Jessica Dunlap's Wild Wild West Blog

omg, i am too tired to write at the moment (wednesday night) BUT i will say that johnny, the GM@ las gemelas made me the best shot of tequila i have ever had and i will expound upon that AND the entire day after supper or tomorrow morning before we head back to sn jose to drop caroline off at the airport!

Oh-kaaaaaaaay, so we didn't get caroline out of quepos today...and we have had to cancel our already postponed canopy and horseback riding tours BUT on the bright side, we are partaking in a half price spa package at 3pm today...

back to yesterday--

we went shopping in downtown quepos fater making our way down the old road that is now part of a detour because the new road collapsed with all the rain.  i managed to buy more ridiculous costa ricantourist STUFF but we stopped into Wacky Wanda's which is an american owned joint.  wanda(wanda szczeniak, says-nee-ack) IS wacky and awesome--she is what i will be like in 30 years, caroline said.  they used cut-up squares of carpet padding for coasters and had numerous signed pictures of ronald reagan!!!  The Lower the Latitude, the Better the Attitude!!!  next we rode back out to the beach to find wilberth so we could see what was going on with our postponed tours and what the stipulations were for getting our money back.  he said no problem getting money back but to wait and see if the weather will get better friday (at this point, we know we are not going to get to do the canopy or horseback riding)  so we ate some lunch at rapahel's terrazas, whish has some of the friendliest staff we have met in this already overly-friendly area.  alberto and his brother giovanni made us feel like we were VIPs.  someguys stopped in to peddle pastries and i bought giovannis recommneded banana cake. alberto made me some coffee in the traditionla costa rican way, and then went shopping AGAIN down at the beach--i had to skip it and hit up las gemelas.  i ad a beer with wilberth, who in his ever-optimistic way said we should have no problem getting caroline back to the airport even though we have heard many opinions to the contrary (we have indeed NOT gotten caroline to the airport and we hope that we will get her out of here saturday, along with getting ourselves out on sunday).  anyway, johnny the bartender remembered me from yesterday and asked, "tequila," and he poured me (yes, proper pronoun usage, thanks) and himself the most amazing shot of tequila ever--EVER!  i will be utilizing his methods when i come back.  josephine is a supermodel hot blond chic that was hanging around las gemelas both days i was there.  italked to her for a minute, asked her where she was from and  she moved to costa rica from sweden last year sometime.  she has NO discernible accent, none, which comes from 8 years of super-awesome english teaching.  we were in bed by 9pm last night, folowing supper at the hotel. it stopped raining while we were eating and we got our hopes up that the rain was gone for good.  no such luck!  woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of torrential downpour!!!

just got word that nikki haley is the GOVERNOR--w00t, w00t!!!  I am in costa rica as i get this news--don't really know how to act because no one here gives a rat's and i am ECSTATIC!!!!  

Working in reverse here: right now i am listening to the song rasputine by boney m, it's some crazy disco song. rah, rah, rasputine, russia's greatest love machine...and everyone i'm with is playing pool while i blog...we are at billfish bar and casino.  i'm tired.  it's raining STILL.  which i do not mind at all because i have ample time to chill and write.  so we had supper at RESTAURANTE CAYUGA on Isla Damas.  it is owned by Ricardo and Ana Alfaro. their son Daniel waited on us. first of all, best food so far on this trip.  turner and zach took us out here. it's north of quepos, back in the san jose direction.  ana cooks everything in the open air restaurant, ricardo greets and smiles, daniel is a server far beyond his 20 years of age (after he waited on us, he split to give dance lessons to the table that came in before us).  i will post photos but the food was unbelievable--apps of ceviche, homemade guac and fried pork.  i ordered two entrees, per usual and between the five of us, we polished off nearly everything--shrimp, chicken, pork times 2 and fish times2...AND ana gave us two desserts on the house--coconut flan and rice pudding (rachel pointed out it beat any indian rice pudding either of us had ever eaten).  before we went to damas island, we picked the boys up at their hotel the blue monkey.  we walked in and asked which way to room 15 and the receptionist totally handed us the key...uhhhhhhhhhh.  so the boys took longer than the girls to primp and get ready but we enjoyed a couple of drinks at the blue monkey which is an awesome place.  cheap, centrally located, awesomeness.  we had been at mariscopa chillin out looking at the pacific through a sheet of rain from one of their pool bars and having adult conversation when we made the decision to go to to isla de damas for supper ,and prior to that we had ben hanging out by the pool at our place, the karahe hotel fater an afternoon of shopping at one of the two stores that were open on this super rainy day.  right before shopping we had an amazing lunch at the hotel/restaurant we had been at the previous day for afternoon cocktails that marks the end of the roadtoward the national park.  fried green plantains are awesome, they come with black bean sauce and a serious sour cream--like super wangy, truly sour, sour cream that we don't know about in the states.  that was an app and after my main course for lunch i ordered a second plantain app.  i don't mess around with food, y'all, NEVER.  well before they met us for lunch, turner and zach completely shocked us by actually showing up to have breakfast with us at our hotel.  again, these are fun, funny guys that play off each other like they are a paid comedy act (and a good one, at that).   i left out a lot... 

