04.10.08

American Airlines Tries to Put Damper on MS150

Posted in Sports, Travels at 9:24 pm

There’s nothing quite like getting an e-mail from your airline that says “CANCELED” when you’re on your way to the airport.

Then again, you weren’t surprised, since you’re flying on an American Airlines MD-80, which has been grounded due to someone forgetting to use the proper colored tie-wrap.

(changing to first tense) So I went home while getting American Airlines on the phone and checked my options. Fly into San Antonio with another airline? See what American could do for me? DRIVE for 20 hours halfway across the country?? (Yes, I was willing to do this since all you donators [who will be thanked later]) didn’t pay money to see me get stuck in LA!

Finally, I got a nice young woman on the line, and explained to her that I’d love to see if I could get flown into Austin by Friday or Houston by Saturday, but would need to fly out of Austin regardless. Feeling the confused expression on her face, I explained the bike race, the Multiple-Sclerosis Foundation, and was generally flexible and charming (I only have about 10 minutes of this superpower per day, and wisely used it then).

She then booked me on a non-MD-80 flight to Dallas, after which she’d get me to Austin tomorrow 3 hours before our bus leaves for Houston. Perfect!

Little did I know that this wonderful woman also booked me on first class! So while 250,000 travelers are stranded, I’m sitting there flying to Texas in first class with a glass of wine, a real meal, and plenty of legroom! Thank you so much random customer service representative – Let’s get married!

Not wanting to get stuck in Dallas, I rented a car and drove to Austin.

So greetings from Austin, fortune has lied in our favor and we’re ready to ROCK!

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02.19.08

Riding the 2008 MS 150 From Houston to Austin: Help Donate!

Posted in Fitness, Sports, Travels at 6:00 pm

Hey everyone!

On April 12, I will be joining the MS 150, a 2-day biking adventure from Houston to Austin to help raise funds for people living with Multiple Sclerosis.

The path is roughly 165 miles long. The 2008 tour map isn’t out yet, but you can see the 2007 map here.

I need to raise $400.00 to the MS Society to ride. Please help me by donating a few bucks to my MS150 fund.

In return for your donations, I promise to work very hard and finish the race (barring any major catastrophes).

Most of you know that I’m a swimmer and not a biker. In order to learn more about the hardcore training that bikers go through, I’ve been reading Cyclist’s Training Bible by Joel Friel. It is for bikers way more experienced than myself, but I enjoy the technical and scientific aspects of the sport.

I’ve been training along the South Bay Bike Path, which gets extremely interesting once you make it past the airport and into Venice Beach. For hill work, I will begin going to parts of this Palos Verdes Peninsula path.

Thanks for your endless support!
berto

PS: I am going to be taking a break from writing for a while. My past few articles have received a great amount of traffic, and I should ride that momentum, but I have too many projects going on for now. I’ll be back later, feel free to contact me.

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08.08.07

Weekend in Portland – Mountains, Beer, and Guns

Posted in Travels at 9:30 pm

A couple of weekends ago, I visited my brother Nick in Portland. It was a dominating weekend consisting of mountain climbing, beer festival drinking, and gun shooting — and in that order too, but with time to sober up in between!

I flew in on Thursday, checked out my brother’s awesome house, and then headed over to Last Thursday, which is an art festival in the Alberta District of Portland. Portland was just as goofy and full of hippies as I had remembered from my trip 3 years ago (album 1, album 2… note the night of album 2 was quite interesting).

On Friday, we had some delicious Thai food in downtown Portland (this city has by far the best Thai food), and then headed on over to Saddle Mountain, which is a relatively easy-to-climb mountain with some incredible views. After walking with Nick for a bit, I cranked up the tunes and turned up the mountain.

Saddle Mountain was my first-ever summit, and to be honest with you, it might be my last. I do not like cliffs, and I do not like the possibility of falling down one. Now that I’m at sea level, it seems fine, but I was definitely apprehensive up there. Perhaps this is part of the rush, but I think I’d rather hang out in the water or the sand.

