Costa Rica - Day 5 - Heat Exhaustion & Angry Monkeys

So, even though the three of us had been going to bed pretty dang early, (when the sunsets at 6 pm and towns start to shut down, there isn't much left to do) I am rather talented at sleeping in no matter how much sleep I've gotten. Both of the boys were out of the tent before me and soon after I heard Adam say, "Alissa, there's an animal out here!" so of course I assumed he was trying to trick me to get up (I mean, he has done it before) so I make him describe it to me. "Its got a pointy nose and a a really long tail" says Adam. I jump out of bed almost immediately since I know that he sees a Coatimundi!

Coatis are animals in the raccoon family and they are omnivores. He was picking up some food from the ground and eventually after I took some rather blurry pictures he ran away chasing a rabbit.

We stuffed some food in our camel packs that were full with water and set forth on our 13K hike to Playa Naranjo. We had asked the park ranger about driving to the beach the day before, but he said that the road was so bad that we would have to sign a waiver to drive our car on out there - I know lots of people are daring with rental cars, but we decided to hike on out instead.

On the hike out we quickly saw that there was no way our car could have made it...the road was rocky, had huge holes in it, and was even hard to hike on sometimes. The hike on out to the beach was mostly down hill and since it was still early morning, it wasn't too hot out yet. We would stop and search the tree tops when we heard noise, trying to spot whatever jungle critters we could. The jungle in Santa Rosa National Park is a relatively dry jungle and part of the Gunacaste World Heritage area due to the great diversity of life in the area.

While hiking down a rather steep hill we heard a ton of noise in the trees to the left and there was our first and only monkey spotting of the trip! A white face capuchin monkey was in the tree right by the road and man was he not happy to see us! Behind him was a tree full of his family swinging from branch to branch and eating. The angry monky near the road hissed and looked like he was going to jump and attack, but of course I had to get at least a couple pictures first!

Eventually we made it down to the ranger station down at Playa Naranjo and were welcomed by tons of various species of iguanas - they were HUGE!

Now, since we hadn't seen anyone else on our long hike down to the beach we were kinda expecting a deserted beach. But, Playa Naranjo is a very well known surfing beach and surfers come from all over to ride its waves. The surfers don't get out to the beach the hard way either, they pay boats about $200 a day to transport them over to catch some waves. So, needless to say we weren't alone.

Out in the middle of the water is a gigantic rock, known as Witches Rock and it was out around there that we spotted the surfers hanging out and about 3 boats. Besides being known for its waves, I had wanted to hike out here to hopefully observe some deadly wildlife. There is a lagoon off the beach that is suppose to be teaming with huge crocodiles and angry bull sharks (responsible for the most shark related deaths and attacks).

We walked along the shores of the lagoon, keeping our distance since we didn't want to experience any large crocodiles by first hand attacks. Sadly, no deadly creatures were sighted. :(

Despite being terrified of the bull sharks, we took a quick swim in the water...warily staying inland from other swimmers.

On the hike out there, I had managed to finish off most of my camel pack of water. Thankfully, the nice park ranger allowed us to refill up our packs out of the filtered water they had out at the station. We ate a quick snack of our trail mix and started the long, long hike uphill.

Man, oh man was hiking significantly slower than the hike in. Not only was the hike uphill this time, but the temperature had gone up at least 20 degrees and the sun was bright overhead. The hike was a killer for me and I had to take a ton of water breaks and much more frequent sit down breaks (not sure if I took any on the way in). I started to get dizzy and it didn't seem to matter how much water I drank or food I ate, I was definitely getting weaker and weaker. It was pretty crazy, but I'm pretty sure I had at least minor heat exhaustion.

When we FINALLY made it back to the tent, Adam ran off and grabbed us some nice cold Gatorade at the cafeteria and I jumped into one of the showers with all of my clothes on to cool on down. I don't think I've ever been that close to fainting before, but after a bit of rest, electrolytes, and a cold shower I started to feel MUCH better. Why do I always do stupid things on my "vacations"?

The three of us hopped in the car with plans to drive to Monteverde, but it started downpouring like crazy. We had been really lucky so far since we were traveling to Costa Rica during its rainy season and hadn't seen a drop so far. We grabbed a bite to eat in Liberia and hoped that the weather would clear, but it continued to pour so we decided to stay in town for the night at our swankiest hotel of the trip.

Costa Rica - Day 4 - Aqua Agua

Another early morning and we were on the road heading north...attempting to find the elusive Rio Celeste. We didn't have an exact location, just a small town pointed out to us by a local tour guide from Fortuna. The drive took us through rolling hill country, resemblant of Dr. Seuss' cartoon movie "The Lorax".