 

I LOVE drawing blood.  It's so...it's so...DIFFICULT!  

--Caroline Smith

so, apparently we are in an extremely diverse place--I mean Darwin visited here or something.  anyway, all this diversity was what i woke up to when i stepped out the front door of our villa at 830am.  the first thing i saw was the black arm of a monkey swinging around in the trees; then the next thing i made out through the torrential downpour (it's the end of the rainy season here) was the pacific ocean, after being in awe of the pacific for a few moments, i then notice the enormous iguana chillin about 6 feet away from me [insert super girly scream and a couple of cuzz words].  i talked rachel out of getting a shower in the death trap of a bathroom and instead, we go down to report the problem and go EAT!!!!  The continental breakfast we had was, first of all, less than 50 yards from the beach.  we ate breakfast RIGHT BESIDE the pacific ocean in an open-air cabana! a plate of fresh fruit, coffee, passion fruit juice (which is the best juice i have ever had in my life!!!), fried eggs, and black beans with rice is my current favorite thing for morning chow.  I am trying to figure out who invited the ants. they were scurrying around the juice/coffee bar like busy little waiters, not a concern at all for the staff and since hey weren't concerned, neither was i, very different from america!!! after breakfast, we walked out onto the beach.  ther was a tree i had to climb, and we stuck our feet in the pacific ocean--for me, that was a first.  we went back to our villa and figured out the toilet leaks so between that and the shower, we ask if we can just move into the place next to us which is fine. we end up driving down the road toward the national park  which is closed on mondays and everyone is trying to get us to pay to park in their lots but we keep driving to the end and park at a hotel where we have a few drinks and discuss what exactly we are gonna be doing for the next few days.  Favian, a local peddler comes up to us and we end up buying a bunch of clay pottery from him which he says he made himself and i really hope that is true.  somebody is getting some neat stuff when i get home.  Wilberth is a guide for the canopy tours and he comes and chills with us and talks to us about costa rica, the canopy, explains why the young people make out with each other on the side of the road, i show him a video of me playing the ukulele, and he is now our friend.  his english is really good because he lived in chicago for a couple of years.  he asks us if we want to see some monkeys and starts throwing pieces of banana out for the monkeys to eat and they descend like vultures...this is on the edge of the national park, which, after having the rules of wildlife drilled into my head in yellowstone, is completely in contrast to what i have learned--FEEDING wildlife???!!!  anyway, we go with wilberth to quepos so the girls can exchange money which takes FOREVER and i sit in the car and read and people watch which is pretty interesting.  the exchange thing took so long that i really thought at one point that the girls had been abducted.  luckily, wilberth is a good guy and we drop him off in downtown quepos which i am pretty sure is why he told us the place to exchange money was like 200yards from where he needed to be.  imma hustla, baby!!!  oh, i forgot to mntion the part about caroline screaming when she saw a bug in the bathroom.  during the time i was sitting in the car, i came to understand the draw of the place for my mimi which makes me feel closer to her even though she isn't with us anymore.  there are lots of gay bars in manual antonio and wilberth says he loves the gays and labians because they are very courteous and nice, no kids to deal with.  he says old people are the worst, they are grumpy and mean.  on the way back from quepos, we stop off at Aqua Azul to pee, get a drink and get some grub.  biggest hamburger i have ever seen in my life, it is 500 grams, which judgiing by the size, has to be around a pound.  caroline ordered that.  rachel got blackened fish of some sort and i got a calamari wrap.  rachel and i drank the house special which as the waitress informed us, VERY strong.  think: moonshine strong with some rum-soaked watermelon floating around in it.  they played american classic rock at this place and the view was incredible!  we went back to the hotel and showered then heaeded to El Avion again so rachel could get pics and because caroline had not gotten to see it the previous night.  same bartender, Juan Jose Mejias and he has some awesome latin tunes playing.  apparently, this didnt suit caroline.  she whips out her ipod and dominates the dj role for pretty much the rest of the night but we do manage to get juan jose introduced tothe music of those darlins, specifically their song "Wild One."  Two guys fromt he previous night start chatting with us, Zach and Turner. Ends up, they are from Georgia, know Rabun County, and even worked at YMCA camp High Harbor.  they were funny and awesome and i hope to stay in touch with them.

