You know that period in your child's life when you could do no wrong? That time is now only a memory. Conversation at home yesterday:
Wife: So how many students are in your class this semester?
Me: Six, all graduate students.
11yr-old son: Only six? Wow. The class must be boring!
8-yr old daughter: Maybe the class is not boring. Maybe Appa just teaches it in a boring way.
Where the streets have no name
Over Christmas break, we flew into San Jose, Costa Rica, rented a car and drove around the country. This is quite an adventure since in Costa Rica, roads and streets have no names. Hotels give out their address as "200 meters from Bank of X" and you have to somehow figure out how to get to X and then look around in all directions. Maps (both the paper one that we got from rental agency and offline Google maps that I downloaded before I left) are quite unreliable.
Just past Santiago de Punscal, in the mountains in the central part of the country, the paved road (a numbered national highway according to both maps) turned into a gravel one and soon deteoriated into a dirt road. Several hours later, we finally ended up on a paved road running along the coast, but we were seriously worried by then. Roads have no names, so it is never clear if you are on the right road or not. GPS worked even with no data connection, although because the terrain was mountainous, and the map locations terrible, we often seemed to be traveling parallel to marked roads. Something that happened quite commonly was that we would drive past a fork and then turn back when it appeared that our location error was beyond the common GPS/map errors. Still, the trip would have been incomparably harder without the offline maps on my Android phone. I don't know if we could have done it as easily with two young children in the days before GPS and offline Google maps. Thanks, Google!
Manuel Antonio National Park was Costa Rica's first national park, and it was modeled quite self-consciously around the Smoky Mountain park. The smokies is my least favorite national park -- to me, it was sad that the absolutely stunning natural landscape had been marred by a Gatlinburg-like vibe. Still, the hikes, wildlife and waters within the park were breathtaking.
That's a sloth in the picture. Look carefully.
Having learned our lesson about Costa Rican roads, we left quite early for Monteverde. There is no paved road access to Monteverde -- the last 20-30km are quite terrible. It rained all the time that we were in Monteverde, but we still hiked nearly every trail in the park and saw all the sights. We even saw a quetzal.
From Monteverde, we drove around Lake Arenal to La Fortuna. It was in La Fortuna that our luck ran out. Arenal volcano is supposed to erupt 41 times a day and we'd booked 3 nights there. What we didn't know -- because the guidebooks are quite coy about this -- is that Arenal volcano went dormant in 2010. Nobody has seen anything in the last 2 years. And worse -- the volcano is constantly enveloped in clouds. When we went, it had been 45 days since the last time that the top of the volcano had been visible. La Fortuna and Arenal volcano should be dropped off visitors' itineraries. If you are going to Costa Rica and want to spend your time wisely, skip Arenal.
Still, La Fortuna was where I saw the prettiest waterfall I have ever seen. I think what made it stand out is that the area has two waterfalls. The one on the left is a powerful, thundering waterfall full of stones and mud. The other skips from rock to rock with a silvery sheen. The contrast is probably what makes the one on the right look so pretty. Pictures do not do it any justice.
Another cool thing we did in La Fortuna was to laze around in the Tabacon river. The river starts out in the area of Arenal volcano, and so the water is hot as it flows out. Wonderful feeling, to sit amidst rocks as hot water gushes all round. We had three days in La Fortuna, and with nothing much else to do, we lazed around quite a bit in the hot springs.
Costa Rica is a gorgeous, gorgeous place. But they should absolutely give names to their streets.
Just past Santiago de Punscal, in the mountains in the central part of the country, the paved road (a numbered national highway according to both maps) turned into a gravel one and soon deteoriated into a dirt road. Several hours later, we finally ended up on a paved road running along the coast, but we were seriously worried by then. Roads have no names, so it is never clear if you are on the right road or not. GPS worked even with no data connection, although because the terrain was mountainous, and the map locations terrible, we often seemed to be traveling parallel to marked roads. Something that happened quite commonly was that we would drive past a fork and then turn back when it appeared that our location error was beyond the common GPS/map errors. Still, the trip would have been incomparably harder without the offline maps on my Android phone. I don't know if we could have done it as easily with two young children in the days before GPS and offline Google maps. Thanks, Google!
In San Jose, we stayed in the guest house of a coffee estate. This was the highlight of our trip, accommodation-wise. The host family immediately adopted our kids. Hearing that the kids played the piano, they dug out their old keyboard and had the kids play Christmas tunes. We also got treated to the traditional tamales and smoky-banana cake. After this, the standard hotels we stayed at in Manuel Antonio or Monteverde seemed rather mundane. This was our first experience with AirBnb.com, and it was very, very good. I will look at them on family vacations before I book any hotels.
But you probably don't want my unsolicited testimonials about internet companies.