Following the map and the few road signs that existed we wound our way to a small town where we stopped and ate breakfast and attempted to ask for directions. She pointed us in the direction we had just come from and a several miles down the road AK spotted an elusive sign for a tour agency that offered tours to the mysterious river. We made a turn onto the nasty, rocky road, crossed the sketchiest bridge yet and headed through pineapple plantations in hopes that we were on the right track.

I spotted the shack of a tour agency on the side of the road and three of us got out of the car and hesitently knocked at the door - which swung open, revealing an empty room with a couple of touristy posters pinned up on the walls and nobody in sight. Great, now what? A local farmer across the way must have seen us and walked over to help and pointed us further up the horrible road...back in the car and on we drove. I mean, we had wanted an adventure.

At the top of a particulary nasty hill we found there was a sign which pointed at a small path and said "Arbol de la Paz" or tree of peace. We decided to check it out and walked into the thick vegetation and found the BIGGEST tree yet. I have yet to see Redwood trees, so I don't have a comparison but this tree stretched up to the heavens above and would have taken at least 8 people linking arms to reach around because of the gigantic root system.

Several miles further up the road we found the park entrance (a small barely labeled gate) to Parque Nacional Tenorio - the park where the infamous Rio Celeste was located. We negotiated for a tour guide (who only spoke Spanish) and the three of us + 2 others set off on a hike into the rainforest.

We were barely into the forest when the guide pointed out a humongous leaf cutter ant hill that supposidly extended like a 100 feet underground. We somehow learned (all of our Spanish skills are pretty weak) that their are quality control ants that sit at the entrances of the hill and only allow in leafs that are up to their standards...cute little engineer ants. :)

We hiked underneath the amazing canopy, on balance beam bridges over trickling streams, and made our way down to part of the river. Rio Celeste is famous because its waters turn the prettiest light blue due to the combining of a sulfurous river and another river that is rich in calcium carbonate. Because of the chemical content in the water it is not safe to swim in all areas, but we were allowed to swim in some of the more diluted parts.

The first part of the river we arrived at had several mini rapids and my first hot spring! I hung out on the bubbly hot water, slowly cooking myself while the boys once again spent some time playing around in the cold, blue stream waters.

As the group hiked further upstream, the cool waters became continuly more aqua in color and were a gorgeous contrast against the deep green of the jungle. We eventually came opon the spot where the two brown rivers mixed to form the brillant blue shade...sometimes chemistry can be kinda cool.

Along the hike, the guide pointed out interesting plants, identified bird calls, pointed out signs of larger life (like tusks marks in trees from boars) and just chatted. It always surprised me how much I can pick up and the 2 other members of our group would occasionally attempt to translate some of the knowledge when we were confused.

Coming upon some stairs on the extremely well maintained path we hiked up, and up, and up until we reached the viewpoint looking down over the valley of Tenorio National Park below. In the distance we could see Tenorio Volcano, which consists of a total of 4 volcanic peaks. It was a gorgeous, misty cloud & rainforest view!

We continued down the path and heard the rushing of the famous waterfall below us. The waterfall is not too significant in height, but it drops down into a pool of the light blue water AND its a perfect place to go swimming...I finally decided to jump on in the chilly water! Sometimes settings are so picturesque that they just don't seem real, and this was one of those places. The three of us soaked in the beauty as we played around in the waters, not wanting to hike on out of the park.

By this time the 3 of us were pretty starving, but decided to continue on to Santa Rosa National Park and stop at a local soda along the way...unfortunately, this was the one strip of road that we drove on the whole trip where the sodas were nonexistent. We tried to appease our stomachs with the most delicious pineapple ever and we ate so much that our mouths literally hurt from all of the acid.

We head west along the northernmost highway and we could occasionally see across the border and catch glimpses of Lago de Nicaragua. The northern highway is primarily a dirt road and we were stopped and questioned at several military checkpoints which I assume was because we were so close to the border.

By the time we reached Santa Rosa National Park we still had not passed any restaurants or stores and were really starting to wonder what we would do about a meal that night. We talked to the awesome ranger and he called up the kitchen that is located at the park for both park employees and researchers that are based there and thankfully they had prepared enough food that we could eat with everyone! They were even nice enough to offer a vegetarian meal for me...even though I was hugnry enough at this point that I would have eaten most anything!