caroline (now carolina) and i met up at CLT and our plane was an hour late leaving.  we flew over cuba and grand cayman on the way into the san jose airport.  we got a rental car from hertz after we picked up rachel (now known as raquel) outside of customs. it´s the tiniest SUV i've ever seen but it is purdy sturdy.  the first stop after getting wheels was FOOD!!! the guy who rented us the car recommended Inka's House, a good seafood place, not too far form the airport.  Carlos was our waiter there and he ended up falling in love with carolina in the hour's time we were there.  the food was piled up on our plates and it was all amazing--we started out with a mixed ceviche, the hot sauce that accompanied the ceviche and the entrees was incredible but we were not able to weasel the recipe out of the chef.  carolina had a seabass dish, rachel had fried shrimp and i had a heaping pile of paella.  the only thing wrong with inka's house was the damn music--synthesizer/karaoke style ABBA, Celine Dion, The Eagles, Simon and Garfunkel, etc.  We passed on dessert b/c we were so thoroughly stuffedand headed out toward Manuel Antonio, and i must say, i was intimidated byt the furious, sans-rules driving and the fact that it was getting dark.  our GPS definitely lead us to a VERY wrong way intially...we ended up at a ditch the size of the grand canyon after passing through a dirt road neighborhood where my butthole was clenched tight enough to tear the apholstery of the car seat because of the unpleasant sights, smells and sounds.  i definitely thought we might die for a few miinutes. we made it back to the main road and figured out the correct route on our own.  after the harrowing experience of getting out of san jose, we stopped at a bar called Tico-Tico (tico is a word for local, from what i gathered).  everything is open-air here and about half the price it would be in america (depending on where you go, it can be more or less).  at tico-tico 3 beers, a shot of jager for rachel and a half pack of cigarettes was less than ten bucks. awesome.  i had a beer and a cigarette to calm my nerves from the drive, then we got back on the road. let me just say the little car we bought is resilient, the road here are pretty rough in some places--we had been warned multiple times about this but in spite of the wearnings, we managed to catch air a few times due to bumps on bridges that we did not see.  no one pays attention to lines in the roads here or speed limit, or signs...it´s anarchy of the highway.  when we got to karahe hotel aroun 9pm, there was no one to greet us except the handy man who spoke ZERO english, and we of course know about ten words between the three of us...SO we finally got the point across that we were checking in and the handy man got someone, pretty sure a guest, out of his room to talk to us...that got the handy man to get us a key.  we hiked up a, no exaggeration, MOUNTAIN of stairs to get to our cute villa and when the handy man tries the key, it of course does not work...so he takes the batteries out of another door lock and puts them into ours and VOILA!  the puerta now abras.  Caroline decided to crash out and rachel and i rode back up the street to El Avion, an bar made out of an old plane, the aboslute coolest bar i have been to in my entire life of drinking.  we had a drink ther to unwind then promptly headed to bed.  when we got back, caroline informed us that the shower was smoking from an elctrical problem--yep, there is a socket IN the shower, it's weird and i will get a photo, but it's all screwy...slept well in spite of AND because of the awesome noise coming from the trees--monkeys and birds!  

Butch and I met Josh and Katie at MAry's today for lunch.  It's SUPER cheap and pretty decent grub (i won't say excellent cuz that'd be a lie but it was definitely worth the trip out to the place).  then we headed to the harley store because i want a bigger bike, but rock hill harley davidson was slightly disappointing as far as the selection of bikes, just sayin.  butch has been telling me about this place out in the boondocks that he happened upon so we decided to head out there.  it's right before you get to blacksburg and it is awesome.  right before you get there, you cross a bridge that looks medieval it's so old, wooden and iron.  then you come upon the Burnt Mill Gro....grocery?   i reckon, but there aint no groceries to be seen outside of canned beer which is just fine with me. 

