Jaunted - Tag: Road Trips

The Newest Foursquare City Badges: Baltimore, Richmond, Des Moines, Oklahoma City and Stamford

JetSetCD — 2012-02-08T14:56:04-05:00

So, while Foursquare was churning out all those shiny new international city badges, they were also thinking about good ol' America, and the fact that there are plenty of towns with awesome venues that would benefit from the exposure and tourism that comes with a special badge. A contest pitted individual Foursquare user-created lists against each other, and the winners were named today.

These winners, and therefore the next cities to have their own Foursquare badges, are: Baltimore, MD; Richmond, VA; Des Moines, IA; Oklahoma City, OK; and Stamford, CT.

Some pretty random choices in there, but they must pack a punch considering other cities in the running were Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Portland and Nashville. Personally we're all about a Detroit badge, but it seems we'll be waiting a little longer.

Now, How to get the city badges:

Over the River and Through the Woods, to Costa Rica's Massive Arenal Volcano

kai macmahon — 2012-01-17T11:05:01-05:00

You know Kai. Last week he detailed how he made his surfing adventure happen. Today, he drops some intel on the famous Arenal volcano in Costa Rica...

Volcanoes are cool—giant mountain things with a hole that goes to the bottom of the earth, full of boiling hot lava and belching smoke and soot into the air. There's something very prehistoric and intimidating about them. Oh, and every now and then they explode and turn lethal. Both cool and a bit scary then.

My typical vacations are usually by the water (not many volcanos there) or at ski hills (likewise), so I'd never had the opportunity to see a volcano up close and personal. Then, on my recent surf trip to Costa Rica, I decided to take a couple of days away from the water and go check out the volcano Arenal, one of the ten most active in the world. It last erupted as recently as 1968, when it destroyed three small villages, killing 87 people in the process. Arenal is the real deal; it's most definitely not a Disney volcano.

Kai Surfs Costa Rica: Budgets, Boards and Pura Vida

kai macmahon — 2012-01-13T18:08:38-05:00

Kai MacMahon had lost himself to the urban life in NYC, taking up running but putting down the surfboard. That is, until recently when he bit the bullet and flew himself to Costa Rica to drive, sleep and surf wherever he damn well pleased. All this week, Kai will share his experiences on the beaches and the breaks, and how he made it happen.

Yesterday: Becoming a (surf) bum in Mal Pais

As you've probably guessed, Costa Rica is one of the most surf-friendly destinations on the planet. Surfers are welcomed here with open arms, and locals will go above and beyond to help you out. It is perfectly normal to see a massive board bag strapped to the roof of a taxi, to store your boards in your hotel room, and to set up a makeshift clothes line outside your door.

And just as friendly as it is, it's also easy. US Dollars are accepted just about everywhere and most people speak at least a little English, though no matter how bad your Spanish, an attempt to speak it will always go down well. ATMs are fairly easy to find, and most will have English as an option. The bigger bank ATMs even dispense dollars as well as the local currency, Colones, and any of the main hotels or stores will take credit cards.

Nonetheless, be careful of the foreign transaction fee charges that your US bank will tack on; look into a foreign transaction-free credit card if you travel abroad often. For myself, I tried to pay for most things in cash, only using plastic for purchases of $100 and up.

Kai Surfs Costa Rica: Making It to Mal Pais

kai macmahon — 2012-01-12T16:33:41-05:00

Yesterday: Playa Negra and the rush of hitting the waves.

Mal Pais is a sleepy little surf down at the bottom of the Nicoya Peninsula. It’s about five hours' drive from Tamarindo (taking the sensible road), or many more hours drive than that taking the silly, but very picturesque coastal road. I say silly because the above is what sometimes passes for a road in Costa Rica.

