Tamil New year - a delayed photo op

My mom got me a few shirts and pants to wear for this years occasions on my last India trip in December. This year we were not exactly in celebratory mood for Tamil New Year two weeks ago. 

We had just finished 30 days under lockdown and were at the stage where everyone was ready to kill each other within the house. The good news is we are all doing okay and are all healthy. 

I have been pushing the family to come for a photoshoot to get a family picture and tonight they obliged.. it was not possible to make everyone dress up as some folks expect me to be happy for them even showing up for the picture. 

We did have some good eats on April 14th to celebrate but we were in stay-at-home clothing.

Here is last years photo..

and this years photo..

and another photo to remember this time and this year..

Next year Jr. will be in college and given Tamil New Year falls on April 14th, chances are she will not be visiting.. it might be a good  8 years before we see the family in one place for this. . . which is why I was pushing for these pictures in the first place!

This year started in quarantine and has set the bar very low for any year in our lifetime. We sincerely hope that things will get better and we get back to at least 50% of our routines.

Given my grumpiness and the actual day being spent in back to back zoom meetings and calls...

I wish you all a better year! 

Hope by next April we are all back to normal! 

Happy Pongal 2019

We celebrated Pongal on a weekday this year.. so it was the San and myself team effort at 5AM to make pongal and vadai and do a quick pooja before taking off to work. The kids were not even up in time to participate.

Had to make a rush for the sugarcane in the local Indian store.. stiff competition from customers for the 10 or so canes that were there!

Managed to see the sun at work during a lunch walk on Pongal, which in itself is becoming a hit or miss the last few years. 

My office mates know from the "chandhana pottu" on my forehead that there must have been some function/ festival going on. When I describe Pongal to them they go "oh, so it is your version of thanksgiving!" 

There was no chance to recreate our Pongal family picture during the week. It was too cold outside and given our backyard has been remodelled, there was no chance to get that same shot anyways.. so the closest I got to a collage was this..

The kids can no longer stand in front of us!  It was also not easy to be in a dhoti today, given the cold weather.

In four years, Jr. will be a senior in college and the little one a freshman.  It is my sincere wish that they show up for Pongal to take one more picture. Daddy will be waiting with pongal in one hand and camera in the other..

one can always hope.. put senti on the blog.. etc. but these kids have a mind of their own.

To everyone who celebrates Pongal, may this year be a good one for you! 

A baby sloth - Costa Rica Day 7

The previous post on this series is here..

On the last day of the Costa Rica trip, only me, San and Padma decided to stick to the original plan of going to Manuel Antonio park. The rest of the folks stayed back at Coco Mar to enjoy the waves some more.

We went on a guided tour of the park to see the sloth and were treated to see a baby sloth! 

The sloth mom is on top and the baby is facing the right.. Using a 200mm at 400mm with an extender still got me only this clarity. Was happy to see it live! There are lots of pictures in the Photo Galleries which did not make it to the posts.. you can check them out on the Photo Galleries tab for Fauna, Flora, and their landscape folders..

There was also a lot of animals, birds, insect sightings again.

At the end of the guided part, we ended up in a beautiful lagoon which was crowded with swimmers. We were not planning to get into the water. There was no chance for more wet clothes in our bags. We were leaving later the same evening.

We took some photos on the beach and hiked all around the edge of the park for a strenous 45 minute hike to Cathedral point. It was beautiful. On the way back we came past the other side of the land facing the other beach. 

Once back at Coco Mar, we had a quick bite to eat, said our byes to the private beach and drove towards the airport.

On the way we were talking about how it would be great to come to Costa Rica and retire.. and maybe start a resort like this with a private beach.. and we crossed this building..

When asked, the driver explained in his broken English that a family from US had started building a resort and the USD slid in value after the sub-prime crisis and they could not come up with money to finish the project. Costa Rica is so good that it sets you straight before you leave the country! It is full of prompt lessons..

The driver was nice enough to give us two stops at beaches on the way. The Jaco one was beautiful..

They have artists paint everyting.. this was a bus stop that was just amazing.. 

We had Desafio accomodate us with a dinner stop at San Jose in Taste of India, which was in the 2nd floor of a high rise residential/commercial building!

After a sumptuous meal and one last masala Chai for 2019, we were at the airport.

We had 5 hours to spend before the flight. Ended up playing a board game for couple of hours. 

The Juan Santa Maria airport is on high ground and you can see the valley below. We got to see at least 8 fireworks light up the sky from the gate area at midnight. 

A video of the day's events here..

We had a lot of fun on this trip. This is going to be the baseline for trips going foward. No driving on our own. The entire trip planned ahead and rides showing up on time everywhere. Vegetarian food options that work for me. San has set the bar high on this one.

Strongly recommend this place for a visit at this time of the year!

There is one last post on Costa Rica.. that is not part of the series, but something that I kept seeing everywhere.. will post it tomorrow.

Wife and friend pick an absolute winner- Costa Rica Day 6

The previous post on this series is here..

On Day 6 we started at Monta Verde and drove to Coco Mar beach resort. This was a road out of Monta Verde that was well paved and in a different direction. It was an almost 5 hour trip. We did have our animal of the day sighting at El Bosque in just before leaving.. this Capybara cousin is called an Agouti.

There were many scenic spots on the drive and our driver stopped twice for photo ops. 

We drove past Caldera which was beautiful..

We had a 30 minute stop at a place called Tarcoles where the Fresh water crocs gather on the river banks and we can see them by walking across the bridge. It is also a rest stop area on that route and there are a lot of stores selling stuff (including made in India beach towels with chakras elephants and what not..). You can bargain in these stores just like in desi markets. The banana chips in these stores is also fresh and out of the world. We bought chips and they were finished by the time we made it to the bridge and back.