Before dinner, we set up our tent in the campground and ran into a girl wearing a batdana!!! Ok, I'm kinda a caving dork at a TAG (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia) caving festival they sell tie dyed bandanas with bats printed on them....and I know that they can't sell these just everywhere so I thought I had found a caver. The girl turned out not to be a caver, but a bat catcher which I suppose is almost as cool, and she was setting up a net to catch and identify bats in the area with. Of all the mammals in CR (and there are a ton of them!) over half of them are bats! So, this girl was down in Costa Rica working on a bat research project and as a caver I thought this was pretty cool!

By the time we were done eating dinner, the sun had already set and this meant both bugs and bats were out in force. We literally walked back to the tent not talking, squinting our eyes and swatting at what seemed to be a million bugs swarming around us. Rather than sit outside on the nice bench at our camping site, the 3 of us hopped in the tent, zipped it up as fast as possible, turned on our flashlights and started swatting at the bugs that had managed to make it in there. We stayed up for a while drinking in the tent, while listening to the night noises of the jungle and the hords of bats that kept ramming into our tent. It was pretty early when the three of us fell asleep in the muggy, but bug free tent all on top of our sleeping bags.

Costa Rica - Day 3 - Day of Fortuna

We woke up early and grabbed a typical Costa Rican breakfast of eggs, beans, toast, and of course delicious Costa Rican coffee. We found a local store that rented mountain bikes for ridiculously cheap and grabbed 3 of them and a sweet Costa Rica National Geographic Map (another one to add to my rather large map collection).


We asked for directions on how to bike to a local waterfall - La Fortuna Catarata and the three of us were off on the bikes, biking out of town. Of course we biked several miles past the turn off for the waterfall (there are conveniently zero road signs pointing us towards the big ass waterfall) and as conveniently these several extra miles were mostly uphill. Gravity was much appreciated on the ride back downhill and we managed to find the correct turnoff. Who would have guessed that this road was nearly vertical...yeah, my legs were not so prepared for the monstrous hills and I ended up walking up most of it. Lame.


By the time the three of us made it up the gargantuan hill (some of us much faster than others) we had all soaked through our shirts with sweat. We paid the entrance fee and hiked on down through the towering trees to the 75 meter tall waterfall. As hot as I had been from the bike ride, the water was freezing cold so rather than jump in I just stood close enough that I got pretty soaked by the mist spraying off of the waterfall.


Unlike me, the boys immediately stripped down and jumped on in. They managed to find the perfect diving rock and I caught some great shots of them jumping into the cold water. AK was also determined to swim as close to the waterfall as possible and I was positive he was going to get pushed under and drown in the crazy swirling undercurrents....yeah, swimming isn't really my thing. After the boys were done cooling off and playing around, we walked downstream and saw some really cool Costa Rican fish (yes, the fact that they are from CR makes them cooler).


The three of us jumped back on our bikes and joyfully rolled down the hill and back into downtown Fortuna. We returned the bikes, hopped in the car and began circumnavigating the Volcano. As we drove around it was interesting to see the volcano change from being covered in green vegetation to a dark black color with very apparent lava trails. The most recent significant eruption was in 1998, but the most destructive eruption was back in 1968 when the volcano completely destroyed the small town of Tabacon.


Although Arenal is probably the most famous of Costa Rica's volcanoes, it is very rare that one gets to actually see the top of the cone as it is normally shrouded in clouds. As we were circling the volcano, the clouds cleared away and we were given the full view of the volcano for probably 10 minutes, just enough time for us to all jump out of the car and get some photographic evidence of it.


On the opposite side of the volcano is Parque Nacional Volcan Arenal and we paid the entry fee and drove on up the dirt road into the park. Once in the park, we hiked along the trails toward prime volcano viewing. The path led us through areas of high risk (at least this is what the signs warned) and the amount of sharp Igneous rocks significantly increased as we neared the volcano. Standing amongst the black rocks which formed from the most recent eruption in '98 we heard the deep rumbling of Arenal and saw what we could only assume were at least car sized boulders rolling down the volcanic slope (we were at least a mile away from the top of the volcano, which is relatively close to one that active).


When we turned our back on the volcano, Lake Arenal was visible from our perch on the igneous rocks. The Lake is damned and used for hydroelectric power in the area. The whole scenery in the area is one of the most surreal that I have encountered in my travels so far.


We hiked back on a different trail, surrounded by gigantic trees, tarzan vines to play on, and countless species of plants that I have never seen before. The trees seem to reach up forever into the canopies high above, and the rhythmic noises of the jungle kept our heads turning with hopes to spot an interesting animal around every corner.