First full day in Costa Rica, we went to Poas Volcano. This is the largest active crater in the world, but it lies in a cloud forest. Meaning it is very unlikely that you will actually see the crater. And indeed, when we went in the morning, this is the sight that greeted us:
We saw nothing beyond a dozen yards. Having nothing better to do the rest of the day, we decided to stick around, have lunch and try again in the afternoon. As we were hiking towards the crater in the afternoon, a strong wind parted the mists and we got treated to this sight:
A crater, a sulfurous crater lake and a fumarole. Just saying.
"Second time lucky," I gushed to the German tourist standing next to us. "For me, it is the third time lucky," he told me in crisp language, "I came here 4 years ago and again last year and did not see the crater." I did not clarify that this was simply our second attempt the same day.
"Second time lucky," I gushed to the German tourist standing next to us. "For me, it is the third time lucky," he told me in crisp language, "I came here 4 years ago and again last year and did not see the crater." I did not clarify that this was simply our second attempt the same day.
The second day, we got on the road to Quepas. Instead of taking the major highway, I decided that we would take the scenic route through the mountains. What could go wrong? This was a numbered highway, similar to the one we took to Poas. Boy, was I wrong! The trip that we thought would take us 3 hours (at 50 km/hr) ended up taking nearly seven hours. Still, we arrived in time to hit the beach.
The beach was accessed by parking the car by the side of the road and taking a steep trail through thick jungle to a tiny strip of beautiful white sand flanked by massive volcanic rocks. The beach was awesome, in the original sense of the word -- it inspired awe.
Manuel Antonio National Park was Costa Rica's first national park, and it was modeled quite self-consciously around the Smoky Mountain park. The smokies is my least favorite national park -- to me, it was sad that the absolutely stunning natural landscape had been marred by a Gatlinburg-like vibe. Still, the hikes, wildlife and waters within the park were breathtaking.
That's a sloth in the picture. Look carefully.Having learned our lesson about Costa Rican roads, we left quite early for Monteverde. There is no paved road access to Monteverde -- the last 20-30km are quite terrible. It rained all the time that we were in Monteverde, but we still hiked nearly every trail in the park and saw all the sights. We even saw a quetzal.
From Monteverde, we drove around Lake Arenal to La Fortuna. It was in La Fortuna that our luck ran out. Arenal volcano is supposed to erupt 41 times a day and we'd booked 3 nights there. What we didn't know -- because the guidebooks are quite coy about this -- is that Arenal volcano went dormant in 2010. Nobody has seen anything in the last 2 years. And worse -- the volcano is constantly enveloped in clouds. When we went, it had been 45 days since the last time that the top of the volcano had been visible. La Fortuna and Arenal volcano should be dropped off visitors' itineraries. If you are going to Costa Rica and want to spend your time wisely, skip Arenal.
Still, La Fortuna was where I saw the prettiest waterfall I have ever seen. I think what made it stand out is that the area has two waterfalls. The one on the left is a powerful, thundering waterfall full of stones and mud. The other skips from rock to rock with a silvery sheen. The contrast is probably what makes the one on the right look so pretty. Pictures do not do it any justice.
Costa Rica is a gorgeous, gorgeous place. But they should absolutely give names to their streets.
Types of epidemics
A very interesting, and counter-intuitive, article on the cause of the crime epidemic of the 70s:
Experts often suggest that crime resembles an epidemic. But what kind? Karl Smith, a professor of public economics and government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has a good rule of thumb for categorizing epidemics: If it spreads along lines of communication, he says, the cause is information. Think Bieber Fever. If it travels along major transportation routes, the cause is microbial. Think influenza. If it spreads out like a fan, the cause is an insect. Think malaria. But if it's everywhere, all at once—as both the rise of crime in the '60s and '70s and the fall of crime in the '90s seemed to be—the cause is a molecule.Turns out the culprit is lead in gasoline. As we have switched to unleaded gasoline, the crime rate has subsided. I was skeptical, but the article is quite convincing.
Ripping off the locals
One expects that as a tourist you are going to be ripped off. But locals getting ripped off? That seems to be a Costa Rican specialty.
Most national parks and attractions are priced in dollars with an equivalent price in colones. As one would expect the conversion rate is quite bad. But think about it.
The folks paying in dollars get a good deal but the locals get ripped off!
Why a cheapskate might buy a book
Some one who knows how cheap I am (about buying books at least) was curious about my previous blog post. "The Norman library doesn't have that 24-hour bookstore book yet," she remarked, "how did you read it?".
Some context here: I typically reserve books/e-books at the public library as I hear about them, and then read the book whenever my turn comes . If the library doesn't carry the book, I suggest the book and then they automatically add me to the waiting list. It may be six months between when I hear about a book and when I actually read it. It's usually not a problem -- books usually keep and if I didn't have this attitude towards read-once-and-throw-away books, I'd be spending thousands of dollars every year on them. I had to purchase the book in question though obecause a book club I'm part of was reading it for December. No way to wait six months if we're going to be discussing the book in a few weeks ...
This conversation about the blog post about books brought to mind an earlier conversation with someone else who remarked that I'd posted about 1Q84 just as she was reading it, and that she thought that was pretty cool. That was a book that I'd prefaced saying that I didn't really expect anyone else to take up my suggestion, so I suppose I am underestimating how many of my "real-life" friends do read and do take book suggestions from my blog.