Then we were off to Coco Mar. This was a small resort with two buildings but a practically private beach. As soon as we checked in, we had a late lunch. I went to my local staple of quesadillas and cilantro rice..it was also my dinner.

It was pretty hot and humid and the weather change from Monta Verde where it is cold to the beach is something that takes a few hours to get used to. In 10 minutes my T-shirt was drenched.. We decided it was better to just go to the beach even though we had just finished the lunch. It was a good move!

There was only our families at the beach for the first two hours. Then another two families were visible. We saw a glorious sunset and were hanging around for a good 20 minutes till it got dark and came to our rooms. Then it started pouring for a good hour! We had a really lucky and good day. 

me in my Yoga uniform.. 

it is not a good idea to go into the water on a full stomach.. but somehow it did not bother me or anyone else that day.. in three hours we were all hungry and ready to eat again!

we did a little photoshoot of the entire group for our New Year social media card, just as the sun was setting..thanks to another family that had just showed up at the beach..

A video of the days adventures..

This was my first time using a boogie board. My friend Padma gave me a 10 minute "crash" course on how to use it and time my jump before a double wave. It took me a few tries but I got the hang of it and enjoyed it thoroughly. Really didn't want to come out of the water when it got dark. The water was so warm and pleasant and you could see the sand through the water.. it was that clear! Amazing beaches in Costa Rica!

Would definitely recommend the Coco Mar resort if you are eventually going to Manuel Antonio state park as the next stop. It is closer to the park compared to Jaco (which is also beautiful and more commercial.. we stopped there on Day 7) and there is no one on the beaches.

Almost managed to finish all the blog posts before work catches up tomorrow. . . 

A sky tram ride to remember - Costa Rica Day 5

The previous post on this series is here..

On day 5 we were told there will be an earlier pickup to catch up on missed events from Day 4. We were going to work with two separate companies (although Desafio co-ordinated it). One was the Sky Adventure.. They have the Sky cloud forest walk and the Sky tram. We started the day with this.

Our guide was an interesting person. He looks 40, but turns out he is 64. None of us believed him. He has been walking through this forest all day with tours for ~40 years! Went to school in Indiana to get his undergrad, came back to work for the Costa Rica forest department and raised his family here since. Guess if you walk in fresh air above the clouds all day and drink fresh rain water and eat sparingly, you can look 40 at 64. The best guide we had on any tour..

He showed us all the unique things about the cloud forest, the animals, birds, insects, plants etc. 

The trumpet tree.. lots of birds, animals on this one tree.. apparently boil the leaf in water and drink and it cures respiratory diseases.. 

It was a challenge to photograph anything though. The hanging bridges on this park are looooong.. some of them almost a kilometer. We cross the Transcontinental divide on one of the bridges which is interesting. Movign birds and moving bridge with a long and heavy lens.. I had no chance. After some point, I just put the camera away and walked.

This picture was taken from the Tram.. we had walked across that bridge below which was pretty high up to begin with!

Once we were done with the walk, we told our guide we had to be out of this park by 1 to go to another park. He radioed the tram folks and asked them to hold it for us. We ran to the tram and made it. The sky tram goes every hour. We went through and above the clouds on a Tram! At the top is a tower you can climb and see the clouds hit the mountains. (towards the end of the video). It is like being in an airplane with the windows open. 

I made a solo trip above the tower and came back to get some of the folks in the group to come back with me on a second climb. This was something not to be missed. 

Once we came back down, there was 45 minutes for the pickup. We were asked to come out all the way to the main road (apparently competing tour operator buses don't go into each others parking lots!) where we were picked up by the Selvatura park bus. There is a cafeteria at the Sky tours, and we got a quick bite to eat. Something there got my stomach..the rest of the group was okay, but if you have food allergies, I would play it safe at this place. 

We made it to the butterfly garden and it was great. There were blue morphos fluttering by everywhere.. They had 19 different butterfly species. We spent 45 minutes in that dome and walked out. It was time to get some rest back at the inn's.

Later that evening we were picked up at 6PM to go to the Monteverde preserve with a bus full of people. Then we were split into groups of 8, given flashlights and we walked through the forest at night for a good two hours seeing more sleeping birds, nocturnal animals and insects working the night shift.

Some of them are amazing at camoflage, like this stick insect or leaf insect. This one was 3-4 inches long (the green thing at its tail end is something it secretes to ward off predators)..

This is the first time I saw a bird sleep in the forest with its head tucked inside! They were on the branch sleeping.. always thought they would go to a nest and lie down! learn something new everyday!

and sleeping butterflies..someone had to shine a flashlight towards it for me to get the picture.. we know we didn't disturb the birds (the guide was careful), but the butterflies I am not so sure.. they continued to sleep, but this night tour did give us a window of how active the forest is at night while I had conscience issues and kept thinking "I would not want someone shining a flashlight at me while I am trying to sleep". 

A not so short video of Day 5.. we did cover a lot. We have walked close to 100 miles over 8 days on this trip!

By the time we got off the bus in the town area, it was 8:30. All the restaurants were full and the service was pretty bad. No one was even asking you to come sit in the one Mediterranean place we chose first. We switched restaurants to the Tree top, which had a live band in the top floor and managed to get food before closing time (most of these places close at 9 or 10 PM). 

By the time we made it back to the inn, it was late by Costa Rica bed time standards.

It was a hectic day well spent.

The good thing was we had a 9AM pickup for day 6 and it was going to be one long ride to our next stop...