I went to what is called Final Resolution Boot Camp yesterday morning.  I woke up at 345am and drove to clover where rachel and keesha took all my measurents from weight to body fat percentage to waist size, etc. which will be remeasured every friday for purposes of comparison.  Then after a few warm-up laps around the track, which i completed with ease much to my surprise after not running for 4 years (ACL recon on my knees made them not appreciate running), they started in on some intense exercises which included squatting against a wall, staying in the plank position while everyone races to jump over us in what felt like some sadistic version of a childhood playground game (coincidentally, we were performing these exercises in a playground so perhaps the location intensified that feeling). we did pushups, situps, suicides, jumping jacks, squat jumps, some band exercises then REPEAT, did it all again.  i'm writing all the time, reading when i'm not doing that, squeezing in some coal yard shifts and today i am going hiking up crowder's with daddy joe.  i'm glad to be home

 

 

It's Wednesday morning, and I'm up writing this blog at my Aunt Debbie's house in Titusville, PA.  I just met Debbie and her husband Steve and two of their three kids, Greg and Dan yesterday afternoon for the first time.  Debbie is one of Daddy Joe's siblings and before 2006, they had not seen each other in 35 years.  They've made a point to stay in touch since then though. Debbie and Steve were actually down in SC about a week after i left in april so i just missed them but luckily got to make up for it on this trip home.  I told y'all the vegetarian inside me went on vacation, and for sure because i had three helpings of homemade lasagna last night and loved every bite of it.  I thought i gained some weight in yellowstone--nothing in comparison to what i've gained on the trip home!  tme for a fitness regimen which i would like to start as soon as i get home if shane benfield would bother to call me back!!!  before supper we hung out on the front porch in absolutely perfect weather and we have had such a blast here, the most relaxingand fun time of the trip so far!  My Daddy Joe and I have had a decent trip for the most part--in spite of a few incidents that could have put quite a damper on things had we not laughed about them...

upon leaving sturgis, south dakota, we stopped off at mt rushmore, the ongoing project that will probably never be finished known as the crazy horse memorial, and we drove though custer state park to get back to the interstate.  this put us about three hours behind schedule and to our dismay, we figured out there was not a cracker barrel in SD until sioux falls. while SD is an awesome state in the western portion, it gets increasingly less awesome as you drive east on 90 with cracker barrel being your light at the end of this dark tunnel--until you figure out you have to change interstates and drive 15 miles out of your way to get to it.  the alternate plan involves a truck top called schmooter's that is all at once a casino, a bar, AND a restaurant.  we ate some chili and country fried steak, drank a beer, and headed on down the road.  somehow we failed to realize we had a headlight out  but a nice cop in minnesota pulled us over to let us know and to pull me out of the car to ask me why my car smells like a headshop.  well, officer, why do YOU know what a headshop smells like?  naw, but i showed him my pilot's license which convinced him i'm drug free and proud AND the other cop who had come as back up (i mean, Beppo and I ARE srsly intimidating--srsly) goes and asks beppo what we are doing...somehow, miraculously, don't know how, but our stories MATCH UP, cuz gah, stupid minnesota cops with nothing better to do than harrass hippies and old men, we're telling the truth (well, except for the fact i have weapons in my car, i did lie about that cuz that's just really none of their business, IMHO).  so i hate minnesota because of this ordeal and because, well, there just isn't much to see, not from 90 at least...my friend tim fast lives there and i really don't know why.  sorry, tim, move permanently to the south, man.  so we got off the road asap after that close encounter.  we went and got a new headlamp monday morning which was sort of an ordeal...anyway, didn't get on the road until 9am which was gonna put us in chicago much later than the noon time we were shooting for.  lindsey naively recommended that we have the car and trailer valet parked. first of all we hit chi-town in rush hour.  one of the traffic enforcement officers would not even give me 15 seconds to grab a valet, she said she would write me a ticket so i decided to pull into a parking deck...daddy joe's sphincter tightened when we got into downtown (or uptown, whatever) traffic and absolutely got tied in a knot when i drove into the parking deck with the uhaul trailer.  all i could do was laugh, and by laugh i mean, riotously...and at the same time try to drive this land cruiser with this baby of a trailer attached to us by its metallic umbilical cord.  well, needless to say, it cost us six bucks to ride around in the parking deck.  so we did a drive-by visit where linds jumped in the car as beppo jumped out and we rode around the block exchanging circes and beppo jumped back in and we hauled ass and got out of chicago like it was on fire...again.  daddy joe has absolutely no desire to return to the midwest after cops in minnesota, dowtown chicago madness, traffic on 90, having to ask for keys to bathrooms, toll roads, and no beer at gas stations. he will not even return for wisconsin cheese curds.  i will go back to wisconsin (if i need to) and i will go back to chicago (to visit) but the majority of the midwest to me is undesirable.  driving into chicago, all i could think is, "why does my friend like living here?" skyscrapers are no substitute for mountains, and i have been spoiled rotten the last few months, constantly surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery in the country.  we got 90% of the way across indiana before pulling off and coincidentally ending up in sturgis again...sturgis, michigan.  two sturgises, one trip, HA.  we had to plop down at applebee's because there just wasn't much else but it turned ut alright. cedric webb was our bartender and he made the worries of the day melt away with every adult beverage he served us.  cedric is interested in moving out west. i recommended bozeman of course, i recommend bozeman to everyone, it's awesome.  we stayed across the street so we didn't have to drink and drive.  awesome end to a hectic day! 