After an early dinner at what we are pretty sure was the best restaurant in town we all grabbed some ice cream and chilled in the local town square. The clouds decided to clear from the volcano again and the scenery was amazing as local families took advantage of the parks green space - allowing their children to run around, playing tag and wearing off their energy - likely in hopes of an earlier bedtime.


Later that night, we attempted to drive closer to the Volcano in hopes of observing glowing orange lava flows, but we didn't have as much "fortuna" as we had earlier in the day with the sighting of the entire Volcanic cone. The clouds wrapped the volcano like a blanket and only the occasional snoring of the sleeping volcano could be heard.

Costa Rica - Day 2 - Dos Volcanoes!!!

So, we woke up early and after a crazy drive through rush hour in downtown San Jose where we dropped off Ivannia's roommate at his job and somehow managed to find the highway leading north out of the city...we were on our way to Volcan Poas! The road wound up the mountain and through coffee plantations with clear blue skies above and sunny, emerald mountains surrounding us. Volcan Poas is relatively close to San Jose, so it didn't take long before we had arrived at the Visitors Center.

We got out of the car, changed into some hiking clothes and set off on the extreme hike up the well paved road. The vegetation was deep green in color, the color that I have learned to associate with jungle and I absolutely love me some jungle! At the top of the small hill we came upon a viewing platform with about 10 others there max. Ivannia had warned us that it is rare to even see the volcano because cloud covering likes to hover right around the top of mountains, and so I had pictured Volcan Poas as a typical cone volcano that we would look on from a distance.

The site of Volcan Poas took my breath away. Rather than staring up at huge a volcanic cone, you looked directly down into the mouth of the volcano since at some point in the past the angry tectonics below had caused the entire cap to blow off! You could see the white, smoky steam emanating from the angry depths of the crater. Even though it would have been pretty easy to scramble down closer to the mouth, I was content with staying high above and not breathing in any deadly fumes.


After staring in awe at the volcanic mouth and taking obligatory pictures, the three of us set off on a "hike" through the jungle on a very well paved path. Along the hike we got to see the Volcanic Lagoon, a rather brave tiny bird, and a tasty looking mushroom that I debated sampling for lunch.
Leaving Volcan Poas, we set off down the road towards Fortuna. We stopped along the way at a small soda (what Costa Rican restaurants are called) where I had a couple bites of the chicken (I'm usually a vegetarian for those of you that don't know) that came along with the delicious beans, rice, and salad. Using my little Costa Rica map and directions from our 2 travel books we wound up and down the crazy mountainous roads through the jungle and over some rather fun, 1 way bridges.


We learned the ways of the road and before we knew it their appeared to be a large volcanic cone in the distance in front of us and we had arrived at Fortuna, a small town that sits at the base of Volcan Arenal - Costa Rica's most active volcano.


Arriving in town, we wandered around and found a hostel to stay at for a couple of nights. We spent the rest of the night wandering around town, drinking many Imperials, relaxing, and listening to the frequent rumbling eruptions of Arenal in the distance.

Costa Rica - Day 1 - Sketchy San Jose

Daily, I get an absurd amount of airfare deals sent right to my inbox...so, when I saw $360 airfares to Costa Rica AK & I were sold and quickly booked our flights. We invited several of our friends along, but Adam was the only one that jumped onto the trip, so we booked a rental car and before we knew it - vacation time was here!

Adam flew out earlier in the day from Orlando and we would be meeting up with him later that night at the San Jose airport. He apparently had an adventurous day hanging out with some ex-pats and being offered various illegal substances. Well, Adam was already having interesting adventures south of the border, AK & I made sure to enjoy an especially large margarita to get the trip kicked off right! Our flight got in around 8 in Costa Rica and after making our way through customs, where all employees were adorned with face masks since the poor piggy flu scare and where I had to do my darndest to not cough since I was recovering from a cold which might have resulted in me being denied access to the country - we finally met up with Adam.

At the rental car agency, we gave the employee Ivannia's telephone number (a local couchsurfer) and he proceded to argue with her on the phone that we would never find her place. Ivania was amazing and told the employee that she would meet us at Office Depot downtown San Jose and that we could follow her out to her apartment from there. The employee than explained to us several times how to get to this alledged Office Depot and feeling more than a little hesitant we set out from the rental agency to find Ivania. After numerous wrong turns, turn arounds, a KFC for directions, more wrong turns in the closed down streets of downtown where only people who looked like they were up to no good were standing around (San Jose one of the leading cities in prostitution) we magically drove upon what we assumed was the "fountain" that the employee had told us about and I screamed "Office Depot" with excitement when we found the out of business store.

