very scenic walk, but very hot. We passed by a couple brooks, went up and down some steep hills, and saw lots of trees and other flora. The beach was very pretty, but not very good for swimming. There were lots of small rocks on the beach and the waves were very powerful. I got a couple bruises on my legs from rocks being tossed into my legs by the waves. It was quite windy, so it’s quite possible the swimming would have been better on a calmer day. Needless to say, I only stayed in for a few minutes to cool off.
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Up around 7:00. The itinerary for the day was to take a boat trip out to Isla Tortuga for snorkeling swimming and sight seeing. Had some coffee at the hotel, then headed down the hill for some breakfast. I had a delicious meal of fried eggs with an aromatic tomato sauce, cheese, and a freshly made facasha.
We purchased a tour from Montezuma Expeditions. They would take us on a fast boat to Isla Tortuga, take us snorkeling, feed us lunch, give us some time to hang out on the beach, then take us back to Montezuma. Everyone getting on the boat for the tour met at the office in town around 9:15. Then we all walked down to the beach, got on the boat, and were off by 9:30. It was a moderately windy day, so there was a lot of chop on the 1 hour trip out to the island, but it was not unpleasant. The boat dropped the lunch cooks off on Isla Tortuga beach, and took the rest of us to a reef close by to go snorkeling.
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Had a nice breakfast at the hotel, then jumped on the local bus to begin the trip to Santa Teresa. The plan was to hang out on the beach, watch the surfers, have some lunch, do some swimming, and watch the sunset (the beach faces west across the Pacific). We got on the bus at the bust stop in Montezuma, then switched over to a larger bus in the interior town of Cobano. After about an hour on the 2nd bus, we entered the town of Santa Teresa, and the bus dropped us off in front of the path leading to the beach.
The waves and currents at the beach were very strong; small children would have trouble in this water. The surfers were out about 300 feet from the shore where the waves coming off the Pacific were breaking. We swam, relaxed in the shade, had beer and food. I turned pink as a cooked lobster. The sunset was quite spectacular; the sun turned bright orange before dipping below the ocean.
Woke up around 8:00, had a light breakfast and coffee at the hotel, then headed out for the day. Stopped in town for some snacks, then headed to Montezuma Falls. The first set of falls was an easy, 30-minute walk from the center of town. There was a nice pool of fresh water at the bottom of the falls and everyone went swimming. The lower falls was bout 40 feet high.
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