 

so, friday night was my last in bozeman for a while, stayed at my favorite place--the Lewis and Clark (if you ever go to the Bozone, you MUST stay at the LandC!!!) the love affair between bozeman and me (yep, correct english, there are exceptions to the rule) is over but no worries, we're still friends, LOVE that town, always will, BUT i'm now IN LOVE with Seward, Alaska, and absolutely cannot wait to get there!  Daddy Joe and I cut out around 11am, after trying to fly (weather wasn't good enough) and then getting the folks at the yellowstone harley dealership to strap the bike down. we stopped at the little big horn battlefield near the crow reservation and at devil's tower right before sundown.  both were worth the time and distance out of the way, for sure.  we ended up in sturgis for the night.  we stopped for some brews abd food at rosco'z and then went to the days inn which is located right beside a casino den known as poker alice's...i asked the front desk if there was a bar in the casino and she said there was, complete with dollar beers...well, when we walked in, it was all video gaming with a ady who would give you beer out of a fridge for a buck, which really doesn't fit my definition of a bar, but daddy joe and i drank a couple of beers and wasted a few bucks on video poker in the process. we are fixin to head out of sturgis as soon as my clothes are done drying--you can wash and dry your clothes here for a buck! 

ok, so in alaska a german dude with dreads showed me how to dump the waste water on the rv the first time i had to do it...his dreads were nice and mine just turned a year old today and he said i wouldn't believe the difference between year one and two.  they've come along way since i left home but i'm ready for them to be mature--all in good time, i reckon...

On thursday before leaving seward we stopped off at the alaska sea life center where we saw all kinds of animals, up close and personal and i bought katie a surviving alaska book; then, coming out of seward, we stopped off at exit glacier, and i picked up rockwell kent's book from his time on the peninsula back in the day. Simon and Seaforts's was Mark Shipham's recommendation for supper in Anchorage so we went there on our last night and it was wonderful.  An awesome lady name Faith was like the millie hagins of alaska and treated us very well while we were there. amazing food, ambience, staff, etc... on our plane ride b/w seattle and bozeman, they gave beer away...we were not in first class--that's the first time i've ever experienced FREE BEER anywhere but especially on a plane where normally it is way overpriced.  t was only one kidn though--mactarnahan's amber out of portland. 

i'm too tired to write about last night and today...

i am so lucky to be able to have the adventures that i do...i have had the time of my life this summer, doing a lot of things in a few months that most people do not get to do in a lifetime.  I am thankful for all of my opportunities and hope i haven't squandered a single moment.  we are fixin to head out of anchorage, daddy joe is headed to bozeman with me to ride along on my way back to south carolina, and mama and grandma fred are flying back to charlotte. 

 

we left seward yesterday and i would be really upset about it except for the fact that i am moving there in march of 2011.  it is the most beautiful place i have ever seen!  Alaska>Montana  and montana is pretty freakin awesome!  really, the only thing on my mind right now is getting the heck home.  yeah, i will be there a short while before i am ready to head out again BUT i really wanna be home and recharge and see all the awesome york county folks that are my family and friends. i hope y'all are ready to ride bicycles, motorcycles, play tennis, go hiking, drink some SC beers, go tailgatin, and get a lot of bear hugs from me cuz i am on my way, and if i love you, i might tackle you when i see you!!!