We were pretty worried that this wasn't the right Office Depot and sat there worried what we would do if we couldn't meet up with Ivannia when a car pulled in up in front of us! Hallelujah! I got out of our rental and hopped in with Ivannia and the boys were going to follow us girls to her apartment which is located in the one of the suburbs of San Jose. We would up hill and out of the the main downtown and Ivannia made a couple of random turns to give me the optimum tour on the way to her house. Her apartment complex is barbed wired in so you can tell that the crime rate is even high in the burbs, but it was a nice cozy place.

Ivannia excitedly showed us many of her souvenirs from her travels that she has primarily done through her work at SOS Kinderdorf International. She also served us some delicious Tres Leches Cake which I believe she still owes us a recipe for! We talked about our plans for our trip and got her advice. She was such a kind host and I hope to meet up with her again one of these days!

Amphibious Warrior Adventure Race

Ever since my off road triathlon attempt I had been wanting to get more into the awesome and intense sport called Adventure Racing. For those of you that don't know what Adventure Racing is, it is a race that is almost always done in teams of 3-4 people with generally 3 racing disiplines - mountain biking, trekking/trail running, and canoeing/kayaking/rafting. During each disipline you have to navigate yourself around with the use of your compass, map, and points that you have marked using the UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) system and find checkpoints in the woods along or most oftentimes off of the trails. Most every race is different and they almost always include special tasks and for the most part these races aren't any walk in the park - at least for me.

I had been to several local orienteering events, so I was designated the navigator, but made sure to show Adam and David how to use the compass as well - since I would most likely need help in making decisions. The Amphibious Warrior race was an 8 hour long race and took place in Wind Creek State Park in Alabama. The 3 of us drove up there the night before, somehow managing to fit all of our gear into David's small car and all of our mountain bikes on the back. Once we arrived, we set up camp and all climbed in relatively early since the race was starting the next morning - for whatever reason the boys had decided that they didn't need to bring their sleeping bags with them and they froze most of the night, well I slept well in my 0 degree bag (thanks Mom and Dad!).

The next morning we got up and got all of our gear shoved into our little camel pack for the gear check, we put our rented canoe next to the starting line, and our mountain bikes and extra food in the transition area that we would come back to between all of the disciplines. The rules were explained to everyone and we kind of casually wandered over toward our canoe and the start - thinking there would be an announcement before the actual start of the race, but right as we got to our canoe the air horn sounded and we grabbed the canoe and were off running toward the water.

The 3 of us dodged our way through the trees and down to the water, David jumped in the canoe and Adam pushed it off and hopped in - leaving me on the shore staring blankly at them like WTF? I shrugged my shoulders and went diving in the water after them, somehow managing to keep the canoe upright well I clambored on in. The two boys were paddling and I was in the middle navigating and it was off to the first checkpoint we went. Only 2 of checkpoints were right next to the water and all the others the three of us had to go tramping through the thick, burr filled woods to find. We did well in the canoe despite one navigational error and Adam's horrible steering skills - and I didn't sit on my butt the whole time in the water and switched off with the boys for some paddle time.

After our canoe section, we headed back to transition gathered our necessities for the mountain biking section and took off on the road out of Wind Creek State Park and towards the mountain biking trails. A lot of the biking was actually road biking, but the mountain part ranged from wide fire roads to steep, rooty, and terrifying single track. At several of the biking checkpoints there were certain military type obstacles for us to do (the Auburn Marines put on this race) and Adam even had to take a short swim across a creek to get to one of the checkpoints. Overall, my legs were beyond dying and I was definitely slowing down the group as I had never biked near the 25 miles we covered that day. Surprisingly, we found all of the biking checkpoints (there was some really tricky ones!) and we biked on the road back into the park.

Once in the park we turned in our stamped passports and were given a list of UTM coordinates that we quickly plotted on our map. The mountain biking had taken a long time so we had to be very strategic about which hiking points we would try to hit, knowing that the checkpoints with obstacles would offer double points. We managed to find a couple of the checkpoints and had to crawl through mud under the "fire" zone for one of the obstacles - fun! Needless to say, the mountain biking had definitely taken up too much of our time though (my slow, slow legs couldn't peddle any faster!) and we returned to the finish line with only a couple of stamps on our passport. :(

Overall the race was a blast and I was dead tired! I really need to find another Adventure Race to do soon!

P.S. We somehow ended up qualifying for Adventure Racing Nationals, but opted out because its wicked expensive. :)

Wrecking our way through Nashville

AK, Jon (my amazing couchsurfer who now lives in Germany) and I took off early on Saturday morning for Nashville, TN. I had planned the trip about a month before because the NCAA Gymnastics Nationals was being held up there and to top it off one of my best friends Dana was working at her first grown up job up there as well. Jon was trying to make it up to his brother's place in West Virginia so we offered him a ride up there with us.