On Saturday, we headed to the Oregon Brewer’s Festival, which had some incredible beers! My favorite two were Golden Valley Brewery’s Red Thistle Quercus and 21st Amendment’s Watermelon Wheat, which wasn’t too melony but had just enough to be dangerous.

After a day of drinking 8% beers, we headed to Steve‘s house to enjoy a delicious dinner cooked by his girlfriend Adrienne. It wouldn’t be a trip visiting Nick if I didn’t get to hang with Alex, who I seem to bump into in every interesting mid-sized town (Portland, Memphis, Austin).

After a 12 hour drinking streak, what’s the next thing to do? Naturally, you scrape yourself up and go shoot guns! We headed over to an outdoor shooting range in Vancouver, WA, and tested out a glock. I completely sucked, but it was extremely fun after getting the hang of it. I plan on owning a few guns someday, and it was a great introduction.

Our time in Portland was incredibly busy and ridiculously fun – Thanks Nick!

See the full photo album here.

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06.03.07

Hostel Review: Cuesta Arriba in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica

Posted in Travels at 9:50 pm

Sometimes you find the greatest places by accident. Billy and I were at the last leg of our Costa Rica trip, and decided to go to the surf town of Santa Teresa and maybe Mal País. The place recommended by Lonely Planet looked like a disaster area, so we hit the streets. A bunch of people coming from the beach were walking further down the main street, so we decided to follow. We arrived at the Cuesta Arriba Hostel and were immediately pleased with what we saw.

Located 100 meters¹ from the beach of Santa Teresa, Cuesta Arriba offers rooms at $10/day during the low season, and $12/day during the high season. It is 300 meters from the rest of town, making it a nice, quiet getaway. The hostel is owned and run by Barbara and Martin, two wonderful people who do an incredible of job of making you feel more at home than anywhere else in the country. Barbara is Argentinian and speaks English and Spanish fluently, and probably a few other languages as well.

Each room holds 6 people. However, since it was the low season and we already had 4 people (the stunning Angela and Jenny), Billy negotiated that we get an entire room to ourselves. This may or may not work for you depending on how crowded it is. The rooms have their own showers and strong fans. Santa Teresa just recently got city water, and it is not in the highest supply, so conserve water well!

Each morning, Martin and the dog get up very early to set out bread, jellies, toasters, and coffee for everyone. There is a refrigerator where you can also store your own food if you like. Above this main kitchen area is a TV room with DirectTV. This is the perfect spot to lounge around after a killer surf session.

Staying in at the hostel at night is a great choice too. While you can wander around town, we had a better night at Cuesta Arriba — we bought a few sixpacks of Pilsen², the girls cooked dinner, and we played some Monopoly, which Barbara and Martin supplied. It’s a great place to hang out and catch up with the other kids staying there for the day, which included the beautiful Czech girl who never emailed me her pictures.

I give Hostel Cuesta Arriba my highest recommendation. What impressed me most was Barbara and Martin’s business sense. They are total masters of the upsell. Want them to do your laundry? $4.00. Rent a surfboard for a day? $10.00. Need a beer from the fridge? They got that too. It’s all cheap, but it all adds up to great profits for them. One thing Billy points out is that Costa Ricans are not exactly the best business people – leaving the window wide open for people like Barbara and Martin to make a killing just by pleasing the customer with so many add-on services and clean facilities.

As for the rest of Santa Teresa, it was amazing. The surfing was unbelievable, although it was too advanced for Billy and I, we had tons of fun riding the whitewater. Surfing with no wetsuit is both a liberating and painful experience (surf wax + chest hair… I’m still recovering). Thanks to Angela, we got some absolutely beautiful shots, like the one below.