Note that the photo was taken during the dry season. In wet season (May to November), or any time it’s been raining, roads like this become impassable to all but the sturdiest SUVs. You'll find that towns in Costa Rica usually have an old man who magically knows the conditions of every river within 20 miles of his location, but as I was not in possession of one of these wrinkly oracles in my passenger seat and didn’t feel like getting my SUV stuck in a river, I elected to take the boring, safer route.

Once I arrived in Mal Pais, the first thing I noticed was, well, not a whole lot really. Not much happens here, and that’s exactly what’s so great about the place. There are a couple of bars (that’s a couple more than when I was first there ten years ago), plus other mild activities like yoga, zip-line tours and so on, but the truth is you come to Mal Pais for one reason: to surf.

Tamarindo: Kai Surfs Costa Rica: Playa Negra and the Rush of a Single Wave

kai macmahon — 2012-01-11T16:51:19-05:00

Yesterday: Hitting the road to Tamarindo.

Standing on beautiful Tamarindo beach, with my board under my arm and looking out to sea, it occurred to me in a moment of mild panic that I was very out of practice. Was I making a terrible mistake? The ocean, for all its infinite beauty, is still a scary, powerful and potentially lethal thing.

You see, you can generally tell how good a surfer somebody is by watching them as they enter the water. Folks who know what they're doing look like they own it; they glide out on their boards and effortlessly get themselves beyond the break (to the calmer part of the water where you see surfers congregate). Surfers who maybe aren't so great will walk their boards out until the water comes up to their chests, then flail around every time a wave comes in, and they generally project an aura of terror.

Albuquerque: Get Your Chile Kicks at Albuquerque's Jaunted-Approved Route 66 Malt Shop

juliab — 2012-01-11T16:47:25-05:00

Route 66: a thing so glorious that everyone wants a piece of it. Which means that for every amazing piece of memorabilia, stretch of Route 66 or piece of carry on luggage (don’t ask), there is a piece of tat or dirt track that’s beyond terrible. The only exception: food. You can pretty much guarantee that every diner trumpeting its Route 66 connections will be fun to eat in and great for photos, but purveying disgusting food.

Or so we thought till we found ourselves with time to spare in the Nob Hill part of Albuquerque, and asked to be pointed in the direction of somewhere to eat. And were recommended the Route 66 Malt Shop, at 3800 Central Avenue (ie Route 66).

At first glance, it looked like all the others. Bright colors and neon outside, retro stuff and juke box inside. Burgers and milkshakes on the menu. So far, so borrring. Slow service, too—we sat without anyone approaching us for a while (because we were alone?), so since we were in a hurry, we went up to the counter. A superfriendly man, who looked like he was in a rockband 20 years ago, asked us what we wanted.

We asked for something New Mexican. “Do you like blue cheese?” he said. “Because if you do, you need the Bleu Cheese Green Chile Burger.

He was right; it was the best burger we’d had for ages and easily the best burger of 2011. Blue cheese and green chile doesn’t sound like it should work, but omg it does. As for the meat: perfectly seasoned and magnificently juicy. Even the bun was delicious. We told the rockstar so, and he sat down at our table to tell us why.

Kai Surfs Costa Rica: The Road to Tamarindo

kai macmahon — 2012-01-10T17:13:18-05:00

Yesterday: Making the decision to drop everything and go.

Touching down at Liberia Airport in northern Costa Rica was somewhat of an adventure in itself. The terminal itself is modest (OK, it’s a shack), and although there’s a shiny new terminal built and waiting to open, when I arrived they were still waiting for the paperwork to be complete [Ed note: the new terminal finally opens this Thursday!].

Within 30 minutes or so I’d gone through immigration (and some sort of weird security check where they scanned my bags as they came in to the country…why would they do that?), and was on the way to pick up my rental car. A word on this: driving in Costa Rica is not for the faint of heart. It’s not that drivers here are bad; certainly they’re no worse than you find in New York City. It’s just that the roads are—how to put it—somewhat unpredictable. You have to assume that there’s a horse in the road around every corner, because in many cases, there is in fact a horse in the road just around the corner.