We met up with Dana and the new boy she was dating and grabbed a bite to eat along with the restaurant's make your own bloody mary bar. Well 3 of us went and watched the Georgia Bulldogs grab their 5th consecutive NCAA title...even though I'm a yellow jacket at heart, I feel compelled to root for the Georgia Gym Dogs since they're the only Division 1 team in Georgia and one of their Olympic athletes had helped choreograph a couple of my girl's floor routines.

After the meet we met up with Jon and Ben, the new boy and all went to grab a bite at a local Indian restaurant and then the 5 of us headed out to the bars in East Nashville. Jon decided that he would be the DD for the night and we spent the next couple hours hopping from bar to bar, to taco stand, to bar.

Deciding we had had enough for the night, we all piled into Ben's car with Jon in the drivers seat. At night in downtown Nashville, the main road's lights all turn to flashing yellow and all of the streets that cross have flashing red lights. We were driving along the main road with flashing yellows when another car decided that they weren't going to even slow down for their flashing red and came flying into the intersection...there wasn't even enough time for somebody to get out an, "Oh, shit" before we T-boned the other vehicle. Because I was sitting in the middle seat in the back, which thankfully actually had a shoulder strap I didn't see the accident coming - only had felt the screech of our breaks and Jon tried to avoid the hit, felt the painful crunching crash and then saw the smoke coming up out of our engine. The 4 of us quickly bolted from the car, nervous that smoke might mean fire or explosion that you see in the movies.

The other car had spun out after we had T-boned it and had landed half on a curb. The driver of the other car emerged, screaming accusingly at us for hitting her car. We informed her that it had in fact been her that had a run a red light and her mad screaming turned into a repitition of, "I did NOT run a red light, I did NOT run a red light". There were 4 people total in her car, one who had not been buckled as was displayed by her head sized dent in the front windshield...I think she ended up being ok.

Between the 5 of us we did a quick survey of eachother to make sure all of us were alright. My neck and everyone else's was starting to ache a little from whiplash and a couple minutes later Jon showed us his hand and his knuckle had swollen up like crazy - it ws definitely broken. I'm sure he was so grateful to be our designated driver. The cops showed up shortly after and questioned all of us separately and for some unknown reason they decided not to breathalize the driver of the other car even though everyone in that car was dressed in clubbing clothes and it was pretty apparent to us that she had been drinking....seriously? I feel like any accident that happens around 2 am should require that both drivers be breathalized!

All 4 of the girls from the other car were taken to the hospital on stretchers even though 1 refused to put her cell phone down even when they were rolling her onto the ambulence with a neck brace on. I do honestly hope the girls were physically ok, they obviously were not so mentally competent as they later tried to sue. All 5 of us had refused medical service and we spent at least another hour waiting on the tow truck to come pick up the car and the police to finally stop questioning us and leave. Funny how the accident wasn't our fault at all and we were left stranded on the side of the road until Dana got a hold of her friend to come pick us up at what was now like 4 in the morning.

The previous night had obviously been pretty eventful, but we didn't get much chance to sleep in the next morning as we were meeting up with a caving friend of mine - David at a cave called Indian Grave Point in the middle of nowhere Tennessee. The owner of the cave is extremely friendly to cavers and has some nice parking spots for us on the side of the road and has built a small fence so that you can cross over the barbed wire that surrounds him farmland to access the cave. Once crossing the fence, you hike around a cow dung infested pond and straight up the hill - avoiding more cow patties along the way. The cave entrance itself is a pretty large sinkhole that you can scramble down and then enter the chilly air of the cave - that had a smell of rot about it this particular day.

I absolutely love caving and am built small and agile which greatly helps me get around in caves and I went happily tromping ahead, leading us into the cave and doing my best to ignore the awful smell. From behind me I hear a loud, "Gross!" Jon had discovered the source of the smell - a rotting, bloated goat corpse - yuck!!!! Jon and Ben were all entertained by the dead, rotting corpse and preceded to take pictures in front of it, while the other 3 of us hiked as quickly as possible on past the goat and deeper into the cave to get away from the stench.

I had been in this cave once before and its got so big passages and chambers as well as some fun muddy crawl spaces that I of course wormed my way through whenever possible. There is a particularly "special" chamber with a particularly "welcoming" women is spraypainted on the wall. The 6 of us wandered up, down and around through the cave and eventually came upon the cave guest book which is surrounded by many interesting toys and a dorito was some funky mold on it. We signed our names and crawled up and down several more dark and muddy passages before making our way back to the entrance which was grossly apparent due to the odor of dead goat.