One of the coolest things in Costa Rica is that the beach front land is undeveloped. So when you’re out in the water looking in, you see shots like this, not a bunch of ugly houses. Although we weren’t there during the high season, there is still so much room for surfing that you shouldn’t have to fight people for waves. They are consistent and go on forever.

This will probably be my last writing about the actual Costa Rica trip. I could write forever because it was such a great vacation, but we have many other things to discuss with you here. I’d like to thank you all for reading, and most of all, thanks to Billy for taking me on such a rockin trip!!

¹ In Costa Rica, distances to everything are measured in meters by the hundreds. You are not “one block” from the beach. You are 100m from the beach. As with anything else a Costa Rican tells you, your mileage may vary.
² You might want to stay away from the 6.0% Pilsen if you know what’s good for your digestive system

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05.29.07

An Introduction to Guaro – Burning Water in Montezuma

Posted in HUMILIATIONS, Travels at 9:33 pm

It’s always risky fun to drink the locally-made alcoholic products. You don’t go to Germany to order a Miller Lite, and you shouldn’t come to Texas without a disappointingly bland Shiner Bock. And when traveling to Costa Rica, your desired weapon of self-destruction is Guaro.

Gauro is short for Aguardiente, which literally means “burning water”. It is made of fermented sugar cane that is grown, bottled, and distributed in Costa Rica. The dominant brand is Calcique. The drink is popular amongst poor farmers, mainly due to its low cost and slightly better taste than Pine-Sol. The initial smell reminded me of Vodka, but I could have only dreamed for such a smooth, palatable drink.

Cacique Guaro is only 70 proof, but after a few drinks of the substance, you will begin wondering if Costa Ricans understand that “70 proof” means 35% alcohol, not 70%. The day after a Guaro night can only be described as something short of Hell on earth, with mind-splitting headaches that will vaporize your migraine medications. Once you set out to have a Guaro night, you must realize that your next day is completely and miserably screwed, and there is nothing you can do about it but laugh and hope you took more pictures than I did.

Guaro’s dry and sharp flavor dominates any commonly-used mixer that comes in its path, such as cola or orange juice. However, there is hope. Some drinks, such as Fresca or Squirt, will mask the misery of drinking heavy amounts of this toxin. Another good one that Billy and I used was a strong, red energy drink named Maxx.

My first Guaro experience was spectacular. Billy and I were in Montezuma, which is oftentimes titled “Montefuma” by locals and travelers due to its high usage of marijuana. We traveled by ferry, which was quite a nice experience. But there was no time for pot-smoking for me and Billy, we were on a mission to get severely black-out drunk, and do it fast.

After buying the bottle of liquor, which cost roughly US $5 (a somewhat bad sign when buying liquor, no?), along with cups and mixers, we headed down the main street towards the beach. On the way, a worthless bum with long, dirty hair and very few teeth, screams at us, at which Billy replies with one of my favorite quotes from the trip:

Worthless bum: TALK TO ME GUYS!
Me: *Laughs in this guys face and keeps walking*
Billy: FUCKING CALIFORNIANS! They come here on vacation and never fucking leave!

How did we know this turd was from California? I don’t know. You just do. I have been intensely studying these people for the past 5 months, and still can’t put my finger on it. But when I do figure it out, you will be the first to hear about it. Anyway, I digress…

After continuing our rudely-interrupted walk, we made way to the beach, fired up some drinks, and did some bodysurfing with some girls. Two hours later, the bottle was gone, and I was sugar cane drunk. Life was good.

Click on the few pictures in the album and you’ll see how this bottle stripped Billy‘s very soul. The night continued with a ton of beer and the local soccer championships, after which we danced and Billy and I don’t remember making it home. We do, however, remember the bus ride the next day. You could describe it as “torturous”.

Not wanting to keep this experience a secret to the rest of my friends and family in the states, I brought home some Cacique, and it will be involved in another party – my trip back to Austin. Coming soon after we finish up the Costa Rica series!

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