The last hike for 2020 - Mount Tamalpais

Rounding up the 2020 hiking with Mount Tamalpais.

Was not sure of going because my toe was still bruised. Then a USPS truck showed up at 6AM on the day of the hike, to deliver my New balance extra wide hiking shoes! So wore it and went on the hike. 

It took us 90 minutes to get to the parking lot on Panorama way just before Stinson beach with the last 30 minutes being a windy road. Given we had left early, we found parking!  Then we walked up to Matt Davis trail view point through two other trails.  From this view point, you can see Stinson beach on the right and if you squint and zoom.. the San Francisco skyline on the left!

We hiked for almost 4 hours, ate a packed lunch in the parking lot and drove back. Stopped by a few view points along the coastal ridge to take pictures. 

It was a beautiful sunny day out there.. by contrast we came home to a gloomy Cupertino and a light rain. 

An entire day spent driving and hiking but the pictures and the fresh air was worth it. My toe although not damaged further is still in recovery mode. 

Mount Diablo has to wait for a few weeks. . . we wanted to hike the bay area gland slam (Umunhum, Hamilton, Tamalpais and Diablo which are the four tallest mountains) and got 3/4 for 2020 which is pretty good! 

Here are the pictures.. 

First the smiling faces that show up on FB preview!

We are really really nothing compared to these giant trees, but we have the destructive power to bring them down.. 

My favorite shots from the view point.. because I didnt have high hopes of gettting the skyline resolved (the photos were taken with an iPhone with a 10x zoom and holding my breath) but after putting the images through noise reduction on photoshop.. they came out better than I expected!

The trails had a lot of steps which made for pretty pictures, not that they were easy to climb.. 

we saw layers and layers of mountains with the fog and clouds before the sun peaked out.

and got treated to simmering ocean views..

Not to mention all the trail fun in between the ocean view vistas..

cute little waterfalls every now and then..

not to mention views of Stinson beach every now and then..

We stopped on the turnouts a few times to take pictures of the coastline.. you can see Twin peaks area in SFO in the background on this shot!

and my other favorite shot when the sun went behind the clouds...

As long as we walk in a steady pace and I get to take pictures and there is no discomfort, I get to enjoy the day. All three conditions were met on this hike.. new right shoes (with something called "toe protect"), nice tree cover for most of the hike, and amazing scenery to make the photographer happy!

a short video clip of snippets through the hike..

Next time if we hike this, we would probably leave an hour earlier so we can enjoy the beach for a short time after the hike. It was a 5 minute drive from where we parked in the other direction and the beach was empty. We did enjoy driving through the golden gate bridge early in the morning and on our way back home! Think this was my only time driving past the GGB this year! 

A very enjoyable hike to round off 2020!

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. . .