After a fun day and interesting weekend in whole we all headed our respective ways - Atlanta, Nashville, and West Virginia.

Wonder Woman Triathlon

So, I had been training super hard...meaning, I had been running a couple days a week for all of 2 weeks and gone mountain biking a whole 2 times...and I somehow allowed AK to talk me into doing an offroad triathlon. I pretty much knew I was going to suck it up, so I joked about wearing my wonder woman costume and brought it along just in case I was feeling like a cape would help the day of the race.

AK & I drove up Friday night with our friend Daryl to Springfield, South Carolina where the race was being held. A couple of our friends planned on making the trip, but would come up on Saturday. We got there pretty late and had missed the big eve of the race pasta dinner, but the race director was so sweet that he invited us into his cabin and heated up some more pasta for us and gave offered us a beer. I of course turned down the beer, knowing that it would greatly effect my performance the next day....NOT! We chilled in the cabin for a while before heading out the campfire that a couple of the racers had going. We head to bed kinda early because I desperately needed my beauty sleep - I mean a girls got to look good for race day, right?

We woke up early the next morning and checked in for the race. We put our mountain bikes in the race racks (I'm sure there is a more technical name that I don't know) and went and grabbed our kayaks that we had rented and put them in the row of super fancy flat water kayaks next to the lake.

I went back to the tent to change into my race clothes and after a short personal debate - I was out in my finest crime fighting outfit. I figured the cape would annoy me since it goes around your neck so I tied it to my camel pack. AK and I were hanging out pre-race and just kinda stretching and warming up because I am hardcore serious and all...and somebody asked him where his costume was. He of course had not packed a costume...but, he did have some work clothes in his car. Hah, he went and changed into work pants, button up shirt, and a tie - we were ready to race! :)

We all clogged together next to the starting line and with the gun shot I was off like a speeding bullet...if a speeding bullet moves at a whopping pace of 6 miles per hour. This 7 mile run, would be the farthest I had ever ran...and my only goal was to keep running and I managed at least to do that. The run through the beautiful trails weaved in and out of the woods and around the lake and I'm sure it would have been absolutely beautiful if I wasn't nearly dying the whole time. At least I had a great support team with the "Go Wonder Woman" shouts every now and then!

After the run, was a 6 mile kayak around the lake - this was the part of the race that I was least worried about. Its not that I'm a big kayaker or anything...I probably paddle just a couple times a year, but at least I knew that I had actually paddled 6 miles in my life before (compared to the 7 mile run and the 10 mile mtn bike) and this was an extra fancy kayak with peddals that you steer with! We had to paddle our way around the lake 3 times and I was actually passing a couple of people which made me happy...really, really stunk for the guy in a white water kayak - he was doing nothing but paddling back and forth.

After the kayak, I hopped on my mountain bike and just prayed that my legs would somehow keep going for the next 10 miles. A lot of the biking was on fireroads, but these were sandy fireroads that made you feel like you were somehow peddeling backwards. The single track was hard and I was often off my bike pushing it up another steep hill since my legs weren't really going along with the whole not stopping thing. Overall, I got passed a ton and I got use to getting passed and was frankly ok that I was majorly sucking it up because the race was getting closer and closer to being over!

After what felt like an eternity, I crossed back over the main road and began biking towards the finish line and I hear "On your left." Ok, this is general curtosy on a bike or even when you are running and passing somebody and I had heard this all day because I had been passed many, many times, but my reaction than time was more of a "Not going to happen bitch" reaction. Well, I didn't say that but I would like to think that my reaction of speeding up and barreling down the road at warp speed, conveyed that. That girl behind me would be 1 of a whole 7 people that finished behind me. Well make that 8 because 1 girl totally cheated on the paddle - no way did she complete 3 laps!

Well, needless to say that kicking myself into warp drive did not make the victory bottle of rum seem like a very good idea and I gave myself a good 30 minutes and a whopping plate of food before I took my shot.

Unlike me, AK actually did really well at the race and apparently got to hear "I am NOT getting passed by a guy in a suit" several times during the race. :)

Well I had been hard at work sucking it up, a bunch of our friends had arrived and we had a great time hiking, drinking, and campfiring before once again heading back to reality.

A Lazy Savannah Weekend

Thank goodness for long weekends! AK & I decided to spend a weekend in Savannah since we both had work off (thank you MLK) on Monday.