If you live in Norman, and you know me, and you'd like to join the book club let me know. We're going to be reading Ted Dekker's Adam
for January. We try explicitly to cover as wide an array of books as we can (previous selections: The Round House
and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
), and it has been a long time since I've read one of these mass-market thrillers. Should be fun!
UPDATE: This is truly creepy. Amazon recommends, just for me:
What's creepy about this? That book happens to be one of the suggestions floated around for the month after next ...
Some context here: I typically reserve books/e-books at the public library as I hear about them, and then read the book whenever my turn comes . If the library doesn't carry the book, I suggest the book and then they automatically add me to the waiting list. It may be six months between when I hear about a book and when I actually read it. It's usually not a problem -- books usually keep and if I didn't have this attitude towards read-once-and-throw-away books, I'd be spending thousands of dollars every year on them. I had to purchase the book in question though obecause a book club I'm part of was reading it for December. No way to wait six months if we're going to be discussing the book in a few weeks ...
This conversation about the blog post about books brought to mind an earlier conversation with someone else who remarked that I'd posted about 1Q84 just as she was reading it, and that she thought that was pretty cool. That was a book that I'd prefaced saying that I didn't really expect anyone else to take up my suggestion, so I suppose I am underestimating how many of my "real-life" friends do read and do take book suggestions from my blog.
If you live in Norman, and you know me, and you'd like to join the book club let me know. We're going to be reading Ted Dekker's Adam
for January. We try explicitly to cover as wide an array of books as we can (previous selections: The Round House
and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore), and it has been a long time since I've read one of these mass-market thrillers. Should be fun!UPDATE: This is truly creepy. Amazon recommends, just for me:
A novel for nerds
If you love books, technology, distributed computing, maps, visualization, typography, (i.e. if you are anything like me), there's a new book that you ought to read. And even if you don't care for any of these things, if you like well-spun yarns of young love, I think you would love Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Unfortunately, though, this is a book-of-the-moment. The book has so many references to current technology (Google, Twitter, etc.) that it may seem very dated a couple of years from now. Still, it would make a nice 2012 Christmas gift.
Unfortunately, though, this is a book-of-the-moment. The book has so many references to current technology (Google, Twitter, etc.) that it may seem very dated a couple of years from now. Still, it would make a nice 2012 Christmas gift.
Canada intervenes
I just finished reading a hilarious book called America, But Better: The Canada Party Manifesto
. The idea that Canada, which has been watching America go to the dogs, decides to stage an intervention. As the book puts it:We’re offering you the chance to kick back for a while and let a trusted friend cook your meals and fluff your pillows, giving you time to do some healing and generally reevaluate your place in the universe. So this is not an invasion; it’s an intervention ... Sure, we’ve had a few rough patches. The War of 1812. Vietnam. Celine Dion. [Again, we are really, really sorry about that.] But we’ve weathered these storms to develop the largest trading partnership, most integrated militaries, and weakest beers in the known universe. Both of our Constitutions are based on the personal liberties outlined in Mom’s Magna Carta, and it is this—our mutual status as beacons of freedom to the rest of the world—that unites us in cause and makes us continental BFFs. Which is why it has been with great sadness, and more than a little nausea, that we’ve witnessed our American brothers and sisters betrayed over the past decade by privately owned politicians who have created franchises out of persecuting the disenfranchised, fetishized ignorance at the expense of reason, deprived citizens of their civil liberties in the name of a very profitable notion of security, and driven up taxpayer debtDon't worry. The book is not as serious as all that. Seriously funny one-liners litter the book. Here's a sampling:
Exxon and WalMart are now the largest people in the United States. But the average American is catching up.
It’s not like we don’t have our own faults. Our prime minister makes Dick Cheney look like a human-rights crusader. Our oil program is so apocalyptic it was given a “Special Thanks” credit in the book of Revelations.
1789: Pennsylvania ends its prohibition of theatrical performances, allowing the signing of the Constitution and the centuries of drama it would incur. [Although drafted while medicine was theoretical and man-tights all the rage, it is still referenced literally in modern American law.]
1941: America and Canada cooperate to send 133,000 of their citizens to internment camps as part of a Japanese Community Outreach Program.
1972: Canada realizes Richard Nixon is a Dick. 1974: America realizes Richard Nixon is a dick, pretend they noticed first.
Quebec and Boston, two cities where visitors can’t understand the locals
We understand that diabetes affects the eyes, but if you are going to televise our games, we beg you not to add a streaking fireball indicating the puck’s location. It hurts our tummies.
[on not getting on board with the metric system] America is shooting itself in the foot by sitting on its perch, stone-faced, chained to its furlongs and miles, in league with no one, not an ounce of unity, ignoring their backyard neighbors by the pound for reasons we can’t fathom.
Terminally ill patients will have the right to end their lives on their own terms. Religious groups opposing this policy have the right to heal said patients.
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