Early on Saturday morning we first headed down to Macon since my girls (my prep-ops that I coach) had their first gymnastics meet of the season. I was super excited because this was my first gymnastics meet as a coach rather than a gymnast! I will never know how AK survived sitting through that meet (he might have had a book to help him out a little), but my girls did well! We grabbed a bite to eat before heading down I-16 to Savannah.

Back in the day (lol, a couple of years ago) I use to co-op for Gulfstream in Savannah, so I know the city well and thankfully have a bunch of good friends in the city still. We stayed at my friend Travis' apartment downtown Savannah - such a good location since it was walking distance to everything! After a couple drinks at his house (Natty Light and plastic bottled vodka - Travis keeps it real), we walked downtown and hit up a couple of Bars - including Savannah Smiles, a dueling piano bar and one of my favorites!

The next day, AK and I visited the Bonaventure Cemetery - a truely creepy looking place with the huge oak trees covered in droopy Spanish moss and located right on the Savannah river. We got out our mountain bikes and biked up and down every dirt road in the cemetery. Thankfully we got a bit of biking in, because the rain thwarted our plans to bike out to Tybee Island. We decided to drive out to the beach anyway - and then it started to pour. We decided that it was a good day for a movie and ended up going to see Benjamin Buttons.

We drove back into downtown and ate outside under the heat lamps at Tubby's on river street. The live music went along with our delicious seafood perfectly. The rest of the night was much more low key than the first since Travis did have to work the following day.

We got to sleep in on Monday (man, I love getting paid to be lazy) and then we had plans to hit up Mrs. Wilkes' Dining room - the most amazing southern food I have ever eaten and they usually have a line that goes down the block of people waiting to get seated. Unfortunately, Mrs. Wilkes' Dining room was closed, not just for the day....but for January. But our desire for a really good lunch need not fear, because Soho South Cafe was there to save us with their amazing tomato bisque, grilled cheese sandwiches, and mediterranean wraps. mmmmm

Sadly, good & lazy weekends need to end and it was back to Atlanta we went.

My weekend in LA!

So, you would think after my exhausting week in Puerto Rico I might want to take some time to relax, sleep, and just in general not be lost in the jungle - but Adam invited me to come out to LA with him...3 days after we got back from the island. Adam works for SpaceX and they were having their Christmas party out in LA and I was lucky enough to be Adam's date!

Adam picked me up at LAX with a coffee in hand and we immediately headed down to meet up with some of his coworkers at Manhattan Beach. Drinking on a companies dime is always fun, and a big group of us hopped from bar to bar. We got pretty hungry around 2 in the morning and head to a local restaurant for some grub before crashing back at the hotel.

Early the next morning...around 6 something...after only a couple hours of sleep I got woken up by Adam. I know that I personally have a ton of energy for a person, but Adam has an infinite store of it. We grabbed some coffee and head to Griffith Park for an early morning hike. Griffith Park has plenty of dusty trails going up and down the hills and is apparently a really popular place to fitness walk - you know what I'm talking about - people in their fancy workout clothes with their arms pumping, fast walking, and essential dog. It seems that from most every hill there is another breathtaking view of the LA skyline with the ocean in the distance and you can even get relatively close to the famous Hollywood sign.

After our brisk morning stroll through the park (haha!) we drove down to Venice Beach! On my previous trip to LA, I managed to get hit by a bus on my drive down to Venice beach and as a result never made it there. I was excited to finally get to fulfill my silly dream of rollerblading along the beach - Adam, who grew up out in LA didn't share my same awesome dream and he rented a skateboard to look like less of a tool than me and we had a great time rolling down the beach. I was definitely a little shaky at first and I'm not quite sure how I didn't run into anybody on the crowded strip. We went all the way down to Santa Monica pier and I removed my blades so we could walk around for a while.

After my rollerblading fix, we met up with some of his coworkers at Club Sushi out at Hermosa Beach. We walked along the boardwalk near where Adam use to lifeguard back in High School before heading to yet another beach in Palos Verdes. The beach in PV was super rocky and apparently a popular place to go spear fishing...the water is so cold that I don't get how anybody goes in - even if they have a wetsuit on. PV is where Adam grew up and where his mom still lives so we head to his house to get ready for the work party.

The party was fun with its open bar, dinnertime comedic ballet, and the coolest photo booth ever with a treasure chest of costumes and a Mars backdrop. You can bet we took full advantage of that! After our extremely full day...we went to bed relatively early.

We woke up not too ridiculously early and went and grabbed brunch down at one of the beaches (I can't keep them straight...) before I head to catch my flight back home and back to reality. :P